Saturday, November 24, 2007
Arizona
In October, right after General Conference, my dad invited us to Arizona with them, so we boarded up on the airplane and headed down to visit my brothers and parents.
My dad booked us the suite at LaQuinta, so the kids had one room with thier own tv and Dan and I got the other room with our own tv. The first day was great because I just vegged while the kids slept and everyone else chilled at Keith and Adriana's house.
The next day, we went to the Botanical Gardens. It sounds funny to go to a garden in Arizona where everything is brown and really dry, but it was suprisingly green and really cool. There were thousands of types of cacti, and desert trees. They also had a Butterfly house with lots of beautiful monarchs flying around. Ashton, AJ, and Stephen thought the butterflies were so cool, Stephen (my brother Keith and Adriana's boy) kept saying !WOW! everytime he saw one. It was so cute.
The following day we went swimming at the hotel. I loved swimming with the kids because Ashton can't get enough of jumping off the side into my arms, Kristen's, Kevin's, or sometimes just by herself (good thing I was always close enough to get her)! And Adrienne turned out to be quite the little fishy. I put her on her stomach and she would kick so hard, she really wanted to swim. Anson loved splashing the water in his little floatie.
Afterwards we went shopping at the stores near the Olive Garden while we waited for a table. I got some cute clothes for Ashton and Adrienne, I love shopping so much more now that I have girls to buy for instead of just me. Dinner was fun, Ashton stayed in her seat almost the whole time which was an improvement from the day before where Ashton was walking around the table and AJ was spinning in circles next to the table. I had to go sit in the car and wait for everyone to finish. Everyone with a two year old knows how stressful it is to go out in public with the family nonetheless with a child as adventurous and curious as Ashton.
One morning my parents took the men golfing. They said they had a great time. Dan and Grayson love golfing and my mom always insists on taking them whenever they are together. Because the boys got thier time alone, my dad gave each of the women money to go shopping while they watched the kids. (Kevin later told me they did less kid watching and more football watching; but I'm not that suprised. lol) Mom, Kristen, Adriana, and I ate lunch at the Paradise Cafe, if you are ever in Phoenix at the mall or the airport eat here, it was fresh delicious food with really yummy cookies. Thank you dad.
On Sunday we went looking for houses with my parents. They found an awesome house with a lot of upgrades, it comes with access to the tennis courts and swimming pool in the neighborhood. And they closed on it this week. Congrats:)
On Monday, Dan, me, Ashton, and Adrienne drove out to the temple in Mesa. That temple is so pretty! We went to this little questionable Mexican restaurant across the street then played at this huge park right next the temple. I was in love with the fact that it was low 80 degrees everyday we were there IN OCTOBER! It made me realize the quality of life us Loganites are missing. (Although this year it has been suprisingly mild, thank goodness). Then we went to downtown Phoenix which was a very anticlimatic experience. There's not much to see there. So now I realize why no one has taken us before.
All in all the rest of the trip was awesome, it was good to see the family and I can't wait till Christmas to see you all again!
My dad booked us the suite at LaQuinta, so the kids had one room with thier own tv and Dan and I got the other room with our own tv. The first day was great because I just vegged while the kids slept and everyone else chilled at Keith and Adriana's house.
The next day, we went to the Botanical Gardens. It sounds funny to go to a garden in Arizona where everything is brown and really dry, but it was suprisingly green and really cool. There were thousands of types of cacti, and desert trees. They also had a Butterfly house with lots of beautiful monarchs flying around. Ashton, AJ, and Stephen thought the butterflies were so cool, Stephen (my brother Keith and Adriana's boy) kept saying !WOW! everytime he saw one. It was so cute.
The following day we went swimming at the hotel. I loved swimming with the kids because Ashton can't get enough of jumping off the side into my arms, Kristen's, Kevin's, or sometimes just by herself (good thing I was always close enough to get her)! And Adrienne turned out to be quite the little fishy. I put her on her stomach and she would kick so hard, she really wanted to swim. Anson loved splashing the water in his little floatie.
Afterwards we went shopping at the stores near the Olive Garden while we waited for a table. I got some cute clothes for Ashton and Adrienne, I love shopping so much more now that I have girls to buy for instead of just me. Dinner was fun, Ashton stayed in her seat almost the whole time which was an improvement from the day before where Ashton was walking around the table and AJ was spinning in circles next to the table. I had to go sit in the car and wait for everyone to finish. Everyone with a two year old knows how stressful it is to go out in public with the family nonetheless with a child as adventurous and curious as Ashton.
One morning my parents took the men golfing. They said they had a great time. Dan and Grayson love golfing and my mom always insists on taking them whenever they are together. Because the boys got thier time alone, my dad gave each of the women money to go shopping while they watched the kids. (Kevin later told me they did less kid watching and more football watching; but I'm not that suprised. lol) Mom, Kristen, Adriana, and I ate lunch at the Paradise Cafe, if you are ever in Phoenix at the mall or the airport eat here, it was fresh delicious food with really yummy cookies. Thank you dad.
On Sunday we went looking for houses with my parents. They found an awesome house with a lot of upgrades, it comes with access to the tennis courts and swimming pool in the neighborhood. And they closed on it this week. Congrats:)
On Monday, Dan, me, Ashton, and Adrienne drove out to the temple in Mesa. That temple is so pretty! We went to this little questionable Mexican restaurant across the street then played at this huge park right next the temple. I was in love with the fact that it was low 80 degrees everyday we were there IN OCTOBER! It made me realize the quality of life us Loganites are missing. (Although this year it has been suprisingly mild, thank goodness). Then we went to downtown Phoenix which was a very anticlimatic experience. There's not much to see there. So now I realize why no one has taken us before.
All in all the rest of the trip was awesome, it was good to see the family and I can't wait till Christmas to see you all again!
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Addicted to Reading
1,700 pages in six days? Am I crazy? The answer is yes. I read the Stephenie Meyer series of Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse this week. Any one who I have talked to who has read these books has had a very similar experience. Even my Nazi high school English teacher would be impressed with that. I can normally read a book in one or two casual months. But the simple writing style and suspenseful story line made it easy to breeze through them. Every free minute of my day I used to sneak in reading time: nap time, bath time, breakfast, feeding the baby, waiting for dinner to cook, when Ashton watched her daily dose of "Elmo", and late at night. The books were good enough that I skipped my nightly ritual of watching "Scrubs" at 10 and 10:30. Dan wouldn't even ask me how many pages I had read in one day, he said it just isn't right. I have to confess that one morning I was actually excited when Adrienne woke up at 3 am just so I would have an excuse to read. Sunday night I started "Twilight" and finished it Monday night, Tuesday night to Wednesday night I read "New Moon" as soon as I finished that one I picked up "Eclipse" and finished it Friday afternoon. I had a little bit of a let down on Friday night when Dan was at a performance for school and I didn't have anything to read, so I went grocery shopping. So I guess I should take this opportunity to apologize to Dan for not folding the laundry this week, Sorry sweetie, you don't have to worry until next year when book four comes out.
Although this series is not my normal reading genre (history, English classics, or John Grisham) the Science-fiction was tied enough into "normal" life that I could relate to it and would recommend it to anyone who wants a change of pace from their other reading materials. I feel a little undecided on recommending it to men because the love story that ties it all together is laid on a little thick; but, gets better in the second and third books. My friend Brittany lent me her books (thank you) and she loved them a little more than I did. We had fun on our morning jogs talking about the books and what we want to happen in the new one. If anyone has read these I'll tell you who I wish Bella would fall in love with. Sorry to not elaborate more on what the books are about, but I don't want to give anything away.
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