Grandparent visit!

Wahoo! I'm blogging about the same month that we are in currently! Earlier this month my parents came for a visit. Yes, my mom had just flown down here with me when we moved in...but it had been nearly a month since she left, and my dad hadn't seen our new place yet. Beside the fact that we were used to spending so much time together before the move, and beside the fact that my parents had all four of their children (and therefor all of their grandchildren also) out of state - the school year was about to start, which meant my mom going back to work & visits being harder to arrange. So! My parents drove down for a visit and we were so excited to have them. In fact, Noah made a countdown chain a couple weeks before they came that he pulled a link off of every night - it was great to have that to look forward to before school started and Noah had friends there and a schedule to rely on. So! They arrived early in the evening and we did our dinner at the pool the thing. The next morning we drove to Chandler to take the kids to Maukutu's Island! We needed somewhere fun (and indoors) to take the kids and I found this place online. It was nuts! Check out this picture of one of the areas there (I don't take credit for this photo).
The boys were so excited to go there, and we even got theme dressed in a bit of a Hawaiian theme for the occasion. The only thing that I wish I'd paid attention to was that socks are required - so we had to buy some of their sweet purple Makutu-socks.
The place was huge, and very crowded. Once we went to begin exploring, Noah got really overwhelmed. We had to really coax him to participate and it took Mark and I going up in all the play areas with him (Mark had socks, but my parents bought me some sweet Makutu-socks so I could play too). After a while Noah was having a great time, and he had no problem doing everything on his own by the time we had to go. His favorite part of the place by far was their little zip line. Kids who were too small to reach it had to be lifted up, and my dad must have climbed up the rope net and lifted Noah to the zip line nearly a dozen times that day - thanks, Dad!

The next day we attended church together. There was no particular reason to need a picture, but the boys looked so cute headed into church with their grandparents - so why not?

On Monday we went to lunch at a yummy pizza place called Oregano's that Mark's uncle Ron had introduced us to.

This pizza place is always busy, and even at lunchtime on a weekday there was a healthy wait time. It was worth it though. The boys (who have sporadically been picky eaters lately) ate like champs, so that was fun for everyone. They both had pizza (Noah pepperoni, Linc cheese), as well as did my mom (tomato) and I (mushroom & olives). My dad had a generous sized plate of yummy looking pasta. (Mark was at work) Here is Noah enjoying his food.

Lincoln going the no-utensil route.

Here are Lincoln and Noah with their grandpa in our driveway before leaving to take grandpa to the airport. We were planning to stop for ice cream on our way there - that's why you are getting Noah's hand cupped like an ice cream bowl in this picture.
My mom stayed an extra few days and then drove back home on her own. As a sidenote, my mom has been having severe pain in her knee and it was really bad after her long drive down to Arizona. So, before leaving, she was able to get some treatment done on her knee by one of Mark's colleagues (general Orthopedist), and she had a much more comfortable drive back home - hurray!

We miss you both, but thank you so much for making the trip down here to see us! We look forward to seeing you in Utah pretty soon, and hopefully the next time you come to Arizona we'll be enjoying the fantastic weather that we have here in the winter months!