Angela’s 5th Birthday20 yrs old

Angela had a birthday today.  It's a rare treat for her. - it's her 5th real birthday.  We bought a shirt for her special birthday.  We started off the day by going to Soda Rush and getting treats before heading to the park.  The first park looked really cool. but when we heard Manny was going to be late we headed to another park closer to Manny.  We had fun at the second park.  We played card games and hung out with Manny.  We discovered that parks are much more fun with Manny.  After we visited the park, we went to Subway for Angela's birthday lunch.  This has become one of my favorite birthday traditions, going out to lunch with the family.

Park fun

We had a fun birthday party complete with a birthday cake and piñata.  We invited Lisa and her family.  We played some fun games and celebrated Angela's birthday.  She enjoyed her birthday which makes me really happy.

Memorable MondayRaddish Club

 

Angela bought a subscription to Raddish, a club where recipes come weekly that have recipest that are easy to follow.  Angela has been in the kitchen more cooking different types of recipes.  It 's good to see her learning to cook and enjoying it too.  It's been good for our family to try new recipes out.  It's been an experience that the whole family as benefited from.  I'm glad that we tried this subscription out and I hope that Angela has a lot of fun cooking in the kitchen.

Catch Up with Kade

Kade came home to visit and a 10 month deployment in the Middle East.  We had seen him for awhile.  It was fun to see him and hear how he was doing. We got together at Greenfield Park, our family get together spot.  Here was the some of the pictures of the fun night catching up with Kade.

Josh and Kade

Cousins

Cousins with Grandma and Grandpa Pace

Kaylynn, Danni, and Bree

Josh and Manny - My Boys

Jim and his girls

Memorable MondayZoo with Grandma and Grandpa Wall

We just went to the zoo the other day and this trip came to my mind.  We walked by the ramada where Joey threw in Angela's bunny in the water.  We were able to get it back.  I remember having my mom and dad with us at the zoo.  It was fun to have my parents there with the zoo with us.  They didn't come to the zoo often that it was a treat to have them here with us.

My mom, Jim, and Angela holding her bunny

Josh and Angela playing on the tractor

Danni and Britt

Angela and Emily in the treehous

Bunny in water

My dad showing Emily the ducks

Angela and Grandpa

Me showing off a very familiar wheelbarrow

Phoenix Zoo Trip

Our kids had pogo pass to the zoo, so when we had a free weekend, we headed to the zoo.  We had a great time and saw some fun animals.  We met up with Cortney at the petting zoo and she gave us a different perspective of  the zoo.  It was almost like she was our tour guide.  Going to the zoo with a 2 year old was fun and we went to see the animals that he could see and enjoy.  

Jim and I at the zoo

Petting Zoo

Emily and Manny in an oyster shell

Manny loved the statues

Sitting on it works too!!

Freestone Park

Jeff and Lauren and the kids came down to AZ to visit Lauren's grandparents.  They planned to spend some time with us on Saturday for a picnic at Freestone Park.  We had nice picnic while watching the train pass by a few times.  We feed the ducks bread just feet away from the sign saying not to feed ducks bread.  Haha!!  After the picnic, we headed to the playground and watched the kids play.  The kids played for just a bit before the train was calling our names  First, we had cupcakes to celebrate Jim's birthday before heading to the train.  The train's engine blew just before it was time to ride it, so the kids rode on the carousel and other rides instead.  It was so fun to hang with the Wall family.  We have spent a lot of time together lately and it's been really sweet.  

Spending time with family

Carousel Ride

Fun at the park

My family and I

Cousins

Memorable Monday Lunch with Friends

After a year or so, we finally find an opportunity to go out to lunch.  When we made plans, mom was included in this group.  We missed mom a great deal. but know that she would have loved that we finally made lunch happen.  

Joella, Jana, Lisa, and I

Mom loved lunches, especially those with friends. She loved to go every Wednesday to Mi Amigos with Susan Gornik.  They also took the Mechlings there when they were in town.  We would go to Red Robin with Jana and Joella. Mom loved going out to lunch with friends and family.  We loved it to and wish we made it more of a priority the last 2 years.  

Usery Pass Hike

My family and I went to Usery Pass Park to hike, picnic, and hang out.  The scenery was so beautiful and we hiked in the desert landscape.  We had a great view of the Superstition Mountains at the beginning of the hike.  We talked, took pictures, and enjoyed each other's company.  It was nice to be in nature and hang out without technology, except for my cell phone to take pics.  After the hike, we just hung out and played games.  Jim, Josh, and I played a card game while the girls climbed trees.  I think that was one of my favorite parts of the whole morning.  We enjoyed our time together, but after a few hours, we needed to return home so Josh could help tutor and participate in events he had planned that day.  A family that plays together is a family I want.

Fun memories of our day at Usery Pass

My kids