Buddies

We had the Frost family over to swim & for a BBQ dinner.
Colby helped bake this cake. He insisted that it was a birthday cake & that it needed candles. So we put a candle for each kid on it. It was then our unbirthday cake.

Marissa & Colby blowing out the candles.

We found the kids reading books to each other. What great friends.

the great outdoors

We randomly decided to go to Prescott for 2 days. Bryan did not have to work so we headed out. Colby enjoyed his first camping experience.

Colby saw this hanging and call it a robot. It is really a kachina.

Walking around downtown Prescott. We loved the downtown area with all the historic buildings.

Eating homemade ice cream, German Chocolate Cake, at Young Farm's store.

Standing outside the courthouse. I believe this was built in 1902.

Colby insisted on sitting on a "bird chair" at the Mexican restaurant.

Colby's first camping experience. He was so excited to sleep in the tent & his sleeping bag. He slept great!

Helping Dad roll up the tent.

Playing in the creek & looking at the fish & tadpoles.

On the way home we stopped by the outlet mall in Anthem. Colby played in the water play area.

ADHA Convention

The middle of June, I had the opportunity to go to the annual ADHA (American Dental Hygienists' Association) convention in Albuquerque. This was an all paid expenses trip I was awarded from AZ Hygienists' Association. I had a great time getting to meet people from all over the U.S. There were about 1300 hygienists there & 400 were students.

Wednesday morning we arrived in Albuquerque. This was the student, Mara, that I roomed with. I picked her out as a hygiene student on the plane. Then I found out she was the person I would be sharing a room with.

Thursday: After the Crest Breakfast with speaker, Jillian Michaels from the Biggest Loser. Taking a picture with the girls from Phoenix College, Mara's classmates.
Lunch at a Mexican restuarant near the convention center. L to R: Susie (from CA), Julie, Peggi, Kelly, Mara & Rachel (all the rest were from Phx College).

Friday: We attended a couple of classes & went to the exhibits for all our free dental stuff. This picture is before the extravaganza reception.

Friday: At the extravaganza dinner with my director, Ms. Blitz. This was a live auction to support the institute for oral health.

Esther Wilkins, a celebrity in the dental hygiene field. She is 92 years old and she has just published another dental hygiene book. She danced the night away at every party during the convention.

L to R: me, Julie, Jean Conner (president of the ADHA) & Mara.

Saturday: We started the morning off with awards. Then finished with speaker & entertainer, Debbie Reynolds.

This was at the president's reception. It was a party celebrating the eras from the 30s and on. The poodle skirt group is from Phoenix College & the lady on the right is their director. This was a dinner & dance party with a live band. On the right is a lady who was painting this picture during a song. It was incredible to see this done. This last picture of the tie die group was a hygienist from Montana & 2 students from SC & myself.

California Adventure Park

Day 2 was spent entirely at Disney's California Adventure. It was all of our first time at this park. There was so much to do and not as much of a crowd. Colby, Bryan & Terri headed straight for "a bug's land." There were lots of rides for kids his age here.

Later in the day, Bryan, Colby & I went to the show Playhouse Disney-Live on Stage. This was where you could sing & dance with your favorite Playhouse Disney characters performing live.

This video is a clip of the performance. Colby loved this show. It was a perfect show for his age.

Skip posing by Paradise Bay. On the swing at Orange Stinger (a giant orange you swing inside of).

Colby is into Wall-e lately, even though it has not come out to theater yet. He would not stop asking to see Wall-e, luckily we found him inside the Disney Animation room.

Colby did not last long playing in the water at Bountiful Valley Farm in "a bug's land" because you were required to keep your shoes on. So it was onto something new.

The Twlight Zone Tower of Terror was an awesome elevator ride.

Skip & Bryan standing by the waterfall around the Golden State.

This airplane was by Soarin' Over California. This ride was inside an airplane hanger where you fly all over the state of California. The temperature and smells in the room change with each new location. You can actually smell the ocean, oranges, and pinetrees.

This is the gang walking through a tree in the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail.

Playing on the ropes bridges & slides at Redwood Creek.

Riding down the tree slide.

This was the first character we saw at the Pixar Play Parade. This parade was awesome. It had all of our favorite Disney Pixar movies.

This video is of Lightning McQueen driving by.

Monster Inc. character saying hi to Colby.

Getting sprayed by water throughout the entire parade. Little did we know it was a water parade.

Dory from "Finding Nemo" giving Colby kisses at the parade.

To finish up the parade was Mater.

At the Games of the Boardwalk, Colby got to go fishing and won this duck.

Here we are all watching the Disney's Electrical Parade. It was just like I remember it as a kid. You can see Colby holding his new Mickey Mouse that Bryan & I bought him.

After all the excitement of the day Colby fell asleep in Bryan's arms. We walked along the shops in Downtown Disney.

This is the view from our hotel room.

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This is before we left to go home. Skip bought Colby a new Lightning McQueen. You can see the excitement all over his face.

We had a great trip and hope to be able to go again in a couple of years.