Surprise!!

Katie came up with the idea of flying to Arizona to surprise her dad for Father's Day. It took a little planning, but we schemed together and got it all organized. I needed to go to Mesa to see my dear uncle anyway....and so Steve was not even suspicious. I almost blew it a couple of times and said something to let the cat out of the bag....telling him I was saving some spices for when Katie came so she could take them home with her.....calling him to tell him Katie was in the air...since we always worry about that...and mentioning some of our plans for when she was going to be here....so what I have learned about myself is that my life is such an open book any more....that I am not a very good secret keeper.....basically I have learned over the years that secrets are not very good in a family....so I just usually share most everything, unless I am told not too....but in this incidence it was very difficult...because who else do Steve and I have to talk to around here but each other....It was great fun! Katie asked me to let her out of the car a house ahead of ours....and with the big honeysuckle hedge he can't see the road from the porch. Then she waited a minute or two after I went in the house and then came up and knocked on the door. Steve was in such shock that he just walked away. I had our old camera in the house and it is not as clear....but I grabbed it anyway and tried to catch it on video. The whole weekend he couldn't stop smiling and gave Katie lots of hugs. We had a great time. Jess, Sara and the kids came down on Sunday and then we went up to Flagstaff on Tuesday to see the family. On Monday we went to Jerome. We shopped and had lunch....it was all such a fun time. Today we drove Katie back to the airport and she flew home.....I missed her even as I was kissing her good-bye. I am sure grateful she only lives one state away....at least we can manage that. She should be driving up on Highway 101 right now.......

Some other highlights of the weekend:

1. Jess took the "governors" off the go carts and made them go so fast that they scared Bodie and Papa....especially Papa.
2. Jess and Sara took the little boys out for races on the go carts.
3. Julie, Kyle and Daisy came by for a visit.....and came out to our new pool...where we were all lounging....they were thinking we had added a beautiful pool....and we had, except it was blue and one blows it up....it was so hot we were out there playing with the little boys and putting our feet in the pool....they pulled up chairs and joined us....we had a great visit....and a lot of laughs about our cooling off.
4. We had ribs....I need to work on my recipe...I am inventing my own and so my family has to be my guinea pigs....these were good, but not as good as I wanted them to be....so I will continue to experiment.
5. We had a lot of fun with the little boys....they are always entertaining and give us things to talk about for weeks...there is a lot of wisdom that comes out of those little mouths.....and a lot of advice. Brock told us that we were only to write on paper and not the walls and that when Wyatt got bigger he would tell him, "No Wyatt...we only write on paper!"....this is particularly interesting since he, himself, just wrote on the wall last week with a dry erase marker....However, I guess he has learned his lesson, because he can sure tell us what Wyatt needs to do now! (or rather not do!)
6. Unfortunately.....Dad's camera ran out of batteries and I didn't have enough time to go find mine and get him set up with it.....it takes a village to keep him up and going and when everyone else is here, he has to take a backseat....even if it is Father's Day. I just can't seem to take care of him and everyone else at the same time....and so we don't have as many pictures....he really does a good job of clicking away.....and now I wish I would have found the time!
7. And as usual it is always hard to say good-bye!