Happy Birthday Mark!

We had a barbeque for Mark's Birthday today. We had burgers for lunch and then ribs for dinner. Talk about a lot of food and a lot of work but it was worth it! We went swimming as well. Here's some pics and video. Ava is so cute when she is crawling! April and Richard, Michelle and the babies, Aranna and even Alex came for the festivities!

Tori Amos Concert

Mel, Michelle and Matt went downtown to the Tori Amos Concert at the Dodge Theatre. It was great to see such an awesome artist live. She had a wierd dress on that looked kinda bumblee-ish. We were in the suite but relocated to the main floor to get closer. It was crazy seeing her playing 2 pianos at 1 time. Shannon- we missed you. Here's some pics and video.

We Miss Aranna

Aranna had fun in Kauai!

Aranna had so much fun in Kauai the pics are just now being posted to the blog. Florence, I know you are one busy lady. I was stalking the blog almost daily to see if any pics were posted of Arrana and the Akin family in Kauai. She took about 50 pics on the camera and here are some of them.

Baby Time

On Wednesday, my dear friend Anne came over with her babies and went swimming. Carly and Jamison are so big. I realized that I hadn't seen them since November! Here's some pics of their visit.

Later that evening Michelle came over with Callin and Ava. They are so precious and growing so fast! Here's some pics and video (hopefully) of the visit. Ava is trying so hard to crawl.

Okay, here's a prime example of not seeing something right in front of you. I was looking at our dog Phoenix and I always knew he had a cute pink birthmark on his mouth but never realized the shape that it's in. Can you guess the shape from the pics? It's so cute. It just blows my mind that I didn't see the shape before. He was not cooperating with the picture taking process.

Aahhhh Flagstaff = Heaven!

James and I went up to Flagstaff mainly to beat the heat but we were also celebrating our anniversary and as a bonus got to hang out with Mark. Sunday we checked into Little America Hotel (we would definitely stay there again). We picked up Mark, went to Beaver Street Brewery and then decided to head up to Lowell Observatory. That was so cool, we got to look through a telescope that was built in 1894. We saw Saturn and saw the apparatus that discovered Pluto.

Monday morning, we rose bright and early (as usual) and took a 2 mile hike on a trail that is right on Little America's property. It was very cool and the crisp mountain air was so refreshing. We stumbled upon a prairie dog community and managed to capture one on film. Then we got ready, had breakfast and headed up to AZ Snowbowl to take the Ski lift high atop Mount Humphries. It was a fun ride up there and the views were amazing. After that James and I meandered through the woods and found a great spot for a nap. The wind in the pines and the fresh air made for a relaxing nap. We made our way back to Little America and relaxed some more before dinner. We got ready and went to one of my favorite places- Oregano's. There is also one here in the valley but I never get to go there. Then we headed back to Little America and took pics of the full moon.

Tuesday morning, we did the 2 mile trail again, got ready, packed up and picked up Mark and headed to Breakfast. After Breakfast we said farewell to Mark and decided to spend our last couple hours in flag drinking in the fresh air. We decided on a whim to head out to the Lava River Tube. Next time we will be prepared. It's a 3/4 mile cave and you need a flash light, which we didn't have. It was also REALLY cold in there- 35-40 degrees. We went in a little ways snapped a couple pics and headed back out. We want to go back with the kids and some flashlights! We found another great spot in the shade to park the truck and have a picnic. Everything was so perfect until it was time to go. James was trying to turn the truck around and ended up getting the rear wheels stuck in a ditch that we couldn't get out of. The truck had pretty much bottomed out and things weren't looking good. Thankfully, a couple in a truck were driving by and stopped. Me and the other two pushed and lifted the truck while James was 'driving' it out of the ditch. I am convinced that we couldn't have gotten out of the ditch without the other couples help.

Happy 4th of July!

Hope you and yours had a fab 4th of July. James and I had a mellow day around the house doing yard work, house work, etc. The highlight was going over to Adam and Shannon's house for dinner and to meet the new addition to their family. They adopted the MOST beautiful baby boy Hayden. Adam grilled some awesome ribs, we also had corn on the cob and baked beans. I made cupcakes and brought them over as well. Here are some pics from our visit. Hayden was born June 10th and he is such a good baby. We drove home from south east Chandler and got to see fireworks from the freeway in Tempe and downtown Phoenix.