Dance and Vacation...

Well, it's been awhile since I've written anything, so here it goes....
Since the last blog, when Joe and Miranda were sick, we have been super busy! Being sick kinda hit us all before it left our house, and we were all in a hurry to get better as we had a mini vacation planned the first weekend in August to Phoenix. Miranda also had a week of summer dance classes to attend before starting for the season in September.
So first, Miranda's first ever week of dance classes-
She has always been excited about taking dance classes, and over the last almost year, she has asked repeatedly to be able to attend dance, so I got to looking around for a good studio and when I found one, they were in the middle of thier season, and they do not add any new dancers at that time, so I put Miranda on the summer schedule. She was soooo happy and just couldn't wait until she could go. Finally it was her turn and she did really well for being a beginner. Plus she loved it! She had 4 days of it (Monday through Thursday last week), and then on the last day they gave a small recital of what they had learned. Her dance camp was called the "Princess Week" (as in the Disney princesses), so even better for her, and they learned all sorts of "Princess" dances. We have a video of her recital that I will post on here as soon as Joe can put it on the computer for me, but for now here's a couple pictures....





Then it was off to Phoenix for the weekend. We flew out Friday morning and returned Monday morning. The weekend was busy but fun and went by very quickly. Friday we flew in around 12noon, and after eating and checking into our hotel, we headed to the hospital to visit with Joe's grandma, who was ill. Then it was back to the hotel to cool off in the pool....


Then it was off to the hospital, the store, dinner, and finally to bed! Saturday, Miranda woke us us by asking to go swimming so Joe took her in for awhile....

We also went to Arizona Mills, which is the largest mall in Arizona, and just happens to be an outlet mall (yay!). So we slowly made our way down the first section to our meal destination....the Rainforest Cafe. Very cool place! Miranda liked it until the first of several thunderstorms rolled through the cafe- that's when a storm makes it way through the jungle....the lights dim, the thunder rolls, the lightening strikes, the rain falls, and the animals hoot and holler, showing their dislike of it all! Well, that was enough for Miranda to curl herself up in a ball in the stroller, cover her ears & eyes, and scream bloody murder!! The storms come through every 22 minutes, and I'm pretty sure we were still trying to calm her down when the next one showed up....Joe finally had success with this little baby money hand puppet.....which "talked" to Miranda and calmed her down. All was good til Miranda decided that she could go into the jungle to eat....as long as the baby monkey came with her......and so $20 later we still had a calm child and a tag-along pet monkey...haha. We finally got through the line, and were seated. The food was yummy and filled us all up and got us ready for shopping....


Miranda also got to ride on the carousel that they have in the middle of the mall....



Then the girls made a killing at both the Carter's and Oshkosh outlets....I love those stores! It was then time to head back to our side of town. Joe's friend Kyle, and his son Chris came over for abit after that, and we went swimming again. Afterwards, everyone was completely tuckered out and ready for bed....

Sunday dawned bright and early for us, as we went up to Show Low (a couple hours away) to visit Joe's uncle....now dubbed "Papa Jimmer" for the girls. He is a twin to Joe's dad. So we spent a few hours with Jimmer and Betsy and then went to lunch before heading back to Phoenix...




Once back in town, we headed to Joe's aunt and uncle's house and then to the hospital for one last visit with Fran before we left....




We flew home very early the next morning, getting off the plane to much cooler weather....sooo nice! All in all, we had a really nice time and are now settling back into our routine here at home. Thanks to Debbi for everything while we were down there!!