Scott & Jess & Evan

Scott and Jess and Evan took their first road trip to see us from Phoenix. 

They arrived Friday late afternoon. I was going to leave work early, but I didn't bother to tell anyone to call when they arrived. Luckily they hadn't really been home too long before I got home. 

We just enjoyed sitting around the house and watching Evan keep busy with whatever he felt like doing. He played the piano a lot. I don't remember that he played with any toy more than another. He is still at the age where they seem to dabble for a very short time with something and then move on. He did like being outside. Scott took him for a walk around the block on Saturday and it got to be too hot. 

On Sunday we only attended Sacrament meeting. Our block of meetings is in the middle of Evan's naptime and it seemed the better choice to come home and just relax. 

I had planned on doing a little more cooking, but we simplified and ate sandwiches for a couple meals. I made a peach cake that was so delicious the first time I made it, but I think I might have baked this one too long. I was kind of disappointed. I hate when that happens. 

We did stay at the house for the weekend. It's just too hot to drag people around during the summer.  We all enjoy watching movies, watch Evan, eat, sleep - you know things like that. 

So here are the pictures.
On their way.

All the Daly men.

Fred passed the torch of the wheel barrow ride to Scott. 

I think Evan had fun. 

 And they're off!

  Fred brought home more BIG boxes from work, but I think Evan needed some cousins to help him discover the wonder of BIG boxes.

 Evan is obsessed with sitting in containers. Any size.
It's pretty cute!!

I think Fiesta Fun was a pretty big hit. Jess set the new high record for the basketball hoop arcade game. 

 This is probably my favorite picture.

 The visit was short, but very sweet.
I'm really glad that Evan is a good passenger and that a long road trip like that was doable for them.
Heck - Fred and I don't even like driving that far anymore.
Next time we see this family of three, it will be a family of four.
Wow.

Disneyland with Shannon

 It's already been a couple weeks since Shannon came for a visit.

I think she called me at work on a Tuesday and said she wanted to come for a quick weekend visit.

Then she texted a few minutes later and said she wanted to include a day at Disneyland.

She left work early on Thursday and pulled into our house after midnight.

We left Friday morning and headed to California.

 All buckled up and ready to go.

Brian is not a fan of Disneyland. He stayed home to do other manly things.

 I was able to find this great hotel about 10 minutes down the road in Orange, CA.

One room had two queen beds and this room had a double for the kids. 

 Here we are in the doorway between the rooms.

 We were able to enjoy the pool after we had Wendy's for dinner. 

Here we are in line for the tram from the parking garage to Disneyland. 

 Now on the tram. 

Ticket and Picture Time. Oh Fred got tickets with his military discount thru the Shipyard.

We stopped at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas on our way to CA.

I tell you his decision to work all those years in the shipyard continues to be a blessing.

Our retirement benefits are such a blessing. I hope we don't ever lose them. 

Picture Moment!! 

 First thing Shannon stopped one of the Disney Workers to lay the groundwork for the kids to understand who to find and talk to if they got lost. 

Princess Tiana is the only Princess that we met.

She walked out just as we finished lunch. We followed her to the river boat.

She was quite lovely, of course.

 I did like taking pictures of Shannon with Fred. 

I think they are quite the buddies.

 One of our treat times. It was hot.

  Horsey time. These two were so good. 

There was no whining or any fit throwing.

 See - pretty happy.

This picture of Fred and Buddy is on the Jungle Cruise. 

The guide for some reason was just not funny. He talked too fast and he kept ragging on us that we weren't laughing. Well who's fault is that?

Another treat time. This was during Mickey's Magic Map Show.

Fred and I didn't go on this ride with them. 

I always think of Tracy Freckleton at this ride.

She used to work at Disneyland and I can totally see her working this ride.

No monkeys here.

I think this was one of the favorite rides of the day.

It's hard to get a good picture of the carousel. A moving target.

Splash Mountain was closed the first half of the day.

We didn't think we wanted to wait until late to ride it. Plus the line was a couple hours long or longer as the day wore on. We did go ahead and get a Fast Pass just in case.

Well, as you can see we did it. It was going on 10 PM. 

It was the last ride of the night.

I really don't know how the kids felt about it.

It doesn't really look like they loved it by this picture.

