I Don't Feel Like I'm 4

Sam had his 4th birthday this weekend.  Needless to say, he was super excited!  I'm glad we were able to pull off a good birthday for him, though.  The entire week beforehand Anna had a very high fever (our thermometer tops out at 107 and a few times she was above that).  We eventually found out she had  a UTI, got her on the right antibiotics, and she is now on the mend.  But, that meant I had about one day to throw together an entire party!

We had lots of family, presents, tacos, and a "cat cake" for the party  Sam reassured everyone that it was not made of real cats!  Several months ago he had chosen that cake out of a decorating book I have, and was very excited to see it turn out.

When he woke up on the morning of his birthday he asked if he was now 4.  When I told him, "yes", he said that he didn't feel 4.  "Nothing is different!"  That's probably a good thing...

He also had his "Preschool Olympics" for the end of the year at gymnastics.  It was quite thrilling for him as he received his first-ever ribbon!

Finally, yesterday was his last day of preschool for the year.  I feel like I just made him chocolate chip pancakes and posted pictures of him here for his first day of school!

He had been looking at this Thomas train in a magazine since Christmas -

good thing it turned out to be just as good in real life!

Playing at the last day of school picnic

Having lunch at school for the last day!

95 degress in AZ and Snowing in WY

We decided in February that we wanted to take a trip to Phoenix.  Steve and I hadn't been back there since we moved in 2000 and we thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane.  Our first plan was to go there during spring training baseball, but our resort didn't have availability until May.  Of course, the reaction we got from some people was, "Phoenix in May?  Are you crazy?"  Turns out we were pretty smart!  It snowed and there were gale-force winds all week in Laramie while we enjoyed ninety degree weather and swimming pools!

So, what has changed?  The ASU campus is the same, our old neighborhood in Mesa looks like the economy hit it pretty hard (lots of empty stores), and if we ever moved back we'd live in Scottsdale (I guess our expectations have changed a bit since our early 20's!)  But, we also definitively decided that we would NOT ever move back to Phoenix - just being able to enoy nice weather there now and again is plenty for us!

We started the trip by traveling to Colorado Springs for our neice, Paige's, first communion

Morning coffee with Papa

Sam, the train engineer!

We couldn't get him out of the water all week...

...but Anna preferred sunbathing.

As long as there are mascots, baseball games are fun!

Visiting a kid's amusement park

And we finsihed the week with a trip to the Grand Canyon and Sedona!