Up, Up, and Away!

I wish I could have gotten the pictures to do this trip justice, but I didn’t so you will just have to use your imagination to recreate the pictures in your mind! 

This was the first annual trip to Arizona with grandma.  One day they will be old enough to get on a plane and just come see me when I need my “fix”, but for now I had to go and collect them.  So I landed in Kansas, spent a couple of days then Calli ,Taylor, Keaton and I drove to St. Louis, met the Laudie’s.  While there we visited the Zoo and Celebrated Matthews 1st Birthday (these pictures will come in a later post, I am doing my summer posts as the mood strikes and out of order…because I can).  I took possession of Amy and we drove back to Kansas.  (sounds kinda creepy…doesn’t it)  While on the trip home, Keaton, who had been advanced to a booster seat instead of a car seat, decided he know longer wanted to sit in his booster.  He kept sliding his skinny little body out of the seat totally ignoring the rather loud and constant good advice of his grandmother and mom!  So a side trip was made and a new car seat was bought and he was strapped in TIGHT!  And this was the sweet boy I had been missing and came all this way to bring back to Arizona…(I hope your mental pictures are half as good as the real ones I did not take)!  At this time I was contemplating which drugs were legal to administer to minors on a plane:)  We made it back to Kansas and I was still determined we could get to Arizona without a midair incident. 

They day arrived for us to leave.  The backpacks were loaded with treats…the dog leashes were clipped to the belt loops (you may think that was overkill , but by now I knew how fast a two year old could disappear..and I had two of them)  Brendan drove us to the airport and helped us get all the baggage checked in.  We checked in just in time to board the plane, thus no chance to take really cute pictures of the exodus to the plane.  (Picturing Three cute kids with backpacks on, leashes attached and grandma sending silent prays to heaven to help us arrive safely.)  All this was for not though because Keaton was so sober the entire trip…he didn’t feel good, Taylor sat by a very nice man and his son who listened to her talk the entire trip, and Amy was happy to color and eat.  I am SUPER GRANDMA!

 

These were the only picture I got of the plane trip!

To infinity and beyond!

It was finally the long awaited time…Toy Story 3, was finally here.  Grandma bought them the proper attire…

  

the proper junk food… and we settled back to enjoy the show!!!   Keaton hasn’t hardly let me call him anything but Buzz for months.  He was enthralled the entire time…then it was over…he just didn’t get it, we should stay and watch it again!  A classic case of “Too Much Birthday”.  Needless to say “Buzz” went home and had a nap! 

Did I mention…Keaton really enjoyed the movie!

Getting that “Grandma Fix”

The call of Grandma hood is just so strong, sometimes you get a little carried away with plans.  Like..I think I will fly to Kansas, visit for a week, drive to St. Louis bring Amy back to Kansas with me, also collect Taylor and Keaton, wander through the Kansas airport (with dog leashes attached to A & K) get on a plane with them, and bring them to Arizona to stay for a couple of weeks.  What was I thinking!  I remembered by the next morning, why children are sent to young dumb parents, old people are…OLD!   I arrive with traditional dress up gifts in hand, (otherwise they would not be as excited to see me).

Taylor sporting her “Can Can” dress, not the traditional princess dress she usually gets but still fluffy enough to pass muster!

  Keaton’s new obsession is Buzz Lightyear!  For the two months leading up to this trip, every webcam visit we had consisted of..”do you have my buzz costume yet”!  I would so have not been welcome if I had arrived empty handed.

Brody is just happy there is someone else there to feed him…he is wasting away after all!

As a reward for being a good grandma, Calli came through with our traditional crop weekend at the scrapbook store!  Where my 5 weeks of dieting and drinking a gallon of water every day… was destroyed within 30 minutes of temptations…I have NO willpower!

It runs in the family though.

All I could hope for was the stress of creating our masterpiece scrapbook pages and wandering around the scrapbook store was burning off thousands of calories…Right!

Calli, Keaton and I took a road trip to St. Louis where we were meeting…drumroll…The Laudies!  They drove down from Dayton to meet us for the Amy Handoff.  We met at the St. Louis zoo.  Arlon, Jess and I had been there on our recent trip.  I remember thinking how pretty it would be in the spring, and it was partially due to the humidity.  Missouri is a sweaty place!   

 

They had a few “watering holes” for kids throughout the park.  It took K & A a while to get up the nerve to join the other wet rats, but eventually they talked themselves into it…then didn’t want to leave!

 

We checked out the butterflys

The Elephants,

 

The stalactites,

 

The wooly Mammoths…oh wait that's Mikes hair…

 

A few primates

and a few wanna be primates,

and some really big fish,

We ended the day celebrating Matthews 1’st Birthday…Lindsey made cupcakes…I’m sure they looked better before the 90 degree walk through the park but Matthew didn’t seem to care. YUM!

Just a few more…”poses” and it was back to our cars and our separate ways :(

The joys of Grandmahood!

There's not a lot of good things that I have to say about taxes...but I will say...thank heavens for tax refunds! (why we had to pay it in the first place, just so they can return it is a mystery to me). Any way Lisa and TJ go a Tax refund and they choose to spend part of it on sending Riker out to stay for a couple of weeks...and bonus...Lisa got to come too!

It was two weeks of “how many places can we eat out”,

you would think they have no edible food in Ohio,

“Lets try to tone down the brilliant white of Lisa’s Legs”,

thank heavens for tan in a bottle, I don’t think the sun could penetrate the glare,

and “Its my turn to hold Riker”    

We also managed to fit in a couple of Diamondback games,

Some quad riding,

and yes...dork sister moments!  

But most important of all...Riker got a little face time with the Arizona Sun! Its Great to be a Grandma!