A visit down south

Miss Ellie getting ready for her Chinese culture night

Soccer champ.  So sad she got rained out and I could't watch her play. 

My darling daughter Jordan at the Phoenix temple

Phoenix LDS temple at night

Jake and I coming out of the temple

GREAT little volley ball player Lauren

Gotta love those knee pads

Look grandma Vonnie, no hands

Tommy trying on my grannie glasses

Hanging out waiting for a table at Oregano's.  Great food!

Miss sweet Ellie girl

Darling Lauren

Oh how I love these grand children!

Of course we have to be silly

Little darling Ada finishing up gymnastics, wow, what moves she has!

I had a great visit down south for five days.  It was fun to relax and just be with Jord and Jake and their darling family.  Andy and Chelsea had a couple of unused airline vouchers that were about to expire, so they shared them with me for an early birthday present.  I was thrilled!

The girls love to hear stories from my youth and Ellie (the teaser) now calls me "Vonnie is a stealer" after I shared an episode from third grade when I showed a lacked in judgement and had to face the sad consequences.  I told them about the time I was a tinikling champ and we even looked up some tinikling videos on YouTube to show them how it was done (thanks iPhone!) Other adventures included seeing Tommy boy fell into the bath tub fully dressed, picking up the girls from school and giving Jord a break while she did some of her own projects.  We ate dinner at Oregano's, shopped at Target and Hobby Lobby, got some good Valentines prizes for everyone, shopped at Last Chance, went to the new Phoenix LDS temple, went to see Ada in gymnastics, Lauren in volley ball and unfortunately, we were rained of of watching Ellie play soccer.  I got Lauren started with crochet and showed her how to roll the yarn, make a hat and how to make and attach a pom pom.  We picked out her 9th birthday present and got that all taken care of while I was there in person.  I attended church with them as their ward met for the last time before being dissolved and reassigned into new ward boundaries.  I got to hear Jordan share her testimony, and Ada give a talk in church about Heavenly Father and Jesus.  I bonded more with one year old Tommy and went through a bunch of his photos for this one year old scrapbook I am going to make.  We visited, watch Downton, ate great grilled food, and just relaxed.  It was a rejuvenating weekend and I loved spending time with this sweet family.  We are all so grateful to our Heavenly Father that Jake is stable and that life is going on as normally as possible for this young family.  We pray that it continues.