10.08.2011: Avery's Ear Piercing Trauma

Saturday afternoon, Alisa, Vince, Mom and I wanted to go to the mall to check out some stores, and Alisa decided it was the perfect opportunity to get Avery's ears pierced.  We were all excited about it...until the lady made her cry!  It was the most painful, traumatic, scared, hurtful cry/scream I have ever heard come out of Avery's mouth!  Sooooooo very sad!!!  But once it was all over, she looked so pretty with her new ear bling!!!

10.08.2011: Car Wash by Nana

Saturday morning, Mom and I woke up at 6am to take Gramma & Papa to the 99cent store.  Papa has to be there every Sat morning right at 7am when they open.  And someone always goes with them....so Mom and I went this weekend.  You can buy basically everything at the 99cent store...canned goods, paper goods, produce, frozen food, household items, decor, etc.....  It is pretty amazing :)  Papa goes straight to the sought-after items and stocks up.  I even got some more fall & Thanksgiving decor...because you can really never have enough!!  After we took them to the store, we came back & enjoyed the rest of the morning with the family.  Later on, Brent & Mom went back over there so Brent could finish doing some work on their house that he had been working on the day before. 

Vince and I needed a car wash really bad, so Nana volunteered to do it for us.  It was really cute...she was very into it!  And did a really good job too!!!  She is hired...full-time :)

10.07.2011: Vince's California Office

While I was at Gramma & Papa's on both Thurs & Fri, Vince worked for us both.  His second office...his CA office, is in Mom & Dad's backyard.  Depending on the temp, it is either out in the gazebo or next to the firepit.  This week it was a little misty & cool in the morning so he worked by the fire.  What a life....

10.06.2011: Camping Trip...Relocated to Riverside

Due to terribly cold weather, we relocated our camping trip this weekend from Payson, out to Riverside.  It also gave us an opportunity to spend a lot of time with Gramma & Papa.  Vince and I drove out there on Weds afternoon, and I got to spend the day with Gramma & Papa all day Thurs.  It was a lot of fun just hanging out there instead of just there for a quick visit.  I got to help Papa out in the garden...and learned how to grow strawberries.  No, it is not what it seems!  So, I planted my own strawberry plant...and keep your fingers crossed that she will thrive!! I actually planted quite a few, but one is "my baby".  I also learned how to make dirt.  Growing dirt...farming dirt.  Again, not what it seems...and there is an art to it...and I was very closely supervised, so I know I did it right :)  It was a great day spending time with them and hearing about lots of little stories over the past 50 years in that house.  Many good memories there, and I just made some more this weekend. 

Brent & Alisa arrived into town with their crew later Thurs afternoon.  They stopped by to say hi on their way to Mom & Dads.  They also had Yukon with them, and Gramma & Papa were just as excited to see him as they are to see all of us :)  Avery sat with Papa for a while, and loved his oxygen cords.  She was pulling on them & laughing...very cute!

Vince cooked us all a great dinner that night & we were all able to just relax and hang out and enjoy each other.  No big plans for the weekend except to spend time with family and relax!!

09.28.2011: The Tongue

Today I went to watch Avery for a few hours while Alisa was out & about.  She slept most of the morning, but lucky for me woke up :)  Heehee...and I didn't even wake her up...she really woke up on her own.  She had a little congestion in her nose so after sleeping for a few hours got a little clogged up and decided she had enough nap.  Even a little sick, she still wakes up SUPER happy!  It really just isn't fair to have a baby that is so happy ALL THE TIME.  Anyways, lucky for all of us to be a part of her life!!  Her thing these days is that when she is super happy or laughing at you, with you, because of you...she gives you the tongue.  No idea why or how that started, but is really funny!  There were lots of camping pics of her doing that too.  Today, she seemed overly happy & overly stuck out her tongue at me.  Funny little girl!! 

09.25.2011: Time to go Home

On Sunday morning, we woke up to more camping coffee, and nice big fire, and chorizo burritos for breakfast!  The kids played in the woods and around the campsite....and we started packing it up to head home.  When Nana and Alisa went to use the girls' outhouse, they noticed a cute little skunk in there!! Haha!  Yup, that's right...a skunk in the bathroom...kinda funny....not sure which one smelled worse!  Luckily it didn't spray them, but it was spraying someone/something off & on because eventually you could smell it all the way into our camp...and you would hear people yelling as they discovered it.  Kinda funny!

