O's 6th birthday

O's 6th birthday was on Friday, but we were able to celebrate her party today. Jenetta made a cat shaped cake and we had cat-themed games and crafts. It was a lot of fun.

The bubble wrap was for a "cat walk" game - try to get across the floor with minimal popping by being cat-like. Madeline from across the street was the winner, hands-down.

Awana

A few weeks back, the girls started attending Awana on Thursday nights. It is held at a Baptist church in Escondido, and surprisingly, there are a number of families from our church that send our kids there.

The girls have lots of fun with their friends, and it has been neat to see O memorizing bible verses. I like that the first one they taught them was Ephesians 6:1. Yes!

She is working on John 3:16 now...

Arizona Weekend

We drove to Arizona this weekend to spend time with family and friends and to attend Jon's 20th high school reunion.

We arrived on Friday evening to a warm welcome at Grandpa Pat and Grandma Shelley's home. They even had a birthday cake for Jenetta and O! They also have a chihuahua named Suzy that our girls can't get enough of - Miranda just doesn't let anyone pick her up! :)

This video was taken by O. She asks to use the camcorder all the time!

On Saturday morning, we went to a pumpkin patch and had a lot of fun. The girls played with livestock, rode on a tractor ride, jumped in a bouncy for a long time, and generally had a great time running around checking things out.

The corn maze was a bit much. It was hot and challenging and confusing - so we started to bicker and get frustrated. It's just further evidence to us that we would be terrible as contestants on The Amazing Race! Later, the girls and I went in a "mini maze." That was a lot better for us (since you couldn't get lost!)

Did we mention it is really hot in Phoenix?



Later that afternoon, we visited with Jenetta's grandparents, and Super-Grandma Carolyn took the girls out for a ride on her golf cart.

Later on Saturday night, we left the girls with the grandparents and we went to the Peoria HS class of 1990 reunion. I had a lot of fun - it was good to see old friends. I had really hoped that more of my old gang of 6 guys would have been there - but John, John, and I had a nice evening together nonetheless. It was interesting to see how some things had really, really changed, but in lots of ways, many things were exactly the same.


This is Cody Bailey - Jenetta went to prom with him! :)


Then on Sunday we drove over to Wendy and Craig's home to hang out with them. Our girls really love their kids, and it would be awesome if they could play together more frequently! :) Craig and Christopher took me to the Cardinals-Saints game. I had never been to the new stadium. It was quite an experience. The Cardinals won 30-20 due in part to a very impressive defensive performance. Drew Brees threw two really critical interceptions, and the large contingent of Saints' fans left feeling sad.

Here are two videos I took at the game. The first is of the Saints scoring a 4th quarter touchdown. Brees is getting sacked and he still throws the ball 40+ yards for a touchdown There were a lot of Saints fans in our area, and I've also realized that our camcorder does awesome HD videos, but when you post them online to the blog, they are definitely not HD anymore.

And granted, this last one is kind of lame, but I post it because being with my friend Craig makes me laugh. He says the silliest things! It is just fun hanging around him! I am really grateful that he offered to take me along with Christopher to the game. Hopefully, I can repay the favor with Charger's game someday...

in case you don't catch it, he says "Lot's of popcorn... popcorn good... it's been good to us."