Railroad Park

Another favorite of ours is the McCormick Stillman railroad park. We discovered it on our last trip to Arizona and had tons of fun. They have playground equipment for the kids, a life-size railroad they can ride around the park, a carousel, and an "Old West" town complete with a stagecoach. I love the pics of the kids on top of the jail.

Children's museum

We found the Children's Museum of Phoenix and had a blast. They had converted an old school into a three-story playground for children. We loved the two-story climbing structure, the noodle forest (hundreds of pool noodles hung up from the ceiling that you walked through), the pretend grocery store and kitchen, the art center, and the move-it area (motorbikes and such). What a wonderful gift to the children of Phoenix to have this musem available to them.

Pedicures

Cora and I had our first manicure/pedicure while we were on vacation in Arizona. She sat still for so long and was soooo good. I was really proud of her. This is what the final product looked like.

Arizona

I earlier posted some cute stories about our vacation, but here are some pics. We had a fabulous time. Everything went so smoothly and the family had tons of fun together. Thanks to Chris and Kerri and Todd and Vicki for being our "hosts" so much in the afternoons and evenings and letting us crash at your pool and eat all your food !! We loved being with you and the kids were ready to go back to Arizona about as soon as we came home. Thanks mom and dad for being around so much and making our vacation so much fun.

Papa's flag

A few years ago for Christmas, mom bought dad a flag at the local cemetary. Now, for most families, that would be really weird, but not in ours. The flags are put up for Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day. There's a really nice plaque at the base of the flag that says In Honor of Terry Smith. Each year we take our pictures by the flag to see how much we have changed in the past year. Here is this year's picture.

Summer Fun

The best part about summer is putting on the swimming suit and heading outside to play with the neighbors and splash each other !! Our friends are Kayla, Halle, and Ella. Thanks everyone for a fun day !!

Random updates

Here are a couple of pictures from our "girls weekend" Mom and Cora and I traveled down to Des Moines to see Heather and Katharine when they were home for the weekend and had a blast. We did some shopping - Toys R Us was a big hit ! And ate out a lot - the one picture is of Cora and the "cow" outside the Iowa Machine Shed. Then we went swimming at the pool late - we didn't get out of the pool until after 10:00 at night. Then we spent a lovely morning at Jon and Lynette's house just catching up with our friends. Cora and Katharine played really well together !! Thanks gals for a fun weekend