Just “Hanging” Out

This week is Austin’s Final’s Week.  He has had a test on Monday, one on Wednesday, and he will have another one tomorrow.  This means that on Tuesday and Thursday (today) we had Austin home all day!  Pretty Lucky : ).  And next week is Spring Break and we will have him ALL WEEK LONG!  REALLY REALLY Lucky!

We’ve basically just been hanging out and running some errands all week.  We will be leaving for a visit to Alabama on Monday, so we have been trying to get things ready to go.  Although it will be in the mid-70s next week here in Paradise (oh, sorry, I mean Arizona), it will only by in the 40s in Alabama!  Brr!  Darn those cold spells the rest of the country has been having lately! So anyway, we have been trying to find some winter clothes for the kids.  Do you know how hard it is to find winter clothes when it’s already in the 60s/70s here?!?  Anyway, after hitting all of the stores in the mall yesterday looking for a coat for Makenna, we decided to head to the outlets today.  They have a fun little playground in the middle of the stores, and the kids wanted to play for a while.  Makenna decided to try her skills at the monkey bars, so of course Max wanted to try too.  Don’t worry, Dad was right there just in case!  We were really impressed by how strong these kids are!  Makenna could hang on and “swing” back and forth by herself and could actually go across the bars with only a little tiny help.  Even Max could just hang there by himself!  We have some strong kids!

 

Makenna was also such a big girl and went down the HUGE slide!  She would scoot down as far as she could to grab Austin’s hand and then she would slide down holding on to him.  So scary, but so much fun!

(Ha ha, can you see his hand?)Austin’s sister and brother-in-law were down in Arizona last week at the Mayo Clinic and Hospital.  We were able to go up and visit one day.  Because it is flu season, children under 12 are not permitted in the hospital.  So the kids and I went on the fun little hiking trails they have there.  Makenna was SO funny as we crossed this bridge.  She kept saying, “Kenna fall!” and she just had to hold on tight.  I mean, seriously, there was like 1/2 an inch, if that, between the planks!  But she was still pretty worried that she might fall!

Whew!  She made it safely! 

Melissa got out of the hospital on Monday and was able to come over and have a “sleep-over party” with us before her flight back to Idaho on Tuesday.  Makenna and Melissa were the very best of friends and had a ball together!  Unfortunately I didn’t even think to take pictures!  We were sad you had to come to Arizona to go to the hospital, Melissa, but we were SO happy you were able to come visit us!

A few more notes on the kids—today Max was waving and saying, “Bye Bye,” and he has also started being able to stand (without holding on to anything) for short periods of time.  He is getting so, so big!  Makenna is having a bit of a jealousy problem here lately, but she has also been so adorable because she has started referring to herself in third person as “Kenna” and talking up a storm!  Seriously, how do kids grow up so fast?!? 

Anyway, so that’s about it since the last time I posted!  Hopefully our next post will have lots of fun pictures from Alabama!