Memorial Day

So yesterday was one of those very rare days. Since David started working at Wal-Mart 7 months ago he's worked 7 days a week. However on Memorial Day the fates conspired to give him the day off at both jobs. That's right...one whole day to spend together. I have to admit we were both fairly giddy at the idea. We can count the number of days he's had completely off on our fingers.

We slept in til 9, another thing he doesn't get to do, and then took the kids swimming in our community pool. The weather and the water were absolutely beautiful. After a quick ride home to shower and change we hit the car for a road trip. One of mine and David's favorite things to do together is to drive new roads and see new places. SO we drove to Gila Bend which is about an hour east of Maricopa. David had heard that there was a good italian place there so we went to check it out.

After lunch we were driving back when we saw a sign for a shrimp farm. Huh? We just had to check it out so we drove down this tiny road and found the shrimp farm. Where the very nice owner (farmer?) gave us a tour of his shrimp ponds. We're going to go back in November for Shrimp Days when they harvest the shrimp.

We drove back to town with a quick pit stop along the way to find Eli an obliging bush.

Then we stopped at our Brand-New Wal-Mart! You'd have to live in Maricopa to appreciate how absolutely wonderful this is.

We got home and my wonderful husband used his day off to scrub my kitchen floor, do my dishes, and then make us a wonderful dinner. After we put the kids to bed we snuggled up on the couch together and watched movies. It was so wonderful. Then after the movie David asked me if I was ready for bed and I started crying. I never wanted the day to end.

Birthday/Vacation/Fishing/Singing/Flowers/Surgery/School

So I'm going to quickly catch everyone up on the last 4 weeks of our lives!

First of all Eli had a birthday about a month ago. He turned 4 years old. He wanted a blue dinosaur cake for his birthday and silly string (sort of a family tradition). His favorite present was his booster seat, we graduated him from his carseat. About time too, his head was 2 inches above the back of his carseat!

Then we left for our 2 week vacation in Utah. I go up every year for Women's Conference and this year David went with us for the first few days. We had so much fun spending time together as a family. David's Dad took us out fishing and it was so much fun. Here you can see what Emma and Eli spent most of their time doing, Emma is studying the fish finder and Eli is eating.

We all caught some fish and Emma ended up catching the biggest one. That night we had a party and ate the fish of our labors.

The next day we went to the Tulip Festival with David's Mom and sister. Here you can see why Catherine was their favorite "Aunt-of-the-Day".

These were my favorite flowers and no they are not tulips. Don't they look like they're straight out of a Dr. Seuss book?

I love this picture of David and the kids. Also pictured are Blondie and my niece Kaylee. Aren't they all adorable?

On Sunday before David left we went to Temple Square to see Granna sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. After the performance by the choir we were treated to another show when President Monson gave an impromptu concert on the organ. It was awesome!

Anyway we had a blast in Utah but we were all happy to come home to our house. But we had to immediately turn around and prepare for Eli's operation. Here he is in his surgery outfit, he especially loved the hat.

Then this is the two of us in recovery. You can tell how he feels, poor little guy. But we're home from that now and he's doing very well. He's tired and sore but pretty cheerful anyway. He's going to have three tiny scars on his tummy.

And then today is Emma's last day of school this year. I can't believe she's old enough to be in first grade! Look at the difference between her first day of school and her last.

So I think that's it. Sorry about the long post. :-)

Eli

All right, I'm sorry I haven't posted in forever. We went on vacation for 2 weeks and then spent some time recovering form our vacation! :-) I promise I will post pics soon of all the fun we had in Utah.

But today there is a different agenda. Eli is having his appendectomy this afternoon. So if everyone could say a little prayer for us I would really appreciate it. I found out yesterday that the anethesiologist is going to put him to sleep before they do the IV. So that takes a big load off my mind. We'll be in the hospital for 24 hrs after his operation so I will update when we get home tomorrow night.