Grandpa Adventures

First, Grandpa Scott got a bit more than he was bargaining for.

Both in great-grandkids and in ponies:

Then Grandpa Russell had another project: making rocks!

Aaron is not a fan of dirty hands: 

Grandpa, Breydon & Seth hard at work on their rocks: 

Seth's rock. The cylinder is a very natural rock shape: 

Dirty Catherine! 

Oh, my Aaron. I'm not sure what started this routine, but Aaron was sure it was his solemn duty to throw rocks at every cactus we passed. He would frequently ask to go outside just to throw rocks at the cactus.  

Grandpa Russell leading Adleigh and Aaron home after a park adventure: 

We have no brothers, but we do have a Colin! Mom babysat Colin when he and Bethany were little for many years. We've watched him grow up and decided to claim him as the honorary Mikesell brother we never had. It was so nice to see him and his parents while we were in Tucson! 

A rare moment of peace between Elise and Breydon: 

Christmas miracles, I tell you. 

Winterhaven

Because we are THAT family, there were matching shirts and pictures before we left.

(Kenna has all the real pictures and will one day share them with the rest of us, right Kenna?)

Winterhaven started off with us catching snowflakes from a snow machine: 

...until I realized they were actually tiny bubbles and put a quick stop to it. 

It was all downhill from there for Catherine: 

At least Aaron was happy! 

Winterhaven is the WORST and Catherine CAN'T WALK ANY MORE: 

Seth was smart and ditched us for his cousins: 

Russell, Seth, Adleigh & Breydon

Russell & Seth are believers: 

There were signs all over advertising free cocoa. We never made it that direction, but Seth did! He wasn't even put off by the people trying to convert him to their church. He just wanted his cocoa. In fact, he went back again later to chat and get more cocoa. Love this social guy! 

(Aaron & Ashley joined us, but we didn't take any pictures together. 

Too busy wrangling our various children). 

Arizona Entertainment

Most important form of entertainment: Star Wars in our Star Wars shirts!

Those who didn't own one borrowed one from Dad's extensive collection.

Grandpa opted for the BYU version instead.

(I loved the movie!)

The back of Grandpa's truck was a favorite playground for the boys

(Breydon, Aaron, Russell)

Aunt Kenna took all the crazy kids for a ride in the back of her truck one night

We only drove around the cu-de-sac a couple of times, but the kids were super impressed!

One morning Grandpa gave the kids a surprise: geodes to cut open! 

Watching Grandpa cut them open: 

Seth watching from the fence: 

And Fence Catherine: 

We also made another trip to the park, where Seth insisted on a picture to document his feat: 

Arizona in the winter is very alluring...so much sunshine!

Mike & Mary

We finally made it up to Phoenix to visit Aunt Mary and meet Uncle Mike!

Seth loved all the boy toys and posed for another Gabe picture:

Mary's neighborhood is FABULOUS! Full of park areas and playgrounds. They had one little playground just a few houses down that we visited every day. My kids played in the sand for two hours! 

Catherine climbing

Aaron climbing...just not so bravely: 

Elise has this really bad habit of picking on her cousins/brother. She loves it when they freak out, so she'll pester them until they do. Aaron, Russell & Breydon all lived in fear of her. But not Eli. She tried to get a reaction from him and he did this instead: 

Apparently hugs are the way to deter an Elise attack.

Who knew?

We also had to make a visit to this awesome playground we visited last time we came.

Aaron made me take this picture of him: 

Another day, another playground! 

I somehow didn't get any pictures of it, but they had brought it a snow machine, covered a hill and had a ton of kids sledding and throwing snowballs. Seth had the time of his life! The other three stuck to the playground area for the most part. 

"Take a picture of me!"

(Cute cactus shirt from Grandma Cathy, of couse)

Not pictured: me taking family photos for Mike & Mary.

Also not pictured: Mike helping (basically doing it all) Jon replace the brakes on the van. 

Sadly ironic considering how our trip would end...

On our last evening we headed to the Mesa temple to see the lights.

Holy crowds of people, Batman. I kept losing my kids... 

Shorts and a coat. This is very Seth: 

Crazy Catherine & Confused Aaron: 

Happy Jon & Cold Elise (it was chilly that day!): 

Our last day with Mary was a Sunday. I got someone to hold still long enough for pigtails: 

The back view: 

She had it pretty well ruined by the time we got to church, but at least I got a picture!

We had a lovely weekend with Michael & Mary. It was nice to get to know him and nice to see Mary giddy in love. 

We made the long drive back to Tucson and arrived in time for milkshake-making lessons with Grandpa Russell: 

Back to Grandma & Grandpa's

Seth loved swimming, but was quite happy to be back with the X-box again:

Aaron in a tree.

I get commanded to take pictures a lot. 

One day we went on an adventure to the Tucson Zoo.

Ashley, Annie & Elliot came along because they apparently weren't sick of us yet.

This picture is deceptive.

Elliot doesn't actually like the animals at the zoo.

Just tiny rocks and my goldfish crackers: 

Catherine rides an elephant: 

Seth on the very manly hummingbird: 

Catherine chose a hippo and got to ride between Breydon and Adleigh: 

Hard to see, but that's Aaron on a dolphin.

I was impressed he went on at all, much less so far away from everyone else: 

Then it was back home for more Austin holding: 

Also, cookie making!

Homemade cookies = covered in whatever germs our kids currently have 

Seth grabbed Penny and insisted on a photo to send to Gabe. 

Penny is not sure about the whole thing: 

For Grandma's birthday, Catherine said she wanted to paint fingernails with her. 

So Grandma bought herself nail polish and got the girls together for some fun!

Aaron got painted, too. Why not? 

Lots of great memories with Grandma!