American Girl Store at The Grove

Every Wednesday my mom does a field trip with her grand kids, and the mommas & aunties get to tag along on the fun. So, this was the last field trip with everyone together since the Francis family moved to Iowa. So we went to the American Girl store at the Grove in L.A. We had a great time. We always have such a great time going. When I was a little girl for Christmas I got the Kiersten doll and Jolisa & Jolynn both got the Samantha dolls. Since Aleena's bitty baby was on the moving truck en-route to Iowa, I let her borrow Kiersten and she LOVED it.

Aleena & Drake waiting for dinner to come, they are both ready, dolls in their high chairs.

Shannon, Kaycee & Reed having fun. Kaycee loving her bitty baby.

Drake sipping some juice out of the cute little cup that is given so that you can feed your doll.

Audree being so sweet sharing her stroller with Kaycee, walking around checking things out.

Kaycee, Drake, Aleena, Samantha & Audree hanging out on the balcony. Waiting for dessert to be served.

The yummy dessert.

Samantha & Aleena, thinking they are the dolls and should be in the doll high-chair.

The girls playing with some of the dolls and the different doll sets.

Drake wanting to be in on all the fun, riding a doll bike.

The girls & Drake watching Kiersten get her hair done.

Drake wanted a turn.

Group picture (minus me taking the picture). After we left The American Girl store we went out and went on a trolley ride. It was lots of fun. Pictured is Steven, Jolisa, Samantha, Audree, Reed, Shannon, Kaycee, Mom, Michael, Jolynn, Aleena & Drake.

Enjoying the water show and beautiful sunset.

Silly girls. Thanks mom we sure had a blast.

Aleena spends the night and......

WE HAD A SLUMBER-PARTY BLAST......

Aleena spent the night a couple weeks back it was the last time for a while. (The Francis family moved to Iowa where Tommy is attending Law school on a full ride scholarship.) So of course we had a blast with Aleena. Here's how our fun sleep over went. We drove home in the Jeep and Aleena kept telling Uncle Josh to drive faster. So he would step on the gas and be silly. When we got home we.....

Had to have some cookies & milk of course before heading off to bed.

Silly girl

When we woke up Aleena & I made our FAVORITE breakfast ever. Chocolate chip waffles. Aleena had fun helping her Aunt Gigi out, I think she enjoyed eating the ingredients more though.

Aleena being such a sweetheart eating her Chocolate chip waffle with whipped creme & chocolate milk. Oh don't worry Jolynn she also did eat fruit. =)

After breakfast, I painted Aleena's fingernails & toenails. Aleena wanted to paint my fingernails and she did such a great job. We got cleaned up went to the park to feed the ducks & turtles. After playing at the park we stopped by In-N-Out to get a milkshake before heading to swim lessons. Thanks for spending the night Aleena we sure enjoyed having you over, can't wait to see you at Christmas or before =). We already miss you donker-head.....(silly name we call each other).

Super Saturday J&J style

I'm a little behind on blogging everything we've been up to. So a couple of Saturdays ago Josh & I had a wonderful day just the 2 of us. So to start the day off we woke up early and headed to the beach (Corona Del Mar) by 8am, we went on a nice long run along the water. It was SOOOO nice. Then enjoyed the rest of the morning at the beach soaking in the sun and playing in the water.

We left the beach around noon ish and headed home to take the jeep out for an adventure. So where we live the mountains are not even a 5 minute drive from our house, so we were off to explore the mountains. We LOVE living where we do....go to the beach & the mountains all in a days work.......

So we're going along and then all of a sudden the back right wheel sinks in and the jeep is only on 2 wheels, Josh was loving it, however it did give me a scare.

This was just a cool picture, I LOVE our camera and how its able to pick up on such great detail of the flower and just focus on the flower and blur everything else out, Josh didn't give me enough time to really get better pictures cause there were so many more mountains to explore.....just wanted to share. So many adventures so little time.......

