Dec 28th

Happy days, Bill, Patti & the 5 kids arrived today at 1:30 on westjet at sky harbor in PHX.  They were all tired & hungry from a long travel day.  I guess they had to go to YEG, then YYC where they departed from.
  It was sure good to see them.  It was tough getting a car as they never reserved and with the Fiesta bowl this weekend there were no mini-vans or large suv's to be had, so they settled for a nice car & 2 kids road with us. We had to drive up for the keys and stuff for the house they rented. The only problem was the gps was set for scenic route, so it took a bit longer, & it was scenic.  Fixed that by setting it to fastest route.  As we were in the area, we went to the Sugar Bowl.  It's really an ice cream parlor, but they also have lots of food choices to go with the good stuff.
  After we went to the house, it's in Mesa, about 7 miles from where are. It 's a nice house with lots of room for all 7 of them.  Lots of tv's, rooms for all and a nice swimming pool.  All in a good neighborhood.  By then it was time to get a few supplies, they are staying for a week, after all.  So we went up to Walmart.  Fortunately there is one up on Signal Butte, very close to where they are.

  A little time for the little ones to unwind and we called it a day.  It was interesting to watch the  reaction of our grandchildren to the size of the city, the traffic, the appearance of everything.  Their reaction really re-enforces my opinion on how important it is for kids to see more of the world than being limited to what we have in northern Alberta.  There is indeed a whole big world out there.  Paige really summed it up best when she said she didn't want to grow up because she didn't think she would ever be able to do anything like this on her own.  Our reply was that if she stayed in school and continued to do well there, that everything she desired would be within her grasp.