Crazy Busy Weekend

This weekend was just packed... practically every minute we had plans and had to turn down 4 invitations to do other things. I love being busy, but I do hate when I have to miss things because of it! We missed Andy's 21st b-day party this weekend and I missed Janesse's meet the baby party!

We started the weekend with a Suns game and watched them lose. : ( 
Saturday morning, Kenny wanted to leave around 8 to head up to the cabin so I left around then too. I found myself on the East side of town with 45 extra minutes to kill before the yardsale, so as I passed Tempe Town Lake I exited the freeway on a whim. I have never been there, but I pass it all the time and wanted to check it out. It was a beautiful morning and I ended up walking about 2 miles around the lake! I can't wait to go back with Kenny and try the hyro-bikes!

Here is a picture of the 'bladders' that failed last summer and caused the lake to drain: 

Hydro-bikes! 

With my little detour I ended up getting to Scrapbooks Etc after the doors had already been opened, which was nice to avoid the waiting and pushing as you enter the store. It was crowded and they were out of hand baskets like always, but this time I came prepared with my giant tote bag! I loaded up on deals and even spend WAY less than I had budgeted!

I drove back to the west side and picked up the boys. They were so excited to see me and it just filled me up with joy : ) They hopped in the car so fast my brother and I barely had time to chit chat about anything! I had brought a water cooler that my brother forgot at the house and had to recline the front seat to fit it in the car. When Little B got in the car he couldn't fit his legs because the the front seat was so far reclined, but that didn't stop him he just sat cross legged and was ready to go! It made me laugh how eager they were to go and they didn't even know what I had planned for them!

We ate a quick lunch at McDonalds (well I ate they mostly played) and then headed over to Ben Avery for the Arizona Game and Fish FREE expo.




The boys loved it all ! The fishing :

Little Brian

Jacob

The snakes- Well actually they were pretty scared of the snakes at first, but after watching other (older) kids 'try on' the snake, Jacob said, "I do it." I asked if he was sure and he said yes SO- He did it! I was super proud : )

Jake the Snake - 4 years old! 

Jacob continued to investigate and held this other snake- 

Little Brian decided it was safe enough to touch, but he still didn't want it around his neck : ) 

The snakes behind the class were much more up Little Brian's ally 

Little Brian

When Smokey approached the boys they were scared at first, but then decided he was nice, Jake was still a little unsure and didn't get too close. 

Playing in a tent - 

And on a tractor 

Waiting for the show to start 

We had such a great time and the boys never complained about the amount of walking or waiting or anything! Kenny was impressed that I took them to something like that all by myself. It made me feel good that my "Auntie skills" have improved, but really they are older and they listen so well and are super well behaved... so its really them,  not me.

When Kenny (and Shelby) got home from their trip up North I had the boys bathed and ready to go visit. Blair and Allan had us over for dinner and the all the kids had a ton of fun playing together. Now when I say kids I have to have you know that Kenny is included in that bunch. They just LOVE him!! 

They played tag, hide and seek, wrestled and even played duck duck goose.  ALL of them were wore out and we left about 10 PM (2 hours past the boys bed time) so everyone slept in nice and late on Sunday!

We spent the morning relaxing and let the boys play Mario all morning. We headed over to my parents house for a quick visit since my mom wasn't feeling good and the boys were grouchy we didn't stay long. The ride to their house was a quiet one... we picked up a pizza for them and took them home. Its always bittersweet to drop them off.

For lunch Kenny and I went to Casa Carmen on Bethany and the I17. When he was a kid they were located at 35th and Glendale and his family went there all the time. The old location burned up and the took about a year to relocate (this was about 5 years ago now) and Kenny just happened to see the signed when he was out on appointments one day and wanted to try it. The food was excellent like he remembered, but sadly the place was dead (we were the only ones in there!). We told them about Groupon.... maybe they will advertise and get some business back.

After lunch we met Jereme and Melodi at the Desert Botanical Gardens. We had purchased a Groupon for $7 each to get into the gardens and in my opinion even that was too much for the place. It was pretty, but there wasn't anything special you couldn't see on a regular hike in the desert. The neatest part was the butterfly exhibit (which for me made it worth the money).

Kenny 

Jereme, Melodi, Me and Kenny 

We spent a lot of time wondering the gardens and sitting on various benches and chatting while enjoying the beautiful weather. After we had looked at all the cactus that we could handle we headed off to dinner at Oregano's. It was delicious as usual, but always takes awhile to eat there because of the wait to get in and the cook time on their pizzas.

