Hikin' and Pink Jeepin'

We've done a great job these past few weeks in getting outside.  Two weekends ago, on the holiday, Evie, Izzy, and I took a great, almost 4 mile hike, up to their favorite spot at Sabino Canyon. 

 Along the way the girls worked on their cacti identification...

 Enjoyed their hiking gear

Played by the river (and had a picnic...)

 Rediscovered the secret bench (a broken bench in the middle of the river, swept downstream a few years ago by a big flood)

And of course, the goal of the hike, Sabino Dam.  We stayed at the dam itself for about an hour playing in the super icy cold water (so icy both girl's feet were bright red by the time we left)

Then this weekend we took our annual adventure to Sedona! On Friday afternoon the girls played at the pool (Patrick and I hung out and chatted with folks he knew (I for one am not getting in even a heated pool when it is 60 degrees outside)

 Then on Saturday morning while Patrick was at his conference the girls and I took a hike up bell rock.  Making it farther than we ever have before... with, of course, many stops to collect and play in the red dirt. The last picture above is as far as we made it.... I think the look on Izzy's face is a mixture of pride and fear... we were pretty high up and had to scramble to this point.

From bell rock we made our way down to Oak Creek, where we took a little hike and then the girls played in the river for over an hour while I mostly stared off into space... it was glorious!

We then headed back to the hotel for lunch and a break before our late afternoon adventure.... in a Pink Jeep on the Broken Arrow road.

Blurry because we were bouncy...

The trip also doubled as a family photo session :)  I am sure this is the max number of photos of me you'll see all year!

     

DC!

Last week Genevieve and I took a quick trip to DC so I could interview for a fellowship.  It also (of course) provided us a great opportunity to visit with family and friends!  On our first night there we went straight over to Aunt Vivi's house where Evie and Dylan had so much fun they decided to convene an impromptu sleepover.  (I went back to DC with Nicole) 

The next morning while Nicole and I scoped out where my interview would be the next day and took Chessie for a walk, Evie helped see Pete and Dylan off to school and then played with Vivian and Miles.  Around lunchtime we picked up Evie and headed to Cleveland Park for Vietnamese food and then to the zoo.  It was a gray and cold (but not too cold) afternoon, which meant the zoo was all but empty.  It was awesome.  Having found the perfect sweatshirt to keep her warm (a big heart with an elephant in it) we watched the cheetah eat diner, explored the elephant's compound, and then, after Nicole left due to parking constraints (only until 4 pm in our prime spot) I took Evie through the reptile discovery center.  It even had the same smell as when I volunteered there 15 years ago.

 

To continue to trip down DC memory lane we then took the metro out to Takoma park to visit with most of my old friends from ELI.  Two(ish) hours was not nearly enough time to hang out and chat, but it was definitely a highlight for me!

The next morning I woke up early, got dressed... in nylons for the first time in at least a decade.... made coffee, a little mix of music for my 20 minute walk to the interview, and set off.  Almost 5 hours later I finished the very interesting interview process (I could tell you about it... but then I'd have to off you....) and walked down to the National Mall and met with Nicole and Evie at the art gallery.  Evie (or rather Nicole) had bought me a lovely little bracelet and we had a delicious lunch and tour of some sculptures.  After our date with art we headed back out to Kensington to eat Friday night dinner with Vivian and her crew.

Impossible to get a picture with all four of them looking at the camera!  Here is 3 of the 4....

 

 

This time Dylan came with us for a sleepover and then the next morning (after complaints that the dishwasher kept them up all night) we headed out to the International Spy Museum.  It was totally worth the admission price! 

 

Among other things the kids and I got to crawl through duct work like real spies and Nicole and I got to help them with their "spy mission" of solving puzzles hidden throughout the museum. After some delicious cupcakes we headed back to Nicole's house for our belongings and then to the airport for home!

 

On Sunday, back in Tucson, because I am a glutton for punishment, I took both girls over to the Children's Museum, which was fun as always... but also probably why they both have colds again :P 

Roadtrip!!!

Early(ish) on the day after Christmas all five of us piled into a packed Subaru and hit the road for a 7 day, 1,500 mile, 3 state odyssey.  The journey began with what was supposed to be a 5 hour drive from Tucson to the Grand Canyon.  It turned out to be more like an 8 hour drive because of serious traffic outside of Phoenix and a super long line to get into the Grand Canyon itself.

Still hacking and nose-blowing we all gathered in our little hotel room near the Grand Canyon and managed to make it to the Village just after sunset.  The snowy canyon was beautiful... but really cold! After a delicious dinner we headed back to our hotel.

The next day the girls woke up early to play in the snow.  Evie was particularly into the snow angel idea.

 

Then a little later we explored a bit of the rim and then took a break for a few hours (in hopes of fighting off persistent colds) and then headed back out for sunset on the rim.

The next day Patrick woke up early to go into town and put gas in the car, then we packed everyone (and everything!) back into the Subaru to make the trek to Utah for skiing.  Our departure was decidedly delayed by a very flat tire.  We hauled everything out of the car and Patrick took the Subaru to a garage at the canyon to see if it could be fixed.  After multiple patches failed he came back and we decided that, given it was a slow leak, we would just make our way to Page, AZ to get a new tire....

