LegoLand is Paradise Part 1

The 2nd week in July Rob, Avery & Audrey took Grandpa & Grandma to LegoLand / San Diego. I have always wanted to go there. We had a really great time. Would you believe - those silly people in San Diego were complaining because it got into the high 80's everyday.

We went to the ocean, jumped in the waves & built sand castles. We went to Sea World and got splashed at the big tanks in the SeaLife show by whales and dolphins ( but Rob had been prepared & we had raincoats on ) !!! We went to the big LegoLand Water Park and Avery & Audrey loved the water slides.

And LegoLand itself - totally incredible. They have everything from tot rides to kids adventures to family rafts on a wild river to a teenage heaven huge computer center to test the latest Lego Games. My favorite ride was the Mummys Tomb. I had the highest score for shooting scarabs (no matter what Grandpa says). Turns out Avery & Audrey like roller coasters. And that giant tree house with the secret treasure chest to hunt for - awesome.

SRP Power Outage

This is one of the pictures Reggie took on his cell phone when he and Grandpa stopped on Power Rd and University Drive to watch the 100ft flames shoot up from a fire at the SRP . They watched from the back of their truck so they got a clear view. The fire started about 11:30 am and the power went down all over Mesa, Apache Junction and some of Gilbert. It was a 114 degree day. We went to the movies - it took forever to get to the Theater on Warner and Gilbert Rd because only the lights at major intersections were working. We saw "Bad Teacher". The theater was packed with other escapees of the outside heat. Then we went out to eat and every restaurant was loaded with other folks from Mesa. we got home at about 8:30pm and folks here in the park said the electricy came on around 6:30pm. Some areas of Mesa were without power until the next day. Reggie posted his photos on U tube.

Monsoons Hit Valley of the Sun

We have been having Monsoons every night. This is not unusual for us - but tonight was a real wild one. It was a wall of sand rolling over the whole valley. Go to http://www.azcentral.com/ to see all the pictures people have sent it to the news channel at Azcentral. The wall of sand was taller than the downtown hotels. Here are some of the pictures at AzCentral.

Cooling off with Afternoon Swim at Rob's place

The water was a perfect 91 degrees and crystal clear. Everybody met at Rob's place for a cooling afternoon dip and popcicles in the pool. Dad (AKA Grandpa) took a break from the fun to clean the minerals off the tile. Uncle Reggie impressed 4 yr old Audrey by playing with the water rings with her. Audrey loves bobbing in the water with her cousin Kylee.

Avery Loves to Get Grandpa

They have these new type of water/pool squirt guns. If you fill it right you can shoot water 15, maybe even 20 feet away. Avery (who is 5 years old ) loves those water guns. He and Grandpa shoot water at each other from across the pool and laugh and shout and have a ball. Avery has gotten REALLY good and has aim as good ( or sometimes better then ) as Grandpa. He has also started doing Grandpa's little sneak attack trick. I was lucky enought to catch a shot of him filling his tube with water while under water so he could "pop" up and surprize Grandpa. Look at the joy on this little guy's face as he sucks water into his tube. Such Joy occurs rarely in life.

Tile Backsplash

This weekend I have moved stuff away from the corner area of the laundry room to get that painted - while Reg is doing the big stuff. He is putting in a tile backsplash on our new counters. Because there are so many wall plugs ( which I love ) he has to do a lot of tile cutting. It's a subway style tile with the colors of the desert 0 matches the counter very well. It is still over 100 degrees here and VERY hot on the side porch where Reg goes to cut the tile.

Heres 1/2 of the kitchen counter done

Well, there was a problem with measurements. The measurement guy Robert totally forgot to put down the counter by the frigerator and, although he measured the 2 cabinets on the hallway side and remarked to me on the over 25 inches and the space was not straight, somehow on the diagrams sent to the counter maker he put down the standard 24 1/2 inch size ??? So they will have remake the correct counters and come back to finish. BUT - I will have a working kitchen sink - YEA YEA YEA !!! I can get the silverware drawer set up. No more need for the folding table so I can now get my printer set up. I may not be able to completely finish but most of the kitchen will be done. The installer really liked the IKEA farm sink - and I took a picture of him taking a picture of it. We got really lucky. The installer has years of experience and did a great job plus he didn't mind that I asked a lot of questions. He liked that Reg and I had taken out all the drawers to get him lots of room.