Hodge Podge

Cole had his first spaghetti dinner the other night. He loved it. So did Grant.

We went to a zoo class on Saturday, June 13. The theme was giraffes. Grant made some giraffes for the art project and at the end they were all able to go feed the giraffes. Grant isn't a big fan of feeding the giraffes, so he handed me the biscuit. I think it's fun to feed them. They have extremely long, slimely, purple tongues. I tried to take a picture of me feeding the giraffe but I was holding Cole and as I went to give the biscuit to the giraffe, Cole knocked my hand and before I could recover the biscuit was gone. As we were waiting to feed the giraffes, one of the giraffes got anxious and got his horn stuck in the rope netting by the platform. It was a little frightening. The giraffe was ok but he was very panicked when his horn was stuck.

Grant has developed a real love of animals over the last couple of years. He is particularly partial to lizards and snakes. He regularly asks for a pet lizard or snake. We have firmly stated no snakes but he may have a hamster at our new house. He used to want a turtle but now he has a dislike of turtles. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before so I will relate the story now. At each zoo class, there is always an animal encounter segment, which usually involves turtles, snakes, lizards, guinea pigs, chickens etc. There are always three animals to pet. Several weeks ago, one of the animals was a turtle. As the turtle got to me and Grant it pooped and peed. Grant was not very excited about that. At the zoo class we went to before the giraffe class, they had another turtle as part of the animal encounters. While the turtle was going around, Grant repeatedly told me he didn't want to touch the turtle because it was going to pee on him. I kept trying to tell Grant that there was no problem and that he should pet the turtle. I told him I was going to pet the turtle. Well, sure enough, as the turtle got right to me and Grant, it peed. I am pretty sure Grant will never touch another turtle again in his life.

(Grant petting a bearded dragon in the reptile classroom after zoo class)

This past Sunday was a bit crazy. Chad was out of town visiting his family in Salt Lake. I took the boys to church and then we headed to our stake center for a big stake meeting. They shifted wards between stakes to prepare for the creation of a new stake this coming Sunday. Our ward, Valencia ward, was moved to the Tucson Stake center. Now we will be legitimately meeting at the Tucson stake center. Until now, we have just been borrowing a time slot in another stake's building. For one week and one week only, we are part of the largest stake in the entire church, totalling over 8,000 members. Salt Lake did not want people to be without a stake so they created a mega stake for one week. This Sunday, Neil Anderson is coming to create the new stake. After the special meeting, me and the boys went to our friend's Sara and Karl Adams' home for dinner. Jason and Regina Price and their girls were invited too. Sara has a 4 year old girl, Keira and a 2 year old boy, Kyle. The Prices have two girls, Oraclle, age 5, and Shayna, age 3. Then there was Grant. Grant has spent a lot of time with these girls, as Regina used to babysit Grant and they often played with Keira. This particular night, while the adults were chatting, the kids were Keira's room playing. They started playing dress up. Each of the girls came parading out in their pretty princess dresses. Then all of the sudden, Grant came out in a fairy costume. He is one of the cutest little fairies I have ever seen. I still don't know how he got into the costume. He is still learning to dress himself and has a difficult time undressing. Someone had to help him unbutton his church pants. It's still a mystery. Also, notice the boxers below the costume and the necklace added to the costume to accessorize a bit.

After a little while, Grant disappeared again into the room with the girls. The girls then started coming out in other costumes and so did Grant. He came out in a pretty purple church dress. Again, I have no idea how he got the one costume off and the other on. Grant had so much fun dressing up that when I told him it was time to change to go home, he was not happy. I asked him several times if he wanted to change his clothes and he said no each time.

(Grant with Oraclle Price)

Well....it's finally happened. Our little scooting Cole found the dog water bowl. It happened with Grant and it was only a matter of time that Cole found it too. It happened tonight, while I was cooking dinner. He had a fabulous time, splashing his hands in the water and making a giant wet mess on the floor and on himself. Notice the mischevious little smile on his face.

Goodbye Amanda

I am so sad because my very good friend, Amanda Christensen, moved to Utah last week. Her husband is in weapons training for a month then deploys for six months. Amanda and her four kids packed up and moved to Utah for the duration. We are all sad she is gone and will miss her. We had a goodbye get together for Amanda at Something Sweet.

