Pioneer Day, Bowling, Grand Canyon & More!

We had another AZ Science Center day! It's so fun that lots of our friends have passes cause we can go all the time now and play in the giant heart with blood cell balls whenever we want to.

On this particular day they happened to have a real sheep's lung for you to pick up and play with and take pictures of yourself pretending to eat it.

The kids had a blast,and Winston played with this thing forever.

The next day we had Pioneer Day. We celebrated by making our own homemade butter, edible covered wagons and learning about the story with where the seagulls saved the crops from the crickets, oh and yarn dolls. I gave the kids a bunch of pioneer costumes to dress up in, but they came downstairs wearing their own version.

We also attempted making and pulling our own taffy. It started out nice and soft and gooey and so boiling hot that it burned all of your fingerprints off.

However, the end result was so sharp, it could cut glass.

Winston was disappointed in our failed attempt. He really likes taffy when it's edible.

The kids enjoyed the stick pull, and the butter. those two things turned out well.

I think the hardtack turned out okay too, as long as it's supposed to taste like dirt in cracker form. Too bad we made such a giant piece cause nobody went back for seconds.
Afterwards I told Robert that my pioneer day festivities were a little disappointing because nothing I'd planned turned out the way it was supposed to because everything was way harder than I thought it'd be. He told me that sounded like the same experience the pioneers had, which made my celebration very authentic.
On a more serious note, I did gain a way greater appreciation for all of the time I have because I don't have to make my own butter and everything else. I've been more grateful for all of the conveniences in my life that give me so much extra time for other things and a new goal to use that time more wisely from now on because I feel like now more than ever that it is such a gift.
I've also gained a greater appreciation of their sacrifice because being a pioneer seems super hard, and I would've been pretty lousy at it.

The next day we went bowling with friends. It's one of Winston's favorite things to do.

Noelle and I found balls that matched our outfits.

Winston rolled the ball so slowly down the lane, that it looked like it was going to come to a complete stop. The kids watched it inch its way down every time.

Then we stopped for an Ikea lunch. What a day!

And the day after that we went to Tempe Beach Park. Parker donated his entire lunch to Dallen and Noelle and Stanton to feed the birds. It seems like wherever we go my kids make friends with the pigeons. They had fun with all of their friends in the water too!

Winston spent half the time playing in his water bottle and the other half giggling at baby Malcolm and baby Sydney. He's seriously just as baby hungry as I am! I think he will love it whenever he gets a sibling!

And on Saturday we took a little day trip up to the Grand Canyon, but first we stopped at Montezuma's Castle and looked around, an little ancient "castle" built into a mountain.  It was really, so cool!

We had fun having a little picnic and exploring around outside.

We explored inside the visitor's center too. (I LOVE visitor's centers!)

By the time we got to the Grand Canyon it was pretty stormy.

The rain got worse before it got better.

We were glad we weathered the storm though because it was so beautiful afterwards.

We had the best time walking around outside, checking out the visitor's center, discovering the canyon's geology museum (which was really like a hidden gem itself) and buying souveniers in the gift shop, while eating ice cream, like true Americans.
 Stanton was so thrilled to get his first pocket knife. He's been gathering up sticks and widdling like crazy ever since we got home. He even used his pocket knife to cut his food at dinner.

Stanton and Robert even hiked a little ways into it. Noelle seriously fell 3 times from the parking lot to the visitor's center, so she and Winston and I stayed safely at the top and waited for them . Stanton took this picture to trick me into thinking he almost fell off the edge...not a funny trick.

It was so amazing to be surrounded by this giant, beautiful canyon everywhere you looked. Even Winston could tell it was grand because right when we got there, he kept pointing at it and saying, "Whoa." All of the tourists were laughing at him.
We also kept running into this funny raven bird (above my head) all over the place. He walked behind Noelle and I a few times and kept flying really close to everybodys heads. I think he wanted to be my pet, or maybe he thought Robert was Edgar Allan Poe, who knows?

On the way home, we stopped in Flagstaff to see one of our best friends, Jeff and Shelly and their cutest kiddos! I love when our kids get to play together cause Shelly and I were roomies (she rescued me from living in the barn that belonged to the man with elephantitis) and after we got married we were nannies, and we forced our nanny kids to play together, and then we had our own kids they played together so perfectly, until they moved, so it's cute to see them play together again. Winston loved Brady, and apparently Noelle did too because on the way home she said she had a little crush on him that was as big as from her knees to her shoulders.
 It was a really great trip! The kids said it was one of their favorite ever (mine too), and they've been begging already to do it again.