Broadway Review

Back in January, I found out that Wicked was coming to Phoenix this month. I had heard nothing but fabulous reviews and decided it was something I'd really like to see. I called my mom (as tickets in SLC had sold out in mere minutes) to see if she and Charlie would like to come down to see it. We ended up buying tickets (in January) for them to come down and see it with me, Andrea, and Ashley. Why didn't Linsey go? We didn't ask her, and assumed that because she would have probably just been married that maybe they wouldn't want to go. I will never assume anything again. Worst sister of the year award goes to me.

Sorry Lins!!!!

So I've been looking forward to this for about six months. I was so excited about it that I made Jeff buy me the CD for my anniversary present. I listened to it nonstop for about a month and then put it away. I broke it back out about two weeks ago and got so hyped up to see the actual performance! Madison has her favorite songs to listen to (Menabanaben is her title for No Good Deed...she's a goofball).

I was completely blown away by the performance! The vocals were amazing, and I just LOVED every minute of it!!! I really can't say more without repeating, "It was amazing," over and over again.

In the car on the way to the theatre

Signage outside of Gammage Theatre
This was the only picture I got inside, due to the strict "No Photography" rules we had to adhere to...oops. We're not really sure what the large dragon had to do with the play.

Acting cool with our cool programs. I love these girls!!!I love having three sisters and such a great mom! It makes life much more fun (and dorky).

Natural History Museum

I was able to snag some free passes to the Natural History Museum (again). Only the girls and I had been before, so it was fun being able to take everyone else to see the sights! They had a display up of some Arizona history stuff that we hadn't seen before. I love how kid-friendly a lot of the museums are around here. It makes it worth the time (and money) it takes to drive out to where they are located. Madison's favorite part was the gold panning. She spilled quite a bit of water on herself, but it dried up quickly because it was about 180 degrees outside. Alex LOVED being able to get out of the stroller and walk around. She doesn't usually get to walk around. Two eyes for two kids walking around on their own are not enough!!

Hanging out in one of the cave exhibit areas

Maddi got to be on T.V. with Grammie and Charlie!!

Panning for gold. We were able to see quite a bit of small gold flecks in the water, but she insisted on getting the larger grains of sand and calling those her gold. Whatever makes her happy I suppose...
A giant mammoth puzzle. On the floor next to it, there was an area carved out to place each bone, like you had just dug them out of the earth.

Baseball Tragedy

July is the most insane month of the year this year. We had my dad's visit, our short little trip to Prescott for the Fourth, and we were lucky to have more family in town for part of this week (not to mention our upcoming beach venture)! Thursday night, Charlie treated us all to a Diamondback's baseball game. Now, the D-backs have not been the best team this year. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're the 3rd worst team in baseball this year. After a 7-0 lead, the D-backs proceeded to give up the game and lose it 7-13. Not the best game I've witnessed, but we still had lots of fun!

The newlywed couple, Linsey and Nick

Charlie and MomNick, Lins, and Ash

Jeff and I

We had infield reserve seats, and even though we were up pretty high, the view was still great! You can see how sold out the games are at Chase Field...go D-backs!

Rodeo/July 4th Pics...As Promised

Doing a little catching up, starting with pictures from the rodeo and July 4th party in Prescott last weekend.

Andrea and Alex watching the rodeoAlex was VERY sleepy at this point, if you can't tellOne of the many fun things we got to watch!Alex hanging out at the parade

My FAVORITE picture from this weekend - I love it!Loving the sucker!

Maddi's July 4th hair

Hanging out in the parade car, making awesome faces!Matt and Ava marching in the parade

Wicked

Wicked.

Was.

Awesome.

Period.

Bath Rituals

Most people give their children baths right before bed, to help with a bedtime routine. My girls do not get baths at night. Two major reasons for this.

1. In order for them to look like they are not homeless, they need a serious hair make over when they get up. A regular old spritzer bottle does not do the trick. Their hair needs to be completely sopping wet in order for it to do anything that would resemble normal. They wake up in the mornings looking similar to this.
Certainly a spray bottle couldn't help his cause.