Gainey Ranch Resort & Diamond Back Baseball Game

Josh & I went to stay at the lovely Hyatt Resort & Spa at Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale, AZ. We stayed here last summer & LOVED it. We were so excited to come back. My Uncle works for Hyatt so we were able to hooked up with a few extra "perks" which just made us feel even more V.I.P....Even though it was super hot that didn't stop us from playing in the pools all day long with family. We had such a nice relaxing weekend.

Here is a view of some of the pools. There was also a fun water slide, basketball pool court & volleyball net to play.


Josh & Jennifer

Ethan & Camden playing in the water/beach area.

Josh & Camden playing!

Everyone enjoying the water & company...

Baseball park/game. Good thing the roof was closed and nice & cool inside.

Here is most of our group at the Baseball game Aaron, Katie (can't see her), Ethan, Camden, Shawn, Angie, Jennifer, Josh, Saylor & Brandon. Not pictured Dawn & Sunshine.

We got tickets to sit in the ALL YOU CAN EAT SECTION. It was all you can eat HOT DOGS, popcorn, peanuts, soda and water. So.....I don't think we got our money's worth on Hot dogs, but in my opinion I think that's a good thing. ;0)

So as we entered the ball park we were given bobble heads of one of the baseball announcers it was his 2,000th game. Well, we aren't the biggest fans of baseball we enjoyed the company a lot more, so Josh & Camden start destroying the bobble heads. Here's what's left over, I don't know whom the child is j/k. It was cute seeing how much fun Josh was having playing with Camden.

Okay, this was so cute & funny. Camden kept making this face whenever asked. He would hold it for about 2-3 seconds then put a huge smile back on his face. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to hang out with family again.

What's this???? A new toy for Josh......... & Prescott Parade

Here is our fun new adventure. Josh is so excited that he has a Jeep. It's a 1998 Jeep Cherokee, runs like a champ and looks SWEET. A HUGE THANKS to Josh's parents and Aaron for getting everything in order and the Jeep looking so sweet. Josh is on cloud 9 and we can't wait to take it out and explore the world.

While Josh & the boys were working on the Jeep the girls & kiddos went to Prescott to enjoy the 4th of July parade. Just before I took this picture Ethan was smiling and laughing when I pulled out the camera he got shy. He's a cutie pie.

I couldn't hear what band this was, but they were dressed in kilts and playing bagpipes and it just reminded me of Scotland, we were there not too long ago. Brought back fond memories.

The group Sunshine, Risa, Camden, Ethan, Katie, Dawn & Saylor are in the back sitting in the chairs.

There were lots of tractors I'm pretty sure they were Ethan & Camden's favorite. It was really cute to see how excited they got when they came by.

Army Band....Go ARMY!!!! Thank you for keeping us safe.

I loved this it said "America's on Life Support" and there was an "Uncle Sam" in a hospital bed with nurse's on each side giving him shots. It was hilarious.....but true.

Need I say more??? As we were leaving the parade I saw this and couldn't keep walking without taking a picture. I had a blast at the parade with the girls and kids. Very patriotic. Our weekend in Cottonwood was fun-filled as always. Thanks to everyone for making it so fun.

Suprise vist from Thomas

So Thomas called to say that he was granted a 2 week family leave and that he was coming home. So all of the kids kept it a secret to surprise my mom. Well, Thomas was able to catch an even earlier flight so he called me and we kept it a secret and in turn surprised everyone. We LOVED having Thomas here to hang out we are sure going to miss him. Here we are all watching Aleena at her gymnastics class.

Aleena is by far the best one in her class, she is so stinkin' cute.

Drake entertaining himself

After gymnastics class we went to swim class. (Don't know the lady in the red.)

Samantha showing us how great of a swimmer she is.

Audree "jumping" into the water while Aleena plays on the steps. I love how excited Audree is and it shows in this picture.