Allie's Choice

Allie's birthday was on a Friday this year. We celebrated her birthday with our family on Friday and then had her friends party on Saturday. After preschool, we took her to Toys "R" Us to pick out her gift. She was so excited - we looked at the ENTIRE store... There were so many choices, it was hard for her to narrow it down. I bet she could have spent a couple hours in that store!


She finally chose a castle to play with her polly pockets. She played and played and played with the castle for days.

Then that evening we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner with the Smiths and Grammy and Papa Scarbrough. Allie chose the restaurant - she loves their rolls and she wanted to ride on the saddle. Drew also wanted a turn on the saddle... Too cute!

All dressed up...

Our kids were all ready for church and were watching a little show until church started. They both looked so cute, we couldn't help but take some pictures.

Allie's 1st Day of Preschool

Allie started pre-K preschool this year. Her teacher is Mrs. JaNae Leavitt. Allie was so excited to start preschool again this year. She would tell anyone who would listen that she was starting preschool, but with a new teacher this year - not Mrs. Kerri like last year.


Allie is growing up so fast, we can't believe what a wonderful 5 year old she is and how lucky we are to be her parents. She has such a zest for life and is super funny and brings us so much joy. Drew misses her every school day. He can't wait for his turn to go to preschool.


For family night on Allie's first day of preschool, we celebrated it at Baskin Robbins. Allie chose a cotton candy blue sherbet and Drew chose the green one (aka mint chocolate chip). I chose a double chocolate (since I won't be able to eat it while nursing...) and Dan chose his usual - Rocky Road.

You Only Turn 31 Once...

We celebrated Dan's birthday this year by taking him out to lunch. We went to Kobe, a teppanyaki restaurant by his work. The kids were fascinated and watched intently as the chef cooked our dinner right before our eyes. He did the onion volcano and made steam come out of it, and also made a huge fire flame. Drew did not like the fire flame or the heat we felt from it!


Later that evening, we surprised Dan with a nice candlelit dinner at home and some cheesecake. It was a fun day and evening to celebrate Dan's birthday with our little family. I took them to the store and they each picked out a couple ties for him. Drew chose a green one (of course), and Allie chose a one with a pattern. They were both so excited to have him open their gifts that they chose. I gave Dan a gift certificate for golf lessons. He's been wanting to take lessons for years and years, so I figured this is the only way he'd ever do it!


Dan is a wonderful husband and father. We are so lucky to have him in our lives... (even if he's getting to be so old... :-) I can only say that because I have a few more months in my 20's...

AZ Cardinals Game

Dan is a big football fan but rarely gets to go to games since most of them are on Sunday but he got some tickets from work to a pre-season game on a Saturday night and took it in with Gavin and Aaron. I'm pretty sure the Cardinals got smoked but they had a good time (although the photo doesn't seem to indicate that)! The bottom pictures are of the Cardinals kickoff breakfast that Dan went to as well.

Wilcox Peach Festival

We took a quick weekend trip down to Wilcox, AZ for their annual peach festival. Gavin grew up in Wilcox so the Smiths make a couple of trips down there every year and showed us the ropes. We got to take a tractor ride to the peach fields and then take these green wagons to put our freshly picked peaches in. The kids had a great time picking the peaches off the trees and "gently" putting them into our buckets. I kept telling Drew to be soft - don't throw them into the bucket. So he'd carefully walk the peach up to the bucket, then lob it in... I guess that's just a 2 year old boy!

We were pretty sweaty and dirty by the end of it, but it was a lot of fun, and we were so excited to eat some delicious, juicy peaches. After the festival, we hung out at the ranch (Gavin's grandmother's home) for the afternoon. The kids got to check out all the land, and go on a ride in the Rhino. It was a long weekend, but super fun! Our drive home took us a little longer than we wanted (we had to make 3 or 4 bathroom stops, a dinner stop, and change a flat tire). Our tire was completely shredded, and our spare isn't a full size spare, so we couldn't drive faster than about 40 mph. The Smith's were so kind, and followed us home the whole way to make sure we didn't have any more tire trouble. Our slow speed & stops added another 2 hours to our trip.

More Utah

We had a blast on our summer vacation to Bountiful, Utah. Each day was so much fun and very full. We stayed with my cousin - Aubree & Todd. (Thanks again for letting us crash your house!!!) We had fun filled days, and stayed up super late talking and laughing and eating and laughing some more!


After 7 days of fun, fun, fun, in Utah, our kids were wiped out. They were so good on the trip, despite late nights and missed naps. They both crashed about 10 minutes before we landed in Phoenix. They were too cute, and I was sad I had to wake them up when we landed.


On one of the days, we were able to go through the Oquuirah Mountian Temple. It hadn't been dedicated yet, so we all were able to walk through. It is a beautiful temple, and it was really cool to explain things to Allie. We've talked alot about temples, and now she was able to see inside one. When we got back, she was telling someone that she went through a temple but it was okay because it wasn't "laminated yet". (She meant dedicated).


We also had a blast going to the lake with my uncle Shane & some of the Wrights and Aubree & her kids. The water wasn't too cold, and Allie had a blast on the tube. She kept putting her thumb up - giving us the "go faster" signal. She also designated herself as the official flag holder. As soon as someone went into the water or crashed, up went the flag. She'd hold it as high as she possibly could to make sure any and all boats around us saw it...

Dan was able to wakeboard and even try surfing behind the Wrights boat. He did a great job despite his lack of practice for the last 5 years... Shane did some fast turns and 360 spins with the boat that would make us fly across it. It was a blast - until some of the kids got squished... (Sorry Drew & Lily!)


We were sad when our week came to an end. We could have stayed up their for a whole month and still wouldn't have been ready to come home. It's so much fun to have lots of family - we missed them dearly when we came home... Hope to see them again soon!