AZ Vacation - part 1

Alrighty - since I have nearly 400 pictures of our vacation, I have decided to break it up - starting with what happened first and then working my way until the sad day we said goodbye. First of all, please take note - We left Oregon at 8:30pm on Tuesday August 19th. Dan picked me up from work and away we went - oh goodness that was exhausting! We drove straight through California and arrived safely in Arizona around 6:30pm on Wednesday. The kids were all fantastic - Even Olivia, who HATES the car. It's like she just knew that it would be worth it.

Okay, so Thursday we had a big family BBQ with Dan's family - it was SO fun to see all the cousins and Dan's brothers & sisters. The kids all had a blast swimming and playing WII. Olivia LOVES the pool. After our dinner we played zilch - a dice game and enjoyed each others company! I love these people.


- This is Jayda, she is 9. She is Adam & Aubrey's middle child.








-This is Garrett he is 5, he is Adam (Dan's older brother) and Aubrey's youngest.


-April (Dan's little sister) Holding Maddox











-Olivia abusing Maddox - she is a terror!










-After about 2 hours of warming up, Maddox finally graced us with that beautiful smile. Maddox is the son of Cory (Dan's little brother) and Hayley. Maddox was a little overwhelmed I think. He was there for a little visit too. Cory just left for Kuwait the day before this, I think he was missing his dad.





Here we are playing Zilch. I lost - but Dan lost the worst! He sucked!



-Ashley is 11, she is Adam & Aubrey's oldest. She had SO much fun playing with Ryleigh. Here she is playing with Olivia. Olivia kept trying to yank out some hair!





-WII fun! Ethan got Lego Starwars for the Wii for his birthday from Little papa & Gramma (Dan's mom & dad) so the boys were all enjoying this.
L-R - Garrett, Spencer, Ammon (#1), Ethan, Chad (in red), & Joel.



- Gramma Kaye. I love this lady. She was busy in kitchen all day. I hope she enjoys cooking, cause she sure does it a lot.








-Jayda & Aubrey making Apple Snicker "salad" - oh man was it good!







-Little papa was so cute with all the grand kids, its like he likes them or something. It was really sweet to see this softer side of him. He really does know how to relax! He is holding Cooper here (Cody & Keith's son- Cody is Dan's step-sister) and Jayda and Garrett is sitting next to them. I think they are watching the Diamondbacks game.



- Miss Olivia, out of the pool. She is so cute!














-Nicole (Dan's older sister on the left) and Aubrey after our swim.






- The boys playing whiffle ball in the backyard. That is Dan in the Tan shirt and Adam on the right. They had all the little kids in the "outfield" shagging balls! It was really cute to watch.




-Morgan (Cody & Keith's oldest) and Daniella (Nicole & Fred's youngest) have a lot of fun together. They are super cute little girls. I love looking at them next to each other. The contrast! You would never know that they are in the same family!






-The men, manning the BBQ. It was quite yummy too! Adam on the left, Dan with his back to the camera (with the sunburned neck) and dad on the right.


So overall our first couple of days was a blast! We were running around like crazy people, seeing everyone and doing stuff that we missed.


More pictures coming tomorrow.