Hittin the AZ

My company had a conference in Phoenix a few weeks ago, so Kade and Ava flew out to meet me once it was over, and we stayed with Jamie and Travis for a few days. Here are just a few highlights:

This is possibly my favorite pic of the trip, because probably a dozen of my pictures turned out just like this one. Every time the camera was out, Jamie's son Caden would sprint to the camera and shout "Cheese!". Obviously his depth perception was a little off, either that or he really liked the taste of camera, because he'd always get just a little too close...

There was this sweet park that Jamie took us to. It had a playground, a pond, a fountain to play in, and lots of dirty sand. The kids went crazy about feeding the ducks...sadly there weren't a lot of ducks that were interested. But the pond was fed two whole loaves of bread, so it shouldn't need to eat for a while.

Ava got hungry and ate some of the pond's bread...

So then there were these little fountain things that sprayed up out of the ground and the kids could run through them. There's probably a fancy name for it, but it was mostly a glorified "running through the sprinklers in the back yard" experience. Ava worshipped it. This is the face she made every time they came on...

Kade did this for about an hour with her, poor fella...

First playground airplane ride ever..very exciting...

This is my new niece Kendall...darn cute

And here is what they all looked like by the time we got home...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KADE!

So, Kade's birthday was last week. And I am feeling pretty good that it's only been a week and I am already posting about it. We had a little shin dig at our house...played Rock Band mostly. Ava likes to party, so she pretty much made anyone who was participating in said Rock Band hold her or sit her on their lap...

She even decided to join in herself after a while..

Steve, Adam, and Kade called each other before the party to make sure they all wore black because they wish they were a real band.

What was Brittani thinking wearing blue??...she's for sure not in the band....

Kade's birthday this year was a Metallica extravaganza. He got Metallica drumsticks (see the drum pics above), and a Metallica hat, shirt, and yes......

Metallica floor mats for his car......

As you can see, he was also very excited about his Wii remote charging station

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KADE!!!

Update...long time coming

So, I know that everyone has probably stopped even checking this blog because I never update it....but, I'm a slacker and always will be, so the frequency of my posts probably won't increase. But I will sure try.

Here are a few updates from the last few months:

#1 - I married Santa Clause....you don't believe me? Take a look.

Yes, Kade was a good sport and became Santa for our ward Christmas party that we were in charge of.

#2 - Ava finally started walking....she took her sweet time deciding she wanted to, but she is officially a walker. Here's a little clip of her first steps....don't mind my squeely annoying voice in the background....I'm not sure what is wrong with me. (Ava makes me play this clip for her at least 3 times a day)

#3 - Oh...Christmas was on the 25th this year. It was fun. Ava didn't really know what was going on at first, but by the end of the day she realized that if she ripped off the paper rather than just playing with the bow, there were actually cool things inside.

See....this is pre-finding out there are actually presents under the bow and paper....

New puzzle. Note the gnarly morning hair....she gets it from her Aunt Jamie.

And here are a few recent pics of the little one. The screen on my camera stopped working, so I had to pretend I knew how to aim and tried to get some shots....these are the few out of about 347 that actually turned out decent. Me and my camera are in a fight.

Well, there you have it. Until next time... (March maybe?)