(Kelli Tonks, Amanda Copeland, Sara Adams, Cristi Ertel, Adrian Sanders, Amanda Christensen, Melissa Asher at Something Sweet)

To help Amanda get some things done one day, Amy and I watched Clay and Claire, her older set of twins. It was quite a day with six kids running around Amy's house. It was a lot of fun though. This is the kids eating their peanut butter sandwiches for lunch.

(Grant, Clay, Claire, Nicholas, Zachary)

A couple of nights before Amanda left, she came over for dinner because Chad was at a business dinner. After dinner, we headed outside with the kids so she could leave and ended up playing for another 45 minutes. we pulled out the Jeep PowerWheels and let the kids ride around in front of the house. Grant actually drove the Jeep for the second time only since buying it. The weather was beautiful and the kids didn't want to stop playing.

(Claire, Clay and Amanda Christensen)

Prescott

We went to Prescott on Sunday night because Chad had an interview at the Prescott VA on Monday at 12:30. We headed out after Chad got off work on Sunday evening and stayed with the Schmitts. It was so nice to see them and they were so nice to put us up for the night. Monday, we spent the morning at the Schmitts. They had some grandkids over to be babysat so Grant fell right in with them. We went outside for a bug hunting excursion. Sister Schmitt took everyone out with small shovels and tupperwares to look for snails, bugs, worms and snakes. We found a snake, saw lots of ladybugs and collected several worms and snails. Grant was in heaven and did not want to go inside to pack up to leave.

(Cole, Kai and Grant looking at snail -- Cole really wanted to grab that snail out of Kai's hand)

(Grant with a snail on his shovel -- he wouldn't put it in his hand)

(Grant with the worms he and his new friends found)

After bug hunting we headed over to Laura's house so that me and the boys could spend some time there during Chad's interview. While Chad was interviewing, we went to the park in her neighborhood to play. The weather in Prescott was beautiful. It was nice and cool and overcast. Grant had a great time playing Aiden and Olivia. I enjoyed seeing Laura again and asking her all my questions about living in Prescott. I'm not as weary of it anymore but still not super excited about it.

After the interview we drove around looking at houses then headed home. The drive home was far from enjoyable with both kids screaming and crying due to over exhaustion. It was a nice little trip and we will keep you posted as to whether we are moving there.

Lots of videos

Today, David, his girlfriend Melissa and me and the boys took a drive up Mt. Lemmon. It was a fun and cool Saturday outing. The road is very windey and part way up the road, Grant threw up his breakfast. From thereafter, he was white, tired and not very happy or energetic. The poor kid fell asleep on the drive down and then took a two hour nap at home. We stopped at Windy Vista Outlook to look at the beautiful view. We drove all the way up to Summerhaven and enjoyed a delicious cookie from The Cookie Cabin. We knew Grant didn't feel all that well when he only took about two bites of the cookie and didn't want anymore.

(David and Melissa)

This past Wednesday, Amy and I babysat our friend Amanda's older twins for about four hours. Amanda's husband just deployed and they are trying to get their house ready to rent. Between the twins, Clay and Claire and our four, it was a full house of toddlers. Lunch started at about 10:30 and didn't end until Clay and Claire went home. There was a lot of yelling and loud playing for many hours but the kids were happy and exhausted beyond belief. At one point, Amy was trying to get a picture of the kids so she had them yell, "I love peanut butter." That started a 5-10 minute yelling session of "I love peanut butter." You can see the video for yourself to get a feel for what we enjoyed.

(Grant, Clay, Claire, Nicholas, Zachary eating lunch for the 3rd time)

Our friend Amanda, also has a dog, Buddy, that they can no longer keep. We love Buddy. He is a well trained, calm, well behaved dog. We have always loved Buddy so we decided to see about taking him and finding a new home for Sooner. We realized that Buddy wasn't a good permanent fit for us but it was a fun night for Sooner and Buddy. Buddy spends a lot of time outside, now that Amanda has four little kids in a small house so he is starved for attention. From the second Buddy arrived, he and Sooner didn't stop playing. We finally had to yell at the both of them to knock it off when we were trying to go to bed. Before we went to bed, Chad had all the dogs get in bed with him to give them a little attention. I wasn't really sure where I was suppoed to sleep.

