Hello Arizona...Where's all the cactus?!

A couple weekends ago I was pretty fortunate to be able to enjoy a fun, relaxing weekend in Arizona with some pretty awesome ladies.  This was my first time in Arizona and I have to say that it was pretty great.

 

We soaked up as much sun as we could!

We read A LOT!  Amy and I both read "The Help" on this trip.

We ate some In & Out Burger.

 We shopped!

We played cards on the patio at 10pm at night.  Love that!

 We ate out at some yummy restaurants.

I had always pictured Arizona being laden with a plentiful amount of cactus.  Well it was the night before we left and we had hardly seen ANY!  So outside this restaurant, we finally found some!  But the funny thing is, you see that smaller cactus behind me to the left?  Well, I sort of sat on it.  Not a good plan, by the way.  It did however provide us with some great times... picture my dear friend Amy tediously picking cactus "pokies" (for lack of a better term) out of my backside while the other girls laughed hysterically.  Good times, indeed. (Random useful tip: Use duct tape to get cactus pokies out of your clothes!)

Thanks Bell family for an amazing place to stay!  And thanks girls, for an awesome trip to remember!

Science Center + Cousins = Fun!

We had a fun day spent at the Pacific Science Center with Aunt Alice and Carter and Lacey.

Love this shot of Lacey! Isn't she so photogenic? Beautiful, too!

The rotating exhibit was the Circus theme this time.  The coolest part were the outdoor exhibits.  One of which was this bicycle on a tightrope type attraction.  This was about 30-40 feet in the air and was weighted properly so it was not likely to fall, but there was a net below just in case!  Carter was the only kid big enough to ride.

Levi enjoyed holding this hissing cochroach... I could barely stand to get close enough to shoot this photo!

I'm not sure what they were even looking at, but I love the look of awe on their faces.

And of course, we always enjoy our visits to the Butterfly Garden.

Thanks Alice for such a fun day!

A few of my favorite things... Summer Edition

kiddie pool time

sand castles

picnics at the park

gorgeous flowers

kabobs on the grill

skipping rocks on the river

soapy slip n slide fun

road trips

heat waves

ice cream shop visits

Hope you are enjoying your summer as much as we are!

4th of July in Grass Country

wine tasting. rolling down grassy hills. tea from Wales. fireworks. 

private air show. mexican train dominoes. hammock lounging. fun times.

Our annual trip to Aunt Janel's in Oregon this year proved to be bittersweet.  My sister Ashley joined us for the first time and we had so much fun together. ( I was glad to spend some time with her before she is off to Switzerland for 6 weeks! )  Upon arriving late Thursday night after some horrendous traffic, we discovered that the grass farm fields surrounding Aunt Janel's had not been cut and were producing record levels of grass pollen...in particular, the highest grass pollen count in the nation.  Poor Levi and Aaron have severe grass allergies and were immediately hit hard.  Aaron was just pretty miserable, but Levi broke out into an allergy induced asthma attack.  I, unfortunately, left his inhaler at home since he rarely ever needs it.  I'm still having a hard time forgiving myself for that one.  After a sleepless, scary 24 hours of wheezing, coughing, sneezing and rapid heartbeats, Aaron and Levi decided to head for home.  Levi was heartbroken but once they got home Daddy pulled through and turned the disappointment into a winner of a weekend full of fun Daddy/Son activities.  Way to go, Babe!  

One reason I particularly enjoyed the weekend was I had many opportunities to experiment with my new camera.  I am still learning, but since practice makes perfect and I took over 450 "practice" shots this weekend, I certainly hope I learned something!

a very LONG car ride

Aunt Janel's supply of Legos is WAY cooler than ours! 

(I love that I happened to capture Levi in the background rubbing his itchy allergy eyes. Poor thing.)

 Sharing all the work we've been doing on ancestry.com.

Ash out in Aunt Janel's yard.

Alice and Lacey

The guys decided to have a skeet shooting contest over the lake.  Here my nephew Carter is getting a lesson.

Even Ashley took a shot!

All the ladies at a winery.

 Civil War reenactment...really a moving thing to witness. 

What says Happy 4th of July better than shaved ice?!

This is one of the infamous grass fields that sent half of my family home! :(

Happy 4th of July from the Jones Family!

Camping ... well, kind of.

Last week I took the boys camping with a few of my friends to the Edwards property in Cle Elum.  While it was hardly roughing it, we still enjoyed the time out in nature.  I really enjoyed the girl time, even if we were outnumbered, 7 kids to 4 adults. (The poor boys were outnumbered 9 to 2, so who am I to complain?!)  With three of the four of us sportin' SLRs, it would be no exaggeration for an outsider to think us the paparazzi and our kids the celebs.  No doubt some of you have already seen my friends' blogs on this topic (found here and here) so I will spare you the onslaught of shots which are basically time-lapsed photography of our entire trip and you can check theirs out if you'd like to see more.  They have practically dubbed me the slacker blogger, but hey, better late than never in my book.  Here are a few of my favorite shots.

Lunchtime...do not ask me why Levi is wearing a plastic horseshoe as a necklace. Too much female influence, no doubt!

At the river.  I took about 15 shots of this pose. Do you think any of them turned out?  The sun was in their eyes.  They would much rather be doing this anyhow...

These  boys can throw rocks in the river ALL DAY LONG.

Poor Heidi, she's not exactly a "roughin' it" sort of gal, but she's cute!

Fun with friends!

Sandbox Time!

CRAZY time!

Peek-a-boo time!

What would you expect a boy to do with a teacup?  Fill it with sand of course!!! You gotta work with what you got!!

It was a fun time, ladies.  When are we going again?!