The 9 Brownies: August 2008

Braeden, Lindsey and I (everyone else stayed home...school was starting for Kylie & Sam) spent a week in Arizona with Grandma, Grandpa, & Uncle Curt. I wish it was a pleasure trip but I was going to help my mom after her surgery. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery. We received good news after her surgery. No more cancer was found! I thought she would be in bed for at least a few days...but not Carolyn. She was up the next day thinking she was going to do dishes & laundry. She can't sit still. She didn't even take any pain pills! She is "Iron Woman" I had good intentions about taking a lot of photos. I started out in the airport but as you can see that's all I took. I kept forgetting my camera. The kids played at Uncle Van & Aunt Kay's house while I was at the hospital. They had a great time. She has a huge room that is just toys for her grandkids....it even has a snow cone machine and a popcorn machine. Needless to say, they wanted to go back every day! We did manage to go to the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale. We go every year when we used to go to Arizona for Christmas. It's really hot now of course so we waited until about 7:00pm to go. Grandma, Uncle Curt, Braeden, Lindsey and I rode the train and the Merry-go-round and then the kids played on the playground for awhile. It was really fun...hot, humid (monsoon season in AZ) but fun! Curt bought a blow-up pool for the kids. He put it on the back porch out of the hot sun...the kids played for hours...everyday.

Braeden & Lindsey had so much fun on the plane. Here they are eating their chicken nuggets! (No, they didn't serve those on the plane...went to McDonald's before boarding the plane.) We were going down to the runway and I guess we weren't going fast enough for Lindsey. She said, "Ohhhh, this is just a big car"....but when we took off her and Braeden both giggled and said it tickled their tummies.

These photos are of our trip to AZ. Our return flight was much more interesting. Our flight was orginally scheduled to leave at 7:30pm but was delayed to 8:50pm. We finally got on the airplane around 9:00pm. As we were boarding....just before I stepped on the plane I saw a waterfall coming down in between the plane and the loading ramp. Then I noticed it was REALLY raining.....monsoon type rain, lightening & wind. To make a long story short we sat on the plane while it rained and the lightening struck and the wind blew....for 2 1/2 hours! The airport was even dirverting all the planes to Tucson. No one was landing or taking off. We finally took off around 11:30pm. We landed in Austin around 3:20 am. The kids were so good. While we waited....they colored, sang (I don't know if all the passengers enjoyed it...but I did), ate snacks, drank soda, went to the bathroom...along with all of the other 250 passengers. The bathroom was a revolving door of sorts. Once we were in the air they suddenly became very tired. Braeden laid down on the floor below our seats and Lindsey stretched across two seats and went to sleep. We had a great time in Arizona.....even though Grandma had surgery...she was a trooper.

Every month we travel to Houston to visit with Courtney. This time we went bowling....and I remembered the camera! The kids had such a blast. We all enjoy the time we get to spend with Courtney. As you can tell she is REALLY tall. She towers over me...not saying much since I am only 5'4" but she even called me a "shrimp".... The kids bowled on one lane and Steve & I bowled on another. The first game...I beat Steve. However, that is about all I am good for. Steve beat me pretty good the 2nd game.

Lindsey did pretty good...when her ball actually made it down the alley. She even got a strike and a couple of spares! Steve or I would "help" the ball. If we didn't get a hand on it...the ball would make it about 1/2 way down and then an employee would have to go get it back for us!