Trip to AZ Part 2

Of course, we made it to Grandma and Grandpa Lancaster's house just fine. It was late, but the next morning Grandma got to really meet the newest grandbaby.

Grandpa, of course, had met Luke when he came to Boise for his blessing day.We just relaxed and caught up all day Friday. We went on a walk and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Saturday, we headed to Lowe's, because we just couldn't miss building a Lowe-bot. The boys had been looking forward to it for weeks! It's a wooden race car that becomes a robot (sort of). Grandma came along to help.

As usual, Zachary ran out of interest, so I finished up the Lowe-bot. Look what Zachary ended up doing instead:
His grandma says, "He doesn't know a stranger!" It's so true! In true Zach style, he had two grown men listening intently to what he had to say. He talks to anyone who will listen, and they usually end up quite engaged. We got to know the Lowe's guys pretty well that day!

Then, wonder of wonders, can you believe that on the very weekend we were visiting in Phoenix, it was Touch a Truck? Jared still talks about going 3 years ago. THREE YEARS AGO. And he's only SIX! When we told him it was that weekend, he immediately started cheering. Zach didn't remember, but he was a very happy boy when we pulled up and saw a parking lot full of fire trucks, school buses, tow trucks, and even the WeinerMobile from WeinerSchnitzel.
Here he is in mid-air on a Breast Cancer Awareness trailer:

And driving a school bus:And here's Ryan taking a turn with Luke. My back feels fine (from the bulging disc incident) until I strap 14 pounds to it and walk around for an hour. So yeah, he had to take a turn.
This was Jared's favorite truck this year. It's a flat-bed tow truck, with a pick up loaded on it. He got to pull the levers to slide the flatbed back, then tilt it down (as if to unload the pick up) and then back up. Super cool!
We saw lots of people we knew at Touch a Truck. Lots of people who have little kids (in particular, boys), anyway. We even ran into an old friend of Ryan's. I'd never met them because they were in Michigan at med school while we lived in Glendale. He's now an E.R. doctor and they moved to Glendale. They invited us over for dinner later that week. Dang it, why do I always make friends who don't live in the same state as I do?

I'm not sure when this photo was actually taken. There were two very raucous nights when Uncle Scott came over to visit. I bet he wasn't planning on WWE breaking out! It was his own dang fault, though. He taught Zach some smackdown moves, and then had to suffer the consequences. Zach does NOT pull his punches! We have lots of fun pictures from those nights.
Sunday, our sister-in-law, Erin, came with her kids. It was love at first sight for all of them, I think! Instant friends. No shyness or anything. I just told Jared and Zach that they're family, and that's all they needed to know. They had SO MUCH FUN together! This picture shows some of the silliness that went on.
It doesn't hurt that our kids are fairly close in age. Poor Anna was the only girl child, but she's pretty rough and tough (despite looking so sweet!) so she held her own just fine!