The ZOO

Scott and I were so lucky as to be able to go to the Zoo today with his two older sister's Marie and Amber. Marie had free passes for all of us! YEAH!! Upon entering the zoo we headed over to the reptile area and looked at the snakes and lizards. The next stop that must be made under no circumstances is to Scott's favorite animal to visit the Mexican Gray Wolf. We spend at least 15-20 minutes in this area while he waits patiently for them to stop on by the fence and say hello to him. I patiently sit on the sidelines while he has a good time. Today he got some great pictures of this wolf above, which ticked some ladies off, and I qoute "We have been coming to this zoo for a month to see these animals and this young man sits down and here they are just waiting for him and they pose just perfectly for him" they spend a total of about 1 minute there and then are off, he chuckles to himself and just admires this animal!!

We stopped in the Golden Eagle enclosure and got to see them eat there food (which happened to be dead rats). You can hear Emma chime in and say "EEEWWW" , but still watches them eat, the other kids thought that it was a little cool, this Golden Eagle was huge, his wing span was so enormous. There was one Eagle in the enclosure that had only one wing. Poor guy! We then walked around and visited some more areas!

We then decided to wait and ride the train as our final thing to do in the park! It was an okay time, but kind of a bad day to go, I swear like almost every elementary school from out of town was at the zoo today! AAAHHH! So many little kids and not enough adults for them! Above picture is of Jodi, Anne-Maire, and Kendal waiting to ride the train.The later that we were at the zoo the hotter it became, thank goodness for vehicles that have excellent air conditioning! Hopefully we will get to go again, but probably not until well after summer is over.

Happy B-Day Richard Daines!!

This last weekend Scott and I decided to take a little day trip and go exploring we went up the US 60 towards Globe, we stopped right after the tunnel between Superior and Globe and went exploring and discovered that there was a river down in the ravine, so we hiked down and took some pictures and just enjoyed the scenery, it was a little cold and windy down in the ravine but we enjoyed it. We then hiked back up the ravine to the highway (very steep in spots). We got back on the 60 and drove to the turn off for Oak Flats,it is a really neat little camping area with a little stream running through it. It was really neat to see how the weather erodes an asphalt rode that is not kept up anymore.

After Oak Flats we went onto Globe and explored the downtown area, we stopped at a place called the Pickling Barrell Trading Post in downtown Globe and got to see a lot of old antiques that were not seen anymore. Scott and I found a lot of old Dutch Ovens ( if we had the money, they would have found a new home at our house). While there we learned that there is a train ride that you can take which will take you all the way to the San Carlos Reservation and back while you get to explore the scenery while you ride. We might do tht another time in the future. We ate at Jerry's restraunt ( a staple of good food when I was in college up at EAC). We headed back down to the valley and enjoyed seeing the poppy flowers that are popping up all along the highway. We are going to go explore another spot of this great State of Arizona again. Until the next time....... oh and posting!

Happy Birthday Mom Thompson!!!!

Another Sad Day!!

Happy V-Day to everyone!! Yesterday we went to Scott's friend L.R.'s funeral. It was hard for me to go because his family used the same funeral home as my dad and he was also buried in the same cemetary. The services were non LDS (my first one, a bit interesting but beautiful). People who new L.R. were able to get up and give heartwarming thoughts about him, I chose to get up and talk a little bit about him, really hard to do when you are so emotional and your husband is having a hard time with having to say goodbye to him completely. But everyone got through it. Scott was one of the pallbearer's for him. We got to see Tonya (his wife) for the first time since the accident, she has a cast on her arm, has to wear a neck brace (she broke her 5th vertibrae), and has a wheelchair for a while. After the services we proceeded to the cemetary, I took pictures for Tonya. They had the services at the cemetary, and we were able to let balloons go, to fly to heaven! There was a luncheon at a relatives house. Tonya did really well during the funeral, and the luncheon. But Scott and I had to drop off all of the Flowers that were received at the funeral (they ended up in our car) at night, We stayed for a little bit to try and comfort her, she was having a really hard time. She does not know how she is going to be able to do this all alone. We hope that she will eventually be okay with the heartache that has happened to her, please keep her in your thoughts and prayers, that she will be okay. Thankfully Scott and I do not live that far from her so we can go over and help her when needed, her son Lewis is gonna need alot of people around to help him and his mom. He is such a active 2 year old. We are going to be going with The Robedeau family this next weekend to go to the Professional Drag Races. It will be alot of fun, we always have a good time with them.

