When Willie met Ellie

This last week Dave's parents were able to come visit from Utah. We had such a fun time with them and with Dave's brother and sister-in-law, John and Rachel. Ellie was soooo thrilled to have "friends" visiting and constantly begged Grandpa Willie to play with her. Much to his credit, he did and instantly became her best friend.

We got to do several fun things together as well as get several house projects done which was great. Tuesday we all went together to Sabino Canyon, a beautiful canyon north of Tucson with a stream running down it. We rode a tram to the top of the canyon and got off near a waterfall for our picnic lunch. It was pretty hot, even up in the mountains but it was so pretty with the water and the blooming cacti.





Wednesday Dave, Bill, and Beckey went to check out the Pima Mine, an open-pit copper mining operation just a few miles away from where we live and did a tour there. Ellie and I picked them up after her preschool and got to see the huge truck they use to carry rock and dirt around in.



Later that afternoon they went to the Titan Missile Museum, which apparently was pretty interesting as well. Wednesday evening we made Bill and Bec earn their keep and had them help us with a few things around the house. One thing they did that was very helpful was trim our huge overgrown mesquite tree. I was so nervous as they chopped away huge hunks of our tree that I had to leave but it looked really nice when they were all done with it.

Thursday we drove through Saguaro National park and went to the visitor center there. The Sonoran desert is so different than what you expect from a desert because of the wide variety of cacti and plants that grow in it even though it is such a harsh environment. I think it has a thorny beauty all it's own and paired with the red mountains in the background is just amazing. The other picture is from San Xavier del Bac, an old Franciscan mission that's been around long before Tucson was built.



Friday was supposed to be relaxing but wasn't. All morning was spent dealing with an ongoing pigeon problem. We have an overlap of roofs on the second story that makes a perfect nesting place for the nasty birds and their noise was keeping Beckey awake so we decided to take care of the problem. I ended up hanging out of a second story window cleaning out nasty pigeon nest and poop, filling up the gap with Super Stuff or whatever it's called, and fencing off the roof with pigeon spikes. It worked though, and that bedroom's a lot quieter now. Later that morning John and Rachel showed up from Tempe and we had a nice time visiting with them. The day was supposed to finish with a big BBQ, except our grill stopped working. The oven-broiled ribs turned out fine though and I was more than happy to veg out in front of a movie with the rest of the fam that night. All in all it was a great visit. We love having family around and wish we lived closer! Thanks Bill and Beckey for coming down and for all your help with "projects" even though this was supposed to be your vacation. We love you guys!