Homeward Bound With A Party Stop On The Way

As I now knew the correct and fastest route between Scott's house and my sister's Valerie's house, we were assured of a quick and straight drive to Mesa on Wednesday afternoon (August 7th, for those keeping track.).  The plan was to arrive there in late afternoon for dinner and a gathering of whatever Ipson and Giberson cousins and kids could make it.  It was the first day of school for Valerie's grandkids so families were so sweet to get out of their new routine for a mid-week dinner.  And came they did--seven of Valerie's eight kids were there with their kids and most of the spouses along with my brother Mike and his daughter, Lisa, and son-in-law Paul and their three kids.

I didn't realize that Tosha had never been to their new house in Mesa so didn't know about the extra bonus fun things in the backyard.  As kids will do, Tosha's three kids quickly found kids to play with and it was a great time to see each other and spend time together.

Cousins, cousins, everywhere!

The boys

The girl cousins

The end of the hallway is  popular place to hangout at Grandma Valerie's house...the opposite end from the toy room, of course, but no worries--have toys and will travel.....

Outside, Uncle Lance has created a couple of animal enclosures.  Here is his turtle den with Jordan and his son, Lachlin.

 Of course, there is a nice climbing area with slides--

When we arrived, Kara was also arriving with her four kids and immediately, they discovered they were wearing matching shirts from Target.  Had to have a picture of that!

Jayden, Niki, and Kendall checking out the turtle-     (Jayden and Kendall are Justin's kids.)

Justin is brave enough to feed him.

And then there were the chickens---

 

Tosha had Austen on facetime and gave him a whole tour of the outside.  I think he was excited to see his kids having fun with animals and cousins.

Niki loved the animals and the whole backyard and asked me when we were going to be able to visit THIS grandma's house again!  Not sure, buddy!! Maybe sometime again!

This is Audrey, my dad's oldest great-granddaughter (Lisa's daughter) and one of his youngest great granddaughters, Ava.

Aslin (Jordan's littlest) and Ava on the floor---

Bye, turtle--until next time we come!

As everyone headed home around 8:00 pm, we loaded up in the car again to start our drive back to Utah.  Our goal was to make Kingman, AZ, for the night and then drive the rest of the way--through Las Vegas this time--to meet Gary in Cedar City.

And for once, the plan went smoothly and we got ourselves tucked in bed in Kingman with no unexpected detours or events.  Sweet dreams!