We ended the day and weekend with a Suns game. The Suns are playing with heart and Kenny and I (along with the other fans) really get into the games and get super frustrated watching the bad calls... I really don't know what is going on, but it seems like the Suns get the dumbest fouls called against them while our guys are getting beat up and no calls are mad (ie Gortat's broken noise and NO call!) Gortat is my favorite player right now and he finally got to start tonight so that was fun to watch. In the 4th quarter with about 2 minutes left in the game the scoreboards all lost power.

I have never seen that happen! They rebooted in time to show the final few seconds and the losing score : (

Fixin' it up

Today my youngest (my youngest being Shelby our 5 year old black lab) and I took off to the mountains. 

Shelby and Kenny 

Shelby

 She seems to favor me and cooler weather.  Last September we went on a “family” camping trip.  It consisted of the two of us, Brian and his crew, their dog, and our three dogs.  To make a long story short AMANDA backed up and drove over the trailer that was attached to her truck.  The passenger rear tire was parked on the tongue of the trailer.  Needless to say the trailer was bent.  

Before

So Shelby and I drove up to bend the trailer back enough so it can be towed again.  After a couple of hours of using sledge hammers we were on our way home. 

We stopped for gas when we reached Phoenix.  I figured Amanda would just drive over the trailer so it wouldn’t hurt to let Shelby drive.

Posted by Kenny 

tootin' my own horn

I have seen lots of list like the below lists and decided I need my own.... It pertains to my bucket list journey...

28 things I've done in my 28 years-

jumped out of a perfectly good airplane
rode a zipline in Kauai
parasailed in Maui 
been spelunking
gone skinny dippin'
stood under a massive waterfall
swam with sea turtles
taken a ride in a helicopter
played on the beach in Hawaii 
driven cross country in an RV
gone on a 14 day cruise
bought 2 houses
donated blood
donated my hair to locks of love
earned a bachelors degree
completed a 1/2 marathon
been MVP
been a JV wrestler
used a potters wheel
gotten a tattoo (2)
read the book before the movie
fallen in love
had a best friend (still do)
baked bread from scratch
tried escargot and frog legs
been a season ticket holder
watched a live birth
inspired others (trust me they tell me, lol) and do things people wouldn't expect me to

29 things to do before I turn 29

fly on a trapeze
paraglide off South Mountain
fly an airplane
earn my CPCU designation
break 200 bowling (not wii bowling!)
read the entire Bible
loose 29 lbs
be credit card debt free
watch all the Star Wars movies  (seriously I have never seen them)
go to one game for each of our major sport teams in AZ
hike the 7 summits of PHX in 48 hours
buy a super trendy outfit that looks like a cover of magazine 
make my own "while you were out" episode
develop my piano playing to where I can actually say, "Sure I play the Piano"
read 10 New York Times best sellers
visit Knottsberry Farm at Halloween 
visit Yosemite 
ride a mechanical bull
ignore the convience of e-mail, FB and text messaging and write letters to my friends and family 

find my purpose in life (seriously I don't know how to do that... gonna start with the Purpose Drive Life and lots of PRAYER)
write a letter to my future self (maybe a time capsule)
make an outfit I can actually wear
take a class at the community college
hide 29 caches... (geocaching)
create a video worthy of putting on youtube
play in a giant hamster ball
learn to knit
see if blonds really do have more fun...
explore a corn maze 

I cheated a little on this list, because I have some of these items already planned... It was pretty difficult to come up with 29 'bucket list' time items to achieve in ONE year... We will see how I do! 

PS. I have a friend that thought my bucket list was meaningless... it kind of hurt my feelings, but at the same time the list is just stuff I want to do so that really is the only meaning behind it. The purpose is to keep these adventures or goals toward the front of my mind so I get them DONE. Some of the things are things other people may never do (skydive) while others are done by people everyday (milking a cow). The point is, I want to have those experiences. I am not making any implication that because I have done these things I am a better person or closer to God... I just did them (or want to do them) period.

Pottery Class- Part II

We finally made time to go back and finish the pottery I made on the wheel. I asked Kenny to come along and help me paint me pieces. At first he really wasn't interested but said he had a lot of fun and wants to go back and make some of his own pieces. 

Here are my fired pieces: 

Kenny chose the wonky one: We joked that he picked that one, because his mom always had him eat the messed up cookies ; ) 

Kenny painting

Here is his finished piece. I was fascinated what the firing process will do to this pot. It looks like plain white and terracotta color paint...  but it will turn into a copper and white crackled pot! 

This one will look like the tile on the left after it is fired 

same here

A few days later we picked up the fired pieces... awesome! 

We gave the purple one to my buddy Blair because she loves purple and the little blue one to my parents.