This is Grant and Nicholas at Pump It Up Grant and Cole playing Peek-A-Boo

"I love peanut butter!!!!!!!!!!" Learning to ride a bike

Before bedtime giggles Tomatoes

Graduations, Birthdays and Vacations

Before you begin reading, let me just say, I have no idea what went wrong with my picture formatting. It went haywire and I have no idea or patience to fix it.

The month of May was filled with graduations, family, vacations and summer fun. Grant, Cole and I spent almost two full weeks in Phoenix at my Aunt Betsy's home. David graduated from ASU and my entire family was together for the first time in almost three years. The first week we were in Phoenix, Chad had to work. He did come up for the ASU commencement ceremony to hear President Obama speak. We were all supposed to attend but we would have had to arrive at 3 PM and sit in the hot sun at Sun Devil stadium until 7 PM when the ceremony began. David did not want to do that so we did not go. Chad was determined to see Obama so he drove up and I dropped him off and picked him up. Chad took pictures with his phone of the ceremony. I am going to try and retrieve those. I will post them if I can.

We did all attend David's college graduation ceremony the next day. It was great to see David reach this accomplishment in his life. He is doing the one year Masters of Tax program beginning this August and then he will be done with school for awhile. Go David!!!!!

While we were at my aunt's house we spent a lot of time swimming and relaxing. I was able to visit my friends Sarah Woodruff and Sarah Rogers for a day. We went swimming and did a lot of talking. We all have kids within the same age realm so we did not see much of the kids. They were upstairs in Sarah's great playroom.

I took Grant and Cole to the children's museum in Mesa with Sarah Rogers and her kids. I was a bit disappointed though. They only had part of the museum open, as a new exhibit was opening the next day. Grant enjoyed himself, going back and forth between the two open portions of the museum. I had to tear him away against his will when it was finally time to go home and have naps.

I made a great discovery during this trip. I discovered flavored peanut butter. A friend told me about this new restaurant at Fashion Square called PB Loco. They make all sorts of made to order PB and J sandwiches. As I love peanut butter, I couldn't pass up that experience. I took Grant to Fashion Square to play in their play area for awhile because it was raining (I know, weird huh?) and we couldn't go swimming. I have never felt so lower rung. I have this sit 'n stand stroller that my friend Kristen gave me. She was going to give it to DI so I took it, as they are expensive and I didn't see myself getting one any other way. This stroller is quite used. The grip on the handls is almost off. The padding and fabric on the seats is coming off too. It works but it's certainly not very pretty. Anyway, this stroller was parked next to numerous strollers that were each over $300. I have never seen so many expensive strollers. Imagine parking your little white Ford Escort in a parking lot of Lexus and Cadillac SUVs. That's pretty much what it was. Then, there's me in my awesome Target clothes sitting next to mom in their designer "work out" and "bum around" clothes. I love Fashion Square. After we had the playland experience we headed to PB Loco. I ordered a dark chocolate peanut butter sandwich with coconut and almost slices on it. It was then grilled and devoured. Grant had a peanut butter and marshmallow cream sandwich, which he did not love as much as the juice so his mom got to eat it. I was in heaven and recommend it to anyone if you ever get a chance.

Grant turned 3 on March 24. Grant enjoyed a couple of birthday celebrations. We had one the Saturday before his birthday with my entire family (sadly missing Chad). Grant was so excited for birthday cake and sprinkles. Thank goodness Betsy had sprinkles. As you can see from the pictures below, there is no even spreading of delicious (Grant's word) sprinkles. They must be clumped and dumped.

Grant was also enthralled with birthday candles. He loved playing with them and having them on his cake. Of course, if you know my son, he also enjoyed eating his cake. It also was "deeelicious."

