Golden Gate Bridge turns 75 Years Old

I noticed in the news today that the Golden Gate Bridge is turning 75 years old this month and it triggered a fun memory. When the bridge turned 50 years old, we were living in the Bay Area and heard they were going to have a big celebration, including fireworks. So, knowing we were living a bit of history, we gathered up our little family on a Sunday evening and drove to San Francisco. It was VERY CROWDED, but somehow we managed to find a parking space and then we walked a few blocks to a great place where we had a perfect view of the fireworks, which were taking place right over the bridge. We were there with our good friends, Keoki and Christy Williams and their family. It was an awesome experience that I will never forget. I wonder if our kids remember being there. If not, at least they now know they were a part of history!

Visit from Mom, Kathy & Dennis

Although I don't have pictures from their visit, we loved having my Mom and Kathy and Dennis come and visit for a long weekend. I do have one half of a picture of Mom, when we went to Kylie and Lexi's piano recital the first night she arrived. Mom stayed with us and Kathy and Dennis stayed with Brady and Elizabeth. The main purpose of their visit was for Brady's graduation with his MBA from ASU and the blessing of their new baby, Liam. We're so glad Mom was able to come along with them and we always consider it a treat when she comes here. On Sunday, after the baby blessing, we had a family dinner with all of them and all of our family, which we enjoyed. Here are the pictures from the recital:

 The girls did such a great job at their recital. I'm so happy they are taking piano lessons.....

 and I hope they keep it up for a very long time!

 Only half of Mom is in this picture. I wish I would have taken more pictures! But here is cute Sadie with me.

Bryan's turn to go to California

It's hard for Bryan and I to get away at the same time because right now Real Estate is quite busy, so I stayed home this time to take care of real estate. It was Bryan's turn to go to California on a little vacation.

Bryan's friend, Charanjit Grewal, who he has known for many years, invited us to his daughter, Riga's wedding. It was a Sikh wedding, which was a new experience for Bryan. He loved being there and participating in all of the events.

He was also able to spend some time with Michael, Mallory and Madie. Bryan, Michael & Madie went to Yosemite for a day trip, which Bryan enjoyed very much. For as many years as we lived in California, we really hadn't been to Yosemite, so it was a treat for Bryan. Here are some of the pictures from his trip.

 Bridal Veil Falls

 Lower Yosemite Falls

 Papa and Madie with El Capitan in the background

 El Capitan

 I love these pictures of Papa and Madie

I'm so glad Bryan had a chance to get away. He was super stressed before he left and he needed a break!

Easter Feast

We love the fact that a lot of Bryan's family is moving to Arizona. Lynn's daughter Stacey and her family live in Glendale and his son, David and family, just moved to Surprise. Lynn and Cherie are going to move to Arizona probably sometime this year. Paul's daughter Emilie and her family live in Mesa, Annette & Ron and Annette's son, Jon and family, live in Maricopa. Then there is our family, of course. 

So, on Easter, we invited everyone over for Easter dinner. We ended up with  16 kids and 12 adults! Here are the tables before everyone arrived. We not only had 1 kids table, we had 4 of them!

 And here they are.......

 Here are the bigger kids.......

 After dinner, we had an Easter Egg hunt in our back yard. The kids are getting lined up for the hunt.

 And Tyler helped hold them back until it was time to GO!

 There were plenty of eggs for everyone. I think we had about 200 eggs, so everyone was happy.

 Here are Sadie, Myles and Brodi checking out their candy.

 Emilie and Ben brought homemade ice cream - yummy!

 Tiffany brought sugar cookies for the kids to frost themselves.

 Hannah took her bow out of her hair, which made it stick straight up!

We loved having everyone over and enjoyed visiting. We anticipate a lot more Watkins parties as we recruit more people to move here! We love having family around.

My Favorite Things

My friend, Lisa Pulsipher, had a 'Favorite Things' party. She invited about 20 people and each person was to bring their favorite thing x 5 to the party. We couldn't spend more than $5 on each of the items. It thought about it and realized one of my favorite things is Bath and Body Works Lotion - particularly White Citrus. I can't live without lotion. I put it on my hands everytime after they get wet and I put it on my feet every night before I go to bed. I can't really sleep with dry hands and feet. So, I took 5 of these lotions to the party.

When each person arrived at the party, we put our name in a jar 5 times. Lisa prepared her favorite foods and served us dinner. After dinner, we sat in a circle and one at a time, we showed our favorite thing and told why it was our favorite thing, then we drew 5 names out of the jar and those 5 people received our item. It was so much fun! I came home with M&M's, a lint brush, foamy hand soap, a hair bow and a chocolate easter bunny. It was so much fun! Thanks, Lisa for a wonderful time! Such a great idea.

April Fools!

Shannon was assigned the dessert for our Sunday dinner on April Fool's Day and she got very creative! It was so funny! We all enjoyed this delicious dessert! Kitty Litter cake! It was actually very good and the ummm little brown things are tootsie rolls. Great job, Shannon!

 The girls found the dress-up box and had fun modeling different costumes.

 Sam needs some boy cousins to live closer to him. He does love his girl cousins though.

 I love this picture of Papa and Hannah.

New grandson!

We're so excited that Michael and Mallory are going to give us another grandson in May or June. Can't wait! Here are his 3-D ultrasound pictures.