Out in the desert

I'm so happy that it's September - it means we're so close to October (which is one of my favorite months of the year!) and I can already see signs of cooler weather coming.  The mornings and evenings are much more comfortable outside - so we've been taking advantage of it this week.  Ben had to work an overnight moonlighting shift over the weekend, so we picked him up from work (in between his 2 shifts), to go out to dinner at Zoes Kitchen (so yummy!).  Then we spent the evening at the Desert Botanical Gardens.  It's so beautiful there - I'm so happy that we have season passes - especially as the weather continues to cool down, we've already picked out some of our favorite picnicking spots.

The sun was setting and it was beautiful...

On Saturday, Ben was just getting home from his night shift and was needing some sleep... so I took the kids to the park.  The kids rode their bikes and we took a lunch.  By the time we were heading home just after noon, it was getting pretty hot outside, but we really enjoyed our morning playing at the neighborhood park...

I can officially announce that Claire is a walker.  I don't ever see her crawl anymore.  She LOVES walking!  She's such a sweetie...

Hmmm... I see this leading to trouble...

Yup, yup - I called it...

Let's see what Jake thought about being at the bottom of that dog pile...

I love to watch the kids come up with their own imaginative activities - Becca was playing school and was being a rather bossy teacher... :)

Emma got a head start heading home.  Here's to many more park days!

September Randoms

Aaron's girlfriend, Stefani came to Arizona to visit her sister who just had a baby.  So we decided to come on over.  The girls love Stefani!  They even got to skype with Uncle Aaron while we were there.  :)

And I got to hold Stef's little niece.  She's adorable.  :)

On Labor Day, Ben and the kids and I were trying to figure out something to do.  We ended up at Scottsdale Fashion Square to eat lunch and do a little browsing and shopping.  Jake was most happy to be playing Starfall on a computer at the Microsoft store... we probably could have left him there while we did some shopping and he would have oblivious.  :)

We are still going to water park here and there.  Since school started, they are only open on the weekends, so most Saturdays we find ourselves making a visit...  fries taste extra good at the water park...

Emma had a dentist appt during school this week - we got done a little earlier than expected and there was 20 minutes to fill till I needed to pick up Becca from Kindergarten - so Emma, Claire, and I played at the park across the street from the school...

Emma LOVES Claire...

Ben was so nice this week - I wasn't feeling up to making dinner, so he stopped at the store on his way home from work and got stuff to make little pizzas.  The kids did all their own toppings and they tasted delicious.  Thanks Ben!

This is random, but I thought it was amusing - This is right next to our neighborhood. Do you notice something odd about 2 of those cactus out there?  ;)  I'm guessing they are cell phone towers or something?

As we were eating dinner last night, it all of a sudden started to downpour - so we ran outside and played in it before it went away...

It's hard to read Claire's expression, but she did not like getting wet in the rain...

Campout!

We camped in Prescott for 2 nights over Labor Day weekend.  I will tell you what I think of camping- it's not my favorite thing.... however, I like that it's inexpensive (except for the fact that everytime we go, it seems we are getting more camping equipment), the kids love it, and I do enjoy being outdoors.  I'm always glad we go - but I'm also always extra thankful for the benedryl I take before I go to bed in my tent.  :)  The weather in Prescott was SO much more pleasant than Phoenix.  It sprinkled a little bit during the day, but only enough to keep the temperatures down.  It was a lovely weekend...

I think Ben gets irritated by all the picture taking I'm doing during ALL of our activities... so sometimes I get a cheesy response like this when I pull the camera out...

We explored around the lake and found many creatures.  Do you see the frog?

Becca called this a corn dog...

Ben Lee found a snake!  I can't believe he touched it...

It was fun having Grandma and Grandpa Dangerfield with us!

We went into downtown Prescott to explore a bit.  Did you know that anytime is a good wrestle time?

Hi Caroline!

Grandma and Grandpa didn't actually camp with us, but stayed at a nearby hotel - we all benefited from this by getting to swim at their pool and take a shower!  :)

1-2-3 JUMP!

We played a lot of cards...

Silly Faces!