Pennsylvania Trip 2012

We were blessed this year to be able to get back to PA to see family. It was an interesting trip and we did lots of fun things. The kids cant stop talking about it. The flight there was pretty easy and for the most part everyone was good. The flight home however was difficult and longer by almost 1 hour. Leaving Newark airport was a joke. We stood in line for security for over an hour and then our flight was late. Typical. A helpful little hint that saved us for anyone traveling with a toddler: travel game connect four! Seriously Crew sat for about 30 min putting those checkers in the slots over and over again. Filling it to the top and repeating. So worth the 5 bucks. Also a Tag-reader is a must have. All the kids used it including Crew, and it uses headphones so you dont annoy the neighbors. Anyway here are a few pictures of what we did. And a daily itinerary for memory sake.


Sat- Arrived to a nice Italian dinner with mom and dad. Hunter was at Homecoming. Mike had a horrible reaction to "FEZ", Hunters rabbit. So out went the rabbit for the duration of our stay. The kids loved the bunny and went out everyday to see him. Crew was fascinated.
Sun- Church at Nazareth ward. Saw old friends.
Mon- Rain in the morning. Dairy farm in the afternoon. Corn maze, raw milk and pumpkins.Yum. Family night at the movies seeing "Hotel Transylvania".
Tues- Yoga with Mom at the YMCA. Slice of thin crust pizza to go. Chick-Fil-A with the family and lots of play time at grandmas carving pumpkins
Wed- Twins and Mike and Eden in Manhattan. So fun!
Thurs- Crayola Factory. Canal Museum. Meeting up with the Poulsons. Red Robin meal
Friday-Stay home and play with Grandpa and Grandma .Grandpa "worked" from home or tried to.
Sat- HersheyPark in the Dark. Rollercoasters, lots of rollercoasters. Meeting up with the Nielsons for lunch at Hersheys Fuddruckers.
Sunday- Nazareth ward . Singing with Grandpa around the piano
Monday- Newark airport hell... traveling home.


                                                      
                                                            Dairy Farm and Corn Maze

                                                              Tanners first boat ride in NYC

                                                                           staten island ferry

                                                                                We saw it.

                                                                     Museum of Natural History

                                                               Dum Dum, I want some gum gum.

                                                                         We found ole' Abe

 Time square. Yes, I was having a horrible hair day. It was 72 degrees but breezy.

Ferry ride

                                       Over the river and through the air to Grandmothers house we go.
                                                                      Back of the house

                                                                      Crew loved grass

                                                                 Project time and legos

                                                                          lunch at Jima's

                                                     hey park. My boys are not miniatures anymore

                                                           Hunter joined the madness

 get me on the ride now.

A year later

As you may recall, the first few months in my house here in Arizona were not exactly fun. The previous owners had moved out and left the home unoccupied, then rented to several different groups of people before we moved in. I knew there was so much potential in this house when we walked through. I just never imagined how much time and money it would be to get it livable. I mean really, how can you crack every outlet faceplate, use drawers without handles, crack all the grout out of tile floors, or ruin every fart fan in the bathrooms?- Unfathomable!

Now that we have been here over a year, we had started to see our house come together. In April we had the entire house inside and outside painted. With exception of the rooms I had already done on my own. We have 22 ft ceilings in the font room so there was no way I was painting those. Anyway, my mom hasnt seen the house since we finished a few projects so here is the reveal. Sorry its not that climactic.

Z& Ts Bathroom Before:

                                                                     Z&Ts Bathroom After.

We painted it Navy blue with white beadboard. Replaced the strip vanity lights and

cleaned!

Asher and Crews Bath Before:  Dark brown- a cave

                                                      Brown, Brown and more chocolate brown.

Asher &Crews Bathroom After:

painted light blue with beadboard. Surf themed. Replaced the strip lighting in here too!

installed hooks for little kids towels.

House Before: Sort of pinky-tan

                                       House After: Yellow and Brown. And a trimmed tree.

                                        Still waiting to replace outside lights. We decided to start with the

                                    inside lights first.

                                             Backyard painted. Still picking weeds as you can see from garbage
                                                   cans out there.

                                           Front room Before: it was a dark brown with greenish undertone.

