Michigan Trip

Rick and the boys went to Michigan at the end of July for a family get-together centered around Rick's father's birthday and his parent's anniversary. They had a great time. Here are some of the highlights:

We were able to gather most of the cousins that were there...


And add the Aunts, Uncles, and (of course) the Grandparents

Plenty of mud to play in...

Grnadma provided plenty of toys:

Rick and five of his sisters:

Swimming at Heart Lake:



Hudson pulled Keaton around in the little red wagon


Cousins Callie and Caleb reading at bedtime to Hudson and Landon

Grandma helped Hudson paint a special rock for her


Landon feeding Elk at the Gaylord Elk park

Hudson and Papa watching TV together

Deep thoughts

Hudson's deep thoughts within the last week:

After being in bed for about 30 minutes one night (with no conversation about this subject for about 2 weeks), Hudson came out of his bedroom and asked:

Is the summer solstice the longest day of sunshine and the winter solstice the shortest day of sunshine for the whole Earth?*

While picking up toys before bed, Hudson asked Rick:

Daddy, does everything have weight?**

And after getting the answer prefaced by "This is a little complicated," he said:

OK, that wasn't that complicated.

And out of the blue, Hudson asked Kathryn:

Mommy, I know it takes a mommy and a daddy to have a baby, and I know that the mommy has to carry the baby in her tummy, but what does the daddy have to do?***

After a brief, age-appropriate answer, he said:

Hmmm...the next time you and daddy have a baby, I'd like to see that.

Landon's deep thought (about his age) this past week

Mommy, why does it take sooooo long to become four???

*No - that is true for the Northern Hemisphere, for the Southern Hemisphere it is reversed

**No - everything has mass, but only has weight if it is in the presence of something with gravitational force, like planet earth.

***Come on now, this is a family blog...

Independance Day

We had a fun Independence Day. We joined some friends for fireworks after letting Keaton and Landon have LONG afternoon naps. The fireworks started about 9 p.m. (we start getting ready for bed most nights at 7:30 and lights are out by 8:30) but the adrenaline was definitely keeping the children going.

We had no idea if the fireworks would be a great experience or a disaster of fearful children. Hudson is not a fan of loud noises, Landon is pretty fearless but hates thunder, and Keaton was a total black box. But they loved it. It actually got a bit embarrassing with our friends and their acquaintances because Hudson yelled "Whoa" with every single firework. Landon and Keaton were mesmerized. It ended up being quite a fun night. An interesting side point: one of the acqaintances of our friends that went to the fireworks with us was Joe Smith of the Cleveland Cavaliers.




All is well otherwise. Everyone is healthy; still own two homes.

Rick went to an event with Mayo Clinic "legacy" donors at a retreat in Colorado. It was a beautiful setting and the owners of Bootjack Ranch, where it occured, are a wonderful Christian couple. They happen to have the ranch for sale (they are moving to Paradise Valley, AZ) so you can see how beautiful it is by clicking the link to their video presentation.

Hudson recently set up a car dealership in our family room:



Landon likes to "hold" Keaton:



Hudson became interested in volcanos recently, so of course he and Daddy had to make a home model for he and Landon to watch erupt:

June in the Desert

For those of you outside of Arizona, we've had some wild swings in weather. Within 24 hours, we went from 110 degrees to 58 degrees. But then we had a beautiful stretch of days in the 70's - unseasonably cool for an Arizona May. But now we're back to normal, about 95-105 for highs and lows around 70.

We're doing well. Still paying for two homes and praying to get down to one! The boys are doing great and keep playing together more and more.



Here are two conversations that occured in just one night at our dinner table:

#1
Landon: Daddy, we were at Chick-Fil-A today and when we went to the play area, a lady said someone had pee-peed on the slide.

Hudson: There was a wet area near the top - we couldn't tell what it was. I went around it but Landon put his foot right in it.

Rick: Landon, did you do that?

Landon: Yes

Hudson: Sometimes he just tries to test my limits

#2
After Landon declined to let Hudson use one of his toys...

Hudson (for once, not in a know-it-all tone): Landon, you're still pretty selfish, but all you have to do is ask Jesus into your heart and you won't be as selfish.

Landon: O.K.

Landon hitting a T-ball (notice the ball flying away in mid-air)


Our next-door neighbors have two girls with a pink Corvette that they drive with Hudson and Landon's red Mustang


Hudson and Landon emptied a storage ottoman and got inside

And then managed to get Keaton into it with them...


Hudson at his Pre-K "graduation" program at Scottsdale Christian Academy


His teacher, Mrs. Roper

Some Photos to Share

Our frinds David and Heidi Anderson came out to have dinner a couple of nights ago. David is a photographer and took some photos of the boys that can be seen by going to his website clicking "enter," then clicking "client proofs" at the top of the page, and entering "grayboys" (all lower case) into the password. Enjoy - he did a great job...

Update

Here's the real Funny Landon Quote

Landon has a bear blanket (a small baby blanket with a teddy bear head on it) that goes everywhere with him. Recently, Kathryn caught Landon looking bear blankie in the eyes and saying...

