Dogs and Tortoises --

The girls love to play ball - don't you just love Shelby's incessant barking! 

Chandler- 

 Nash-

Today we took the torts out for their 'play time' in the backyard we discovered what Nash just loves to eat... dog poop. Eeewwww ! As he walked the perimeter and munched on grass he came across a small piece of poo... he was very interesting and kept looking at it.. then he went to take a bit! I yelled NO and he crunched back in his shell. Then he tried again... I told him no again and he crunched back in his shell- repeat 5 times and then I just picked him up and moved him... Kenny laughed and said "you know its a turtle right." Ha ha. While we were out in the yard letting the tortoises play the dogs are locked in the house and watch us from the Arcadia door... Apparently, they weren't happy about this because they locked us out of the house! Luckily we could just do around to the front, but it was still pretty fun that they did that.

The Big House

Today was the Mobley Family Reunion (Kenny's Maternal Grandma's side) in Casa Grande. 

They chose a nice Mexican restaurant for us to meet at-

Hollace (not sure about the spelling) entertaining us with some hymns. 

Michelle and Sarah chatting it up ; ) 

Kim (being called out as the OLDEST of Nanette's children) 

Peggy

Bobbie, Jerry, Adrian and wife

Top: Barb, JW, Nanette  Bottom: Shirley's daughter, Shirley and Sarah 

Michelle, Trevor and Zack 

Betty, Shirley, Sarah (having too much fun) 

Top: JW, Peggy Bottom: Betty, Shirly and Sarah

JW and Sarah

Joanna and Andy (don't ask... just kidding he was feeding one of the twins but it looked a little odd) 

Trevor and Zack 

Emma and Zack ( happy little babies) 

Shirley and Sarah 

Emma (you can almost see her tooth)

Matt and Barb 

After the reunion we (Barb, Kenny and I) decided to check out the Casa Grande Ruins. We were super excited to find out it was a Fee Free day and didn't have to pay the $5 admission! 

Since it is called the BIG HOUSE we were kinda thinking it would be bigger, but it was still really neat to look at something that was estimated to be constructed in the mid 15th century! It was a 4 story structure, although it looks like a 3 story now. I am fascinated by how people survived here before AC! 

This was a little model of how the structure might have looked- 

Introducing....

our newest editions--

 NASH 

(because he is little and tough)

and 


Chandler 
(because he might be a girl - a Friends reference) 

They are Selcata Tortoises!

They are super little right now, just around 2 inches and about 1 1/2 oz, but they will get up to 36 inches and live about 100 years. 

After the yardsale Saturday, Blair went with Kenny and I to pick one out and we had such a nice time! The people who were selling them had several larger tortoises and tons of fresh water fish (4 tanks indoors and more in their garage). They have such a passion for their hobby and really love their pets. They are not breeders and just let nature take its course and sell the babies they can't keep (this year they had 2 clutches... as you can see from the pictures below one clutch has almost 30 'babies') .

We loved listening to their cute stories and learning all about the tortoises. As the guy was telling us all about how to care for the tortoise he mentioned they are soulful creatures and since we were only getting one he might get lonely... Well we couldn't have that so we adopted another one (which kinda sucked because I was prepared to spend $50 for the one, but not $80 for 2- but hey it was yardsale earnings so I guess it is okay)!
We bought one from each clutch so they are not brother and sister just in case they do end up mating. Luckily we wont have to worry about that for 6-7 years. We actually won't even know their sex for 3-4 years.

We are of course concerned how the dogs will interact with them... Almost certainly I think Hope would kill them thinking they are a walking tennis ball. We have a good 2-3 years before they have to live outside...and might just make an enclosure in the side yard so they aren't near the dogs. 

Nash's clutch-

Chandler's Clutch -

This is one of their 4 year olds... he is about the size of a football.

This is the box we brought them home in : )

 This is their first 'bath' in a tupperware container- 

Take me out to the ball game

Friday after work our co-worker (actually my Supervisor) invited Kenny and I to join her church group at the Faith & Family night at the D-backs/Dodger game. 

We had dinner at her family friend's restaurant called Sing High downtown (it was delicious!) and walked to the game. 

Here is Kenny, Me and Candace - 

Kenny and I 

The diamondbacks lost... booo but there were a few moments of excitement when the d-backs scored and for a few runners on in the 8th inning- 

The crowd did the wave- 

After the game there was a free Jeremy Camp concert. We enjoyed it and I wish I bought his CD! 

A Night at the drive in

Thursday night the Glendale 9 drive-in was offering FREE admission! We were all over that! They had a bunch of neat cars to look at before the movie, like- 

 the Ghostbusters car:

K.I.T from night Rider

and General Lee from the Dukes of Hazard. 

 They also had a 'guest appearances from the Iron Man cast: 

After exploring it was time to get comfy - Jacob tried to snag this chair from one of the girls- 

Here is all of us in the bed of the truck. We eventually spread out- 

Uncle Kenny and Jacob

The boys fighting over mama time with Crystal :) 

Blair and her crew, along with her buddy Dusty and her family all showed up so we had quiet the group. It really was a lot of fun even though it was SUPER busy and our neighbors were a little talkative (not to mention they brought their yappy dog to the movie). We lucked out that the weather was SO nice. 

Yea for FREE activities! 

Kids, Dogs and more...

