Angle's Orchard

So I've been teaching Brittlee the letter "a" and thought it'd be fun to do a little field trip up the mountain to Angles Orchard to pick "apples". I invited my mom, Nicole (who didn't come, but sent her kids!), and my friend Tiffany. We got up there about 10:30 and to our complete disappointment it was closed! They don't open until 1 p.m. on Tuesdays, just MY luck! But we made a trip of it anyway. We had packed a lunch, so we just drove up a little farther and had a fun picnic on the mountain. It ended up being really nice. The kids had a great time playing in the creek and hiking around. So, aside from coming home with no apples, we had a splendid time. Grandma's are the best!

I so want to put this rock in my backyard! It's such a good climbing rock, and the kids had so much fun on it.

Moral of this story: check out the website before making the drive! http://www.angleorchard.com/

P.S. So, just wondering, when was the last time any of you were at the cabin? Is it time for a family reunion on Mt. Graham? It's absolutely beautiful this time of year, and my mom says that she "just aches" to be up there!

And now some pictures from Luke's party! I can't believe that he's 1! Jaron and I are so happy to have Luke in our family. He sure keeps us entertained! Anyways - this is the totally rockin' cake that Clarice made for Luke. She did a great job. This is the "before" picture.

Here are a couple of "during" pictures. Luke didn't really go at the cake like I thought he would. He started off just eating the frosting a little bit at a time, but he made it down to the cake and really just ate like a gentleman. Well, like a gentleman who eats with his hands.

And the "after" picture. This was the easiest way to get Luke cleaned off. He was a mess! But he sure loved his cake (thanks Aunt Clarice)!

Now on to the presents. Luke wasn't very interested in opening the presents in the first place, but after he saw what was inside of the wrapping paper, forget it! He played with his new toys while his cousins opened the rest of his presents.

Aunt Jackie was pretty proud of herself for getting Luke a toy that he liked so much, so I thought I'd post a picture of him playing with it. :) Thanks Aunt Jackie!

Okay, this is Audrey. Still don't know exactly what I'm doing, but I was told I needed to post pictures from Alliene's suprise birtday fiesta and from Luke's first birthday party, so here they are. First, a picture of the Three Hermanas in Sombreros. I just made up that name for our "band" but I think it rolls nicely off the tongue. Jackie made up a song to the tune of "The Macarena" and she sang it while Clarice and I danced in the background. Great way to start off the party!

Here's another set of sisters - a bit older than the first set :), but just as cute!

And finally, a group picture. We had so much fun at the party and we're glad Alliene decided to stay and eat some good food and celebrate with us! Happy birthday Alliene!

Since Michelle got after us all for not posting, I will take some time to show off our recent trip to Oahu. This is an evening dinner on Waikiki Beach. It was actually our last night there, but it's the first picture so you get to see it first.
The problem with Hawaii is, I can't pronounce or spell half the places we visited, so this is another nice place!
Our day long stay at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We all thought it was a pretty neat place. We had a guided tour, a luau and finished the evening with a brand new performance; "HA! The Breath of Life". Very entertaining and very educational.
The world's largest human maze at the Dole Plantation. Imagine having your daughter take off running as soon as you enter and not see her for at least 10 minutes. She finally called and sheepishly asked where we were. I think she really wanted to find us.

We went to church at the Honolulu Stake Tabernacle. Pretty awesome building. The sign by the door said, "Maximum occupancy: 949 persons". They didn't quite fill it, but it was close. They have 2 missionaries from the McCully ward serving in our mission here. Maybe we will get to meet them someday.
The Laie Temple. It has been under construction for 8 months and will not reopen for about another year. They are doing a major remodel clear down to the electrical and plumbing. We went to the visitors center and I heard a family talking to the missionaries and overheard they were from Arizona. So I went over and asked where they were from and they said the Phoenix area. I told them we are from Pinetop and they said, "Do you know Bishop Merrill?" Their son had just married our Bishops daughter a couple of months ago. Small world.
I hope you enjoyed our little get-away. If you would like to see more, you can visit us at http://crockettsinthepines.blogspot.com.

Tea Party and . . .

This is a little late, but we had a lot of fun at my mom's surprise tea party. Sarah did a great jobputting the whole thing together. My mom was really surprised, especially to see Alliene & Carrie there. I didn't take a picture of the food, but wow! We had some really yummy finger foods. Zucchini brownies, little lemon muffins, veggie bars, all kinds of good stuff! It was really fun to just enjoy an evening eating and visiting with each other, with our English Accents. (Okay, so Sarah's the only one who had one, and she was so cute too!) Carrie & Nicole

Dawn & GailAlliene & Allison. Briggs got to come too. Andy has dubbed him "relief society boy" because he goes with mom (me) to all her girly parties! So, we really miss having Christiane and Jarrett here. Beckie & Brittlee had a lot of fun playing with them. I'd take them all swimming & Christiane was so good helping them, especially when they all wanted to go off the diving boards. Plus she painted their toenails, which they love, and was always just a good little mom. K- so really I miss having them around!

Here's some pictures of Jarrett & Beckie playing "chef!" Aren't they cute?! I love that Jarrett was able to get past the fact that it's pink and play along.

Painters Needed

Well, the little picket fence is all up! Now we just need some painters to come and finish it. Doesn't it look good? Jordan did a great job with Grandma supervising.

(Sarah did help enough today to get to be in a picture!)

Just think, in a little over a month Grandma's going to have to find other grandkids to help her with her projects, Jordan only has five weeks left - so watch out!

Oh, and Beckie, Brittlee, & Briggs are looking for friends to come join them on Grandma's trampoline!

Just an update on Sarah, all she lacks for her papers is an interview with the Stake President, then we'll be waiting for her call. Pretty exciting times we live in!