recent snapshots and swimming

I love to take Marn's picture first thing in the morning. Her hair softly waves around her face, her eyes are bright,
 and her mischief isn't shining through yet.

This pooch is a character. He likes to hold his rawhide sticks like this and pretent he works at Sterling Cooper. It's extra adorable when he asks me to bring him some ice and set up a dinner meeting with Jaguar. 

We went swimming with cousins yesterday, and loved every second of it.

relaxation

Classic Britt

I didn't notice this one till I got home. HAHA! 

Britt, Abby, Marnie, and MillyHow fun are these kids?! :)

Visitors and scenery

Last weekend was full of excitement and activities. Justin's mom, dad, and brother came to stay with us. On Saturday we met Justin's Uncle Steve and Aunt Nancy (or Aunt Fancy, as Marnie says) and some fun cousins to play at Chuck E. Cheese's. It was the first time there for Britt and Marnie, and they had a blast. It was even more fun that they got to play with Abby, Milly, Lydia, and River. 

Marnie was raking in the tickets!

These boys are so adorable.

That night we had dinner at Joe's Farm Grill. We've driven past it several times and always been intrigued, so when Kaitlynn texted me and said she just watched a segment about it on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives,  we knew we had to go there when Justin's family was in town. I mean, his dad owns a set of Guy Fieri knives. We knew he could appreciate a foodie heaven like that. :)

We strolled though the community garden behind Joe's after dinner. It was gorgeous! We're slightly {totally} infatuated with this area and Agritopia.

agritopia

Now onto this visitor...

We had a storm blow through town last weekend, and it knocked this little guy out of his nest and into our yard. Marnie and I found him (luckily before Griz found him) and she insisted that if we gave him some water it would, "do the trick." It didn't. He stumbled around for a day and a half, till I decided that he needed to get back into the tree. They need the height for their flying lessons, right? I covered my hands in paper towels and scooped him up and into the tree. He promptly took a few steps and tumbled over the wall, into our neighbors' yard. As much as I love birds, I feel no guilt in saying I hate these ones.  Seriously, they are the stupidest creatures on earth. A few days after we moved in here, I let Griz out to have his morning break and one of these guys just sat in our backyard and watched as Griz walked over and picked him up in his mouth (surely thinking, "This is a fun new toy!"). Britt yelled for Griz to drop it, and he did, but it just hopped behind our trash can. Britt finally had to shoo it out the back fence so we wouldn't have to worry about Griz "playing" with it again. 

"Why can't I go out and play with that feathery thing?"

Britt and Marnie enjoy the sunsets from our back yard. I'm looking forward to when the weather cools down and our view is even greener,. The golf course behind our house is seasonal, so they won't start greening it up for another month.

Desert flowers we saw on our morning walk today.

Out and about

The kids LOVE having so many new places to play.

We went to a splash pad...

where one of us got much wetter than the rest of us.

We took Griz to an awesome dog park, that also had a human park.

This monkey girl is too brave for her own good.

Diamondback game + pizza + huge bobblehead guys = happy kids
man...my husband is ck-ck. (If you watch as much Adventure Time as we do, you'll get that.) :)

Oh, and who could forget the cotton candy?!
Do you close your eyes to savor every bite too?

Never a dull moment.

A change of scenery

The beginning of August, we made our move to the big city. Well, we're not downtown or anything, but we can get to Target in less than 10 minutes, so we consider it "the big city." Huge thanks to our folks for all their help! We had quite the caravan of cars, people, and pets. It was definitely a trip to remember. 

I swear, after loading things into every nook and cranny of this truck, our cars, and my dad's truck, this empty moving truck was the most beautiful sight I've ever seen. 

Griz has had a tough time getting acclimated to the heat. I don't think there's been a day that the temperatures didn't top 110 degrees since we moved. We even saw 117 a few days ago. Luckily though, Marnie is always willing to spray him with a squirt bottle to help him cool down. 

Just a few days after we moved in, Britt started school. He loves it all: his teacher, his classmates, taking a lunch to school, and the huge covered playground. His school is right down the street from our house, which will make it easy to walk...maybe this Fall. :)

I snapped this picture of the San Tan mountains on my phone while we were on the way to the grocery store a few days ago. We really like the area where we live. It's nice to be surrounded by fields and farms, but only be a short drive from all the big city conveniences. 

The month of July

June flew by, but we managed to savor July. Totally didn't mean to make that rhyme...

We soaked in every lazy morning, monsoon, hike, and ballgame. It was a nice way to end our Snowflake years.

I sure love it when these two aren't kickboxing each other.

I'd never thought to carry my baby monkey like this on a hike... Clever.

Oh yeah, and Britt lost his first 2 teeth. Not so much "lost" as "had to have a dentist surgically remove," because his permanent teeth were already in behind them and they would not fall out on their own.

Grandpa Randy's cheering section, AKA "The Ring Pop Crew."
Britt gave him that gold medal after his last game of the season. He deserved it too! I grew up watching my dad pitch and play softball, and it makes me smile that my own kids will have memories of that too. He'll be 60 in just a few days, but he still looks like a youngster on the field.

One last Sunday picnic at Woodland Lake.

I think our kids might be allergic to cameras... They have weird reactions sometimes.

Into the great wide open

Have you ever been to the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert? I went on a field trip there when I was in grade school, and I didn't remember a thing about it. We decided that since it's less than an hour away, we ought to take the kids there while we still live so close. We had a great time hiking, checking out ruins, trying to figure out what the petroglyphs meant, admiring prehistoric reptile skeletons, and imagining what life was like millions of years ago- before this forest was petrified. Britt added a new Junior Ranger badge and certificate to his collection, and Marnie came home with scraped knees and a bump on her noggin. Overall though, it was a lovely day.

We had to stop in Holbrook on the way, just to get a picture with one of the "giant" dinosaur statues.

Britt is very into paleontology and prehistoric animals lately, so the displays at the visitor's center made his day.

This is post-Marnie-biffing-it, hence the wet paper towels on her knees and the grump face.