Can't believe it is almost October!

Where does the time fly? We will be carving pumpkins before we know it!

It was a nice week here. Not too hot and definitely not too cold! This week-end was a sports week-end for Andy and Megan. Had tickets to the Diamondbacks Saturday night and a Cardinals game tonight so I watched the grandkids both nights. The Cardinals had a very disappointing showing against Manning and the Colts but they seem to always be a great team with him in charge.

On a brighter note our Iowa Hawkeyes soundly defeated the 5th rated Penn State Nittany Lions so that was a great high point to our week-end! Have a great rest of the year Hawks!

I did manage to get in a great hike by myself Saturday morning. That is the one thing I dearly love to do in Arizona. So many beautiful trails! Other than that, not a whole lot to relate from this end of the U.S. Just enjoying the great weather and the grand kids.

Another video of guess who! :-)

Such a beautiful day!

It is just lovely here in Phoenix today. Cool breeze and nice temps. Maybe it has finally arrived...the weather we wait all through July and August to receive! Here's hoping anyway.

Grandpa Butch flew back to Omaha this past Monday after a week long stay. For some reason Drew thinks he is still at the airport. :-)

Kayley is getting more and more mobile even though she is not fully walking yet. This gal has NO fear which makes her tricky to watch. She is getting in to things Drew never did at her age. She will keep grandma on her toes. Drew is very good at pointing out to me (hollering, actually) if she is doing something she should not be doing. Drew is especially diligent about keeping her many feet away from his precious Thomas and Friends...

Mark was going to try beans so am anxious to hear if he actually got a field harvested. Only one field was ready and I think he thought the others might be a week or so behind them. Time to get harvest underway and over!

I took the kids on a walk yesterday and saw the aftermath of a horrific car-school bus collision right on Megan and Andy's cross streets. Two teen boys were killed when they broadsided the bus. The boys were estimated going 90 mph in a 40 mph zone and were almost completely under the bus. The accident happened at 7:20 am and at 10:00 they still hadn't lifted the bus off of the car and one boy was still trapped in the car. Five or 10 minutes either way and it could have been Megan, Andy or me. Makes you really stop and think...

A couple of videos from the week.

Live....it's Saturday night!!

and grandma is pooped! Started out the day with an early morning hike up to Shaw Butte. It is a fairly long trail that usually takes 2 hours but doing it alone today I shaved off 25 minutes from last week-end. I think I will pay for that feat. Going alone with my iPod and no one to visit with just makes you walk faster I guess! After the hike I stopped by Megan's and she and the kids were going for a walk so I went with on that, also. Like I said...I am pooped!

Dinner tonight was courtesy of Andy's dad and it was very delicious. Megan, Andy, the kids, Butch and I went to the Horny Toad for prime rib dinner. It is rather a touristy place in Cave Creek but it is fun. I remember going there the very first time years ago while visiting sister Sharon for her 40th birthday. Sorry Sharon, shouldn't have said "years ago" but my 40th was years ago, too! :-)

Tomorrow I think I will hike Pinnacle Peak. It is so nice to have cooler temps so that hiking is enjoyable again on the week-ends. I need to hike because I think we are going to Fastso's pizza tomorrow night. :-( Hope all of you are having a fatso week-end too, and not just me!

A video with a little Barry Manilow! I read where malls that are having trouble with teenage gangs hanging around are blasting Manilow's mellow tunes on them and they don't like it! Ha!

Grandpa Butch is in town!

Kayley and Drew are having a great time with their grandpa who is visiting son Andy and family for a week. It took a little while for Kayley to warm up to Butch but they are great buddies now. Drew and Butch golf a little every day and Drew has managed to get him fairly wet with the hose. Oh well, that feels pretty good out here!

We have been going for a walk every morning and with each passing day I notice I am perspiring less and less. In no time at all we will be on our way to about 9 months of gorgeous temperatures. I must admit I am looking forward to that prospect! Well worth the two months of hell one goes through here in July and August. :-)

Mark says the beans are starting to turn on the farm in Iowa so harvest will be just around the corner and he can come down here and enjoy this nice weather with his wife and grandchildren and daughter! A few short videos from the week:

Short week

It was a short week with the kids. I didn't get back to Megan and Andy's until around 10 a.m. on Tuesday. We took walks every morning...still warm but it is improving. Only 100 degrees this week-end. Trust me, that is great compared to those 115 days!

