Trip to the Riparian Reserve

This evening we walked around the Riparian Reserve, a wetland wildlife sanctuary right here in Gilbert, with Olivia, Greg and the kids. It was a lovely evening and Katelynn enjoyed herself tremendously. Here's some of the pics I took and a little video clip which gets a bit blurry toward the end, but you get the drift of it.

Fisticuffs Doesn't Pay!

About two and a half years ago, Michael broke his right 4th metacarpal when it was crushed in an injury at work. It healed by itself but on Saturday, he and Jordan decided to "play" at fisticuffs and after a few days of the pain and swelling getting worse, this X-ray clearly shows the result.
Our family doctor thinks he'll probably have to have surgery to put a pin in and we go to see the orthopedic surgeon on Monday. So far lots of money spent and even more wasted time trying to make sense of this crazy healthcare system. It's at times like these that I fondly remember the NHS...simply go to the hospital and they'll fix it for you the same day.

Splish Splash

Yesterday was Olivia's 25th birthday and I wanted to get some nice shots of her and her children, but my best laid plans always seem to go astray. I did get a "naked cousins in the tub shot" though. Hope they won't mind in about 15 years!

Return of the Prodigal

Two years ago, my daughter Olivia moved her little family to remotest upstate New York where her husband grew up and where his family still lived. It broke my heart. Late Tuesday night she returned here to live and it was pure bliss to see her again along with Katelynn and Christopher who I had never seen.
Katelynn was 7 months old when she left and 14 months when I last saw her. She has changed so much obviously and is a little sweetie, although she wasn't well when she arrived and has been living on Tylenol since she got here. As I write, she is much improved and it is so much fun to see her little character shining through.
Christopher is a little toughie. Stocky built with a Ukrainian head (takes after my side of the family for that!) and good at push ups! He is very much a mummy's boy and like to cry incessantly when he's not stuck to her chest. Now that reminds me of his mummy who was stuck to my chest for the first year of her life. Payback is sweet.
Olivia has lost lots of weight and I want to scratch her eyes out for that!!!! Otherwise, she's still the same old kid who doesn't listen to her momma!
My house is like a zoo but who cares. Right now, it'll do just fine.

What a difference a week makes

After watching Melissa Rycroft get proposed too then dumped in the space of an hour last Monday, it was great to see her make a comeback on Dancing With the Stars last night. Considering she was only hired for the job on Saturday, she did awesome. Len said that when one door closes, another one opens and this might just be a very big door opening for her.
You go girl!

Blooming Flowers

I think I've mentioned this before, but I am the world's worst gardener. I didn't inherit a single gardening gene from either of my green fingered parents and have a habit of killing anything I set my hands to.
You can imagine then why I wanted to snap these photos. Yep, to capture a reminder of them before they die, as they undoubtedly will. The jasmine is in full bloom at the moment and smells so strong. The mini daffodils are a reminder of England whilst the oleander and bougainvillea are a definite Arizona plant. See those two red strawberries? My mouth is watering already.

Friends at the Ghost town

Our friends the Brinkerhoffs have been staying with us for a few days as Taylor was competing in a Little League baseball tournament here in Gilbert at the Big League Dreams stadium. They are always so kind to let us stay with them when we go up to Utah and we were glad to return the favor. Whilst they were pretty busy with their schedule, we did have a few hours on Saturday to take them to the Goldfield Ghost Town. They had forgotten their camera and my camera batteries were dying, of course, but I did manage to snap these few pics of them as a reminder of their trip to Arizona.

Mike and Lesley insisted on having their photo taken with a mighty Saguaro cactus...

...and I insisted that they have their picture taken with the Superstition Mountain in the background.

We weren't exactly sure what this bird cage was used for, although we had a couple of ideas, neither one of which we explained to Taylor, but as everyone else seemed to be climbing in to have their photo taken, Lesley and Taylor did the same.

Outside the bordello! One of the ladies told us that if we paid her $3 each, she'd let us in and show us her quarters with a polite description of what went on in there. We politely declined!

This picture was before the gunfight.

This one was after.

And this one was where they should have all been locked up!

We had a fun hour or so there before riding down to Canyon Lake to have a quick peek, then it was back to Gilbert for Taylor to play in his next game. All in all, a very pleasant afternoon and a sunny but balmy Arizona 63F which our visitors described as "chilly at times". :)

Favorite line of the week

Setting: me and hubby watching The Bachelor Finale

Son: (enters family room) "Why are you watching that rubbish?"

Hubby: (looking at me) "Cos we're hopeless romantics!"

Me: (looking at hubby) "Aaaahhh"

The Bachelor Finale

It must have been the worst kept secret in Bachelor history as someone leaked the crazy happenings of the Finale and the After the Rose episode ahead of time. It was one thing to know that Jason would choose Melissa only to dump her a few weeks later for Molly but another thing all together to see him do it on TV.
He acted like a total jackass. I was surprised but pleased that ABC kept in the "nice" word that Melissa called him instead of beeping it out, she had every right to be upset and angry with him. I was willing Molly to tell him "Sorry, I've moved on. I don't want you anymore", but of course she didn't. Fool! Anyway, there's supposed to be an After the Rose, part 2 tonight, so who knows what's in that?
My opinion?
Move over The Bachelor...Dancing With The Stars is coming!

The March Chicky

What a beautiful ball of fluff! This is a Silkie Bantam, Bearded White Hen and I just want to rub my nose in it's feathers, they look so soft.