Arizona Trip 2011

We took our annual summer trip to Arizona this year and had a blast!

We did lots of eating, playing, and haviing fun with family.

One night, Laura and I took the kids to downtown Scottsdale to ride the trolley and hang out at the mall.  We had a good time.  Miss Arizona was there and Regan just ate up the chance to have her picture taken with her.

Of course, cousin time wouldn't be complete without signing karaoke, telling jokes, having a dance off and doing skits. I love to see how creative these kids are together.

One night before Jeff came into town, I had the chance to have the kids all to myself. We ended up going to the park at 8 pm when the weather finally cooled down to 104. We had fun playing on the play ground, then I decided we should all go roll down the hills.

To our great surprise, someone had left a bunch of ice blocks down at the bottom of the hills. I was so excited! I had the kids go to the truck and get the towels out of the back. I got to introduce them to ice blocking! We spent a good hour and a half sliding down the hills on the ice blocks. We had SO MUCH FUN!!!

Of course we spent a lot of time swimming. It's so nice swimming with the family it the hot summer. Made me wish we had a pool. I especially enjoyed watching the head stand contests and synchronized swimming that Laura, Sarah and Rebecca did. Always entertaining.

Laura was constantly coming up with cute crafts for the kids to do. We even got to paint our own 4th of July t-shirts! On the 4th of July, she had the girls make gumball necklaces in red,white,and blue. She and Rebecca and I painted nails in patriotic colors. And, Laura did the girls' hair super cute with festive ribbons. My sister is so creative. No wonder why she's the favorite aunt. :)

The Saturday before Independence day we went to downtown Mesa to enjoy a city party with games for the kids, a visit with George and Martha Washington, and fireworks. We had a great time.

The morning of Independence day, Laura had us over for breakfast.  She made delicious french toast with strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream topped with her special syrup. YUM! We later went swimming, had their super fabulous Krazy Subs, then went back to mom's house for games and yummy food. Grandma Willis even came to join us for the fun!

After games, we went to go watch fireworks and then came back to set off some of our own.

The kids also got to have a fun day with my mom for a special one on one time with Grandma at the Science museum. Just waiting for her pictures of that. The kids absolutely loved spending time with her. They had a ton of slumber parties with their cousins. Aunt Joyce and Uncle K.C. were in town when I first got there. We had lots of fun lunches, dinners and movie with them and my Aunt Janet and other cousins. I got to see some of my friends, Elizabeth, Mitch, Heather and Jennifer, that I love. But, like always, time went by way too fast. There wasn't enough time to do everything and see everyone I wanted.

What I absolutely loved more than anything, was seeing how cute the older cousins were with my younger girls.  They played with them, took care of them, and were just so dang cute.  I am so blessed with the most amazing family. We had a great time.