See ya later August!

The end of August was filled with little activities and outings - even though school has started, the summer heat is still going strong, so our activities continue to cater to the heat.  We got season passes to the Desert Botanical Gardens (through a sweet Groupon deal!).  They have flashlight tours in August in the evenings - even though it was humid, the sun set and it was so nice to be outdoors in the beautiful desert at night....

My cute friend Lisa came to Arizona from Utah for a work trip with her husband.  She was so nice to contact me so we could get together with our kids.  I took her to a nearby splash pad - it seems she had been doing a lot of that during her Arizona visit - there's not much else to do with the kids in the heat!  :)  She's got some cutie kids...

Lisa and I grew up in the same ward in Sandy, Utah.  She's a mom of 4, just like me, but earlier this year she began a battle with brain cancer.  She's been pulling through it so amazingly.  She was taking chemo pills the week she was here visiting, but still had a smile on her face.  Love you Lisa!  Thanks for coming to visit me!

Storytime at the library is becoming a weekly staple lately.  I usually go just with Claire while everyone else is in school - but we had a Saturday to keep busy while Ben was working a weekend shift - so we all went to listen to some stories and play...

They were playing a silly song and having the kids do silly actions... what a priceless picture of Becca...

Bubbles!

They get a stamp on their hand at the end of storytime - Jake was simultaneously showing me his stamp and his muscles...

One of our favorite family activities lately is eating out - some of our favorite restaurants to take the kids are Fudruckers, Smashburger, and Red Robin.  Claire's favorite part of eating out is chewing on the crayons...

She also loves her drinks... Ben is very proud of his little trick he does when we eat out - the straws are always way too long for the little kid cups, and then the kids have to tip their cup so much to get the straw to their mouth, that it leaks out the side when it's full - so now Ben whips out his pocketknife with the little scissors and always cuts down all the kids straws...

Ben has been working a lot, doing extra moonlighting shifts at the hospital.  We went to visit him to eat dinner recently.  It's definitely not the Mayo Clinic cafeteria, but it's still fun to get to see Ben while he's at work.

We got a little after hours tour of his area of the outpatient building...

They had a great deal in August at the Children's Museum, where it was only 6 dollars per person.  Plus I had a culture pass to get 2 of us in free.  So, for 12 dollars, we had a really fun outing - Ben was at work and Emma was at school, but it was fun to just play with my little kids...

Part of the large climber in the front room...

I like that you can pack in a lunch... sometimes a lunch of a sandwich, grapes, carrots, and fruit snacks is just perfect...

Becca was amused the Claire was the cashier...

Becca made me a lot of pizzas....

Such a tough biker girl...

They climbed up into the climber one more time before we left...