Mini Sunday Post

Sunday we did the usual church, and then headed to the Mesa, AZ Temple for the "Reflections of Christ" display. It was pretty neat, had some awesome pictures recently taken and music to go along with the pictures... Glad Annie pointed that out to us to go see. But we took some pictures of Gracyee, so had to get those on. She is almost to walking, but still gets to be the baby for a little longer!
Ben trying to play Hardcore, Brent being happy, and Mom mixing our dinner drink!

And Here is Good Old Annie... We just love you!

Saturday full of fun

Beautiful Camelback Mountain!!










We were so excited to get out of CO while it was snowing, we had to make the most of our AZ trip. So Saturday morning we planned a hiking trip to Camelback. It was AWESOME! I hadn't done it for a long time, and Ben never had. So Brent gathered up a couple friends, and we gathered up Mom Skousen and Dad McDowell and had a pretty good time. It was a perfect day, sunny clear (if you couldn't tell) and warm. And it wasn't much of a mountain, but it gave off a pretty good darn view of the Valley. After some hiking, we gathered some of the McDowell clan a visited Matt working at Sonic, and then to Sports Authority to grab some slingshots. So, Of course when we got home they had to be broken in. Each boy got a turn at being target practice while everyone else lined up to shoot at them. The girls were free of having to get shot at, but Mom even jumped in to shoot when Dad was all layered up. I got a couple of good shots in- Right to the shoulder blades, felt pretty good about those!!



And here are the kids having a movie party while the adults were getting ready for a night full of Games!!

Friday First

Since we took quite a few pictures while we were in AZ, it was decided
to split up the trip log. We got a new camera and had to try it out, Right?? It was a blast to be in AZ and fun to spend time with the family! Here are pictures from our Fabulous time at Mango's friday night!! We had to put a picture of Shelby and Brittany Adair's kid, Hadley, on the blog. She definitely has a lot of energy, but is a ton of fun- and just so Cute!! Made Friday a little more interesting. And A Shout out to Dan and Kelli for letting us stay at their place- Thanks Again-

OOOOPPPPSSS

So I always hate when people don't update their post for a long time. I get bored at work and just try to check out everyone's links- and it gets really old when nothing new has been posted. WEll, I just realized we are in that category so I thought we could spit something out to you all. Had a Great New Year. Had some friends over for dinner and games, then we stayed up and watched a movie. Nothing exciting, and it was Fantastic. Had New Year's Off, and Back to work on the 2nd for Jen and Back to school for Ben too. Finally. It is no fun to have to go to work everyday while Ben is on break. So- between now and then not a whole lot going on. Just freezing in Denver and trying to keep warm, so stay inside! But the good news, is we are in AZ right now, and it is SO GREAT!! We hiked Camelback this morning with Dad McDowell, Mom Skousen, Brent and Friends. It was perfect. Had some Mesa Fro Yo and that just topped off the trip. Then plans for some slingshot paintballing on Monday- so we'll update you on how that goes and put some pictures. We got a new camera for Christmas and will have to work with that.. Yippee.

Merry Christmas!!

Had to add some more kid pics. in here. Michelle made it with her girls (up top) and then there is Tyler, Emily and Julie playing with the people Nativity set. What a handful, but they're fun!

Here's how the Skousens's pics turned out, and there is a new addition compared to the old pics!! Happy Day, but Christmas is over.. It was a great vacation in AZ and out of CO. Ben flew out Friday morning and all was well. Jen flew out in the afternoon (had to work) and it was SNOWING so had to sit in the plane for an extra hour while the plane got de-iced. Never had to go through that before. It was great to see clear skies and brown ground in AZ. (Isn't that a first) Attended a GREAT Party at Anna's- Thanks for putting that on, it was a lot of fun! Took some family pictures, did a lot of driving back and forth between parents. It was crazy but great. We have some great family in AZ and love them tons. We always appreciate parents willing to drive us everywhere and letting us borrow cars, and rearranging the house so we can crash there.

Gracyee turns 1 !!! Isn't she just a little princess?? And she sure went to town with her pink cake!

Christmas morning with the McDowells. (even Grandma made it)

And Happy 27th B-Day to Ben

End of Story!

So I loved reading everyone's comments and figure I should finish the story. The luggage did show up when the boys went to the airport- and had only gone to Kansas...And snowboarding was a BLAST!! Seriously though, still don't understand why there isn't a better system out there for SW so luggage doesn't get lost. Ben flew home on the 27th at night- it was miserable in CO, but he sat at the airport for over an hour, and his clothes bag came but no golf clubs, and it was 1 am and I needed to go to bed. So he kept calling and calling the next day- when come to find out it was just sitting in the office. You'd think they would read the tag and call a person, or look when the person has been calling.... but they delivered it the nest afternoon. I agree.. Do the best you can when flying with SW, try to carry EVERYTHING on!!

End of School.....

Ben and the Fighting Rams....


(Can't really see it, but it is a sleeping Rhino)
Nothing TOO exciting happened this week, just Ben is done with school for a two weeks. So we celebrated by going out to eat at Bennigan's friday night. Not really celebrated, but that is what we did. Also went to the Denver Zoo Lights Saturday night for a GI/Hepatology UCH work party- so free admission and free food. Can't complain about that too much. Then today the bothers flew in... Jim,Scott and Brent.. Sorry no Dan, Matt or Mark, You guys sure will miss out. The boys will do some snowboarding Mon-Thurs while Jen slaves aways short handed at the hospital. (a co-worker just quit..) Bad news.. The snowboard equipment still hasn't arrived- Southwest lost the luggage and doesn't know where to find it. First it will catch the next flight out of PHX (the guy took a break and forgot to add a cart of bags, that is our guess because a lot of people got hosed) then they were in Nashville, and now they don't know where they are. They just made stories up before. So the Brothers are on their way to the airport hoping to have luck with something, otherwise that makes for a miserable snowboard trip with no Gear... We'll see, I guess you'll have to check next week.......