A Few Things

 We took an impromptu hike to Fat Man's Pass (at South Mountain) a few weeks ago. It was after Justin got home from work and by the time we got up there, the hike was a race to finish before sundown since we didn't bring any flashlights. I think round trip the hike was about 3.5 miles and the kids did fantastic!

 At the actual "Fat Man's Pass" there are two huge boulders you can barely fit through. One of them is very slippery if you climb up to the top and want to slide down.
 The kids had no problem squeezing through...
 The next day Grandma Jo had a great Easter egg hunt for the grandkids, and before the hunt she got some well deserved pictures with the kiddos (she has two more grandkids - Jeff & Leza's - but they live in Florida right now).

 Dale and his ever-mischievous face...

 Thought this was a cute picture with Grandma
 On Easter morning the kids found these great surprises from the Easter Bunny! They each got a pillow pet, some treats, and some random trinkets (pencils, notebooks, stickers, etc).

So the Ellsworth Family Easter dinner was pretty impromptu as well, and occurred due to an embarrassing slip on my part. I had called my mom on the Friday two days before and happened to ask her if we were doing anything for Easter as a family. My family is notorious for throwing things together last minute, and I hadn't heard anything but I kinda thought a last minute deal was likely. My mom responded with a simple "No" and I was a little surprised and said "oh, okay". After hanging up with her I texted Justin: "Man my mom is even more apathetic about holidays than I am...just asked her if we were doing anything for Easter and she just said "No". I thought she would at least throw around the idea of a last minute dinner or something..." Well, right after I hit send, I managed to catch a glance at who the text was being sent to and it said "MOM" !#$! I frantically hit the "end" button trying to stop the message. My messages usually show a checkmark if they've been sent, and an "X" if they were interrupted. The message was showing an "X" so I was hoping that I had hit the 'end' button soon enough after sending it that it had stopped it from being delivered. Not the case, my mom called about two minutes later and said "Well, what did you want to do?"  Next comes the part of me apologizing and telling her that I thought she would have at least asked if we wanted to throw something together...  So occured the Ellsworth Family Easter dinner at my house on Easter...

All the old folks sittin' Southern style on the back porch...
My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE having their cousins over to play

There is something about being around my mom that brings out scandalous comments in Justin. He loves to embarrass me by talking or referencing our sex life in front of my mom... I guess he just feels pretty comfortable around her, TOO comfortable if you ask me. Anyway, he had some leftover car deco paint from one of his races and he'd been saving it just to write something suggestive on my mom's car. They didn't see it  they drove home with this on the back of their car... My mom said later that they did get a few honks.

 He also tagged the back of David's truck.

Just another picture to document life with Dale. I was sitting on the computer less than 20ft away and I didn't hear a thing...didn't hear him crawl up on the counter, across to the leftover cake on the counter...didn't hear him take the lid off the cake or start stuffing his face. I didn't hear a thing until I heard the thud of the basket FULL of eggs that he knocked off the counter. That basket had nine eggs in it. 2 survived.... Notice his chipmunk cheeks full of cake...

Just a few days ago David & Marisa invited us to the lake with them and the jetskis they bought with my brother Don & his wife, Dia. I have honestly never driven a jet ski and always thought of them as boring and inferior to boats. Not so! We had a lot of fun and it helps that the jet skis were legal for up to four riders a piece! Don't be fooled though, you can tell by the pictures below of David and my mom that it's not meant for 3-4 ADULT riders, lol! We and the kids had a great time.  Thanks you guys!

 We set up camp on the beach and the kids played while we took turns riding.

 When we were leaving the lake Brighton said "Mom, can we get a boat as soon as possible?"

I took this picture last night. All three of my kids looking at books, I love it!


Comments

Angie said…
I loved reading this post! How did I not see it before? I laughed a lot, then I gave the computer to Duane and he laughed a lot. Good times! As much as I have been enjoying our family time here in Albany, I can hardly wait to get back to AZ to be near family. Kalvin adores Brighton, I know and he'll sometimes talk about him. Do you have Skype? If so, we should get the kids on sometimes!
5/02/2011 06:10:00 PM
Carolyn said…
This was a superb post--just the pics of what Justin wrote on the cars and the fact that your parents didn't know as they drove home was great enough--and then that picture of Dale was fantastic! Thanks for the laughs Audra!!
5/03/2011 10:58:00 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Daisy's baptism day

Today Daisy was baptized by her big brother Brighton. My mom and Adaira got to be the witnesses, grandma Joanna gave the talk on the Holy Ghost, and Dale gave the closing prayer (after Dad has to rush during the closing song to help him put back on his tie and button up his shirt. Brighton was the pianist except for Adaira who played "When I am Baptized" for a special musical number. (A set of twins from another family was also baptized and their kids sang and played the violin). Here is what she has to say about her special day: I felt happy and felt the Holy Ghost. The water was a little cold. At first I was nervous but now I'm happy. I was excited to be baptized and I want to be a kind member of the church. My dad, grandpa Dean and grandpa Dale, great Uncle Dale, uncles Trent, Dean, Don, Duane and David confirmed me. Dad blessed me to seek a testimony of Jesus Christ and of Joseph Smith. He asked her to find quiet times in her life away from screens and devices to be...
Read more
Image
  Memorial Day A couple months ago I told Justin that we should take our kids and both sets of grandparents to the Mesa City Cemetery and tell our kids stories about our family members buried there. I thought it would make a good Sunday or Family Home Evening activity.  I want my children to identify with their ancestors and feel like they can learn from them. I especially want them to feel like they can develop some of the same good qualities or avoid some of the poor ones. They had also never been to a cemetery so it would be a new experience for them. Justin and I never got around to organizing it until today. Justin's mom was planning a lunch BBQ and swimming for Memorial Day and told me she was thinking of inviting my parents and asked about time preferences since she was thinking of doing it around dinner time. The idea of the cemetery popped into my head and I mentioned that I thought it would be neat to do the BBQ earlier in the day and then take everyone out to the...
Read more