Monday, March 31, 2008

Happy Birthday Jason

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Thursday, March 27, 2008

Curses! Snowed Again!

What's up with this snow?!? I was enjoying th wonderful Spring sunshine!!

Here are some pictures I took in AZ of some flowers. Hope they help you through this snowy day!



Sunday, March 23, 2008

WWDOOSV: Day Four

Our last day. We went to Cracker Jax. They have mini golf, go-carts and some other stuff. We did mini golf and Luke drove the kids go-carts and bumper boats. Brooke wouldn't do the rides at all.





Luke LOVED driving! He had the most intese look on his face the entire time. Once, when he was bumped off into the tires, he shook his fist and yelled something at the kid who knocked him out of the race. Jason about died laughing - I asked casually, "I wonder where he learned that?"




WWDOOSV: Day Three

Thursday was the main event. We were in Arizona for the KC Royals Spring Training "home" game. That morning we all went swimming and then headed to the mall where Brooke giggled and walked around wide-eyed in the Disney store. We had lunch at El Pollo Loco (yummy).

It took us an hour and a half to get to the stadium in the crazy traffic, but we had awesome seats behind home plate to make up for it! Jason taped the game back home and last night we watched it back and saw ourselves on T.V.!!









Our kids were a hit at the game again. The majority of the people attending are "Grandmas & Grandpas" and our kids were wearing matching team shirts...they got lots of smiles and "oh, aren't you the cutest!"

WWDOOSV: At The Stadium

True to what Jason read, the tickets went fast for the stadium tours. We got there just after 10 a.m. when they started tours and were able to get tickets for the 2:30 p.m. tour ($20 - Brooke was free). The people at the ticket counter told Jason they limit the number of people to 65 per tour.

As we walked around the team store trying to figure out what we were going to do for the next couple of hours, Jason decided to ask a handy tour guide if we could put ourselves on "Standby" for an earlier tour. She asked how many of us there were and when we said "Four", she said "Come on and join my tour right now." It turned out she had a very small group. We passed another group with the full 65 people a couple of times. I think there were about 30 of us.

It was such a blessing to get in on that 10:30 tour. Brooke was antsy from the start and spent most of the time ridding piggyback. The tour was interesting, and took us about an hour.










WWDOOSV: Day Two

Our first full day in Arizona. We got up and headed out fairly early. Jason wanted to take in a tour of the Arizona Cardinals football stadium and he read that tickets went fast. We had enough time to go to the Mesa Temple before the stadium opened though.




Our kids wanted to have their pictures taken and they were posing like crazy. It made Jason and I giggle and roll our eyes! We don't have a clue what inspired the knee thing...




What We Did On Our Spring Vacation: Day One

Where to begin? We crammed a lot of fun into our four days in Arizona. When we got to the condo in Fountain Hills, Jason took the kids swimming. The pool was right off our patio! Brooke about drowned within the first 20 minutes of being there - but before that happened, I snapped these photos:
We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory in Scottsdale and then headed back to the condo for some much needed sleep (we got up at 4:30 am and left by 5:00).

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Vacation Sure Is A Lot Of Work!

As I’m unpacking from our trip, I have realized that vacation is a lot of work (at least for me).

Before we left I spent 2 days doing laundry, then I packed the suitcases for the kids, Jason and myself. I packed up all the DVDs, kid music and other items of entertainment needed for an 11 hour car trip. I made sure we had treats for the car ride and drinks for all.

Then when we got to the condo in AZ I unloaded and unpacked all those items. As our condo had a little stack washer and dryer, I washed our swim towels after our pool visits. Then before we left last night, I washed up all the dishes in the condo, packed everything back up in suitcases and stripped the bedding and made a pile of dirty laundry for the condo housekeepers as required.

Now we are home, I’m doing laundry again and unpacking the suitcases and putting away all the entertainment items and food that we had left. I’m also tackling the dishes we have used since getting home this morning.

I have spent more time on the prep work for and clean up from the vacation then I did on the vacation! I think I need a couple of days off to recoup!

For Mark & Maylene

Dear Mark, Maylene & girls,

We were bummed that you guys were sick this week! We loved Tia Rosa's (!muy delicioso!) and hope you'll be healthy next year so we can go together!

Love,
The Shepherd Family

Thursday, March 20, 2008

White Knuckled

So here we are in Arizona. So far we have survived Brooke’s near drowning in the pool and the kids sleeping together on a hide-a-bed. We’ve had some enjoyable “field trips” and my only complaint right now is the drivers around here.

Every time we get onto the road I tense up. The people around here are the WORST drivers I’ve ever seen!! They drive right next to you or tailgate each other and then weave in and out of traffic without using their blinkers. I swear we are going to get into an accident before we’re back home.

It’s so bad that I’ve taken to riding in the car with my eyes closed - I don’t want to see what’s going on around me. I’m driving Jason crazy. I keep using my imaginary brakes and gasping. Ah, well – we’ll be back to the slightly less crazy Utah driving environment in a few days and I'll be in control of a car again!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Rare Treat

Last night was a rare night for us - Hannah was gone by 4 p.m. and Jason was off work early and home by 5:15 p.m.

Before Jason even got home I had my sister coming over to babysit and dinner ready so that Jason and I could have a night out by ourselves. We haven’t really had one for ages. Jason works until 7 p.m. and doesn’t get home until almost 8 p.m. As long as there isn’t some sports thing he has to cover on a Saturday, we typically spend the day together as a family and if we go out on a date, it’s with a group.

Last night was great because it was still light outside when he got home, so I felt like there was still a lot of day left as we headed out the door.

First we headed off to Wal-Mart and just walked around for about 45 minutes. We remembered to get our Easter shopping done and found other odds and ends we need for our vacation next week. Then we decided to go and get a gelato at this new little deli by our house.

On our way to the deli we decided since we had a sitter, we should just head to the mall to pick up a birthday present. It was still light when we got there!!! I loved it!!!! We then just kinda wandered the mall and headed home about 7:30 with a stop by the deli to pick up the gelato. We got some for everybody and were home by 9 p.m. I felt like we got so much done (even though all we did really was walk around) and it was nice to have some time alone with Jason.