Trip While on a Trip

You get 1000 points if you can name this temple.  

Well the name is right there, cheater!  

Just when you thought Tal and I were done traveling for awhile we went and did it again.  We drove 7 hours from Phoenix to St. George for the weekend.  Heather was asked to be a photographer at Shaun and Lexi's wedding (Some cousins from Cody's side of the family). We figured we were so close, it would be worth the short trip to go and see all that family of course.  Plus, I had never, since being endowed, been in the St. George Temple.  My Dad was also going to be there that weekend staying at his house, so we got to see him and DeEtte and some of my step sibs. Also, Jen's sister in law from Nate's side, who lives in St. George, was due to have a baby that same weekend.  The last reason for going and of course not the most important, but had to be listed...Cafe Rio was in town.  SO as you see, multiple reasons to go.  We loaded up our Van Friday morning...I am talking loaded; three babies, three mommies, two cribs, three strollers,  6 bags, one cooler, multiple toys and snacks!  All that for TWO nights and ONE day!  We got there Friday evening, dropped off our stuff at y Dad's house where we were staying and headed immediately over to the Brides house for a family dinner and visit. 

The next day was the Ceremony, Luncheon and Reception.  All on different corners of the city, and my Dad's house on the other corner.  The temple was beautiful and the couple looked very happy...these pics are not from my camera because my battery died, but Jen captured some great moments.

GGMa and GGPA

The kids playing in the dirt on the Temple grounds and Nali encouraging it (okay really distracting them from A: Crying, because their mom wasn't paying attention to them, because she was busy taking pictures of the wedding, i.e. Zane.  B:  Running away i.e. Talmage.  or C: um....Brynlee just wanted to be dirty.

Once they were all nice and dirty and extra ornery, we took the kids back to the house for naps.

Gave them a quick rinse off and put them to bed.  

Brynlee slept in her closet, Zane slept behind a desk, and Talmage slept by himself in the dark basement.  They didn't really sleep though....Zane somehow escaped from his room, Brynlee's was a short nap, eventually woken up by Zane who escaped, and Talmage, well he has learned how to climb out of his crib...and he never even went to sleep.  We all ended up in the theater room watching Mars Needs Moms...cute movie.  Shawna and Tony were also there to help babysit, because Steph and Heather were helping set up for the reception.  Oh by-the-way, this is cute Shawna, Tony's girl.....another budding relationship.

Later we went to the reception.  Here are the Newly Wed's.

Things were going well....at first.

Talmage was a little scared of GGma at first.

Then she bribed him with grapes.

And he took the offer!

Zane wanted in on some of this Grape action too!  

Eventually it got late and the babies got tired and ornery again.  Tlamage was running all over the place. Trying to grab the food off the tables, eat the candy out of all the glass jars, trying to play with the millions of candles every where and sitting on the floor in the front entry way. At times this was the first thing people saw when they came in to the reception.

We said our goodbyes and left.  Jen and I made a quick stop at Rio for our sweet Pork salads.  At home put the kids to bed, talked to my Dad and DeEtte on the roof for a bit, then went to bed.  The next morning Jen got to talk to her still pregnant sister in law before we took off for home.  She was hoping to see the new baby, but alas, it did not come as planned.  After filling the tires, checking and oil and topping off the gas, we headed back to Phoenix.  Trying to make good time, we took less stops and in the process, at one point Heather and I both smelled a skunk outside, until she looked back and realized Talmage was playing with his own Poo!  We did an emergency stop on the side of the road and did some very necessary diaper changes.   I think ALL the children needed a change if I remember correctly!     

San Lagos Beach

You might recognize that cute little girl sitting in the water.  Yes! Brynlee and Jen are back.  They flew to Phoenix so the three little cousins could all be together for 10 days.  We all swam at San Lagos pool, were I was staying, for our first joint activity.  

Drinking the pool water again. 

Brynlee had a bit more sense than the boys and opted to not drink the water.

Here he is choosing to play in the 2 foot by 2 foot patch of sand which was right next to the huge beach of sand.  I donno.

