Ashley donates her hair!

For Ashley's second ever haircut we decided to donate it.  Big girl was totally on board and excited to do it!  So Grandma Pauline and Mama headed down to a salon where a friend's daughter just donated her hair!

 It was pretty long!!!

 Off it goes!

Ashley would only cooperate if Mama sat with her LOL

 Bye bye hair!!  Glad you can go to someone else!!

 She doesn't look so sure!

 Maybe she's regretting this??

 And then a pout?  Eek!  But her new 'do looks so cute!

 There is that smile!!!!  She is happy and lighter and cooler (in more ways than one!!)

What a cutie!!

Last Hurrah with the Hillins/Happy Early Birthday Brian!

Before leaving Arizona we wanted one more night with Brian's parents.  And they wanted one with us!  Isn't it great that we love to hang out together?!?!  Yay!!!!

We went to Fleming's to celebrate Brian's birthday early!  Make a wish!

He doesn't look close to turning 41 does he?  Hottie!!

Then we headed to Ocean Prime for Brian's favorite dessert!

 And an after dinner drink.  Who can believe Pauline ordered pee water?  i.e. Scotch!!!

Glad we got to have this night together.  We sure will miss having you 20 minutes away!  We've enjoyed all the time we got to spend together swimming, eating, drinking, going to church, on trips, attending school events, everything!!!  All the help too!!  The kids are so lucky to know you so well!!  We find it interesting that we were in MN for 2.5 years after Trevor was born and now we were in AZ for 3.5 years with both kids!!  God must know we like to keep things even ;-)  We will miss you but we have a guest room with your name on it!!  King bed even so come often!!!  XOXO

'See You Soon' Party

Our friends wanted to send us off in style and boy did they ever!  No detail was left out.  Not only are they amazing friends, their party planning skills are tops!!!

It was a hot day but they were prepared with bottles upon bottles of wine.  Check out all the Kim!!!

They even had moving boxes!

And how did they know Mommy is from Waseca??

Aw, Toby!  They didn't even leave him out!

The party planners extraordinare, aka Mommy's besties!  Lisa should be in here too!!

What will she do without these girls?  And others not pictured here?  Sadness!

Julie!

All the kiddos that were there early...more came later!  Trevor and Ashley too were in friend heaven!

Snow cones!!!  

Great place to eat said snow cones!

So glad that Kaelyn and Nick came too even though they didn't know anyone but us there!

A farewell shot!!

Brian is going to miss his buddies too.  :(

They rented a water slide for the kiddos which came in handy on this extremely hot today but not one kid complained!

Cake time!

Erica makes the most amazing cakes!  We hope she goes into business to share her yummy talents!

Three amigos!

Bentonville bound!

And before the night ended these amazing girls presented Mommy with a going away present.   Brian just happened to walk in and capture the moment!  Besides all the wonderful handwritten cards with such heart-felt words about our individual and unique friendships that she's received this week, the girls created a special cookbook with recipes from our various times together and an Arizona shaped bamboo cutting board.  Most perfect gift!  Sara can see herself in her new kitchen taking out that cookbook and making Mary's donuts, Tori's skinny spinach dip, Becky's yummy cookies, Lisa's cauliflower potatoes, the list goes on and on.  Sara's heart (and tummy) are very full.  These are friendships that just can't be replaced, they will just grow in new ways with some distance between us but we are all already counting the days till we see each other again!!!  Thank you friends for everything.  We'll be seein' ya soon! XOXOXOXO

Circus with the Ellertson Girls

Even though the movers were packing up our house, Mommy decided to be fun Mommy and take the kids to the circus as planned with the Ellertson girls.  Thanks Grandma Pauline for coming over to monitor the movers so we could do this!  Mommy surprised the kids and boy were they surprised!!!!!

Mommy surprised herself too to be truthful ;)

Everyone got to pick a treat on the way in.  Trevor and Charlotte picked stuffed animals while Ashley picked cotton candy and Abigail picked a snow cone.  

We settled into our seats and were amazed by the performance!!

The kids covered their eyes for most of the acrobatic one! 

Amazing!!

So glad we could make these memories with the kiddos before we don't have the opportunity to do fun things like with our AZ friends on a whim!  

See Ashley's face in the above picture?  It should have been a sign of things to come for Mama.  Eek. On the way out Ashley had a full on tantrum like never before.  Crying, screaming, hitting Mommy's head as she carried her out of the arena and on the way to the car.  OH MY!!!!!  All because she wanted a snow cone.  Well we agreed that everyone got one treat and no means no so Mommy dealt with her the best way she could in a crowd.  Ignored her until we could find a family restroom and she got a stern talking to.  Then she knew Mommy meant business.  She asked for a hug, sucked up her tears and off we went like nothing happened.  What in the world!!!!  

Brian, Trevor and Friends Go Camping!

On Brian's bucket list before leaving AZ was one last camping trip with Trevor and friends.  So he flew home to make it happen!  Not sure who in the group was most excited, they are all big fans of this special friend and Dad time!

This time they headed to Leech Lake

Ewwwwww

New version of the ice bucket challenge

Buddies for life!

It was a 2 night camping trip..this was the Saturday crew!  On Friday Chad, Leah and Kelly were there!

Don't worry, once again the Mama's and littles who weren't old enough to camp survived just fine.  We went to Katie's and had girl time!!