Labor Day in Idaho

Fred and I had planned on going to visit Corinne's family over Labor Day. It conveniently included Garrett's twelve birthday. We wanted to attend his ordination.

As time passed and Corinne had friends offer to give her a baby shower,

I suggested asking to have it over Labor Day so I could attend.

They agreed. Then Shannon said she wanted to come. When Mima heard her Mommy was leaving her, she cried. So Shannon brought Mima for the weekend.

So it turned out to be a pretty big and important weekend. 

Day 1

Fred and I drove to Las Vegas to catch our flight. All went well.

Once we got to the Boise airport we headed to Baggage Claim.

To our surprise everyone was there to greet us.

Richard and Garrett wanted to drive with us.

Oh - we reserved a mid-size car, but ended up with this luxury Mazda CX9.

 Yep let the fun begin.

 We stopped at Taco Bell to pick up food and then headed to a park across the street.

 Corinne and Ben brought drinks and dessert.

Yum!

 My silly girls.

 We headed back to our hotel and changed clothes so Corinne could take us on a tour of the temple.

Basically showing us behind the scenes of her work space.

We were walking down to the Baptistry and found Tom Rutter sitting at the check in desk.

Now that was so wonderful. Unfortunately Laura wasn't there.

She had a work commitment.

 It was beautiful outside. Perfect weather. Quite a relief from our heat.

 I'm in love with this picture of us.

 Shannon and Mima arrived Thursday morning. They slept in one of the boy's room that night.

They joined us at the hotel for the rest of their stay.

This is Mima avoiding looking at me in undies. 

A perfect first day. It was so cute to watch Henry and Mima play. 

They were born two days apart. Mima on the 9th and Henry on the 11th of October.

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.