 At first, I could tell she didn't appreciate me touching her, but I felt like I needed to keep my

 hands around her a little bit to keep her steady.

I didn't care. By the time we got to the end, I held on to Mima for dear life.

  I'm pretty sure deep inside she was glad.

We had a great day. 

I love that Shannon is willing to make that long drive all by herself 

and bring her family to see us. It's times like these that I wish Fred and I 

were retired. It would be nice to spend time with all our children and grandkids 

without worrying about getting time off. I do know that short is sweet though. 

For now, this is how we work it and I feel like we do a pretty good job of

seeing the kids and their families. Plus we still have parents of our own 

to keep track of. So I'm happy for these wonderful short visits that we enjoy.

Our First Phoenix Visit

 Fred and I decided to fly to Phoenix instead of driving. We flew out of the St. George airport.

It is a luxury to do that. Ten minutes to the airport. Leave our house about 45 minutes before the flight instead of two hours of driving to Las Vegas and arriving two hours before the flight.

The flight was less than an hour long.

First things first ~ We stopped at Smash Burgers for lunch.

Right now Scott and Jess are renting a home. It is quite lovely. 

They are smart to take their time shopping around for builders and where is the best place to build.

Right now they live within a mile or two of Scott's office. After his long commute in Texas, they are very happy that Scott is able to get to and from work so much quicker. 

I think commuting is just a horrible thing.

Evan was very helpful with Grandpa's suitcase.

I would say we spent the majority of our time in the family room.

It's a great place. Evan's toys are here. A very comfortable HUGE sectional to lounge on.

Close to the food/ice cream/M&Ms.

The necessities.

Jess and I went to Charming Charlies and we picked out some really nice pieces for her.

Now she has wonderful pieces to work with. It was really fun shopping together.

Fred and Scott and Evan went to Best Buy. 

Fred and Scott share a passion for home electronic gadgets.

 Both Scott and Jess are very hands on parents.

Evan is very involved. 

It's great to watch. 

 I gave Scott a crash course right before he left on his mission on

how to iron a short, do the laundry. Maybe a few other things.

I'm not sure why I didn't take care of those things along the way.

Now as I have watched him as a husband and a father -

I'm so amazed at his skills. 

I see Scott 100% involved in cooking, cleaning, taking care of his home, 

taking care of all of Evan's needs. 

Oh and he is an amazing husband. I imagine he's amazing because Jess is an amazing wife.

 They are working on the food for the BBQ for the big Gender Reveal.

 Grandpa Time.

Evan has several blankets that he loves. 

He has a little tongue soothing action that looks a lot like his Aunt Corinne did when she was little.

He's got quite a bit of the Daly gene going on. 

 Jess planned a Gender Reveal for both sets of grandparents. 

Nancy and I were both positive it was a girl.

When all the blue came out - I really didn't know what was going on.
SEE - I look pretty surprised and shocked.

I find myself in this old grandma position a lot lately.

Even little Evan got into the confetti.

After the confetti popping, Jess had bought a couple baseballs. One pink and one blue.
She nailed it. It took me a while to focus and actually take a picture.

Their neighborhood has a community center with a fun kiddie pool/splash pad.

It is a really nice facility. It also has a weight room where both Scott and Jess work out.

  Scott took Evan down the slide probably 25 times.

Sunday was church. Their ward is pretty big. Jess was just called as YW secretary.

That is a perfect fit for her. I went with her there for opening exercises and it worked out that the Laurels went to RS so we went with them for the lesson.

Scott was sustained as a Primary Worker teaching the 10 year olds. 

We spent the day in the family room.

I had this idea of taking pictures of Evan with us so we could print them and have them displayed in his room so he would remember us. By Sunday we really hadn't taken any. He wasn't afraid of us or had avoided us, but there definitely was no cuddles or snuggling going on. So Jess came up with the candy in the lap method. Even that was somewhat a struggle, but the reality of what it is.

Fred and I are totally okay with that. 

We had a delicious Sunday dinner before we headed to the airport. 

Our visit passed quickly. We hadn't been together since Thanksgiving.

It didn't seem like it though because we do Skype.
Hopefully they will make a trip to see us in August.

We are trying to figure out trips to visit two new babies this Winter.
We are excited to future visits to Phoenix as this family continues to grow.