If you are wondering why Tal is the only one wearing floaties, it's because I have the child who likes to run away from me (and he is quick mind you) and jump in the deep end of the pool when I am not looking.

Our attempts at getting the three children to sit by each other for a photo.  Not going so well.

I think this is our best one of that day.

Playing in Phoenix

We have finally gotten to the part in our two month vacation that brings us to Phoenix.  This is what happened.  For August, Cody and I first vacationed in D.C. for a week then came back to Milwaukee. Then me and Tal flew to Utah to hang out with my family for three weeks, while Cody stayed home in Milwaukee to work on school things; CV, resume, Personal Statement, studying for Step 2, getting letters, etc.  Even though it was hard for Cody to be away from us, he needed the time without  the distractions we could cause.  He was able to get a lot done before his away rotation for September in Phoenix.  A week before his rotation, Cody drove by himself, from Milwaukee to Monticello (about 26 hours), where he then would also have to come pick us up from Powell.  After our week in Monticello, we drove the 6 to 7 hours down to Phoenix.  Cody's older, and kind brother, Clay, his beautiful, and talented wife, Heather, and their cute, and smart son, Zane, were all there to greet us.  Clay is in his 3rd and last year of Pharmaceutical School at Mid Western University. Heather has a degree in business, taught preschool for many years and is good at a plethora of other things, including; photography, crafts, cooking, and she also works at a yoga studio (I told you she was talented).  Zane is close to two months younger then his cousin Talmage, about 20 months in this picture and he is a riot.  Our entire time in Phoenix, Heather cooked and fed all of us most of the nights, came up with fun outings for us girls and our babies to go do, gave me D5000 manual mode camera lessons, and even bathed Talmage several times. Clay of course was around only after school every night and Cody was around only when he wasn't on call (which wasn't often), but the two were able to get in some good game time, including Gears of War 3! 

After dinner and a visit, these guys showed us to the apartments that we would be staying at for the month. It worked out that this friend of theirs, Kevin, had an apartment he was living in for only another month and his wife and children had already moved to Utah. So we paid half his rent and had two rooms, bathroom and a kitchen basically all to ourselves the entire time.  We hardly ran into Kevin, only a few times, but he was very nice and generous to us. It worked out well, especially when you see the next several pictures of the place we stayed.  It is called..... 

San Lagos

They had gas barbeque grills by every apartment too.

And a beach!

The perfect pool

Lets just say we got a screaming deal.

The next day was Labor day.  Heather and Clay invited us over for a BBQ, it was hot, we are talking high 90's into the 100's of degrees or so, but we all swam afterwards to cool off.  The only picture I took that day was of Zane and Uncle Cody.

Every day there was always something to do.  Like I said, Heather planned so much, it was fun.  The next day we went to Playland Factory, an indoor jumping house.

Even I was a little scared of this slide...I would have made the same faces as Zane and Talmage.

This is Brea and Ashlyn?  They were so sweet and fun to be with too.

I died laughing when I saw what my nephew was doing here...

I couldn't decide which picture was funnier so I added both.

Talmage loved climbing all over this maze, obstacle thing.

He loved it so much in fact, he wouldn't even stop for a 1 second picture.  It was a good attempt though Heather. Even Zane was trying to escape.

The bouncy slide was crowded with bigger kids just zooming past Talmage, who was trying SO hard to get up.

Once he got up, he decided he didn't want to go down the slide after all, so he got even with the big kids by getting in their way, by going down the up.  hee hee hee

He is very much in to driving and cars these days.  The instant he saw this, he had to try it out of course.

That SAME DAY, at the SAME Mall, was an outdoor splash pad, so we headed there next.

Zane is such a goober!  I love him. Here he is EATING the water, not DRINKING it... but literally chewing on it.

Talmage did the smart thing and CHEWED on some real food.  

 It was a very long and very exciting day, which is why Tal zonked out the minute he laid on our air mattress when we got home.  (Ian and Franki, our dear friends who live in Phoenix, lent it to us for the entire month.  Life Savers).