Sister Sharon is in the valley visiting from Florida. I am playing golf with her and her grandsons Nick and Taylor this morning in Mesa. Looking forward to that! The Hawks and Cyclones are playing at the same time but I don't get any coverage down here. :-( Go Hawks!!!!!

Tomorrow Sharon and I are babysitting so Andy and his father can attend the Cardinals first game of the season. Well, time to get my clubs in the car. Have a great week-end.

Fun Labor Day week-end

What a wonderful week-end back on the farm in Iowa! The weather was picture perfect. Jan came down from Osakis, MN and Matt made it home from Omaha. Friend Cyndy spent a day and night on Saturday and John and Sue Swanson came over for our Saturday night bonfire. So great to see them all. Dan and Katie have a smoker and Dan smoked all of us some of Mark's pork chops on Saturday night along with sweet corn, compliments of Cyndy. Delicious meal!

Sunday we all went in to Jan and Clayton's and had about a two hour visit. They looked great, as did their home and yard.

I had an 8 am flight out of DM on Tuesday morning so Mark and I had to get up really early yesterday so I could make that plane. I was soooo tired all day yesterday. I was afraid I would have trouble staying awake watching Drew and Kayley but they seemed really happy to see me and that perked me up. :-) Some random pics from the week-end:
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Under 100 degrees!

I am back in Iowa and loving these nice cool temps. Everything is so lush and green here and Mark's crops look great. I flew into Des Moines about 5 PM last night. Great to see my hubby! Sister Jan came down from MN and Matt is coming today from Omaha.

Here are a couple of videos of guess who. :-)

Fatso's

Our new favorite pizza place. They had a live singing duet who were great, the pizza was loaded and Andy's personal favorite: 19 beers on tap! Drew and Kayley were so good and Drew loved the music. A fun dining experience and we will all definitely return to Fatso's. I fear if we return too many times we will begin living up to the restaurant's name, though!

Drew and Kayley enjoying our visit to Fatso's and a short video of Kayley "talking".

She will be one tough kid

We finally went for a walk today after a several month heat layoff. It felt so good to get the kids and the dog out of the house! Sox and I were sweating and panting when we returned but it was worth it. She hasn't made a peep the rest of this day so we got her good and worn out. We left around 8:45 which was a little late. It is still pretty warm by 9 a.m. here.

Kayley is rapidly aging me. She is such a go getter. I have pulled her out of the fireplace soot three times today before finally getting smart and using a bread tie to keep the gates together. We both were a mess! She leaves no stone unturned...

I brought out the bouncing Zebra that Drew got for his first Christmas from Uncle Mitch. Drew rarely rode it but Kayley loves it. So guess what? Now Drew thinks he loves it, too! Every time she goes near it he is right there to make her fight for every bounce.

Wild week-end

Andy flew to Peoria on Friday morning so Megan was a single parent for three nights. Granny helped out here and there. Saturday evening we decided to take them to Chuck E. Cheese Pizza and fun and games. Not for the faint of heart. It is naturally quite noisy and surprise, lots of kids. Everywhere. I don't think I will be taking Grandpa out to dinner there when he returns to Phoenix. We just may take the kids there for a lunch so he gets to experience it, though. Ha!

Still pretty warm in the valley. We just need to get through part of September and then the really gorgeous weather returns. That means hiking returns. Yay!

Our evening at the pizza parlor....

A bit of a milestone

Grandma, Kayley and Drew had a pretty good week. Only one more day to go until the week-end. Still a bit too warm to go for our daily walk with Sox. I think the kids and I and definitely Sox are waiting for that ritual to return.

Grandpa tells us he is eating lots of his home grown sweet corn but we don't like hearing that! We miss that great taste.

Our little preemie decided to take 5 steps yesterday! I was ecstatic. I had noticed she was standing longer by herself and just held out my arms to her and she came to me. Yes, it was a bit of the Frankenstein shuffle, but she did it! Won't be long before she is racing to tick off Drew and his trains!

Drew has had a couple of mishaps under my watch. Wednesday he slipped on the tile and bit his upper lip, giving him the proverbial fat lip. Today he went down on the sidewalk trying to push a stroller a little too fast. Ouch!