As exciting as birthday cake, are birthday presents. Grant got quite a few of those, particularly from his wonderful Aunt Kitty. Kitty bought Grant numerous Cars to complete his collection as well as some stylish J. Crew and Gap clothes. Oma bought Grant a great Cars dominoes set and some fun pajamas. The best gift was the tractor tipping track from Aunt Kitty. Not only is this a fun thing to do over and over again but it added Frank to Grant's collection. If you don't know what I'm talking about then you need to watch the Cars movie. Uncle Brad was a great help with the present opening and everyone had a great time playing with them.

This is just a cute picture of our little Cole eating his meal. Cole loves his food. If you are eating around him, don't even think of not giving him any unless you are willing to live with a huge tantrum.





Grant and Cole love to wrestle and play with each other. They had a great time one night rough housing on our bed at Betsy's house. I can't believe that at 8 months Cole already loves to rough house. They are hilarious to watch. This is a picture I took of the two of them playing together.

One night I had Cole and Grant on the counter making a salad. Grant was helping me to put things in the bowl after I cut them up. Cole fixed his eye on a bright red tomato and was determined to get it. I let him get hold of it and the following pictures speak for themselves what resulted. He ate almost the entire thing. It was awesome to watch.

This is my dad's awesome rental ride. When he came last May to visit he had a white PT cruiser. This time he had a blue convertible Cruiser. He claims it is the company he uses. He just gets what they have available but we all think he makes a special request. One evening, after my family had left, except my dad, we took the boys for a top down ride down 44th St to pick up some pizza. Grant and Cole both loved riding in the convertible. I wanted to get pictures but didn't have my camera.

This is just my hilarious ham of a 3 year old.

On the last day that we were up in Phoenix, my dad took us all to The Fish Market for lunch. I love this restaurant. They have the best seafood. My dad and brothers love to get oyster shooters. An oyster shooter is an oyster in a glass with cocktail sauce. In order to consume these you actually have to shoot it. If you pause or think or do anything to prevent the oyster from going straight down your throat you won't make it and it will come back up. I won't do them. Oysters are one of the very few things I can't eat. I tried oysters once before in Las Vegas and couldn't get it down my throat. I won't do it again.

We got home from Phoenix on May 23. We brought my dad with us because he was flying to Utah from Tucson on Sunday, May 24, Grant's birthday. Grant was so excited on his birthday. When he woke up and I reminded him it was his birthday, we had to immediately make a birthday cake. It was 7:30 AM. Once daddy and Papa woke up, we were able to have Grant open his presents. He got yet more Cars things, coloring book, puzzles, Old Mater, etc.

After church, Grant finally got to blow out candles and eat his second birthday cake. Notice the beautiful sprinkles. It is a double layer cake and rest assured there are sprinkles on both layers.

Last weekend, we took a little trip to Flagstaff so that Chad could interview at the medical center there. The medical center paid for two nights at the Radisson. We arrived late on Thursday night. Chad had his interview on Friday morning at 8:30 AM. We took Chad to the interview then had breakfast. After breakfast, we went swimming. The water was heated but not quite warm enough. Flagstaff isn't very warm in the summer. that's what made this little vacation so wonderful. Once Chad was done interviewing, we drove around Flagstaff some and went to Bushmaster Park to play for a bit. This is Cole relaxing on our bed when we first got there.

On Saturday, we drove up to the Grand Canyon. I hadn't been to the Grand Canyon in about 20 years. I can't believe I'm old enough to even say 20 years but it's true. It started out nice and cool but then after we took a walk out to the Rim Trail it started raining then hailing. There was no cover and we had to run back to the park station as fast as possible. Both boys were screaming, cold and wet. It was awful but also kind of humerous. We made it alive and dried out. We eventually made it back to the parking lot for lunch to warm up then drove around to some viewing cites. Two of the residents, Rachael and Ashley, drove up and met us there. It was a good outing. I was glad to see it and be reminded of the true beauty of nature. It is almost not real.(Chad and Grant)

(Chad and Grant)

(Chad with Rachel, her dog, Jet and Ashley, two of the other residents.)

(The boys -- Is Cole trying to push Grant over the edge or keep him from falling?)

(The Mellen family taking in the view. It was cold believe it or not)

(Mom with the boys just before the hail storm began)

(Grant after a long day at the Grand Canyon -- too tired to even eat his sandwich)