My how does a garden grow when on vacation!

So while we were gone our garden grew! When I got on the plane I began to get excited about seeing my garden, never did I expect to come home and find what I did. I pulled out 1 big tomato and about 7 cherry tomatoes as well as..................
these crooked neck squash and look closely for Rodney's I Phone for size comparison.
That is gonna be a lot of zucchini bread, penne and roasted veggies and one new recipe.... stuffed zucchini. Again, look at the size comparison with the phone. I only weighed one and it was 5 lbs and then I measured the longest and it was 19 inches.

The broccoli was ready as well and oh my did it taste amazing, nothing like the broccoli you buy in the store! Bre doesn't like broccoli and she went back for seconds!
We also found 2 pumpkins about the size of a soft ball and our buttercup squashes are growing so much bigger (the size of a kick ball, just waiting for them to change from green to orange). We also found a bunch of corn hair where the corn is beginning to grow. Our bell pepper is bigger but still not ready.

All that fun and wore out!

Big Surf

Thursday we headed to the water park for some fun. We had told Theresa we would probably only spend and hour or two there because we didn't want to be in the heat that long. Five hours later we headed home. We had that much fun!

We started on some kiddie slides in one of the kiddie pools. Here is Dakotah coming out.
Autumn enjoyed them so much, it was hard to get her to stop and swim with Madi and I.
Such a face!
Madi decided to be brave for a minute and try one slide. She freaked out a bit and ended up turning herself around and landing with her head going in the water first. She didn't go again.

She may not have gone, but gave me the thumbs up that I actually got the picture so she could show people she did go.After that pool and after the boys met back up with us from going on all the big slides, we headed to another kiddie pool. This pool was like ankle deep for me as where the other was about knee deep. I love this picture of all my little kiddies on the gator.
These slides were more Madi's taste and she made sure I got pictures of these too.

This was too cute a shot to pass up. I wonder if they were discussing the fun of the day so far.

Had to make sure I got a picture so everyone could see I was enjoying it too.














Ok, this is a slide that straight drops, it was cool looking. I took pictures of my boys, hubby and brother going down. Now yes you can't tell who is who, but I know who's slash is who's. Starting on the left.... My brother RJ (it's cool that you can see him under the water shooting through it), next Colby then Dakotah and lastly as well as the winner of the biggest spray.... Rodney.
This is how Rodney looked after that ride. I see the kid in him out for the day having a blast with his boys. I love it!
Madi was very confident with her life jacket so she actually swam around the pool and started dunking herself under the water.
Then she decided to be ornery and told me she was going to splash me and she didn't really care that she was going to get my camera wet. See that little fist.......

this is what that fist did and she didn't get the camera but I managed to capture the water beads mid air and I think it's so cool.
Goofy girl with her daddy. These two together melt my heart!
We also spent and hour in the wave pool which I left the camera behind for so I could have fun. Rodney and D shared a raft, Colby and RJ shared one and then I laid on the middle of one with a girl on either side of me. I wrapped my arms over their backs and we rode the waves and never flipped. It was so much fun and my favorite part of the day.

Pool Side Fun

Well of coarse being in Arizona we were bound and determined to get in a bit of swimming. My aunt Marilyn was kind enough to allow us to come to her house when ever we felt like it.
My very own pool boy :)!

Dakotah did amazing! He tool off the floaties and took off swimming in the deep end. He was able to jump off the edge into the deep end and swim off. It was awesome to see him gain strength and confindence.
Here he is swimming like a fish.
Autumn had victories of her own. She got to where she was comfortable with jumping in as well and allowing her head to go under the water. She also was comfortable with swimming into the deep end with her floaties on.
Madi took some risks as well but did it only for pictures then she was done. Here she is going off the diving board which she started out by sitting and kind of floped in to her dad. Funny stuff!
I got in on the fun as well.
Here is one of Madi's attempts at bravery.....
and in she went which she wasn't really wanting but it was so good for her.

I love swimming in this pool and have enjoyed it for so many years, since I was 14.


Mister D hanging out in the deep end and so loving his journey with his swimming.
Here is Rodney doing a flip into the pool and no matter how this looks like it ended bad, it really didn't.
Dakotah decided he wanted to try the flip as well. It was very funny to watch him gain his courage to do it. He stood on the edge of the pool attempting to do it about 10 times before he actually just got it done. He actually did really good too. I won't even try the flip, so way to go Dakotah.

In all we made it to the pool at aunt Marilyn's 3 times and had such a blast. I love swimming in pools and most of all with my family. My husband even commented on how he loves watching me swim cause of how much fun I have with the kids.

Flag Staff

After a wonderful day at the Canyon and an adventurous dinner we headed back to the hotel with some sleepy kids (no matter how much they tried to convince us they weren't).
Mister D in his bed with his new Grand Canyon animal. He got the bed to himself since Colby slept in my parents room with my brother.
The girls in their bed ready to go night night. The next day we woke up and met up with one of my cousins (I have more than I can count) and had breakfast. There was a Scottish Festival in town that day that my cousin was participating in a tug of war, so we headed up to watch.
The festival was entertaining and we had the opportunity to watch my cousin and his rugby team get their rears kicked in the tug of war. My cousin is the anchor (the back one). After witnessing his defeat we walked around and enjoyed some ice cream and the girls getting their faces painted.
As this picture well shows, after 2 very full days right off the bat, we had some wore out kids.

A Grand Canyon Adventure

Saturday the 18th we got up early in the morning and headed up north in AZ. to see the Grand Canyon. In all the years I have ever lived in Arizona I never went to the Grand Canyon so here was my opportunity. It was amazing! God's beauty was so in our faces and I loved every minute of it. What a wonder He has given us to enjoy.





It was surprising how close to the edge you could actually get, like I mean if you wanted to jump.... yea you could cause there is nothing stopping you. We actually took this opportunity to tease my mom (Theresa) and make her yell at us. I know people might not understand why we would want to make her yell at us, but it's actually really funny. We walked quite a bit this day and we were on the South Rim. We managed to find our way into what was called the Canyon Village for some souvenir shopping then onto the area where they have a hotel and you can see the canyon some more.They had been waiting a few weeks to see this and they enjoyed it.
Me and my hubby.

The fam.The kids with grandma, grandpa and uncle RJ.
Mom, Me, Dad and RJ (isn't he a cute "big" little brother, I love him so much).
This was an amazing day and the kids were fantastic with all the walking we did and in the heat that we weren't real used to. At the end of the day we headed south a bit to Flag Staff where we had dinner at a funky restaurant that had singing waiters. It was so much fun.