Police & Marines

On Saturday, Rob had to umpire and Erin went along with him. She really likes going with him, and it's probably good for her and Robbie to have some time away from each other.

So it was just me and Robbie. The Tolleson Police Department was having an open house of their new station, so we dropped in. It's a pretty neat building, and since we went near the end of the open house time, our little tour was just me, Robbie, and a detective. That was cool becuase he let Robbie push buttons & stuff. I ended up not taking any pictures because it seemed weird to take pictures while the guy was talking to just us. Anyway, Robbie loved the police station, and one of his new prized possessions is the badge pin they gave him.

After the tour, we went over to the Cardinals stadium because our nephew Rett was competing in this day-long event for all the Marines recruits in Arizona. We met up with Sandy and Dan there, and we watched some impressive rounds of tug-of-war between different groups of recruits. It was a great day to be outside!

None of my pictures were very good. It's hard to get a good shot when you're trying to photograph a huge group of hundreds of people. None of the pictures do it justice, but here are a couple of attempts. Here they are lining up to go inside for the closing ceremony:


And here's Rett's group. He's in the 2nd row, and he's the 4th from the left, including the guy holding the flag.



There was a bit of standing-around time between events or while groups took pictures, so Robbie and I explored a little and I got some pictures of him.


I think this next one is my favorite.

You can see the police pin on his shirt in this one.

Then we went inside. The grass was outside basking in the sun. I thought it was neat that they put the Marines logos up on the jumbo trons & scoreboards.


This was just less than half the entire group. I think Rett's group was the 3rd from the left, but it was hard to tell.

It was pretty cool. At the very end, they all stood at attention and the crowd stood while the Marine hymn played. Very patriotic and made us proud of Rett!

The Suns Game

We got to go to the Suns/Bobcats game last night! For no apparent reason, our credit union mailed us two tickets a couple of weeks ago. We found two more tickets really cheap so the kids could go with us.

The credit union gave us lower-level seats right by the Suns tunnel, and the pair we bought were upper-deck. Erin hasn't been to a Suns game since she was a baby, so she didn't remember ever going, and this was Robbie's first time. They LOVED it!

The dancers were hanging out in the lobby taking pictures with people. Erin was happy to get a picture with them, but Robbie was too shy. (he'll kick himself when he's about 15!)


These were great seats! The Suns bench was just off the left side of this picture. Rob and Erin sat in the lower level and Robbie and I took the other seats.


The good thing about the upper deck is that you have a little wiggle room up there when the game isn't sold out. Robbie was SO excited! He's usually sort of embarrassed to cheer or clap along at stuff like this, but he was really into it. He liked yelling "DEFENSE!" and he always got excited when he saw Steve Nash. This was one happy boy!


Rob and I were going to trade kids at the 4th quarter, but the usher just let us go in and sit in the empty seats by Rob and Erin! So we got to enjoy the loss from the good seats. When the game ended, Rob brought the kids down by the floor for some high-fives. Erin was ecstatic that she got a high-five from one of the players! Robbie couldn't quite reach, but it didn't bother him. It was one of the bench players that high-fived Erin, but in the blur of people, we couldn't actually tell who it was. Erin squealed when she told me about it, and she was impressed that "His hands were huge!" It was pretty cool. Here are some of the players heading through the tunnel.

We had a great time! It was fun to see the kids getting into it. I think the Suns were only ahead once during the game, but it was nice just to be there.

Fat Man Revisited

On Saturday, the kids and I went back to South Mountain to finish our hike to Fat Man's Pass. The weather was perfect! This was the hike that we failed to complete back in May because it was just too hot.

We hiked up from the bottom again. I mapped it after we got home, and it was about 4 miles round-trip. Not too gueling, but enough to work up a little sweat.


There are great views of the city the whole way up (although Robbie was disappointed that I forgot the binoculars). Once you get to the top, the trail winds back into an area called "Hidden Valley" and there are no traces of the city at all.

This is on top of Fat Man's Pass - really cool giant boulders.


...and this is why it's called Fat Man's Pass. There's a foot-wide opening where you can squeeze between the two boulders and continue on the trail.


After squeezing though, we got to explore under the boulders. It was a great place to cool off, with the breeze, the shade, and the nice cool rocks.


Checking out the boulders on the other side.


Looking down at the kids inside the pass:

We climbed up on top of the rocks and decided to hang out for a while before hiking back down. It would've been a great place for a picnic, but I didn't plan for one. We met this little guy up there! Isn't he cute? We also met several of his friends.

The chipmunks weren't too scared of people; I'm sure they've had plenty of snacks from hikers. We didn't have anything to offer, but he still approached us. He sniffed my hand and scurried away, so Erin patiently put her hand out the same way... and he took a little nibble of her thumb! She thought it was hilarious.

Of course, Robbie needed to do it, too. And our little friend happily obliged and nibbled his finger. It surprised him, so he sort of jumped & said "ouch!" and immediately started laughing his head off. He was thrilled!

