Grandparents Day Celebration

Grandparents day was Sunday Sept 11, and Avery and Audrey's school invited all the Grandparents to eat lunch with their Grandchildren on Monday. Audrey is still in the preschool side, so the school let us take her out of class to eat with the 1st Graders.

Audrey is like a licensed tour guide of the school. She confidently had us follow her ( and she is a fast walker) through the labyrinth of rooms and pathways to get to the playground where the 1st graders were jumping hoops and kicking balls before lunch.

Avery introduced us to his buddy Joey, whose Grandpa Bob was joining him for lunch. The Grandparents are supposed to bring lunch for themselves because part of the fun for the kids is showing Grandpas and Grandmas their own lunchboxes, how they like to eat this or that first, etc. ( Still, several Grandparents brought Little Cesars Pizza to share with their Grandkids. Grandpa thought that was a really good idea :) We brought little containers of cheese, sliced boiled eggs, cantalope, tiny slider size ham sandwiches and pieces of that healthy Blueberry Bread from Alpine bakery. Avery and Audrey showed us their Yogurt in tubes - you just squirt it right into your month - I am not kidding - the coolest thing ! And box cantainers of Orange Drink, EZ to open and square so they aren't as likely to spill.

We had a great time - and best of all Grandpa is retired so he could come too.

Boo Hoo Hoo - My camera, which has had several problems, the SD card messed up and the only picture I could recover was when we were in line to get into the lunchroom! The teacher took a great picture for us of me and Grandpa eating with Avery & Audrey - but - alas - I couldn't unscramble the data. Plus give me a sympthetic "Ohhh" here.

After counters went in....

The formica counters were put in and they look perfect. Just the right "Old Time" kitchen feel that we wanted. Then Reg did the back splash with a soft color tile picked up from the counters tops - and it worked right. the "Farmhouse" kitchen sink is great for the big pots and pans. This was all done in June ( I am way behind in posting). The Formica guy liked the kitchen so well he asked if he could take pictures :)

Finally the Massive Piles everywhere R shrinking

Yea! Most of the house is cleared and we can sit at the dining room table. This kitchen has tons of counter space and room for 2 cooks. The last frontiers of stuff are the side porch that is loaded with boxes and the central room (we are calling it the study at the moment) that has the 4 large bakers racks with boxes.

LegoLand Pictures part 2

LegoLand has a huge terraced area with Legos buildings of all the Star Wars movies in fantastic detail that we went back to several times. The Park in interspaced with theaters that have really excellant shows, I have included 2 pictures of the "Fire Trainees" show, one from the back looking down towards the stage & one looking up at Grandpa, Audrey, Avery and Rob watching the show.

There is a building where you can go and build Lego Minis, they have all the pieces, and pay for them by the pound ( one mini in a package sells for $3.99, at the park it was $3 a pound ). They have a Pirate Ride Adventure where you shoot giant squirt guns at other ships, they squirt at you - and - the audience waiting in line can shoot big water guns at you too!
And - for Grandma information - clean bathrooms, lots of water fountains and benches under shady trees.

Oh, Something we had never seen before - when you are ready to leave the water park they have these big closets that families stand in that "Blow Dry" people.

And Grandpa, Rob and the kids went on a REAL aircraft carrier.

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.