Kayley is doing great. She will eat absolutely anything you throw in front of her. She is catching up on the doctor's chart for normal babies her age. Yay!



Drew has finally started to figure out how to get his tricycle moving forward. Yay!

Sorry for the lag in my posts. Mark and I were on babysitting mode 24/7 with Drew and Kayley while Andy and Megan went to San Diego for a getaway for their 5th anniversary. We had a great time but I will have to admit that I can see why parents are young! We both were pooped after this but we did enjoy it "despite our age"! I think the kids will miss grandpa. Mark flew home to Iowa today. I think I will miss grandpa, too..

Pool time

Mark and I returned from Prescott mid-afternoon on Sunday and then went over to Megan's for a swim with the kids. For some reason it was surprisingly hot in the valley so a swim sounded just grand! Drew is feeling so "at home" in the pool.



Grandpa and Kayley

Greetings from Prescott

Mark and I arrived in Prescott yesterday afternoon around 3:30. It was noticeably COOLER up here. Almost 30 degree difference from Phoenix's temps this past week. We were loving that! We got settled into our hotel and then took off for Whiskey Row, which is the historic part of the old west town. Lots of saloons and even more shops. We dined last night at a place called The Rose Restaurant. It appeared to be a converted large house. We ate at an outside table so we could enjoy that weather. The food was superb but when we got the bill I should have skipped those two glasses of chardonnay that cost $8.50 each and contained about 1.5 inches of wine. Good grief! Our bill was $35 higher than what we spent Wednesday night taking out Megan, Andy and the kids. We at least fed five people off that bill. :-) Oh well, if I had it to do over again, I would because it was THAT good!

Today we spent from 9-2 downtown again. They have a huge flea market and it took a long time to look at all the booths. Lots of gorgeous paintings for sale. I have my eye on one of Havasupai Falls in the Grand Canyon. It is breath taking and reminds me of our hike down to the falls. I may go back and buy that tomorrow. I offered the guy $50 less than what he was asking and he just laughed at me. Laughed. He could have said "I just can't go any lower" but the guy chuckled. Maybe I won't go back...

Tonight we are going to a steakhouse that has good online reviews. Matt's saloon is offering $2 bloody marys until 6 so we better go there before dinner. :-) That beats the pants off an $8.50 glass of freaking wine!

We will probably head back to Phoenix in the early afternoon to beat the huge traffic jam coming out of the mountain on I-17 every Sunday. Hope you all are having a great week-end, too!

Some pics of Mark with his grandchildren and also Mark's new stetson to keep that AZ son off his his head.

It's a heat wave!

Mark arrived in the Valley Friday night to record setting temps in AZ! Hope he doesn't regret leaving that nice Iowa weather for a 114 degree blast furnace! It is manageable, though. We play outside with Drew late in the afternoon with the misters on and we survive! It has been just great having him here. Drew hadn't forgotten him at all and immediately took him in to "play trains". Kayley loves him and would rather be held by him than grandma. Go figure!

Friday night we are driving up north to spend the week-end in Prescott. Temps there are about 30 degrees cooler than here so that will be so nice! We are looking forward to our little getaway.

Some recent silly videos follow.

Grandpa's coming!

We are all pretty darned excited about Grandpa's visit! Drew can't wait and neither can I!

A day in the life of....

Anyone need a smile today?

I posted this video on Facebook but it was so "fun" that I wanted to post it here for my friends not on Facebook. It is the absolute greatest processional for a wedding, in my opinion. It has had a couple million hits on youtube so you know it is fun and hilarious! :-)
Click here

Quiet week

Not a lot happening out here lately. We are still in a pretty good heat wave so our activities are limited somewhat. Drew and I did spend some time yesterday outdoors with the misters spraying and the garden hose keeping he and Sox cool soaking wet. Kayley is having a good week eating so that is always a plus. She is such a happy little girl when Drew isn't dragging her frantically away from his toys! Grandma needs to work with him on sharing skills. I am not positive that is possible when it comes to Thomas...

Some recent photos. Kayley LOVES to chew on the banana from the vegetable pack!

Finally!

Megan and I took Kayley for her one year old pictures yesterday. We took her one other time but she was just not "in the mood" for them. Two other appointments had to be cancelled because of sickness and scratches. Yesterday went just about perfect for once!