Wildlife

I wanted to add the rest of the animals we enjoyed during our zoo and aquarium experience while we were in Arizona in the middle of January.

We did see a very majestic Lion but it’s hard to get a good photo through a fence.

We all had a good time at the zoo. The fact that it was a short ten minute ride from the house we were staying in was a plus. This was our first full day in Arizona and while the kids napped some of us made a trip to Costco to buy food for dinner and to stock up the fridge. We enjoyed Costco Rotisserie Chickens, their macaroni and cheese, Caesar saIads and fresh bread. We had enough chicken leftover to enjoy chicken Caesar salads for lunch the next day. I still have some catch-up posts from Arizona that I’ll add soon.

A Pokemon Party

We had so much fun and laughter at the birthday party for our two sons celebrating 40 and 42!

The Pokemon Choo Choo Train Cake. Our son Dan has had choo choo train cakes starting at his 3rd birthday. He didn’t get one every year but was always happy when they appeared on his day.

Our daughter-in-law put together an epic Pokemon themed party for the brothers while we were in Arizona.

These oreos decorated like Poke Balls were used for one of our games.

Poke Ball themed veggie and fruit trays.

We all got to choose the ears we wanted to adorn our heads with. Jamie made all of them. The different ears have names but I’m clueless.

We were all good sports and entered into all the party games! Not to brag but I won two of the games, move the oreo from your forehead to your mouth without dropping it or using your hands and a poke launch game.

Granny Great and Jim traveled from their snowbird location in Arizona (close to the border with California) to join in on the fun. They live in Colville from March through most of November and then travel down to Arizona for the late fall and winter months.

We tried to reenact this photo from Dan’s 10th birthday party. Once I get my hands on the original photo from 1991, I’ll add it here.

It was an epic day celebrating our sons and hats off to our daughter-in-law who planned and stealthily managed to create and transport all the goodies to Arizona from Washington.

Birthday brothers…

We ended the party with a swim and some of us kept our ears on.

For my records we enjoyed this birthday celebration on Saturday January 16th, 2021.

Back to the present, we are looking at getting some good snow this week starting on Sunday evening. Time will tell if the predictions are correct. They are talking about an accumulation of 13 inches this week.

Round and Round We Go

The Wildlife Zoo called this ride their Carousel. Addy chose this horse to ride and JJ chose the dog.

Carousels and Merry-Go-Rounds, whatever you call them, kids of all ages enjoy them. I think this was JJ’s first ride on one.

Addy was cold and her coat was in the car so she borrowed Auntie Katie’s sweatshirt.

Our family of 10 were in Arizona from January 13th until January 19th. Our trip to the Wildlife park was on Thursday January 14th. I enjoy the desert in winter, how about you? Escaping a snowy winter with freezing temps to a desert winter in the 60’s and 70’s is a treat.

Back here in Colville we have had sunshine but our temps have been in the teens. We are promised some new snow showers on Sunday.

The Best of the Birds

When our family of ten were in Arizona we enjoyed our time at the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium.

Not a problem for our time at the park.

Addy did not appreciate some of the animal odors.

Posting all our Arizona adventures for our family archives.

On Thursday we drove south to Spokane to buy a new toilet for our Master Bath. Besides the Home Depot we shopped at Hobby Lobby, Total Wine and Costco. On our trip south we listened to a sermon from Grace Community Church by John MacArthur. 2020 Clarity. We found it encouraging. We returned home and our new toilet was installed before 6 PM! Thank you Dear!! Friday evening and Saturday morning Dear and I are attending a marriage seminar at our church here in Colville.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Family Hodgepodge

Thank you to Jo for coming up with questions this week even though her daughter’s wedding was this past weekend!

For Hodgepodge Wednesday questions we were with all our kids and grands in Arizona, flying out later on Tuesday afternoon. I posed some of these questions to them for fun.

1. What’s something we’d find you doing most afternoons?

Dear and I eat dinner most afternoons, not in the evening.

2. Who do you take after? In what way(s)?

I’m more like my mother, snarky but willing to feed a crowd.

Joshua takes more after me, more of a people person and more adventurous and willing to spend money. Dan is a mix of me and his dad, jumps in to get things done more introverted like his dad with the best one liners coming out of nowhere. Katie is mostly her dad, more introverted, the brightest in the bunch and smart cracking.

3. ‘After every storm comes a rainbow’ or ‘the calm before the storm’...which phrase do you relate to more right now? Tell us why?

Most of the group was ‘after every storm comes a rainbow’. I tend toward looking on the bright side and knowing things will turn out in the end. Because Jesus is our Savior and Lord we know who holds the future and that Hope brings us through the storms of life.

Our daughter says…”how about in the eye of the hurricane?”

4.What are your plans for the day after tomorrow?

We will be back home after a week in the sun trying to catch up with laundry and mail and bills, etc.

5. Complete this sentence-“After all is said and done_____________________.”

From Andrew: …naptime.

Laura: …it’s over.

Joshua: …atta boy.

Jamie: …,satisfied.

Ellen: …time to relax.

Greg: …I wouldn’t change a thing.

Katie: …the best is yet to come.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

The parties are over and it’s time to come back home to Winter…

Arizona Log Ride

We had planned on a family trip to Disneyland this year but plans changed and it worked out to have a family week in Arizona instead. This isn’t the log ride at Disneyland but it was just right for our almost 4 year old, Addy. This ride was at the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium.

It was a fun way to end our time at the Wildlife park…being a little wild!

Running Nonstop!

Busy, busy, chasing these two! I’ll be back to normal living on Wednesday. Hope y’all are doing well.

We’ve been enjoying lots of family time in the home our son is part owner of here in Arizona. A nice large space with a pool for us all to enjoy! Each couple has their own room, too, along with a room for Addy. An amazing property. Two birthday celebrations down with one more to go!

I’ll be visiting blogs again later this week!

Arizona Getaway

We flew away from Washington State to Arizona for a family birthday getaway. For the record we wore masks at the airport and masks on the plane. Here we are flying over the Grand Canyon. So much going on with our family bubble.

Our son and his partners have this fabulous Arizona getaway that we are enjoying.

Our daughter and daughters in law enjoying the poolside.

Today we visited the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium in Litchfield, Arizona and we got to feed some giraffes! Amazing. More animal photos to follow soon when time permits! Masks were worn at the Wildlife center.

Lunchtime at the Wildlife park.

Today is our daughter-in-law’s birthday, tomorrow is our middle son’s birthday and Tuesday is our oldest son’s birthday. Many celebrations are afoot!

Early Celebration

I set the table, I made the meal, made sure the presents were all ready for them, made the cake, but did I take a photo of the birthday guests? The answer is no. My photo taking has taken quite a hit these past 12 months.

Applesauce Spice Cake baked in a star cake pan this time around.

Presents from near and far were all wrapped and ready.

We had corned beef and cabbage with potatoes and carrots and some yams, too. Pumpernickel bread and a cucumber tomato salad. We made one of the corned beef briskets in the crock pot and the other one in the Insta Pot and we decided the Insta Pot meat was more moist. It also only took 70 minutes in the Insta Pot.

These are our three who have birthdays this month all within 5 days of each other. We’ll be celebrating with all of them later this week and I’m going to make sure to get photos this time around!

Family Photo Shoot

We were gifted a professional photo shoot of our family from our kids Christmas of 2019. We were going to try to schedule the shoot in the Spring but then COVID19 struck and it didn’t work. We finally got a date on the books during our annual Family Hunting Weekend in October. What we didn’t count on was snow on that weekend and temperatures in the 20’s!