Well, the wild part may be up for debate, but they sure are wonderful! My mom has 4 sisters, and they are all fabulous. Two of my mom’s sisters live in this area, and the others are in North Dakota. They decided they needed a little time together, so the 3 ND ladies, along with my grandma and my cousin Mallory flew out for a long weekend. They got in on Thursday night and stopped by our place for a few minutes to say hi. I felt like I was in a wedding receiving line when they all came into my house with all the hugs in a row! Just as quick as they came in though, they were gone again to spend the night at Karen’s house and Joyce’s condo in Scottsdale.
The next morning, I got up and the kids and I headed up to meet the ladies for some shopping. Fortunately, Dave wasn’t working very late that day, so he was able to meet up with us to get the kids, allowing the ladies to shop without worrying about keeping the kids occupied. I took these pictures from Joyce’s album. After we 9 ladies were on our own, we spent a few more hours shopping before Dave and I met up for our anniversary movie date.
On Saturday, Karen and Dave had planned an 8th birthday party for Dawson at their gym. The kids got to play on the rock climbing wall. We made the mistake of being honest with the climbing wall assistant, so Tyler wasn’t able to actually harness up and try the rock wall. He had to be 5, and we told them he was 4. Oh well, he was a little hesitant anyway.
Tyler’s cousin, Talon came to the party and had a fun time!
Ava even tried to climb the wall, with a little help from Grandma Jean. She also did a few pull ups, just to test her strength.
After the party, we hung out at Karen and Dave’s house, where we were entertained by my cousin Kristina’s boyfriend, Rob. He’s a very talented musician, and even has a few shows coming up in Tempe. Rasta Rob…if you ever get a chance to check him out, do it!
After hanging out with the family, Dave brought the kids home, and then we wild (ok, wonderful is more like it) Winden women went out for dinner at a delicious restaurant called FnB in Scottsdale. Before dinner, however, we took a few pictures together. I had a different plan for these pictures, but we got started too late, and ran out of light. We got a few good ones though. Check out these wonderful Winden women!
And here is the next generation…my beautiful cousins (Mallory and Kristina) and me…who are proud to have been influenced by these ladies. I know I am not alone when I say that I’ve learned so much from my mom, my 4 aunts, and my grandma Vivian. They are 6 of the most wonderful, beautiful, funny, smart and caring women I know.
And here we are with a perfect example of all the things I said above…our Aunty Joyce!
We had a delicious, fun meal together at FnB. It is a pretty small, but award winning restaurant, where the chefs cook all of the food right out in the middle of the place. The 9 of us sat around the bar in the middle of the room, and could watch every move the chefs made. They’ve won a bunch of awards for their food, and the appetizer I had is going to be on the list of top 12 meals in the country by some, national food magazine’s next edition. And yes, it was great!
After a fun evening, we went back to Joyce’s and hung out in the hot tub for awhile before I headed back home.
Thank you all for making the trip out here for the weekend. It was great to see you all, and I’m sure it was very special for you all to be together, even for a few days. We’re very excited to have Grandma Jean staying with us a for a few more days. Tyler has kept her very busy playing all day yesterday! We are looking forward to a few fun days together.
For all of the pictures I took of our weekend, check out this Picasa slideshow. Enjoy!