Well, we all evenutally headed home & back to the heat of Phoenix.  It is only a little under a 2 hour drive, but it was literally a 25 degree difference...and that just isn't fair!  So ready for fall...please!!!! 

09.24.2011: Camping Day 2 - Gathering, Riding....and Happy Hour

After lunch we just sat around and relaxed for a while.  Brent felt the need to clean under Andrew's finger nails...with his knife :)  Andrew didn't seem to mind though!   It was time for a little gathering of fire wood for the evening fire.  The kids were sent off to find the biggest and best sticks to bring to the camp....both Drake and Andrew came back with sticks as big as they could carry.  Nana preferred to find cool looking small sticks, that looked like mini guns.  Either way, they were all needed for the fire!!! 

After the kids got tired of fetching sticks for us, they rode their bikes a little.  We went out in the "driveway" and watched them.  After a while Piggy got tired and needed a break, so Brent took over his bike.  Brent and Drake ended up having a very intense bike race....Brent won, only because Drake had a bike malfunction.  Once it was fixed, Brent didn't want to race again :)  So he picked up 2 strays (Piggy & Nana) and rode them around for a while.  Very cute...but those tires were hurting!!!  Avery just watched the madness, and prepared herself for when she is old enough to participate as well!  And of course that meant lots of Avery pics....cuz she was sitting right there...and she is so cute! :)

Once everyone was tried of bike riding, we headed up our little hill to our camping area....where the boys started a game of football.  Well, more like just catch with the football, but it was pretty funny!!  They had a great time & lots of laughs!!  And it wore out Brent and Vince too! :)  Avery fell asleep on my shoulder during the festivities, where she likes to nap sometimes :)

Just getting into the late afternoon....and time for happy hour!    Avery woke up and was ready to hang out with the group!  We had delicious appetizers that Alisa brought, and all kinds of happy hour drinks for the adults....and capri suns for the kiddos!  Dinner that night was pollo asada...yummo!!! As you can see in the pics below, we had plenty of pollo!!  We got our standard group shots, and enjoyed our last evening in the woods!  After dinner we also, of course, had smores!  Although we used nutella instead of hershey bars...and oh my gosh!!! YUMMMMMYY!  So good!!!!  New fav for sure!  Great relaxing ending to a great weekend out of town!!

09.24.2011: Camping Day 2 - Hunting & Fishing

Saturday morning we woke up to a slight chill in the air...nothing that a good morning fire & hot cup of coffee can't fix though!  For some reason camping coffee tastes so good.  Even if it does take forever to make a few cups, it just tastes good!  After breakfast, Avery took her morning nap and all the boys & Nana went hunting.  Well, they went shooting.  It's not really allowed in the campground area (minor details), so they went for a long hike in the woods to find a good spot far away and out of earshot to let the kids shoot their BB Guns.  Although Brent does like to shoot Nana's pink gun too!  And Vince shot Drakes too!  While they were out there, they spotted a bird in a tree...a raven...and Drake shot it....and hit it! Didn't kill it since it was just a bbgun, but he definitely injured it.    Very exciting.  While the boys were gone, Alisa and I (and Kaizen and Yukon) hung out at the campground while Avery slept.  A stray dog came by and both the dogs went on high alert.  They were both "guarding" our site and were ready to attack.  Even the ferocious Yukon got up and went to stand by the tent....like he was protecting Avery.  It was amazing and soooo cute!  Most action he's had in a while.  Needless to say the dog didn't encroach any further, and ran off.  We have some good guard dogs!  Thankfully too since the guys left with all the guns...haha!

After they came back from shooting and hunting, we loaded up the Tahoe and all headed out to the lake for a little fishing.  It was kinda crowded, and none of the adults actually had their licenses, so the kids just went crawfish-fishing...which is really what they prefer anyways.  Not as many big ones like last time, but they caught quite a few. Bait of choice - leftover hot dogs tied to fishing string on the end of a stick.  Pretty high-tech.....but very effective!  We hung out at the lake for a while, enjoying the scenery....then we headed back to camp for lunch. 

Freeeeezing!!!