Our Last Two Outings with the Grand Kids

The days were winding down till Christopher and family had to return to Alberta and we had a couple more things we wanted to do with them. Doug wanted to take them for one more ATV ride to an area where we can get some rock called Christmas Tree granite. It has beautiful hues of green and red in it. The fellows use it to make clock faces and needed some more. As we now only had one extra ATV to use and Cole wanted to go, I had to stay home. Of course I didn't get to sit around and twiddle my thumbs, but took advantage of the quiet to vacuum, dust, do laundry and clean bathrooms! I also had to bake a second batch of my butterscotch cut out cookies as the kids had eaten them all and wanted more. I bake them and make the icing and the kids get to decorate them. Hannah and I did the first batch and Luke helped with the second. I was surprised at how good he was at decorating!

 Christopher and family in our ATV, Doug and Cole in the yellow RZR, our friends Sharon & Craig in the red kawasaki and Trent & Ann in the black Artic Cat!

 Everyone stopping for a bathroom and food break

Craig offering Lukie something to eat - knowing Luke and his "pickiness" he probably refused!

This is the cliff face where the fellows chip out the Christmas tree granite

You can see where the rock hounds have been slowly chipping away at the cliff face

The kids got quite a kick out of the red rock that looked like an elephant!

 I decided to let the kids make their own pizzas in hopes they would then eat them! It went over very well!!

On their last full day with us, we decided to take them on a drive over to Fountain Hills so they could see the huge fountain go off and also play at the play ground. It was a beautiful sunny day and quite warm so a good choice of activity

 Hannah wearing her sun dress Grandma Judy made and palying on the slide

 They had a good time hiding on each other

 Hannah figures she is "Queen of the castle"

 Luke coming down the slide. He had sweat pants on so he came down pretty fast the first time and there after, learned to hang onto the sides to slow himself down

 The fountain just starting. It goes off every hour on the hour for about 15 minutes. It is a gorgeous sight with the dark blue skies in the back ground

 The kids were quite enthralled with all the coots and different ducks in the lake

 Just enough of a breeze that it created a rainbow

 Thought I would get a back view of everyone looking at the fountain

 The fountain is pretty well at its maximum height

 Luke determined the coots liked to eat grass so he pulled some and fed them. Of course that only entertains him for so long......

 

Obviously Doug was more interested in the fountain than Christopher and I!

This is my cropped version!

 The bouncy dinosaur and car entertained them for a bit

 Great picture of Luke and Hannah sitting on a bronze toad. Hannah loves frogs!

This might be a little difficult to watch if you get motion sick!

 Hannah and Luke riding the dinosuar

The kids then saw all the ducks converge in one arm of the lake and wanted to feed them so they took their Gold Fish crackers and over they went.

Just before we left the park, we had to get a picture of all 3 grand kids sitting on a bronze tortoise.

The next day, Wednesday, they left for home at 1315 hours and arrived back in Edson Alberta late that night. Sounds like they had a snowy drive from Edmonton to Edson and it was still snowing this morning! Ugh...they can have that kind of weather. We are in for a week of below average temperatures with some nights falling into the 20's (F) so we are getting ready to cover all our citrus trees and put heat lamps under them. Seems this is the coldest spell Arizona has had in 25 years! Still, it is sunny and there is no snow to shovel!!