Second Leg

Saturday was Tyler's birthday and he wanted to go to the rock gym. Tyler, Brianne, and

her Tyler had all been before, but this was Tonys and my first time. It was much harder than it looked. We climbed for about an hour before everyone was exhausted.







That night we went to Whitewater Grill for sushi. Tyler's favorite. I wish that I would have remembered my camera to get pictures of the food. Tyler had some pretty interesting looking stuff. It was a great day with the kids.
Sunday morning we went to my moms and watched conference, then we went to visit Tonys mom. Then back to my moms to watch conference and have Tyler's birthday desert. He wanted fruit pizza and 7 layer dip. Afterwards we headed back to our house to hang out for the rest of the day.
Monday Tyler and Brianne came to the airport, we had breakfast together and then we were off to Phoenix .

Trip Home - Leg One

Tony and I left Wed. March 30th to go home for Tyler's birthday. Our first stop, Phoenix for two days. Thursday morning we went for a hike on Lookout Mountain. This is one of Hannah's favorite places to hike. It was a little warm, but it felt so good after the cold of Columbus.


That afternoon we went to the aquarium. Hannah was studying sea life at school and she had been there a few weeks before. She was a great guide telling us about all the stuff she had learned. It was really hard to get any good pictures, but here are a few.


Hannah is reading chapter books now. It looks like Grandpa is sleeping but he really is listening. Hannahs new interest is Legos. She and Grandpa spent the morning building away.

That evening we went to a barbeque place to eat. Hannah was in quite a mood.





Friday morning we headed to the Mesa airport to go to Idaho Falls. We arrived at 7:00am for a 8:30am departure, at 3:30pm we started boarding the plane. 8 hours in an airport wasn't exactly what we had in mind for the day. There was a leak in the cockpit window and we had to wait for a new window to be shipped in and then installed.

Ice Storms

This post is really late, but oh well. We had heard about the ice storms here in Columbus so we were excited to see one. In March we got our wish. It is hard to grasp that when the temperatures are freezing that it can be raining instead of snowing. This is the little bush outside our apt. at about 11:00p.m. I couldn't get good pictures so I decided to wait until morning to get better ones, but it had all melted. I got up at about 1:00a.m. to see what had been happening and the ice was doubled and the branches were touching the ground.

Missionaries

Tony and I have been going out with the sister missionaries a few times a week, since shortly after we moved. We met them at the ward Christmas party. (they sat across from us) We fell in love with them immediately. They came to visit us Christmas Day, we offered to help them in any way that they needed and the rest is history. Sis. Pettigrew is from Colorado and Sis. Cash is from Utah. (Sandy to be exact) Sis. Cash had only been out 6 weeks when we met. Sis. Pettigrew went home in April. We miss her alot! Both girls are so wonderful and they have such an amazing spirit and testimony of the gospel. We have had some great missionary moments and met some really fun people. We now have a brand new sister from California, Sis. Cooper.

Orchids Everywhere

A while back Tony and I went to the Franklin Observatory for the orchid display. There were so many beautiful varieties.



In addition to the orchids they had different rooms with different eco systems. (rain forest, desert, etc.) It was fun to see the banana tree. I wish that the flower would have been in full bloom. There were many different types of plants and flowers.



On of the best displays they had was the Disney Carousel. It was on a turntable and had a train that wound around the little characters.




In addition to the plants they had these amazing glass sculptures spread around in different areas to enhance the plants. The bottom picture is looking up at a glass ceiling as you walked through a small tunnel. These glass pieces are the work of artist Dale Chihuly.

Day 18: A Talent

Tony: Mom says I am talented at everything, so I guess I am. As I contemplate this day I realize how talented my children are and how many opportunities they had to expand on those talents. But I guess this is not about them. My Talents.... hmmmm. I guess I have an athletic ability to perform well in just about any type of sports activity. I get along well with people and I am able to listen when they need it. I try to fix problems which sometimes works out and sometimes not. But mostly I have a talent of adoring my beautiful wife and admiring her talents. Lisa: I have the ability to look at a home and turn it into a warm comfortable place to live. I have the talent to know the truth of a situation and am able to look beyond the surface. (dad wrote this one. Mom can always tell when the kids are being less than truthfull).

Day 17: An Art Piece

Our favorite artist is Hannah Marie Behrend. These are a few of our favorite pieces. This is a portrait of Tony and Lisa in our clown suits. Notice the dots on our arms and legs, these are elbows and knees. If you look close there is a little person inbetween us. This is Hannah. She was three when this was drawn. This is one of my all time favorites. Hannah drew this one day while sitting across from Papa while he was working. Love the glasses! She was about four. The most recent addition to our collection we recieved on spring break. From left to right-Hannah, Jess, Papa, Nana, and Mike. Notice Mike's cowl-lick. Also the similarities in our outfits (Mine and Tonys and Mike, Jess, and Hannahs) The scanner cut off the edgeso it is a little hard to read. "On spring break my grandparents came over to our house."