SPRING BREAK-Hike and Journal

The crew are ready to go! Brookly , Caillou, Dallin, Jarom, Brennen and Josh

Ben is ready to go!

The mountains were so beautiful! It felt more like summer but even the cacti were blooming so it must still be spring. 90 degrees should only be summer! :)

They are pretty high but not as high as it looks.

The hieroglyphics behind the kids are pretty cool!

Dallin kept a close eye on Ben for us.

SPRING BREAK

March 16th-20th, 2009

Oh what fun we have had this week with our ever changing plans from day to day! You never know what might happen here! We started out the week excited to have the kids home. Wes had to work until Wednesday though. Our original plan was to go to Pinetop. Then it changed to play here and go to airshow. Then Wes and I were to have a mini-moon on Friday and Saturday and Grandma and Grandpa Gardner were going to babysit. We wanted the kids to have fun so we were going to go to the Air and Space Museum in Tucson on Wed. and then to see the Petersen's there.

This is what ACTUALLY happened:

Monday we hung out and played at Pena's house.

We had an anxiously awaited play date with the Robert's on Tuesday after chores were done. Then Pena's called again that evening for us to play whiffle ball.

Wednesday was changed due to Petersen's still in school and not able to see us until after school. We decided to play all day with the kids here. Wed. morning we hiked the Hieroglyphic Trail in the Superstition Mountains and boy were we wiped out! It was beautiful though and we barely missed seeing the rattlesnake that the Bishop and Young Women saw about 20 minutes behind us. Tami and Caillou hiked with us. Alex was getting new tires for their trip to CA.

Wednesday evening we went to the new discount theater and watched Bedtime Stories. I think the kids all enjoyed it and we were sure sick of popcorn by the end. Sometimes there is too much of a good thing!

Thursday we received the news that Mom and Dad Gardner were very sick with the flu and could not come down. We were disappointed but hope they feel better soon! We were able to cancel our hotel for Fri. and decided to let Dallin babysit during the day and still go all day without the kids.

Thursday evening we were sure glad that Elise was well enough from also having the flu to come with Greg, Lynnette and Kids to Amazing Jake's! What a blast! They rode rides and played games and unfortunately I forgot my camera. Ben was so cute on the train and carousel. He loved driving the big rig and going with Dallin on the race track as the passenger. They all got $5 extra on their Fun Cards for good grades! This was definitely a highlight after so many disappointments! We need to meet up more often!

Friday Wes and I went to chiropractor for me and then to lunch at Crackers & Co. One of my favorite restaurants! Highly recommend Baked Potato soup and Meditteranean Salad with pita bread and blackberry jam! We decided to come back over to IMAX and got tickets for "Race to Witch Mountain." We perused stores for a while and then saw the movie. Excellent entertainment and our boys will LOVE it! We then headed to Bahama Bucks for a cold treat. While there we called to check on the kids and Dallin said that no one could play so the kids were bored at home. Since this is Spring Break I felt sorry for my children and when I saw the poster at Bahama's for snowballs I couldn't resist! We called the kids and told them to be ready to go to the park. It took 30 minutes to make the snowballs and then we headed home for the big surprise! We loaded up the kids and when we got to the park Wes chased down Dallin for the first snowball throw. The kids were so excited and surprised! We had a fun fight and Ben kept hitting Wes every time. We played at the park for a while and then treated the kids all to Panda for dinner. Hey 4 - 3 serving entrees isn't too expensive and does feed them all!

Saturday we went back to the original plan and took the kids to the Luke AirForce Base Airshow. It took us a while in the morning to finish chores and bills and swap out a camping chair at Walmart...so we didn't get there until afternoon but we still got to see several planes as we hiked in and the whole Thunderbirds airshow. We took some pictures and one of the coolest booths there was several of the WWII pilots autographing pictures of their planes. We got all the kids one (free even) and Grampy's stories came flooding back. These are incredible men who fight for our country! We came back hot and tired but had a very busy, full, fun week!

Sunday was much more mild with Ben taking a moment to read to himself:)