Fall Break in Pinetop

Grandpa's Boy!Brennen's turn with the BB gun.
Hike to Billy Creek.

Brookly's acorns - watch out for the worms inside! Ben loves the old scaffolding and always scares me if I watch.

Jarom's acorns. Josh with airsoft gun.
Dallin with BB gun.

For Fall Break we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Gardner in Pinetop. It was wonderful! What a relaxing, fun weekend. It was so hard to come home! We left Wed. night and didn't return until Sun. evening. The kids were completely entertained between guns, trees and acorns, woodpeckers, hikes, picnic, birthday dinner, and cable TV!
We celebrated Wes and Brennen's birthdays by going to dinner at Mountain Thai and it was delicious! We went up past the old ski run by Greer to see the leaves and have a picnic under the beautiful fall leaves. It was so windy and cold! After Grandma and Grandpa left for home we ventured up farther and found a wonderful spot where the wind died down and the leaves were amazing! I of course took many pictures!

Ben loved this time with his Daddy!

The whole crew!

The kids on a huge old stump full of ants that later was destroyed by our boys! Jarom fell off and wasn't happy right after this.

Me and My Love!

The day after our picnic, Saturday, it turned freezing and hailed for a while. We stayed in all day! This was Wes's birthday and we opened presents and went to dinner with Mom and Dad Gardner.

Wes and Brennen enjoyed their presents.

Chocolate cake!

What a great weekend! It would have been perfect until Sunday.

Sunday we had a scary experience as we got a call that my uncle, James Stevens, had chest pain and was being rushed by ambulance to St. Lukes. I called Aunt Kim and told her I'd travel down to Phoenix with her since we were up there and going home after church anyway. Wes drove me to ShowLow to meet her and I helped her drive down to meet Julie and then we all went to the hospital. By the time we got there he was coming out of surgery and had 2 more stints put in. He had one put in last year for the same problem of artery thickening. 2 of his arteries this time were 70% blocked. Those are the ones that got the stints put in. One is still 40% blocked in a different place. It was scary and he has done everything his doctor recommended this last year like running every day, no cholesterol or red meat. He was pretty depressed and frustrated. They are in our prayers and he did get to go home the next day. Julie, Kim and I had some good, bonding time together. Love the support of family! Wow, what a reminder how fragile life is and how much I depend on Wes. He is my life and I'm grateful every day that he is with me. I feel incredibly blessed!

This left Wes to fend for himself with the 6 hooligans for a long trip home! He called me shortly before 5pm when they left. On the way he had Brookly insist she needed to use the restroom and when he tried to hold her up and told her he wouldn't look she was too embarrassed to go. She was crying for Mommy the whole time. Not long after this stop Jarom needed to go Number 2. While helping Jarom, Ben screamed nonstop for Wes. Finally he wrapped Ben in a blanket and had him lay on the ground screaming because he wanted Dad and it was so cold outside. He got them home and made dinner and then came to Phoenix where he met me with Julie and Kim at Mills parking lot to come home. We crawled into bed after 11pm. What an amazing man I married! He's the best!

Now we are home and adjusting back to life! There is a busy week ahead and nothing stops. We'll keep you posted:)