Mother of the Year for exposing the kids to rabies or whatever ailments chipmunks may carry! But these kids love animals, so this made their day. I have to say I was pretty happy about it, too - I have a little thing for squirrels & chipmunks.

Then we headed back down the mountain.

Christmas 2010

Christmas seems so long ago! Probably because it was.

Most of our shopping was done early and we were able to relax and enjoy the Christmas season this year!

My parents came over on Christmas morning. We stayed up pretty late Christmas Eve, so we had to wake the kids up. They certainly didn't have any problems getting out of bed! Here are a few pictures.

This one looks staged, but it totally wasn't! The kids checking out all the presents that weren't there when they went to bed.

Robbie with a new car carrier

Erin's big present was a Nintendo DSi XL - she really didn't think she'd get one! Santa Claus is full of surprises.

Robbie opening his big crane from Grandma & Grandpa - a week or so before Christmas (after all the shopping was done) he decided he REALLY wanted a "big crane". He absolutely loves it! Almost everything in the house has been hooked to the crane and lifted or towed somewhere.

Another one of Erin's favorites was her ASU hoodie. This has become her jacket, and she wears it as much as possible.

After stockings, we had breakfast and got ready for the day. We cleaned up the aftermath, and then we went over to Rob's sister Brigette's house for Round 2. It was a full day!

Erin also got a new dress, and Robbie got some new ties. He loves his new orange tie - he just didn't love having his picture taken the next morning before church. Can't say that I blame him.

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2010

Just a few pictures from Thanksgiving.

We slept in, did some things around the house, and then we went over to Scott & Stephanie's (Rob's little sister) house in Mesa. We had a very yummy dinner and spent a lot of time visiting. We even managed to take a picture with all four of us:



Stephanie's back yard is perfect for the kids to play in, and great for everyone to sit around the fire pit after it got dark. Here are few pictures of the kids:

Erin

Robbie

The girls - Briana, Erin & Ayla

Robbie hijacked someone's Nintendo DS. I like this picture.

More DS action. I like how well the cousins like each other and play together.

(not sure why I can't fix the line spacing below - sorry)

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of the adults, and somehow I missed getting one of Sydnie (Stephanie's daughter). Robbie really likes Sydnie. When the three older girls play together, he's happy to play with Sydnie and have all the fun a 4 & 2 year old can have together! They sure keep busy.

That weekend, we got all our Christmas stuff up (I say we, but Rob does most of it) and now I can't believe it's only three weeks til Christmas! I think it will be lots of fun this year.

I didn't write a big mushy Thankgsiving post about all the things I'm thankful for, but I'm sure I should. (Maybe next year!) Let's just that say we have a lot to be thankful for and we try not to take our blessings for granted. Happy Thanksgiving!

Arizona State Fair

We went to the state fair a few weeks ago. We don't do much there since it's a wallet drain, but it's always fun to go. We went too late to see all the animals, so that was too bad because the kids always like the animals. We got to smell them - that's almost as fun, right?

The kids are big enough to ride just about everything by themselves now. It's a lot of fun to watch them! Robbie was a little nervous at first, but quickly caught on...

Exhibit A. Before:

Exhibit B. After:

On the bus ride over from the state capitol:

Erin finishing her ride on the zip line:

On the "crazy coaster":

The lay-down-and-fly-like-superman ride:

On the tugboat:

We finished off the night with some funnel cake and another bus ride back to our car. See you next year, state fair!

Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween!

This year, Erin was a hippie and Robbie was Superman. At the last minute, I got a costume and dressed up as a hippie, too. Rob was the grim reaper, but his makeup was off by the time we took a picture. These might be the coolest pants I've ever worn.

We went to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat, which is always fun. This year, Rob's parents and his sister Brigette & her family came, too! Erin had a lot of fun hanging out with her cousins. Of course we all decorated our cars and got to visit a little amidst the Halloween madness!

Dan, Sandy, and Rett in Rett's truck:

Rob with our car:

Steven with his car - Brigette snuck away before I could snap the picture!

For reasons unknown, our kids only went around trunk-or-treating through all the cars once. Whatever got into them, we were glad to have that much less candy coming home with us!

On Halloween, we went out for Round 2 while Rob stayed home to pass out candy. He always does a good job decorating the front door for the trick-or-treaters. Of course, it looks better than this in the dark, when the black light makes everything glow and the strobes are going.

The kids had a good time, and there were only a couple of "scary" houses that made them nervous. Erin made me proud at one house. There was a "Deaf Christian Center" van parked in the driveway, so I told Erin that the people at the house might not hear her. I told her to say trick or treat anyway, and if she could tell they were deaf, she should sign "thank you" to them afterward. So she did! She learned the sign in church a while back, and just that morning our music leader in Primary was teaching a song about all the different ways to say thank you. Yay for church! Anyway, when she signed "thank you", the guy got all excited and signed it back to her & gave her a thumbs-up. It made me happy.

At home, the kids admired all their candy and put a pretty good dent in it.

The end! Let's move on to November.