"she thinks it's the greatest place in the world."

Would be what Johnny tells people how I feel about my hometown mesa, AZ. Ashley and I decided to make a surprise visit down to az last week, and it was amazing. As we stepped out of the car, we immediately feel the "perfect" air temperature along with its amazing smell of orange blossoms.... I knew this trip was going to be the bomb. It was so much fun to see everyone's reactions to our surprise... its a good feeling to be missed so much. We had such an awesome time but like always, the week flew by WAY to fast. I always joke that whenever I come home I automatically slip into this weird coma type thing, i cant explain it, but that is what it feels like. It flashed before my eyes! I didn't even get to see my friends:( sorry friends, next time. Anyway, here were some of the highlights...

- PLAYING OUTSIDE. The weather couldn't have been any more perfect. High 70's.
- Seeing kippy's belly + her 3d ultrasound with the cutest little fetus you've ever seen.
-oregano's...ever been to the scottsdale oregano's?? *story to follow
-witnessing possibly the funniest thing i have ever seen happen in a sacrament meeting. *story to follow
- talk taco's, bbq's.
-hanging out with my sil's..and bro's
-rosas.... something that i miss terribly when I am away.
- going to the zoo
- shopping extravaganza's+ taking FULL advantage of ashley's amazing discounts. i really do believe that az has the best shopping ever!!!
-going out to lunch pretty much everyday ( my mom's daily guilty little pleasure)
-Ivy getting to play with her "parker boy" as she calls him
-playing with little Ellie
-watching lost with the fam, and susan's little comments every 5 sec! hahahaha!
- crafting away with the kipster
- nate and kip camping out the whole week with us.
- kevin teasing old ladies at the nursing home.... man kev I really forget HOW freaking funny you are!!!
-seeing parker do his monkey run
- witnessing ashley and Ivy's girl fight. Should I be worried!?
Here is ashley's side: " I never did anything to her to make her act this way, mind you!
Quotes from Ivy as follows:
"Ash, you be quiet!!" (I wasn't even talking or looking at her at the time)
"I don't like Ash, she being mean to me today." What the heck??!!!!!
Kippy: "Do you like Ash, Ivy?" Ivy: "NO!"
"Ash is NOT my friend"
"Ash why you not married??" ouch. Where did this 2 year old come from!?? And how did she learn how to insult so well. Touche Ivy, touche! I hope you make boys cry when your older. Just a FYI, me and Ivy have made up. I apologized to her... even though I have no idea what I did to make her so hostile. We are totally BFF now.

Warning: I am the WORST at shortening story's, but I like to remember details neway:)

*So after a really long day of shopping, me kip and tara decide to hit up scottsdale oregano's to top off our great day. Well i have been to this location a number of times, and when we got there, there was probably 100 people standing in the "parking lot" drinking away while waiting for their table. I remember parking there in the past so I asked kip to jump out and ask the hostess if we could park in there. Well kip signals me to pull in (mind you i am driving my mom's big ol' suburban!!) and tara is like "no amy! no!!! dont do it! As I proceed to pull in Tara drops to the floor so embarrassed that we had to basically drive through this huge crowd. You could see kippy's embarrassment as she stood outside watching. So as I am pulling through with my lights on, everyone is just standing there staring. Well then I decided to honk my Horn to get these people out of my way ( mostly to embarrass the kip and tara. At this point, tara is crying laughing on the floor of the suburban ( probably nursing her baby at the same time!) and is telling me, that I am crazy for doing that and she is NOT getting out of the car! I cannot even tell you how funny this scene was to see me trying to plow through all of these people, and getting stared at like we were celeberties or somethin. As soon as we finally were able to park, I jump out like it was nothin, and tara takes a whole 5 minutes to get the courage to get out. Maybe you had to be there, but it was h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s!

* The next day me and the fam were all sitting in sacrament meeting. We had to small rows one behind the other. Lately Ivy has been totally obsessed with stickers...they keep her entertained like nothing I have ever seen. So i bring her princess stickers in my purse and give them to her once she started to act up. Well..somehow little brother Ammon gets a hold of them, and starts lightly pressing them on my dad's back. We were sitting in the front, so who know's how many people saw him doing this. So anyway ammon had put's about 8 stickers on my dad's back when all of the sudden my dad stands up to go play the organ! I guess he totally forgot about his role in sacrament meeting. So all of the sudden ammon starts trippin and tries to pull my dad back down, but he couldn't catch him. The stickers were so big and bright that we were pretty sure the whole entire ward saw as he was walking up. The stickers also had some little encouraging lines like "great job, your amazing, your beautiful... i cannot tell you how hard my family was laughing. We all had our head's down crying laughing, and family by family started to laugh around us. It was the biggest uproar that i have ever seen. Best part was that when he looked out into the crowd, he could see everyone laughing, so of course he starts to laugh but doesn't have a clue at what. Then he realized that everyone was looking and laughing at him!! He said that it was the strangest feeling to see everyone laughing at him and he had not a clue why. When the song was over it dawned on him that Ammon had to have something to do with it, and then proceeded to look at his coat. He looked at us and started crying laughing himself. Afterwards he had about every ward member come up and say something. I think the best comment was from a guy who came up to my family and said "hahaha that should go in the ensign" we all look at each other and die laughing even harder. The ensign? It was seriously the funniest thing ever and of course rex took it like a champ!

And for a million random pics...