Happy 3rd Birthday Camron "CamCam" Castle. You are getting so big. We Love You Lots!!!!!

Happy Birthday Jenna Kleiner!!!

An update of happenings within the last week!

Our Saturday started out with a trip to a Mesa park for a 3rd birthday party for our nephew Camron. We had pizza, cake, soda, presents and other stuff along with the wind (which made it a little nippy). Camron wore a baseball shirt and hat that he was so excited to wear. He called Scott on the phone and stated that he wanted to play baseball with him and when were we coming to be with him. Scott played with all of the kids and Jodi once again had her fill of babies and the older nieces and nephews. Until another birthday party with my husband's family of 38 and another one coming in fall 2009. His sister Laurissa is pregnant and will be adding a fourth child to there family! Congrats you guys! This is a picture of Sara at the zoo, Scott was able to go to the zoo with his 2 older sisters and their children. He loves that place. On friday night his sister Amber and her husband had a couples night with some friends, we got to have the two girls over for the evening so their parents could go have some fun. Scott's sister Marie and her clan of 8 also came over to the house. We cooked dinner and had a good time watching Madagascar 2. Emma brought over her princess dress up stuff and shared it with everyone, Sara loved every minute of the night until I put her in her pajamas, then she was not a happy camper, so we went for a walk to calm down. It is always a fun time when we have a lot of people over to our house. We would not change it for the world. I got to see one of my many favorite nieces Bailey this weekend. I just love her lots. She is the sweetest little thing. She will be two in July. Here she is after we fed her pizza and cake. Her brother Hayden is also another favorite to see. Right now the poor little guy is having problems with his breathing, there is something wrong with his lungs, so on monday he will be seeing a specialist, and hopefully they will be able to find out what is completely wrong with him and be able to get him feeling better. We love you lots Hayden!!

Last weekend Scott went to Camp Verde to pick pecans with His parents, My parents, Brother and Sister-in-Law. Camron was able to go along and pick the pecans, he was so excited to be able to help, he got his gloves on and went a pickin, the weather was just perfect up there. Scott brought back a big bucket full of pecans and a bag of cracked pecans. My brother played with Larry's homemade pecan shell cracker machine.I have eaten so many pecans they are coming out of my ears. But, Hopefully when I have a weekend off Scott and I will be able to go up there and visit Candy & Larry in Camp Verde and pick some more!!!

Another BIG setback for us in 2009 !!!!!

Well another set back in our lives happened this weekend! I was at work and Scott had gone with his parents on saturday to Camp Verde to pick pecans at a friends house. He received a phone call from his "2nd" mom Dalia, that he needed to come over to her house right away something terrible had happened. He told her that he was out of town and could not come. He told her that he would come over on sunday. After the pecan picking they took the truck to get firewood and got stuck in the mud for about 6 hours. Scott did not get home until about 10:30 p.m. Upon returning home Scott proceeded to tell me that his best friend (L.R.) since he was in scouts (about 15 years) had gotten into an accident on his way back from texas from a funeral. His wife(Tonya), son(Lewis) , mother-in-law, and brother-in-law were in the car. They had gotten a flat tire that exploded on them and sent the car in the air. Tonya has a cracked pelvis, and she broke her 5th vertibrae and bruised some other ones, Lewis has scratches and a bump on the noggin (he was in his carseat- thank goodness, those things really work), Tonya's mom has a compound fracture to her arm, broken ribs among other things that I cannot remember. Scott then proceeded to tell me that L.R. and his brother-in-law had passed away in the accident. I lost it, I just started crying and could not stop, I was so concerned how Tonya was doing with the news that she would recieve about the tragedy that had happened. Scott has been pretty tight lipped about this whole thing (I think that he is hurting a lot inside and just is not ready to show it, if he ever does) Me on the other hand just lose it when I start remembering the good times that we had together with him. Scott needs to be strong for Daila, Larry, Tod, Bella, Tonya, and Lewis. It is going to be a long recovery for all of us. We love L.R. very much and will miss his laugh, personality, and wise cracks. Just pray for us that we will be able to get through this and that we will be able to get through Jodi losing her father 2 1/2 weeks ago.