Birthday Twins!

Lizzie is a Birthday Twin with her Grandma Vickie. How fun that they got to spend time together this year!

After properly celebrating,

including very cool presents for Lizzie of a Hedwig puppet owl (thanks G&G!), and a t-shirt that sums up her feelings about math precisely ("Dear Math, I am not a therapist. Solve your own problems."),

we went to the Phoenix Zoo.

We saw some exotic animals,

but the favorite of the day was a beautiful, friendly, white horse from the Petting Zoo.

The splash playground at the zoo was a hit!

We were so excited that Uncle Mark could come visit as well! He and Ivy got along swimmingly. Mark caught up on all uncle duties such as laughing every time Ivy said the word "stinkin'" and teaching her how to fake crack her nose and fake separate her thumb. She's now a walking carnival. Here they are in a rare calm moment, composing a silly letter to Adam, complete with 6 lines of exclamation points.

All good things must come to an end, and Ivy ended the visit by opening up a grocery store in the hallway. We all bought our plastic food obligingly, and Ivy was very good about bagging our groceries and giving us change. :)

Thank you for visiting, Vickie, Alan and Mark!!! What fun!

Egyptus and King Tut

Vickie and Alan (& family) were in Egypt traveling recently. Yes, as recently as the last few weeks. As in they were there stranded in the Cairo airport overnight due to the riots and curfew. Well, they all made it home safely (for which we are grateful!), and we just opened a fun package from them tonight of gifts from the other side of the world. I wonder if the kids will appreciate just how much they went through to get these to them? Maybe these limericks from those on the trip will help:

This one from Adam's cousin Daniel sums it up pretty well:

In Cairo they’re having a riot.

Our hotel was really right by it.

It’ll kill Egypt’s biz,

But the funny thing is,

I swear I heard Janet prophesy it.

Or how about this one from Alan:

In Luxor on hard airport chairs,

The Muirs sit while time on them wears,

Ehab fights with his might

To reschedule their flight,

But at EgyptAir, nobody cares.

These from a fellow traveller Thelma paint quite a picture:

Why sleep on the airport floor,

A position we all abhor?

‘Cause we didn’t arrive

Until close to five

And the curfew began at four.

And finally:

The noise of the vast airport crowd

Lends a whole new meaning to “loud,”

And the way we’re compressed

From belly to chest

Would make a sardine packer proud.

Aren't those great! And the possibilities with these fun costumes are endless! Thank you Vickie and Alan! And welcome home!

Grandpa Palmer stops by!

Grandpa Palmer stopped by on a quick trip to AZ!

We showed him our new car,
He brought hats - from my Grandpa and Grandma Morley
And we showed him Oliver's new trick - walking! :)

I love the Mountains, I love the rolling Hills, I love the Flowers, I love the Daffodils!

Vickie and Alan took us up to the Albion Basin up Little Cottonwood Canyon. We have skied here many times, but never come up during the summer. The pictures hardly do it justice, but I think you'll enjoy it anyway:






























Later that night, everyone (and their dogs) came to the Millcreek Canyon Gathering.


We twisted the kids' arms and convinced them to perform a few songs from "Joseph." (Just kidding about the twisting arms. If you've ever met my kids, you know that is a joke. No twisting necessary. Unless you want them to stop.)
This is also where they performed the aforementioned Shakespeare scene.

And actually, not quite everyone was there - G&G Muir weren't feeling up to canyoneering, so we made a special visit later that night.




Our Utah visit has come to an end. We love the Beehive State! And especially all our family who lives there.

Sunset in Salt Lake