Fun in Scottsdale, AZ

Micah and Mom spent the day out with the Ellsworth women. Sisters and mom of Sara, whom all treat me like a sister/daughter. We had a lot of fun. We met up with Sara at her place. Jumped in her suburban (which I got to drive), picked up her mom and sister and headed off to Scottsdale. For those of you who aren't familiar with AZ, Scottsdale is AZ equivalent to Beverly Hills. What would make us drive all the way to Scottsdale you ask, a fancy restaurant perhaps, a day at Biltmore fashion square, or the sight of the big homes? Nope. We went down to an old pancake house that served good food!  We met up with cousins, aunts and even Grandma Ellsworth at the restaurant. We had fun visiting with everyone and eating. After that we headed to the Train Park. I think it's a state park, and it features trains.
They have playgrounds and lots of wide open space for kids to run around and of course a small train that you can ride in that goes around the park. The kids played on the playground while we waited for the next train ride. Micah and Trenton had fun on it. After the park we stopped in downtown Phoenix for an errand since we were downtown, we couldn't leave without giving Willo's a call. We ran over there and much to our disappointment, NO CHEESE DANISH. If you want the best cheese danish, you have to go to this place (7th Ave/McDowell). Good thing it's not near by. We consoled ourselves with other pastries they had on hand. It was a long day but fun. I am tired and ready to go to bed. Thanks again Ellsworth ladies, we'll do lunch again soon.

Weekend Review

The weekend was a fun one for the kids. Saturday morning, Tyler had a basketball game. He's getting better and better at it. He made a few baskets for his team. He has such a great coach. Tyler's team has only lost one game so far, and that was because only 5 guys showed up to play for his team. After the game, Tyler, Leigh and Micah went over to our adopted family's house "The Griffin's" to play with their kids. Tyler and Harrison went with Harrison's grandpa (who's also our dentist), took the boys to the Wigwam Creek Resort to play shuffleboard. The two of them had a blast! Who knew shuffleboard would excite 8 y.o. boys. Leigh and Samantha helped out Aunty Sara deliver zuccini and zuccini bread to all the neighbors. Sara is so good about doing service for your neighbors. Micah and Trenton just played all day outside. The two of them have a grand 'ole time just playing. We are going to miss them so much!! Sara and I are so close that we are sisters. She and I are both the oldest in our families, we both have brothers that are the same age (who consider themselves brothers as well), that we worry about from time to time, as well as the other siblings. We both have four kids, and we are both nurses. In fact, she and I both worked at the hospital I am still working at. She helped to deliver the babies and I took care of them afterwards. Once in a while she and I would get to work together on Postpartum Floor and we had the best time! She and I have the greatest talks. We make each other laugh so hard sometimes that we are cry. I will miss her. I'm just glad that we have email and telephones even, to bridge that distance. The kids were there from 1:30pm-6:30pm (poor Sara). Thanks!! They had the best time!

Kara opted to stay home with mom and dad. We went shopping for some clothes and then splurged and got ice-cream from Ritters (they sell frozen custard). When we got home, Kara played with the neighbor girl across the street. We told the neighbors we were leaving and they seemed kind of sad. I'm looking forward to going, but boy am I going to miss it here. 

Daddy-Daughter Dance

Every year the schools in our district have a Daddy-Daughter Dance. This was the first year that Leigh got to go with her dad. Every other time Randy has had to teach a night class. It was held on Feb. 7th (we just got the pictures today). Leigh was so excited to be going. She had her hair and (a little bit) of make-up done by mom. The event was held at Canyon Ridge School  gym. They were served a pasta dinner with a variety of deserts. They even got to take pictures for $2. Leigh danced the evening away with her dad. Randy said he had fun too being with his daughter. As for the rest of us, well, we went out for ice-cream at Ritter's (ooh, that sounds good right now). 

Nothing to do on a Sunday

I was uploading pictures on the computer and thought this picture was worth posting. This was taken a couple of weeks ago. This is what happens when there is not much to do on a Sunday afternoon—your children turn into "COUSIN ITT"!

Math Brain

Tyler came home with a permission slip on Tuesday from school to join the Mathlete Club. I found out that you had to be invited to be in this "club", meaning you have to be good at Math. Who knew (just kidding).  I think he is going to be part of a team that competes in Math competitions. Of course I had to let him do it. He actually wants to do it.

Science Fair time for Leigh!

I did my science project on the effects of sleep depravation on the mind. My hypothesis is that nurses will do better on the test before doing their night shift. What I did was tested them with a survey and they took an IQ test on my mom's cell phone. I did this for 3 nights. I graphed my results and my hypothesis was correct. I didn't win, but maybe next year! Tyler and Kara did science projects with their classes. Tyler's class tested  to see if the darker something edible was, would it be sweeter. Their conclusion was that it wasn't. Kara's class tried to see if bigger particles (eg. sugar vs. salt), would dissolve quicker. The smaller particles dissolved quicker. Mom forgot to take pictures of these.  Hopefully, she will remember to take pictures next time. 

It's time to come home

Well, this is our attempt at creating a blog. Hopefully, we can keep up with it. We've started out this New Year with a bang already. We received a call from BYUH offering Randy a job that we just couldn't turn down. So we are in the process of moving back over the ocean. We will miss all our friends and family here in AZ, but hope to come back for many visits. Don't forget to visit us as well. This is a picture of the BYU-Hawaii Campus. We are looking at a time frame of 1-2 months to make it over there. We'll keep you posted.