New Back Yard

We finally decided on a landscaper. We had to decide on the type of grass and edging. He took us to a nursery to pick out plants and trees. Then went to his house to see his trees. He started the yard Monday with extra deck and sprinklers. Tuesday came the trees, plants and concrete edging and finished the sprinklers. Then Wednesday they finished with laying sod and the rock. We like it a lot. It has been very hot, 110, and the plants look a little sad, but I think still doing ok. The nights have cooled down to the 60-70's. We are excited to sit out and enjoy the yard.

Visitors! In July?

Sym and the girls come to visit for the week. We thought they were crazy coming in July and Sym driving alone with two kids but they made it safe and Sym didn't complain at all about the heat, like us Arizona's did. We had a great time and are glad they came. Josh flew in Thursday night and they all drive home Sunday morning. I didn't take as many pictures as a should have. I have no prof that Josh was even here and I'm also not sure were Brody and grandpa went from my picture taking. As you might know they are always together. I did take tons of pictures of Cheyane. She has changed the most. What cute girls. It was Sym's Birthday while she was here and I'm sure you are all wondering if I forgot. I DID NOT. Sym will love the picture opening her present. She loves holiday as you all know so we actually had to celebrate with me even making a cake. That was about my limit which is better then other times. I told Craig he had to write on the blog. Check out my children's blogs also.

Happy Birthday Sissy!




The girls loved their bikes that Sym brought from home!


Jeepers!

I know the picture is blurry. You might want to guess who. I loved it because below is this roller coaster ride just before they started and it goes crazy fast. I went on this ride once but never again. DIZZY

Cheyane loved this ride. No motion at all.

Buy a Car in One Day

Yes!! Unbelievably, Craig and I bought a car in one day. We are proud to be owners of a new-used 06 Buick. My dad and Valeen loved their Buicks. Braydan and Jessica love their Buick and hopefully Craig and I will love our Buick. The trick in buying a car in one day is this: Start at 10:00 in the morning and go all day at one dealership with a break for lunch. Have a good salesman that Craig even likes. Have the heat outside over 110. Inside the cars, who knows how hot? So … Craig decided, and I hoped, that we would not do this everyday for a month or more. I told the men at the dealership if we bought a car today I would fall over; and yes, I did fall over.

Trip to Seattle

Hi, as you know I am not very good with keeping up on my blog. The problem is by the time I get all my pictures edited and decided it is all old news. As far as our trip to Seattle, you can look on Jessica’s and Helena’s blog but you will probably have to go way down to maybe even old posts. Anyway, here is mine. I did have a great time in Seattle although I came back tired and sore. Tired because I was with 4 grandkids 3 years old and under and sore because I was with 4 grandkids 3 years old and under. Helena, Gavin and Brody went with me for 10 days. Jessica just got home from her family trip to Montana right before we arrived. . Gavin and Kaleb, both being the oldest, are very strong willed and lets just say grandma broke up more than one vicious fight and to my surprise no blood or bruises to show from the fights. You may see other bruises from flying cars to falling out of the wagon with, yes, Grandma pulling it. (Poor Kaleb) Jessica had many activities we could choose from so we went many places and Jessica even had time to cook. Jessica is a great cook and even baked bread one morning. We saw two museums. One with tractors, trains and a lot of old fashioned items like the old iron mom used to have, washing machines, stoves, and water pumps. The other museum had an airplane, train, water room, fire truck, tree house, and tons of other things. The kids enjoyed this. It was nice to sit and hold Eliza. One day we went to Seattle to the marina. We only called Braydan once saying we were lost but . . . we were good and found our way with Braydan’s good directions to “go toward the water”. It was fun seeing the marina and the animals and fish. Helena, I, and the boys had fun in the hot tub, and we all had a nice drive to the waterfall, which was beautiful. We went on a fairy ride to an island with everyone and one day after Braydan got home from work we went to the lake that is walking distance from their home. My favorite part was the evenings playing games and no . . . Marla did not win very much at all, and I was still very happy for the whiner or I mean, the winner. We played Ticket to Ride and a bean game called Bohnanza. Later Braydan and Jessica mailed Craig and I Bohnanza so come and play! Thanks again Braydan and Jessica for having us. We miss you. Make sure to look at Jessica and Helena's blog for more pictures!

