The Mellen Patch: 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)