May Weekend with Grandpa

Catch up...

My dad had work in Las Vegas the week before Mother's Day weekend so he was able to finagle things so that he could be here for a long weekend.  Reese loved it! 

One of the days that I had to work, my dad picked me up and we went to eat at McAlpines, a little soda shop by the Museum.  Reese was so excited to get to have her own milkshake.  The restaurant is located in my old neighborhood and when we were leaving Reese said "Wait, I think I see Jasmine's house."  It is an ashram right by my old apartment.  We had to drive by so that we could see where Jasmine lives.  At first she scared us because she screamed "Wait" and then paused for dramatic effect.

That night we took Reese to her first professional baseball game.  We were able to get seats in the family section which is located in the upper-deck but has a playground and there were lots of families around so they were not upset by us ruining the game or anything.  Reese was excited because Grandpa bought her a Diamondbacks helmet full of popcorn.  She also declared that she wanted to be a life-sized bobble head guy when she grew up (though they creeped her out a little when she was able to see them up close).  She did a great job even though we were up way past bedtime.  We were able to stay for the fireworks and the only time she got upset was when we weren't going to stay for the Christian rock concert after the fireworks but by then it was after 9pm so she had a right to be upset with life.

The Saturday, we were not really sure what we were going to do.  It was hot already in Phoenix so we decided to take a road trip up to the Tonto Natural Bridge just past Payson.  The weather was beautiful and so was the nature.  We had a picnic then went for a hike down under the natural bridge.  Reese has amazing balance and thank goodness there were no major falls from any of us.

It was wonderful to be outside and I love sharing the AZ beauty with my IN family!

We did have one incident where Reese wandered away from me and slipped in some water.  She got up and looked at me accusingly and said "You didn't catch me!" even though I was a good ten feet away from her.  I guess that just says that she trusts me to always be there to catch her!

When we left the state park, we decided to go just a bit further to the Gingerbread House in Pine to get some ice cream before the drive back to Phoenix.  We thought Reese had fallen asleep until we started talking about ice cream when all of a sudden from the backseat we heard "I want mine in a bowl."  That little stinker!  She was ready for ice cream the minute we stopped.

On the way there and home we saw smoke and when we watched the news that night, we heard that a large wild fire had started over the weekend so that is what we were seeing.  I'm so glad that we weren't any closer to it.

For my first Mother's Day, my Dad and Reese got me a necklace with the adoption creed on it: "Never forget, for a single minute: You didn't grow under my heart but in it." and "Not flesh of my flesh, Nor bone of my bone, But still miraculously, My own."  I cried of course and then my Dad took Reese to church with him and I got an hour of quiet time.  It was really a wonderful weekend!