Proudfoot visit!

We were so lucky to have the Proudfoots come for their annual spring visit! We started off with going to the Farmers Market. There ended up only being a handful of vendors because of the rain. Arizonans don't know how to function when its barely sprinkling outside!

 The girls had a blast at the play area nearby. Note that none of these rides were even moving. :)

We went on a hike the next morning in the Estrella Mountains.

 A sweet moment when they were actually getting along.

Averi got stickers in her hand and Kenley's sensitive side came out and she tried to comfort her. SO cute!

Visiting the ranch at the bottom of the hiking trail.

Averi showing her cousins "her" park.



Kadence and Rix were thrilled to be crammed into the same swing :)

 Cute little church-go-ers!

 Sunday afternoon walk

 My girls grooming Inka - the pooch we were watching

 No Proudfoot visit is complete without an Ikea visit!

 Averi and Kenley LOVED getting to spend the hour at Smalland rather than shopping!

 That night we went to The Culinary Dropout for dinner... SO good!

 ... and Kadence agrees!

 The kids (and us) enjoyed playing Cornhole after we were done eating 

 Averi and Kenley building the Lego set that Kenley gave her.

 The girls loved taking glow sticks into the bath with them... anything to convince them to get IN!

We finally made our way to the Wildlife World Zoo.

The big girls were entranced by this white peacock and were following it around.

The highlight of the zoo trip (at least for me) was the baby jaguars. They were just about the cutest little things I have ever seen!! 

Then we got to feed the stingrays. of course neither of my kids would go near them but Kenley and Rix seemed to love it.

Absolutely NO visit from Maria would be complete without an all day trip to the Anthem Outlets! We got some great deals! Here is my loot:

The big girls in their new matching swim suits

 

An amazing photo shoot of me and Maria

Baby Rix and Kadence got along together much better than their sisterly counterparts. Kadence sharing her gold fish with Rix (in her new suit).

Rix all bundled up at the pool :) Love that little man!

We are so lucky to have such a fun family that is willing to travel so far to visit us. We always have such a great time together and can't wait to see them again when we make our visit north this Summer!

DeGraws visit!

I love the sprint time here for more reasons than one. The biggest reason being that it is usually when family gets sick of their Winter weather and comes to visit us in sunny Arizona! We were soo excited to have Matt, Deanne, Payton, Macy, and even Nammy come visit us in April!! The girls were thrilled to see them all and as always, had a blast with Payton and Macy.

 

Kadence and Macy's reunion. As you can see, Kadence warmed RIGHT up to her!

 

Of course we were watching some dogs while they were here (which was perfect because they are all animal lovers too!) so we took them on a walk around the neighborhood on Sunday afternoon.

 

Kadence enjoyed holding Deanne's hand and going at a (much) slower pace. 

 

This was quite possibly the sweetest thing I have ever witnessed. Macy wanted to sleep on the floor next to Averi (rather than on the couch or in a bed with Payton) so they all got to get ready for bed together. I asked Macy if she wanted to read my girls a book while I picked up the room a little. She agreed and sat right on the bed with them and read them a whole Berenstain Bear book. Of course the girls probably couldn't understand much of what she was saying but they both sat there and listened intently (Kadence was also flipping though her own board book). It was the cutest sweetest thing EVER! I love those girls! 

 

Building a fort out of couch cushions



Kadence being silly in the car on the way over to the hotel pool. Matt and Deanne got the same hotel that they did last year so the girls spent a TON of time there at the pool. 

"Cheese!"

Matt took us to this awesome restaurant called the Culinary Dropout in Phoenix. They had great food and fun games to play like Bean Bag Toss and Ping Pong. The girls were loving it.

More swimming. This picture should give you an idea of how long they would actually swim in a given stretch. They literally swam for about 4 hours straight almost every day they were here!

Chillin' in the sun with Nammy

 

Coloring Easter eggs

Macy is obsessed with watermelon! (hence the bright red face :)

Nammy took us all out to see Rio 2 at the theater. It was a cute show. Even us grownups liked it!

We took one of the dogs we were watching on a hike with us in Estrella Mountain. It was fun and the weather was great. However, poor Macy fell and scraped up her legs and elbows pretty bad. She said that she is never going hiking again... but we will see!

Having some much needed down time after a day of swimming and hiking.

Payton loved our cat Meeko. She didn't seem to mind Payton either, which was a little surprising since she is kinda skiddish with strangers.

It was so much fun to have them visit and we are excited to see them again this Summer when we plan to drive up to see everyone.