The Electric Light Parade in Casa Grande

It amazes me that we endured a winter in the frigid north of New York. We went to the Electric Light parade and temps only dropped into the 50's but you'd swear it was the 20's. The parade was a blast. There was almost 90 floats created by different organizations and business in the CG area. The company Dave works for made the "Abbott Express", their version of the Polar Express. We didn't end up with a picture of it though :( but it was adorable!

So it's been forever

I realized as I was reading some of my favorite bloggers that I hadn't been by my blog lately. I realized I was REALLY far behind when it loaded and there was still a Halloween background!

What have we been up to...

A very long overdue Thank You and blog update

By long overdue, I mean LONG, like perhaps 4 years or so. For my baby shower when I was pregnant with Victoria, Jenn made Victoria and I a beautiful baby blessing gown. I guess I never posted the pictures. Jenn, thank you for the gown. I LOVE having heritage pieces for my children to pass down to their children and beyond. I was also blessed by having both girls baptized in dresses made for them by their Aunt Jenn! Jenn, not a day goes by that I don't thank God for your love and support!

Victoria's (unofficial) 4th Birthday

We had a small party at home for Victoria to celebrate her 4th birthday. The big was is coming later in September when we can be outside a bit more comfortably. I made the cake, I wasn't happy with the way it came out. I think it would have been cuter if I had stuck with pink and purple but Victoria's favorite colors are green and yellow. (She's always been a John Deere girl!!)
I have no idea where she gets the awkward bent-over picture pose from but she seems to like it. Here's the birthday girl with her tiara on, apparently a must have for any birthday celebration!


A wish will come true!!!


Grandpa's turn at pin the tail on the donkey!


Daddy's turn


Victoria's turn!



The cake!

Headin' up the mountain...

We went to visit "white haired" Grandpa and Grandma in early August. The girls had so much fun spending time with their grandparents. They played on the swings and trampoline with grandpa and Victoria enjoyed baking and decorating cookies with Grandma.





Teeter Totter time!


Grandpa teaching Victoria how to pick corn. From the field right to the pot, made for a yummy dinner!


Relaxing with Daddy in the hammock!


Dave took Victoria fishing! They had no bait, but caught a couple of small fish and a whole lot of seaweed (pond weed???)


Allie was really sad that she couldn't head out on the water with big sister...






More jumping!!

1st Day of School!

Victoria started preschool at the big school this year. She goes three days a week, 3 hours a day AND rides the bus home. I wasn't sure I'd survive her riding the bus home, but she loves it and I'm learning not to panic. They had to wear uniforms for a few days but then the policy was changed because the parents were angry that the clothes were getting damaged by paint etc in class. Now they must be "clean and modest".

Allie's West Coast 1st Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Allie's birthday with our AZ family as well. Clarissa was sweet to host it at her house! Thanks Aunt "Crissa"!

The cake came out great! Everything is made from frosting!!


Miya the amazing!


Pool time!

Birthdays!

We had a combined Birthday/farewell party before we left NY. It was a bittersweet time, spent with my family. It was hard to say good bye. We had cake to celebrate Allie's birthday and the frosting fun was just too hard to resist.




Ashleigh started a frosting fight..

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High Time for an Update

Well, as you all know, or should know by now, we made the trek back to the west coast. The girls and I flew and Dave drove...twice. We're settled in Maricopa but not for long! The house we are renting is facing foreclosure and we'll be leaving before we intended to. We plan on staying in the East Valley, but the where is going to be determined largely by David's job. My job is a blessing and allows me to be able to work anywhere.

Sea Breeze

It's finally roller coaster season!! We hit Sea Breeze on opening day. Victoria is fearless. Her favorite rides were -of course- the most dangerous ones she was big enough to go on. She was mad that she couldn't go on the super coasters.

She preferred to ride with her arms thrown in the air!



They have some "Kiddy rides" but they were too tame for our girl. Here she is on the boats in '09 and below, the last time we were at Sea Breeze in '07.


'07, my how she's grown!




Bumper cars with Daddy. There was a hugely pregnant woman riding the bumper cars at the same time. I thought she was insane to be riding...



This was Victoria's favorite ride, the Sea Dragon. She insisted the sit all the way at the end.



Just a charming bit of nature, a momma goose with her babies.

Down on the farm!

We went to Farm days at the local humane society shelter today. They take in all sorts of animals, including barnyard friends that are abused/neglected.

A trip to the park

Here's the highlight of our park visit. Sort of mundane but it feels SO good to be outside of our cave for awhile.

Victoria riding her big girl 2 wheeler...




I love the toddler safety swing at the park...


Allie, smiling as always


Allie's first trip down the slide. It's blurry because she was going so fast!

Our Staycation

It's spring break time here. We decided to spend the time exploring Rochester and its offerings. Today's adventure was a trip to Powder Mill park, to see the fish at the hatchery. The hatchery was founded in 1933. They raise brown and rainbow trout and eventually release them into the wild. Victoria had so much fun feeding them. When you throw the food in the water, they all start jumping for it and reminded me of piranhas.


Up close and personal with the trout. These were 4-5 yr old brown trout.






Another feature of the park is the mushroom house. Its a private residence and has been there since I was a child and I'm sure long before that. They are set quite far from the road and it is hard to photograph them. The bottom of the house is a thick mushroom stem type design; they are actually quite high up in the air, near the treeline.