First Birthday!

Well, it is official, Jillian has turned one. Yesterday the Arizona cousins came over and we had our traditional first-birthday cake destruction. I must say, it was very fun to make a cake that had pink icing and nothing to do with Star Wars! Jill ate so much cake I was sure she'd be up sick, but as Auntie Alison says, "She must be related to me if she can hold her sugar!" This is Alison's niece, all right. Josh had to help her figure out why she was sitting there all by herself in front of a cake, but once he got her going she pounded about half the cake with only a few jelly beans for the brothers and one bite of cake to spare for her dad. Here's the photographic evidence:

Uncle Ken was put in charge of the birthday gift from the Stakers. He scored! Jillian loves the ball popper and gets some time to play with it now and then if her older brothers ever leave it alone. I may have to abscond with the batteries in order to get some peace and quiet around here.

We spent last weekend at a Hilton resort in North Phoenix on a "staycation" with a few of our friends. We had a great time: swimming all day, good friends, good food, and no cell phone service! I did, however, forget my camera. We'll have to rely on the good graces of friends for photos from our get-away.

I am also trying not to think about the fact that Sunny and Joshua are loading up and leaving for Philadelphia tomorrow. I wish I could be there to tell them goodbye in the flesh. If the kids make it there alive after 4 days in the car, then I guess we'll get ready to come and visit. Pennsylvania and Arizona look very far apart on our USA puzzle. Best wishes to Toad and Josh as they head off on their adventure. Don't stay too far too long!

Homeward Bound

We've just spent a wonderful 10 days at home in Salt Lake, in Idaho, and in Jackson at Uncle Doug and Aunt Carrie's house. Needless to say, we had a grand time and came home all pooped out! Consequently, we've all been sick for the last two weeks. And so I am just now getting around to posting some pictures from our trip. It rained and rained, but as you can see, the skies dried up just long enough for us to hike in God's backyard, for Jillian to discover the joys of spray cheese (thanks to Uncle Greg), to have a cookout in Millcreek canyon, and for the boys and Grandma Debbie to see a really cool frog exhibit at the Natural History museum. (Alex is the frog in the frog stew.)

It was hard coming home. However, we have great friends here in Queen Creek that make it worth the drive. Otherwise I think we would have moved into Doug and Carrie's shed! Jackson was absolutely heavenly.

We're getting ready to spend the 4th of July without our Dad. He's headed up to girls camp in the morning. (Luckily, we're not the only ones, so we'll be having a single parents' 4th of July party.) We went bowling and out for burgers today so that the boys won't feel cheated tomorrow. Happy Independence Day all.