Grandma and Grandpa Campbell were coming down to spend the weekend with the Updike siblings in Mesa, so they came down a day earlier to spend a day in Tucson with us. Grandpa has been getting into a new hobby of working with wood. A couple weeks ago he sent this awesome barn for Ryan that has lots of doors that open and close. Ryan's current obsession is opening and closing doors so this one is a winner.
Grandpa Campbell brought down Annie's special surprise that he'd been working on: a treasure chest. He also made her a little castle. Even though the treasure chest is half as big as her, she loves putting her special toys in there and carrying it all around the house. She looks awesome staggering around with it in her arms, her head peeking out above the top.
I meant to get a picture of the kids with their cool stuff Grandpa made them WITH Grandpa in it, but forgot to do it while they were here. Bummer. Maybe next time they're down I'll remember. And by then Rachel will have her special surprise that Grandpa is making for her: a princess castle. She's very excited about that one. :)
Since Grandma and Grandpa were only here one day we were just going to hang out with them at home. But then I took advantage of babysitters in the house and ran to Target and on the way home was reminded by the radio that the Gem and Mineral Show was in town just a few more days. I had been meaning to check it out since I've never been even though I've lived in Tucson nearly my whole life and the Tucson G&M Show is the biggest one in the whole U.S. Grandma was game to check it out, so we headed over to one of the locations that was not too far away.
There are 40 locations around town, and the one we went to by the Kino Stadium is one of the larger ones. It had several huge tents, and a ton of smaller tents for smaller vendors. We spent a little under an hour there and just made it through the first tent we came to. There were geodes as tall as Rachel that were a couple thousand dollars. It was pretty cool to look at all the rocks and fossils and such.
Rachel commented on how these amethysts looked like part of a potty. So they had to try them out. Classy.
Table after table of beautifully cut stones.
And the last third or so of the tent had jewelry, all sorts. A lot for real cheap. They do a lot of wholesale stuff, so there were prices for if you bought one, or 100 or 500.
The girls and I each got a one dollar necklace. (Then I went back the next day and got 4 more necklaces for me.) I also got some bookends and the kids each got a little egg-sized geode for $0.50 each that they took home and cracked open with a hammer that night. It was really cool. They had pretty white crystals inside.
The kids and Grandma on petrified wood stools:
After the gem and mineral show we headed back home to let Ryan nap and enjoy the rest of the afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa. The girls watched the Magic School Bus with Grandma for a while before they went outside to play (and drink Grandpa's blue juice while watching him whittle away on a project he was working on).
You can see in the background of the picture above the back side of Annie's chest. I don't think I got a picture of the top of the chest, but it has Annie's name across the top of it.
Jake came home from work and we had dinner, then G&G headed back up north to Mesa. It was good to have them stop by, even just for a day. We always love visitors. :)