2. I'm sure for most people, dinner is the messiest meal of the day. Madison and Alex think that breakfast should be the messiest. As I've mentioned previously (probably hundreds of times), Alex is very independent. She does not allow me to help feed her anymore. So, on mornings where we are eating yogurt, this is generally how she ends up. Definitely bath worthy, in my opinion. (She was very proud of herself this morning). If it's not yogurt, it is usually banana that has made its way into every piece of hair and crevice in her body. I don't know how kids do it, but they sure know how to make a mess of things!! The girls love being able to take baths together in the mornings. They love to play and splash and dump water all over each other. It is really a fun time for all of us in the mornings!!

July 4th and Other Stuff

I have tons of catching up to do. I only have about half the pictures I need to do some "proper" blogging, so things are going to be a bit mixed up for awhile. My dad and a couple of his buddies came down last week for a short visit. They drove out from Kansas to pick up my dad's trailer (which has been sitting on Andrea's property for a year or so). They made the trek out to Phoenix on Tuesday. They are all very talented musicians and graced us with some wonderful music while they were here! The girls loved being able to visit with their grandpa and had a lot of fun with U.J. and Bill as well. Poor U.J. was attacked by a dog in my neighborhood Wednesday morning. Not that I needed another reason to not run/walk in the mornings, but I have now added killer dogs to my list.

I honestly can't remember much about the rest of what happened last week until Friday...it's a complete blur. Friday morning, I packed up our stuff and we (me and the girls) headed up to Prescott for the weekend. We hit a TON of traffic on the way out of town (we're talking 15 minutes to get from the off-ramp of one highway to the entrance of the other highway). Ridiculous. We went to the rodeo Friday night with Andrea and Matt's families. I would post pictures, but Andrea has the rodeo (and parade) pictures on her camera. I had never been to a rodeo until Friday night. If you have never been to one, I highly suggest going! Bull riding is insane to watch in real life.

On Saturday, we got to march in the Prescott parade with Andrea's employer. Since Andrea had to go super early to blow up a zillion balloons, Matt and I were in charge of wrangling up the kids and getting them to the parade. We drove around for about 20 minutes before we found a parking spot (which was about .5 a mile away from where we needed to be). The original plan had us using Andrea's double stroller and a wagon to pull all the kids around in. Well, the stroller was missing a few parts and was not usable. We strapped the babies into the wagon and tried to get the older two to walk. Maddi fell, scraping up her foot, which she freaked out about when she saw the blood. So she ended up in the bottom of the wagon, in between Ava and Alex's feet. Landon then wanted in the wagon because the other kids were in there. Poor Matt ended up with Ava on his shoulders, and the other three kids in the wagon. I got to carry the bags. I think I got the easy job.

We waited for an hour and a half before it was our turn in the parade. Andrea, Landon, Alex, and I rode in the company car, while Matt, once again, pulled the other kids around in the wagon. By the end of the parade, we had all the kids in the car and Matt was pulling around some teenagers in the wagon. The kids loved looking out the window and waving to all the people on the street! I think they loved not being buckled into a car seat the most.

We had a BBQ at Matt's parent's house that evening. Matt took some of the kids out for rides on the quad. It was Maddi's first time, and she seemed to have a good time! Ava and Alex (Alex was mad that she had to stop running in the grass to take the picture)

Alex's favorite activity at the house consisted of stepping up on the rocks and falling flat on her face. She repeated it about a hundred times (but gave up crying about it after about the fifth time). I tried to console her the first couple of tries, but she just got mad when I picked her up and ran off to do it again (while still crying).

We ended up watching fireworks on top of the hill, off the side of a highway...don't ask why. We were supposed to be at a nice field with Matt's family, but thanks to some awesome people that were working at the field, we didn't make it. Idiots. Half the kids had a great time watching the fireworks......the other half, not so much. Did I mention that my kids didnt' go to bed until about 11:00 both nights and they (Maddi) refused to take any naps? I think she was very, very tired at this point.
It ended up being a really great spot to watch the fireworks though! That picture is not zoomed in at all (not that it's a great picture, but it's the only one I have). They were being set off just over the hill and across the road. We had front row seats!!! We came home today and we are happy to be home with Jeff again! Thanks Smith family for letting us invade your holiday!