In Page, instead of a tire, we bought a pump... using said pump became Patrick's morning and evening ritual for the rest of the trip :P

Once again a 5 hour trip took decidedly longer... this time mostly because the route I had planned for us to take was closed due to snow, which meant we needed to go out and around to the tune of about an hour extra on the road.  Exhausted we made it to our "condo" (which gets quotes because somehow both Patrick and I had missed that this condo was really just a big hotel room... quite a disappointment given that I think we were all ready for a little space...) and regardless of the 1 foot by 2 foot cooking space with one plug in burner, I managed to make spaghetti and sauce from scratch for dinner. The girls extra impressed me by making the most of the need for them to sleep on the floor, making a nest and a game out of our unexpected lack of space.

 

 

 

 The next day we got up early (as it turns out too early) in our quest for skis and lessons.  In the skis we met with success... lessons not so much.  The happy accident meant that Patrick and I got to spend the whole day with the girls on the magic carpet teaching them to ski.  It turned out to be both a lot more fun and more of a workout than I would have imagined!

The next day the girls were able to get into lessons so the adults could ski the slopes beyond the bunny.  It was a beautiful sunny day (for most of it) and everyone had a great time skiing.

 

 

 

 From there we drove a (mercifully) traffic free and straightforward three-hours from Brianhead to Las Vegas for New Year's Eve.  Our New Year's Eve festivities included midway games at Circus, Circus; an amazing Cirque du Soleil called Mystere; a trip to the strip for Patrick and Anna; and games and fun for the girls and I in the room and then champagne and cider for all together back in the room at midnight.  It is notable for many reasons, not the least of which is that I actually stayed up until midnight! (Celebrate the little successes!)

The next day we got out of the city and went to Red Rocks for a picnic lunch and a beautiful (albeit quite cold) hike.  Then back to Circus, Circus for more midway madness :)
 
On the way home I made everyone stop at Hoover Dam and Lake Mead... Which wouldn't have been a big deal except for the 1 hour wait in a line of cars to get there because all cars had to be checked before going across the dam...  All in all it was quite the odyssey!

Merry Christmas!

 The lack of posts is not due to a lack of goings on....  Of course the most significant goings on was yesterday! 

We spent Christmas Eve at my parent's house (with so many people it meant Patrick and I slept on the floor in my Mom's office... Kita kept trying to boot me from my bed, thinking that a soft place of the floor must be for her, not me) and then woke up Christmas morning to the bounty of Santa and family. Santa brought Izzy a house full of kitties, Evie a fairy doll and house, and Anna a large, doe-eyed unicorn. 

The other big gift (from Patrick and I) was a hamster that the girls have named Onchau after a unicorn in a show they are enjoying right now.

In the week's prior we have had winter performances for both girls. Unfortunately said performances were at the exact same time so we had to divide and conquer.  Patrick and Anna went to Izzy's dance concert (but I did the hair...getting pretty good at this stuff) and my Mom, Dad and I went to Evie's choir concert.  I heard a rumor that although Izzy was perhaps not the most skilled ballerina on stage she was as proud as punch of her performance!  (Which really is all that matters)  Evie's choir concert was amazing.  Just like last spring, it was so fun to watch her on stage, singing with so much emotion on her face.

 But the concert-going fun did not end there!  The next week was the last week of school and the holiday concert for IST.  The week before Evie came home as excited as can be for her staring role in "Percy the Puny Pointsetta" (She got to be Percy).  She played sad, lonely, poinsettia well...

There were also other songs like Tucson Wonderland (where instead of Sleigh bells ring, are you listenen' it is Palm trees sway and the pool is glistening) and a number of recorder tunes. (I'll spare you the recording of that one :)

After the big performance there was a delightful little Christmas market, where each class sold goodies they made to raise money for something they wanted, e.g., junior school Chinese kids were raising money for a class hamster.  Evie insisted we buy half a dozen star shaped soaps that she made in her science class (they were actually quite cool).  She also decided that she would help her English teach and manned the booth for her English class the whole time we were there (they were selling painted rocks and hand-made cards... painted rocks, I am afraid, were not as popular as soap)

I think perhaps all of the going ons is why all of us (well except Anna) have terrible colds we are fighting off.  These colds have us so sick we even missed our chance to go to Winterhaven this year...  That's ok though because a big adventure is about to begin and I now hear little girls excitedly waking up their Daddy in our room....

Gay and Merry at the Zoo!

 
The weekend started off on a high note with a happy hour/dinner at the Zoo and then a walk through the zoolights.

 

Of course as is generally the case, the highlight of the lights is the visit with the S-man himself.

This year though the new carosel was also a pretty big hit.  (No great surprise in the girl's choices in rides... a leopard for Izzy and an elephant for Eve)

Other weekend activities included a trip to ballet class where I received a preview of next week's big performance and not one but two trips to the movies.

The first trip was just the over 18 crowd (Mina babysat the under 18 crowd) the second was all five of us out to see Minons... which was pretty darn hilarious... hilarious enough that none of us can say banana without giggling for the past 5 hours.

The girls also "helped" Patrick get the lights working (and I say working not up because, embarrassingly, the lights have been up since last year.... yup we are those people on your block) Most of the helped ended up being really helping themselves to fruits from the barrel cacti in our front yard...

The weekend was quite merry, except for a surprise attack in the middle of the day (around 11 am) by a bobcat who disregarded the fact that both Patrick and Kita were in the backyard, jumped over the fence, snatched a chicken, and hoped back over the fence.  I jumped over the fence to find it about 10 feet from me eating my chicken totally unaffected by my shouts and claps.  Poor Matidla... poorer still is our now lone white chicken, Milou.  Look for her to get a few new friends in the weeks to come.