Encanto Park

We were all excited to check out Encanto park but guess what?  It's closed certain days of the week!  Guess we should have checked that out before making the trek down there but we made the most of it and checked out the parts that were open.  The biggest hit most definitely was the ducks.  Trevor has no fear and tried to go up to pet them!

You can tell someone loves his Papa John :)

Well, we decided to go back when it was opened and had fun looking at all the rides, attempting to go on one but backing out.  He said he didn't like the rides....

....but he sure liked the stationary ones or ones that required quarters.  'Mommy I need quarters' - since when did he learn this stuff?  Not money, quarters!!  Cracks us up!

Such a happy, smart boy.  We are blessed!

Haircut #welostcount

Trevor's hair grows just as fast as Mommy's (ie at a ridiculous speed) so we were off for haircut who knows how many.  Maybe 13 or 14?  But this time, big boy didn't go to a kids place.  He went to Supercuts and did fabulous sitting there without a TV or blowing bubbles or eating a sucker.  He's growing up way too fast and looks like it too!

Children's Museum

Another outing that Grandma and Papa Hillins took us on was to the Mesa Children's museum.  Trevor had so much fun, we could have stayed all day!  He loved playing in the kitchen...big surprise there - he has been saying that he missed his toys lately (which breaks our heart, but we'll save that for another post) and of course his kitchen is one of his favorite toys!

 

Trevor was very protective of the pizza and hot dogs and it wasn't so good when another kid just came and snatched it from him.  The other parent just stood there and watched it...could hardly believe it.  Yes, Trevor can share but stealing is just a whole other ballgame!  Ugh!

Trevor also enjoys building things with legos and building blocks right now...or trees, whatever, it doesn't really matter as long as it grows 'bigger, bigger, bigger!'

Rolling around on the ground is always a fun time!

It's possible that Trevor is destined to be a pilot.  He rocked this flight simulator getting the plane up in the air and landing it no problem.

Plus doesn't he look adorable in the pilot outfit??

Or scratch that, maybe he'll be a famous pianist!

One of the other fun things there was a full-size lite-bright wall.  Mommy could have played with that for hours :)  Trevor liked it too - he is was so intense working on his creation!

Slide

One of the activities that we do most every day is go to the jumpy water park because Trevor enjoys it so much, although once he learned about the 'fire fighter' park the jumpy water park became less frequented.  He is a little dare devil, not afraid to do anything including climbing up ladders that he's much too young for, petting stray dogs that also frequent the park and climbing up the slide.  He certainly is a happy boy as you can see in this picture!

Happy Birthday Pauline

 

We were excited to be in AZ to celebrate Grandma Pauline's birthday this year.  Trevor went with Mommy to pick out an ice cream cake for Grandma Pauline and Trevor knew just which one she had to have.  His exact words were 'Mommy, she needs the one with the sprinkles' and he had no trouble getting it out of the freezer case and bringing it to the counter to pay.  

He was so proud of getting this cake, er should we say getting to eat this cake.  He also really enjoyed singing to Grandma Pauline and blowing out the candles.  And yes, she got lots of candles.  Trevor single-handedly put on every candle in the package!

Peter Piper Pizza

We've been enjoying our time in AZ with lots of fun activities which we'll showcase over the next few blogs.  Grandma Pauline and Papa John have taken Trevor and Mommy to lots of fun places including Peter Piper Pizza which is just like a Chuck E Cheese in MN (which Trevor has actually never been to but he did like Dave and Buster's in Florida).  Specifically, he likes the tickets!  He was so excited to pull them out of the machine after winning!

He also took his turn riding some rides and playing whack-a-mole which turns out he was pretty good at! 

The Good Life of Mr. Randle

 For those of you concerned about how Mr. Randle is adjusting to life in AZ, well no need to worry.  Spoiled doggie is now used to daily walks with Papa, jaunts to the doggie park to run and play with other doggies, eating twice a day instead of once a day, sitting at the dinner table with the family....

 

Sitting on Grandma's lap while riding in the car (we know, can you believe this one????!!!!)

And daily naps in the sun (we swear he knows where the sun spots in the house are at different parts of the day)

Our New AZ Home!

Many people have been asking to see pictures of our new home in AZ so here you go!  Brian had found this house after being in AZ a few weeks and showed it to Sara along with many others on a day trip with our realtor.  We could definitely see ourselves in this house but it was listed above our budget so we kept watch on it and eventually it dropped a few times so that we put in an offer!

It's in Fireside at Desert Ridge and is a beautiful community complete with resort style pools, fitness center with daycare, parks, community center and a brand new elementary school....all within walking distance of our house!  The Desert Ridge shopping area is also only 1.5 miles from our house so we can walk and bike there for meals, entertainment, clothes and grocery shopping...and Target (yipppee!) 

The house was built late in 2007 and has 5 bedrooms/4 bathrooms plus loft, media room and formal dining room.  There is a guest suite on the main floor and then the master suite and 3 other bedrooms upstairs.  It's just perfect and we welcome any and all visitors!!

Easter

 We had a wonderful Easter in AZ!  Usually we would spend Easter in AZ anyway (unless B was in China for work) but now we live here :)  We went to Troon Country Club for Easter brunch with the Hillins' friends.  It was fabulous...we all ate way too much!

 Trevor really enjoyed the bacon and going outside to watch the golfers!  After brunch we came back and found that the Easter Bunny paid us a visit. 

 Trevor really got into spotting the eggs and putting them into his basket!

 Then he would proudly show us what he did/got!

 He was having so much fun even Skip It got left behind!

 And when his Elmo basket got too heavy to carry, Papa John followed him around :)

 Hey where's my basket??

 The look of too many jelly beans plus wanting to keep going and find more eggs but being all done in the courtyard:

 But wait, the Easter Bunny hit the front yard too!  Yay!

 After nap we went to the 'jumpy water' park - Dada rode a bike for exercise and had fun having his boys chase him:

 Trevor is very into chase right now.  He says 'chase me' or 'I'm chasing you' and then runs!

 Trevor isn't able to keep up with Randle yet, but he sure tries:

 Love this picture because it shows how Randle just stops because he is too winded but Trevor is raring to go!

 Trevor runs with his arms down and it's just too cute!

 Also love this picture, look how happy Trevor is running to Dada with Papa chasing him!

 No trip to the 'jumpy waters' park is complete without at least putting your feet in the jumpy waters!

 A ride on his motorcycle:

 Trevor LOVED the fact that Papa went down the slide.  Look at him all ready to give a high-five!

 We hadn't yet gone in the pool so nothing like a little nighttime dip!

 Another beautiful sunset:

 So of course we are going to have a quick family pic:

 Good night AZ with your pink and blue clouds :)