A visit with Grandma & Grandpa Gould

Friday night David's parents drove out to see us for a few days. We haven't seen them since March of last year. Although we use something called Skype, a way to talk & see each other over the Internet, it is not the same as being together. All afternoon Zhara kept asking if they were still coming, so when Grandpa called to say they were here she was at the door in a second. She went downstairs to greet them & was just so excited they were here. Alyssa was a little nervous, but that went away as soon as Grandma gave her hugs & kisses. Thursday night they stayed at my parents house to make the drive a little more bearable and it was fun for them to see my parents house and pictures of me as I grew up. Saturday morning we woke up & went hiking & showed them all the cactus. I was a little nervous about the rattlesnakes being out and when the Ranger walks past me & said "the rattlesnakes are out, watch your little ones" I held my breath hoping we would not see any & thank goodness we didn't. After the hike we had a BBQ & went swimming. David & Grandpa taught the girls how to play chicken. Alyssa knocked Zhara off a couple of times but Grandpa kept her out of the water. After a nap the girls went to dinner with Aimee & her boyfriend, Glenn while we went out with David's parents. The girls had so much fun because Glenn had a DVD player in his car & they got to go to Dave & Busters. Monday the girls and I took Grandma to Alyssa's dance class & then to the zoo. Grandma took the girls to see the sting rays and Zhara liked touching them, Alyssa just wanted to watch. They had a great time & although we only got to see 1/3 of the zoo in 2 hours we were very tired when we left. Grandpa went to work with David for the day and then we ended the night with ice cream at Cold Stone. Tuesday Grandma got to see Zhara's school and Zhara showed her around the class room. That afternoon we all went to watch Zhara do gymnastics & then some great friends watched the girls so that we could go to the temple. For the Gould's who are reading this you know that no Gould function is complete without a game, so even though it was 1030 when we got back from the temple and after 11 pm when we ate dinner, we played our very favorite game (thank you Dorman family!!!) Ticket to Ride. It was really funny because we were all sooooo tired (we did not go to bed once before midnight the whole time they were here), in fact Bob made some comment and when he asked me what I said I was laughing so hard I think it took me 10 min to get it out. They left on Wed morning and we were all sad to see them go. Zhara gave Grandpa a Tinkerbell valentine card and when he gave her a hug she said "this is so we can be friends forever" As we watched them leave Zhara said "I miss them already. Can we go see them tomorrow?" I hope you enjoy the slide show of a few moments we had with them.

Me According To Zhara

On Facebook a friend had a list of questions she asked her 7 year old about "mom" and it was funny so I sat down with Zhara & asked her the same 20 questions & wanted to share her answers because the mind of a child makes me laugh & I hope you get a chuckle or two.......

1) What is something mom always says to you?
I love you

2)What makes mom happy?
when I listen

3) What makes mom sad?
when I don't listen

4)How does mom make you laugh?
tickles me

5)What was your mom like when she was a child?
a child of God

6)How old is your mom?
I forgot

7)How tall is your mom?
90 feet tall

8)What is her favorite things to do?
play with me

9)What does your mom do when you aren't around?
clean

10)If your mom became famous what would it be for?
being in a commercial

11)What is your mom really good at?
playing

12)What is your mom not very good at?
being a teacher (that one hurt a little)

13)What does your mom do for her job?
clean the house

14)What is your mom's favorite food?
chicken and broccoli (just so you know we NEVER have this meal)

15)What makes you proud of your mom?
that you play with me

16)If your mom were a cartoon character who would she be?
Mickey Mouse

17)What do you and your mom do together?
clean the kitchen

18)How are you and your mom the same?
we have the same eyes

19)How are you and your mom different?
we wear different shirts

20)How do you know your mom loves you?
you play with me

21)Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Walmart

Some Spring Time Events

A few weeks ago David had an all day meeting at Dave & Buster's (basically a Chuckie Cheese for adults) and because he doesn't drink, he traded his drink tickets for playing cards & ended up with over 50 dollars worth to play with. Instead of playing himself, he came home & took his girls to play. We played for almost 2 hours & ended up with over 2000 tickets. The girls had a blast. Zhara even won the jackpot on a game with 270 tickets. All Alyssa wanted to do was race cars & Zhara was attached to Daddy winning tickets. I wish I would have taken a picture of all the toys they got because 2000 tickets went a long way with a 2 & 4 year old. We are thankful to Farmers for the free passes & to Daddy who wanted to play with us.

Last weekend my parents came down & took us to a spring training game for the Royals. When David & I were dating we entertained the idea of going to see the Rockies play for spring training (they are here also) but never did & now that we are here in the Valley where 8 teams have their spring training we should go right? And so thanks to Grandpa & Grandma Burney we did & we had a lot of fun. It was warm (like 87, which feels more like 97 with the sun) but we sat in the grass and enjoyed the freedom of walking around. The girls had such a good time. They had a kid area & for 1$ per child they could ride the carousel all day, get their face painted & got an animal balloon.

Tonight Zhara had been complaining of her tummy hurting for like 3 hours & she didn't eat dinner. She ended up projectile vomiting all over me, my freshly cleaned kitchen floor & cabinet doors, the counter & all the dishes in the sink. It was good times, but she wanted an ice pop afterwards and after I did some cleaning up I found her asleep on the table. Then Alyssa wanted me to take a picture of her too, so she is posing as a mermaid :)