Party of 12

That's the number of people we had sleeping in our house for a few days!  Last week was Fall Break so we had most of the Shields family here for the week.  We love visitors and we love being able to spend time with family! We had Michael's Grandpa Baldwin and Grandma Barbara staying in our guest room, Christi & Bryce with Brycen and Cian staying in our spare room, Michael's mom and dad in Laila's room on an air mattress, Laila and her crib in the master room and Dallin on our couch.  It was a full house and we loved it.

Saturday we had most of our guests arriving at varied times.  Sunday we all took up a whole row at church.  Enjoyed visiting the nearby duck pond, ate a nice pot roast for dinner, and hung out together.  Michael's brother, Joshua, came up from Tucson for dinner.  Wish his wife, Laura, could have come too.  But she was busy saving lives at work.

Monday we all went to a nearby farm to see the pumpkins, enjoy a train/tractor ride, ride the bouncy horsies, enjoy the jumpy jump & slides, see the animals and get lost in the corn maze.  The farm has so many fun things to do and the weather was not quite Fall weather, but it still felt nice.

Monday night and Tuesday afternoon, Dallin and Bryce had to fly back home and Michael's grandparents headed out.  So our numbers went down, but there was still a lot fun to be had.  Tuesday morning (before Bryce left and before all the babies and most adults were awake) we went to the Mesa temple to do some work.  WAY rough to wake up at that time, but wonderful to be in the temple!  Tuesday evening, the remaining 8 drove down to Tucson for visits and pizza with Joshua and Laura.
Our nephew, Brycen, rode down with us in our small car and he did not know what to do with all the dance parties we were having, but he soon got the hang of it.  On Wednesday, Michael and his dad started working on some projects around the house.  Stay tuned for those projects.  The rest of us enjoyed being outside and biking to the park.

Wednesday night we all donated three canned foods so that we could get into the state fair.  Love the lights. Love the rides. Love seeing how many foods can be deep fried. Love the people watching.  Love it all.

 ^This goat made me miss my Gertie Goat

Thursday was another delightful day because it was Michael's dad birthday and we started our day at the Train Park in Scottsdale.

On Friday everyone was leaving us.  So we took headed out on one last adventure and took a hike that's right by our house.  Arizona definitely is a different kind of beautiful. We are glad we got to share it with Michael's family for a few days!