I'm going to beat you like a rented mule!

We've moved!

In case you wonder why it's been forever and a day since we've updated the blog, it's because we've been making regular runs to Home Depot and the dumpster. We moved. Yes, we bit the bullet and moved out. We had stayed in our first home for three months to keep furniture in it in an effort to make it more attractive for selling it. We finally just had to draw a line and go, and we don't regret it. It's been a good move, we've gotten re-organized, and now we don't have to clear out when prospective buyers come through our other house.




The move was relatively uneventful (no news is good news). We hired a team of three men to move us who charge by the hour. We hired them for a Saturday, so Rick took off the Thursday and Friday before so we could move as many items ourselves as possible. Papa and Grandma (Rick's parents) took Hudson and Landon to their motor home and D.D. and Ducky (Kathryn's parents) took Keaton to their condo for those days. We were able to transfer everything in the house except the furniture over those two days, so the moving company only had to move the big items. Nonetheless, they barely fit everything in their truck.




The only hitches in the process was that our treadmill didn't fit through the door of our exercise room (Rick had to take the door off the doorway and lay the treadmill down on its side and twist it through. Somehow it went in, with scrapes in the wall and rubber marks on the tile) and the moving van dripped oil in our new driveway. We had everything out of boxes and in place by the end of the night on Saturday, since we were able to space out the move over three days. Also, we had limited boxes to carry everything over, so we had to unload things as we went.

Coloring Easter Eggs

SInce the move, plenty has happened aroung here. Papa and Grandma sold their motorhome (actually bartered for a new car) and moved into the casita for the last couple of weeks they were here. They seemed to settle in pretty well and they boys loved having them close by. Hudson and Landon went on lots of bike rides with them around our neighborhood. We also had a visit from Rick's Uncle Ben and Aunt Gail during that time, who are from Southern California. They stayed in the casita with Papa and Grandma and were able to go to a couple of Anahiem Angels spring training games. We enjoyed spending the evenings with them and catching up. Papa and Grandma headed back to Michigan at the end of March and picked up Rick's sister Marci in Colorado along the way. She plans to spend a couple of weeks with them in Michigan and was able to help with the driving.




Funny Landon Quote

Landon has a bear blanket (a small baby blanket with a teddy bear head on it) that goes everywhere with him. Recently, Kathryn caught Landon looking bear blankie in the eyes and saying...(we'll reveal the answer on Thursday, but vote for what you think he said in the left-hand column)

Easter Egg Hunt


Funny Hudson Quote

We've (obviously) been praying for our house to sell. Hudson regularly also prays for our house to sell, including with his classmates at school. A few nights ago, Rick was trying to have a good perspective (that God is shaping us through everything that happens) as he was praying with Hudson and Landon at bedtime, and prayed, "God, we're thankful that our house hasn't sold..." at which point Hudson interrupted loudly with:

No we're NOT!

Some Follow-up photos

If you haven't visited the blog lately, be sure to check out Landon's birthday photos below.

Many of you saw our Christmas Card photos. They were taken by our friend, David Anderson, who is quite a talented photographer. Here are some other photos he took that day.

Look who's three!! ...and Maui wowee

Happy birthday, Landon. Our cute little guy is getting bigger! We celebrated Landon's birthday on Saturday (his actual birthday was on the 14th). Papa and Grandma, D.D. and Ducky, and Aunt Kerry joined us at Chuck-e-Cheese for pizza, cake, and lots of games and gifts.







D.D. had asked Landon what kind of cake he wanted. He asked for: "A zebra driving a train with a blankie." And that's exactly what she made for him!



He got lots of monster trucks and balls for gifts. We had a fun time. Here are some photos:





Rick had a business trip to Maui last week and managed to coax (ya, right) Kathryn to go along. The boys stayed home with Papa and Grandma. We had a great time reading at the beach and sleeping in, watching movies in our room, and overall unwinding. There were several nice dinner hosted by the organizers of the meeting and we had a valentine's day dinner with ocean breezes blowing on our faces. The weather was perfect all week: upper 70's during the day and low 60's at night.

The only bad part of the trip was the flight there. We left Phoenix at noon, scheduled to arive in Maui at 3:40. We flew for three hours and were about an hour off the coast of California when they discovered that one of their high-frequency radios that are used to communicate when over the ocean was not functioning. Eventually we had to turn around and fly three hours back to Phoenix - 6 hours of flying and we were back where we started. After a couple of hours, we were off again and finally arived about 11:30 p.m. Everything got much better thereafter!!

We stayed in Wailea and there were a lot of whales with their babies migrating by that we would see each day. They gave us a nice suite with an ocean view. Here are some photos from our balcony:




Rick got to play golf with his friend (and host of the meeting) Jim Swain:



We finally got a photo taken of the two of us a few minutes before we left:



Funny Landon quote:

The morning after Landon's birthday party, Landon woke up a said:

"Am I still three?"

The quiz answers...

Here it is...

Hudson

Keaton

Keaton

Hudson

Landon

Congratulations to Grandma who got five for five! Red Ribbon to Brad Irving who got four of five correct.