This seems like it could be 4 separate unrelated posts but I just mashed it into one... 

Apparently, my cute little nephew Jacob got a lego stuck in his ear!

 Lord knows how, but once Brian and Crystal discovered it they took him to the ER. They said at first they didn't even know it was a Lego and actually looked like a BB it is in there so far! Holy Hannah! The ER dr tried to get it out using some water technique which didn't work and sent them to another doctor. The 2nd doctor tried to get it out with some sort of metal object and ended up jamming it in further. He refereed them to a specialist. The Specialist took one look and said they would have to put him out and actually perform surgery to remove it! The surgery is next Wednesday... 

I mentioned before Little Brian has been having a little trouble adjusting to school and has some behavioral problems. Kenny and I decided to buy him a piggy bank and told him we would give him a quarter for each day he brings home a star. Since we don't see him, but once a week I asked my brother how it was going and if Little Brian was bugging them about the money. He told me not to worry that Little Brian owes me money now... I guess Little Brian has been bringing home notes (for poor behavior) and my brother told him, he had to give back a dollar for each bad note he brought home. The poor kid is gonna have bad credit before he is 6 years old!

Monday afternoon Hope started vomiting large amounts of fluid. I don't get home till 9PM on Monday, but as soon as a saw her I feared something was wrong like back in February. Since Kenny was gone in Vegas Tuesday I came home at lunch to see how she was doing. I didn't see any signs of improvement and now she wouldn't eat so I took the afternoon off and took her to the Vet. I wasn't exactly pleased with the Vet as he teased me for bringing her in for such a little thing. He said maybe she just has a sensitive stomach. Let me tell you, if you know Hope you know that is NOT the case. She has eaten an entire chickens worth of chicken bones, a bag of M&Ms, trees, toys, countless squeakers, tennis balls etc etc etc. She doesn't have a sensitive stomach, we actually call her our junk yard dog! He barely looked at her and started talking about my diagnostic options from $200-550. I decided to pay the $48 vet fee and leave. He then persisted that I should at least get her the anti-nausea medicine for $25 and a few cans of the special dog food. I obliged and once I had paid he told me I could give her Pepcid when she ran out of the prescription since it would work the same!! Ugh I was fuming mad. So $82 and 3 hours of PTO later we had no answers!  Luckily it has been a few days and she is doing so much better. Still not 100% but much better ( I wish I could say the same for our carpets!).

Remember back in July Kenny and I donated blood? Well we finally got our donor cards and we were both super excited to find out our blood types (its the little things in life right?). Kenny is A positive and I am O positive. I feel like that is pretty fitting for me since I am O so Positive - LOL. Anyway, Kenny said what does mine mean then and my brother told him it means he is an A+ : ) I agree he is an A+ guy! Kenny is going on Monday to donate platelets ... fun. I am not willing to go there yet as I think I need to make it though a simple whole blood donate without almost passing out before I try an hour donation!

A Day Down South...

Friday night we drove down to Benson with our friends Beverly and Lloyd and spent the night so we could have a full day Saturday "down south." Our trip included Kartchner Caverns, the old mine in Bisbee and Tombstone. 

Lloyd on the drive Friday 

You are not allowed to take your camera into the caves( which made me feel like I was missing a body part!)  So I settled for taking these pictures of replica items at the visitors center: 

"Spelunking" in the replicas of the hole sizes the 2 discovers climbed through to find and explore the Kartchner Caverns

soda straw stalactites 

Cave Bacon anyone? 

Lloyd and Bev in the "cave"                             and                             Kenny by a stalagmite

I thought the amazing experience of seeing the Rotunda/Throne Rooms Tour was worth the trip alone. We went through 3 sets of doors to get into the 70 degree cave with 99% humidity. Kenny and I have been in caves before, but it was nothing compared to what we saw here. This cave was discovered about 35 years ago through a small sink hole. The discoverers kept the cave a secret for 12 years in order to protect the condition of the cave! They used a one path system (they walked in the same place every time) and kept the cave in pristine condition. They kept saying it is amazing what something as simple as water can do... I couldn't help but think "yeah at God's hand!" 

After the tour we drove down to Bisbee and did a little exploring. We came across this place that a friend of mine had stayed at . I was excited to see it in person, but we were all disappointed that the Diner was closed for the summer!~ It is a 1950's trailer park and you can rent the trailers for the night. 

Next we were off to our Mine Tour- 

After we got all dressed up for "work" we loaded up on the trolley- 

Here we are heading on in to the 47 degree mine... Thats right 47 degrees and it was a windy 47 too! 

The tunnels - 

This is the tour guide showing us one of the drills they used to make holes for the dynamite 

Bev and Lloyd on the trolly and a staircase to a large "room" 

Rocks and Beverly 

Bev bought a rock to break open- pretty cool 

We all really enjoyed the mine tour, in fact Kenny and Bev said they liked it better than the cave (Lloyd and I thought the cave was better). The mine we toured opened in 1914 and closed in the 40s. The man that took us on the tour was very knowledgeable because HE was a minor (just not in that mine). 

Our next stop was Tombstone for dinner. 

Tombstone was such a neat little town and I would love to go back and check out more of the attractions and maybe take a carriage tour. 

It was a very nice, but long day- I think we all had a blast. We really enjoy Bev and Lloyd's company they are so funny and a pleasure to be around.