Our plane ride

The Marina




This shows how tired the adults were.

The Ferry Ride

The Lake

The kids could always find Eliza. Everyone loved her.

The Waterfall

You can see how much love they have.

Queen Creek, AZ.

WHAT JOY

Hi, I’m finally posting. Yeh!! At Christmas Sym and Josh moved all our storage to our new home. It was tons of work for them and a long drive. We did find some time for fun at Jeepers. If you’ve looked at my kid’s blog, you know about our indoor Fun Park but these pictures from my camera were so cute I had to post them also. Boy, grandchildren grow up to so fast.

We have been busy painting and putting up curtains. It took us two weeks after we (Craig) bought three different paint colors to decide on which one. We finally chose the first one we bought. Here are some pictures, finally. It looks just like home. We love it. The first picture is our computer room. The others are our family, dining, kitchen area. The black dresser is in our hall. Thanks to the strong men, they got it in and it is perfect. We bought this dresser and lamp, (in the family room) like real fast, with Sym, Josh and Helena’s help. Actually went to the furniture store to buy an entertainment center and NO we still haven’t bought one nor a TV. When we paint the other room’s I will post them. The winter has been wonderful. Yesterday we went out on the patio and played some pinochle. This week work was better. Yesterday was quite busy and some repeats. I work at Shing Hair Studio. Today is the super bowl. Go Cardinals!!!!!

Better get. Come and see us.

I have a headache

This job I told you was so easy. WELLLL. I started to worry that the carpet was to light and Craig wouldn't like it because he wanted our other carpet we laid in Logan so we went and talked to Brenda at Mattamy homes and she said we could put in their cheapest carpet and then we could replace it after the home closed. Which I know is a waste but that is how they do things here with spec homes. Craig found our Logan carpet and with some work we went and took the sample to the designer and thank goodness we did not like it with the tile and Craig could even see it wasn't harmonise as he put it. The tile wasn't as dark as we remembered and the carpet wasn't as light as we remembered and again we are happy. The designer said a lot of people call back because they are worried. Was she making us feel better? We have now been looking at swimming pool. We have talked to three companies and have two more to go. I hope that is all because each visit takes two or three hours besides the drive. I will send some 3-d pictures of the pool when we narrow it down. They are now sheet rocking the home. Another sunny day. Love ya

Don't fall over

Craig and I went today to choose our flooring and counter tops. We had a two hour appointment with the designer. We first chose our tile and both agreed on that pretty fast. The carpet was next which took a little longer. There were less choices and only one place to look. We found one carpet sample we all liked, but Craig wanted to keep looking and looking and looking. Craig finally called a carpet place in Logan to find out about our carpet we bought, but the design center here didn't have that brand so finally we decided on the first one we all liked. I just hope we love the carpet as much as our carpet in Logan that took a year to pick out. The sample was tiny. We do have a sample of our carpet in our Hyde Park home just in case we wanted the same carpet here but we neatly packed it and put it in the Logan storage. dah. While Craig was looking for carpet in places that most people would not go. I started looking at formica samples and the designer helped narrow it down to four. By the time Craig was done looking at carpet, the designer, and I chose the same one while it took Craig just a little longer but not much. And yes, we were done in 1 hour and 57 minutes. The tile is 18" with different browns in it. The carpet is a light taupe with colored specks and the formica is a dark marble - looking just like Helena's counter tops. Hope this makes sense. Pictures would really help now. We also saw our good friend LaRae Tadlock. Scott, her son is here in Phoenix at the Mayo Hospital getting a kidney biopsy. He has had two kidney tansplants already, and we wish him the best.