                                              Now its tan. The color is Harvest Brown and Linen trim

End of Summer party

We live in a very unique area here in Peoria. My neighborhood is its own little adventure. I dont love having an HOA for many reasons but I will say that some of the perks are great. Within a 3 minute walk of my house is our clubhouse area. Its a really nice amenity. There is a huge gym with bleachers, basketball court, private rooms for parties, scouts (our ward kids meet here), meetings ,etc. They have a borrowing library, a covered playground, amphitheater, tennis courts and our pool areas.
I wasnt sure how much I would use the neighborhood pools since we have our own private pool, but its nice to have a change on occasion. Plus the community pool has water slides and a splash pad and two enormous pools that are heated in the winter. And thats only one pool area of the three in our community. Anyway- it makes living here alot more bearable. While I dont HATE Arizona, I have just resigned to the fact that we are here and need to make the best of it. Find the silver lining if you will. Plus, not being preggo in the summer makes things alot more tolerable. :)

They throw big parties here. This is the one we just had to celebrate School begining. Or "The End of the Summer". Really summer here goes until the first part of November but they need to psych us out or we would all leave. Next thing you know they will start pumping pumpkin spice scent into our homes to make sure we dont get depressed in September and October. This was a Caribbean themed party. There was a free buffet and fruit ice cream. There was also carnival dancers in costumes but I didnt get them on camera.

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy seeing the fun.

Utah Misc.

These are just some random pictures we took in Utah. Fun Memories for our end of year book!

Guess who loved Grandpa Bingham? Crew and my Grandpa share the same birthday.

Peek a Boo

Family dinner al fresco

First Day of Second Grade

Zach and Tanner started second grade! WOOHOO!

Three words: LOVE BEAR LAKE

We waited all summer for our Utah trip. It was a long wait but we weren't disappointed. We spent the first few days visiting family, celebrating my nephews first birthday, going to the Days of '47 parade in downtown Salt Lake City, and having a sleepover at uncle Neal's house.
I received a special treat from my in laws by being taken to the conference center to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir preform their pioneer day concert. It featured Katherine Jenkins the mezzo soprano from Wales. She was also on Dancing With the Stars this past season. It was a beautiful concert and I even spotted a couple Dancing with the Stars pro's (Mark Ballas and Derek Hough).I loved it. My in laws know the way to my heart is by a good musical of some kind. Boy do they know me!!



Right after the Parade we headed to our favorite must-go food place when in Utah PACES dairyann in Bountiful. Yummy! Countryboy with cheese and a grape rainbow, is there anything better in this life? Well, maybe Cafe Rio but Im just sayin'.
Then up to Maddox in Brigham City for Grandma and Grandpa's chicken fix. Mike loves Maddox too and chose to forgo the DairyAnn's treats for cornbread...darn good cornbread.The drive to Bear Lake is packed with delcious food stops. It must be a diabolical plan to make us not fit our swimsuits, sink our waverunners, and drag behind the skiboat. Thankfully, we all managed to preform well in all those categories. Believe it or not even I got to ski this year. Seriously, is that a light at the end of the nursing baby tunnel?...I think it is. Wow, feels good to be an active, somewhat involved person again? :) Notice that every picture is of Mike holding Crew. Yup, when your kid is daddy's boy, you get some freedoms. Thanks babe!
This year we traded SunValley for Bear Lake. From a practical standpoint, its far less of a drive for the little kids. The beach is better for little ones, and the water is alot warmer than the glacier fed Redfish lake in Idaho. It was a different kind of beauty than the forest of Idaho but I must admit; for this season of life with little kids Bear Lake was a much better choice in every way. The cabin was heavenly and the company superb.I loved everything about my trip except for the 3 lbs I gained when I got home. I guess I shouldnt have had a raspberry shake every night?!? Here are a few pics. I may be adding to these in the next couple days. Blogger was giving me probs with my pic sizes. Stay tuned.

Fourth of July

We went down to Tucson for the Fourth of July. Peoria doesnt allow fireworks, so we didnt think we would be missing anything fun up here. As it turns out, we got a Monsoon down in Tucson. That made up for the lack of fireworks. It was crazy. That made things pretty interesting. We missed seeing family on the east side of town because all the roads were full of water.Plus, Im just a chicken when it comes to cars and water anyway (growing up hydroplaning in Florida will do that to ya). Sorry guys!

The good news is we got to hang out with Great Gram Banzhaf and Grandma and Grandpa Banzhaf all day. We love swimming and BBQ's once the outdoor grill dried off. And we got to see the twins...Bella and Katie (the King Charles Spaniels) which always makes the kids feel giddy.

                                 Here is a taste of the storm. And believe me, this wasnt as high as the water got. It was amazing how fast the rain came. The rain was so loud I couldnt hear what the kids were saying. Clearly, Zachary didnt appreciate me asking him to repeat himself.