Shannon & Josh Adams temple wedding

And this was the main reason for my coming to Arizona. Shannon & Josh were getting sealed in the Snowflake, Arizona temple. It really was such a beautiful ceremony. One of the best I've attended. Wilkins' family...the whole group (minus me, of coarse)...& the Adam's family Adams Wilkins Sister pic! And my fav shots to do...just the couple. :)

Wilkins Reunion 2014

Thank goodness for Aunt Shannon! She provided most of the entertainment for my boys. This included 4-wheelers & her Thomas train sets that she brought up. I never had to wonder where Liam was, because he was more than likely playing trains. And Shannon's Preston was also a godsend. He spent hours playing with the kids and setting up elaborate tracks for all of them.
Max, Collette (Reisner), Liam & Channing (Bitter)
All the uncles & aunts (Shannon, Josh, Cody, Royce & Kelsi) were really good about giving all the little kids rides on the quads.
Note- I do know that a "quad" is not a motorcycle. But my boys did not know that. So thus, I call 4-wheelers "motorcycles".
  Rt- Ruby, the walking mess. This girl probably hates her Aunt Michelle. She's a definite mama's girl & when she was throwing a tantrum for Kyra, I'd go scoop her up & tell her, "Do you want to see you mama? Well, then you've got to stop crying." This usually calmed her tantrum :) But she is a cute mess...even with hair in her eyes.
Cousins playing in a make-shift fort.  Sadie (Reisner), Gracie (Cook), Liam
Grandpa Wilkins playing trains with my boys.
Some of the group- (left to rt)- Ryan (Bitter), Dallin (Wilkins), Ruth (Stock), Ethan (Wilkins), Kelsi (Adams), Becky (Johnson), Sydney (Johnson), Preston (Holm), Stuart (Johnson), Ruby (Cook), Kyra (Cook), Rajae & Harley (Stock)
Left- I know each of these boys might not look like each other, but they all have something in common. They all have been told they look a lot like my grandpa Wilkins. So of coarse, I had to get a picture of them all together. Coincidence that they were all wearing some variation of red & gray?? Hmm...

Rt- This is my cousin Dallin. All the kids loved him and gravitated towards him!  He doesn't look much like grandpa (although he looks a lot like his dad), but thought we better get a picture of him anyways :)
Lynnae (Bitter), Sheena (Reisner), Adrian (Reagan)
Mom, Shannon (holding Harley Stock) (Around the campfire, left to right) Payson (Reisner), Mom, Sadie (Reisner (in green)), Shannon (Adams), Alisha (Adams(Shannon's sister-in-law)), Josh (Adams), Josh's mom, Gracie (Cook), Flint (Wilkins), Ethan (Wilkins)
Ruby & Gracie got into their mom's lipstick.  Times like that, I'm glad to have just boys :)
Left- Uncle Ryan (Bitter) playing trains with Channing (Bitter) & Max. Right- Max was jealous that I was taking pictures of other people's kids (as you can see from above), so I had to get a picture of just him.

Mesa

I didn't have as much time as I would've liked in Mesa. Just the day after I flew in & the day before I flew out, but we did have a lot of fun. We stayed with my grandfather & Alba  (below are some photos from that stay).  It was fun having my boys get to meet them & of coarse, getting to visit.     
I've spent lots of time in this backyard- eating citrus, playing make-believe under the trees with my cousins, or wading in the irrigation.
The boys loved the chickens and were very entertained feeding them bits of grass and bark. Poor chickens.
The boys also loved their cat Lacy, which I hope is put out of her misery soon. She's been around since I was probably 13. In addition to her matted fur and scrawny figure, she also is blind in one eye. But kids don't care about that kind of stuff. They were just excited to see a kitty cat.
We also got to spend some time with my cousin Brooke. She came with me to do a little shopping (we are shopping soul mates!) & we got to go swimming with them. The boys LOVED it & Liam has sighted "swimming with Brooke" as one of his favorite things he did in Arizona.  Didn't have my camera, but I did take some cell phone footage to send to Chad. 
I must say, I really miss Arizona.

Happy Birthday Chad!

This year Chad's birthday was a little different. I had a wedding and reunion to attend in Arizona...and the only flights out of Springfield were on July 20th...Chad's birthday. Chad couldn't take off work, so I flew out of Springfield with the boys at noon on his birthday :( Some wife...some birthday present! We did get to celebrate a little bit though. This was the morning's opening of presents. The boys could hardly wait to give dad their present...some legos that they picked out for him :) And don't worry, we did have cake. Just 2 days early. We celebrated while we had some family in town.

4th of July- Fort Walton Beach, Florida

Our first real road trip as a family! On our way to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Pit stop in Gulfport, Mississippi to check out the beaches there and give the kids a little break. The water wasn't the prettiest, but I must say that the water was warmer, the waves gentler, and the slope of the water much gradual. Big pluses with kids. Fort Walton Beach, Florida. There's a few things we like to collect in each city we vacation in- a deck of cards, a magnet, and a kissing selfie. :) Way home. Stopped for the night in Nashville, Arkansas. All in all, my opinion of road tripping has changed (I've previously resisted driving anywhere over 6 hours for vacation after our disastrous move to Missouri when a 18 hour drive turned into something more like 30 hours). Granted, Chad drove 88% of the time time, but in my defense, I was willing and he didn't seem to mind. :) But the kids did fabulous! Max had a limit of about 3-4 hours in a carseat (unless sleeping), but other than that, a few new movies and books seemed to go over great with the kids! We'll probably be doing another roadtrip again given the opportunity.