Mid-August

These next few images could only mean one thing.

Individual soy milks in the fridge...

Bottles with handles and reusable sippy cups...

Bottle rack with freshly washed bottles...

Cadbury Chocolate!...

Neocate formula, for babies with allergies...

Have you guessed yet?

Okay, Ill give you a hint ^

.........................

My best friend!! At my house!!

Yep. My best friend Lyssa, her husband Dave and their son Christian at my house for three full days. I was so excited. Sure, it had only been 2 months since I saw them (Qatar-remember?!) but I am so happy they decided to take a small detour to our house in Arizona after spending a week in California, before heading back to Utah and eventually back to Qatar (they are back now). Lyssa and Christian visited last year in September, but this was Dave's first time coming to our house. Unfortunately, it was quite hot outside and Jason had to work a lot, but we had fun. It's always fun having your best friend around, no?

Christian and Griffin got along good. Christian will be 2 in November, so there is a year and four months between them, but Griffin is in a playful stage right now where he is really learning to share and have a good time. I could not wait for Griffin to meet him. They were pretty cute, of course.

My mom has 2 toddler beds from when my nephews were little and we have this same one upstairs in Griffin's room and the other at my mom's house for when he sleeps there. I had Jason pick it up before Lyssa got here and put the bed in the guest room so (hopefully) Christian would sleep in it and give Dave and Lyssa a bed to themselves, since they had been on vacation. I think it worked well.

Griffin and Christian hugging before we went swimming at the community pool

While they were here, we tried to think of fun things to do indoor since it was so hot, but I swear I could only think of free/cheap/cool things to do outdoors. Dave suggested we go to the State Capital Museum one day since it was free and so we did. It was pretty cool, I learned many things about this state that I did not know before (sadly). Here is Griffin at the podium in one of the set up rooms.

Griffin and Christian

One night, we decided to go to a Diamondbacks game. I was really excited because we love going to baseball games, especially with other people, and my mom came over to our house to babysit the boys and it was raining outside. Well, it was REALLY raining. I mean, we don't see rain coming down like this that often, but it was monsoon season, so not totally random. The visibility was awful. I was glad Jason was driving his truck since it's very reliable, and he is a good rain driver. MmmHmm. Well, once we got onto the I-10, we noticed some cars in front of us swerving around an item in the middle of the road. It was a large, metal ladder and Jason got over as fast as he could, but his back tire hit the ladder and it blew out. The bad part was that he had just gotten a flat tire 2 days prior and had used the spare already, so were without a change. We were on the side of the road, near an exit, it was raining and VERY windy. It was a tense situation. We called my step-dad and he came to pick us up. While we waited, Jason took the tire off, which happened to be on the freeway side of the road. I was very anxious, and mad and sad. My step-dad took us home and Jason put air in the spare, drove back with Chris, and put the spare on and drove home. Our perfect night turned out kinda lame, but at least we did not get hurt. Here is the view from where we sat on the road:

The next day, the Sallays drove back to Utah and a week later left for their journey back to Qatar. It was sad to say goodbye, but again I am so glad they came. Look how cute they are, Lyssa, Dave and Christian.

'Till next time!