Our Arizona Family

As I mentioned previously, we had the opportunity this past weekend to travel down to Arizona to attend Mike's dads funeral. Even though we went for a sad reason, we had a wonderful time seeing everyone again. It has been a while since we all have been together and it was so nice to just relax and visit with each other. All of Mike's brothers and sisters were there along with their spouses and most of their children. Here are some pictures of the funeral itself. It was a sad occasion but it was so nice to be together to celebrate dad's wonderful life and legacy.

The best part of the weekend was seeing our children. Jamie, Landi and Matthew all drove down to Mesa. (Chris, Cat and Logan could not make it. We missed you! :( )

I know it was very far for them to come but I am so glad they did. It was so fun to be with them and to catch up on how they are doing and what is going on with them. It was also nice for them to get away from the cold Idaho and Utah's winter to the 80 degree weather in Arizona which I know we ALL enjoyed. We spent a lot of time just visiting. Of course we did the regular things. We went to Tia Rosa's restaurant, twice, which Mike's brother Dennis owns. It was delicious!

We also went to all the historic monuments in Mesa. Mesa is the only place you can go to where people actually pronounce our names right! It is like we are almost famous there or something. We went to the Sirrine Home.

We also went to Sirrine street (very cool...I want this street sign for my garage).

And we visited Pioneer Park just across the street from the temple where there is a statue of our great great grandfather George Warren Sirrine one of the four founding pioneers of Mesa. He is the one with the long beard kneeling up front. The enscription on the monument says "This monument is dedicated to the founding men, women and children of Mesa whose efforts, along with others of all races, religions and cultures, changed the harsh desert land into this vibrant city today. When the settlers first came in 1877-78, they found the remains of an irrigation system built over a thousand years earlier by the Hohokam. With gratitude for the work of these early people and after eight months of worrisome toil, the new settlers restored one of the ancient canals and water once again flowed to the desert from which the community was destined to grow. We of Mesa are proud of the heritage of these honest, hard-working pioneers have left us. May their spirit and determination continue to enrich our lives through this memorial.

We spent a lot of time visiting with family, laughing and riding the ATV's at Dennis's house.

We also took some time to visit at Dennis's train set. As you can see from the pictures this is no ordinary train set. It is more like Madurodam in Holland. He has an entire garage full of trains and it is even more beautiful when he has the lakes and waterfalls filled up. Every year a group of train enthusiast come to his house just to see his collection. He is famous all over the world for this setup. It is truly unbelievable.

As much fun as we had, we are happy to be home again safe and sound and we are hoping that things can be settle down a bit again.