Got to spend a wonderful week with Camille's family. 

It was pretty much pure heaven.

I went there to give Camille a break and help with the kids but being able to play with them all week was the best therapy this grandma has ever had.

I think they liked the dragon and prince and princess I made them.  Liv has such a great imagination...it's so fun to watch her play.

We went to the zoo one day.  The weather in Arizona was really perfect but this day was actually hot!  Probably in the 90's.  We went pretty early though so it didn't get uncomfortable till we were headed back to the car. 

This was a hoot! 

They had the cutest petting zoo.  I got some great video of Sam petting the goats, but I can't get it to work.  He was so cute with them.  He would get down on the ground and look right into their faces.  These animals were super mellow.  They just laid there while he played with their ears.

There was another place in the zoo where you could go right into the monkey habitat.  The kids got a kick out of these monkeys...they were just swinging in the trees right next to us.  One monkey was crossing the sidewalk and hopped right on Olivia's foot!  She thought that was pretty neat.

Another day we went swimming.  We went up to the pool in Kellen's parents community.  It's really nice and a lot of Camille's friends were there with their kids too. Sam loves to holler CANNONBALL!!!, then jump in the water.  I had a great video of that too...I'll try again to make it work...(I think I freaked the blog out putting so many pictures on it at once) 

It felt so great to just lay in the sun and be warm!  ( We have had the longest coldest winter ever!) 

Olivia and I played baseball in the back yard.  She could really hit the ball!  Sam got in on the action too.  He is so sweet and funny.  He didn't care if he hit the ball he just really liked running around the bases.

We baked cinnamon rolls and Liv and Sam helped.  Liv remembered when we had made them at my house how we cut them with a thread, and knew just how to do it! 

They turned out so good, we decided to make another batch to take to a birthday party we were invited to. ( It was a fun idea...she wanted to have the kids eat her son's favorite food and that was breakfast foods...cereal, muffins, fruit, so that's what we all had!)  

We went yard sale shopping Saturday morning.  There were tons of yard sales! 

I got some "Twilight" books and this cake taker for Candice.

Camille scored with this beautiful g;ass dish

Kellen set up their tent one afternoon and that made hours of fun.

We danced, sang songs and told goofy jokes

Olivia had the idea that we should tell ghost stories.  We had some pretty good ones and with their owl whooooing up in their tree, it got kind of scarey so we all went in the house!

This is Liv in her cute dress after church Sunday.  Kellen and Camille are pretty involved in their ward.  Kellen is the Young Men's president and they had a huge fund raiser that weekend.  The ideas was to sell these huge pork roasts.  They bought all this meat, then took it to this guy that had a fire pit in his back yard who would cook them in the ground (luau style)for them. They cooked them all night, then the people came and  picked them up the next day.  They sold a ton of them and made a lot of money.  It was a lot of work, but Kellen did a great job with it.

This was at that friend of Camille's little boys birthday party.    They had the kids bring their bikes and scooters and skates and let them just play for a while.  It was fun to get to know some of Camilles' friends. They all think the world of Camille and couldn't say enough good about her.  It was sweet to see how she has made her place there and is loved by these people.

Liv eating her ninja turtle cupcake...it was cute for St. Patricks day they had everything decorated green...even the milk for the cereal was green!

Sam and I played basketball...he was a little younger than most of the kids there. 

This is baby Jackson.  Camille babysat him a few of the days I was there.  He is such a good baby...just sits there and smiles at you.  Camille used to baby sit him every day,  but then the dad lost his job.  He was bidding on some work so they asked Camille to sit for them for those days he was gone.  He tried to pay her when he came to pick him up, but Camille wouldn't take it.  She's got kind of a big heart like that.

We went to Ikea one day and took baby Jackson with us.  He was just as good as he could be, but Sam was a little stinker.  He wanted to play on all the fun things they have there, then when it was time to go, he didn't want to and had  quite a tantrum.  Camille handles him really well...stays calm and just keeps on going. 

One night we went out to dinner at Chiles.  In Sam's defense, we were there a LONG time!  Their grill was broken so the  food took forever to get done.  After about 45 minutes of waiting, Sam had a melt down and just started screaming.  We tried everything to calm him down, but he wasn't having it.  They finally brought our food, and he settled down and ate, but it was funny when the waitress went to the people in the booth next to us and asked them if she could get them anything, they said "Yes!  some ear plugs!"    Ha! 

We found these cutest little finger puppets at Ikea...

Liv put on shows for us all afternoon.

Olivia's little friend came over to play one day and her and Liv and Sam put on quite the dance show for us.

We took Rose for a walk down to the dog park and played a little baseball while we were there.

Sam is the sweetest little guy and just funny as heck.  He gets this mischievous look in his eye that reminds me so much of Camille at that age.  I guess it's true that you're bound to get one that's just like you!

We colored Easter eggs for FHE.  It was sweet of them to do some  early Easter activities with me since I won't be with them this year.  I'm going to miss them so much!

We went to the park to feed the ducks Tuesday morning.  It was fun but my heart was heavy thinking about leaving them that afternoon.

Trying to take in the last bit of sunshine before I returned to frozen Utah ( It had been nice there for several days, but had turned real cold and stormy when I went home....boooo)

Lunch at Zuppa's before I left. I sure had the best time.  So fun to be with Camille's sweet little family and to watch her as a mom.  She really is such a good mom.  I love that she loves to play with the kids and is fun and silly with them.  She's forever patient with them and is teaching them to be good kids. 

Pretty tough to say goodbye...had to fight back the tears at the airport when Liv held me so tight and said "I love you grandma...I wish you could stay here forever."  Oh dear.  Crying again thinking about it. This long distance grandma-ing is not good!

Kelley really gave me a wonderful gift when he bought me the plane ticket to see them.  On the card he wrote that when he was trying to think of something to give me that I would love the most, he knew this was the answer...a plane ride to a warm place where I would find my two favorite people...Liv and Sam.  He knows my heart so well.