Friday, February 27, 2015

Arizona, Part 3

Because it's me, I have weird random thoughts about Arizona:

I love my western hair. Washing it is so easy when I can let it air dry. Air drying is so wonderful when I know it won't be crazy frizzy, or even frizzy at all.

Denny's restaurants are everywhere. Why is this? Gretchen told me that Arizona has a big brunch culture. But Denny's?

Everything starts early in the morning. I LOVE this. I would do so well with this. Get out early, and then hide inside in the air conditioning in the afternoons.

HOAs can be CRAZY.

Speed limits are awesome. With limits of 75 mph, we can get places fast. Unless it requires driving through downtown Phoenix, and then it's slow. But I'm no stranger to traffic.

Phoenix is HUGE. It's one of the largest (geographically-speaking) cities in the country. (Crazy fact: the top four largest U.S. cities by land area are all in Alaska. And these four are all larger than Rhode Island.)

Solar panels. This shouldn't be a surprise, but man, they were everywhere. Good for you, Arizona.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Arizona, Part 2

Travelogue continued...

Wednesday. We opted to head north towards Sedona (instead of the Grand Canyon), with lots of stops on the way. It was long day, but the kids did great. I was nearly in tears a couple of times because it was just so darn beautiful. We had this amazing blue sky set against the red rock. The temperature was perfect (for me) and it was just so, so wonderful.
1--Montezuma Castle.


2--Montezuma Well.


3--Bell Rock hike outside of Sedona.




4--Tuzigoot (then Jerome, but I got no pictures there).


Becoming a junior ranger.


Thursday. To make the boys happy, we went to the zoo. The boys loved it of course, and Chuck and I are always happy to have happy kids.




Friday. We started the day hoping to get some waffles at a waffle truck, but sadly missed out. That's okay because we met up with Nikki and kids one last time. We were also super close to the Gilbert temple, so we thought we should stop there as well. Then we lucked into some tickets to a hot rod race through a friend from college. It was a new experience for all of us, but it was fun (after the first 20 minutes of Rhett's crying).






Monday, February 23, 2015

Arizona, Part 1

We just got back from a lovely week in Arizona visiting Chuck's parents and oldest brother and his family. And when I say lovely, boy do I mean it. Weather-wise, it was perfect. Mornings in the upper-40s, afternoons in the upper-70s, skies of blue. Activity-wise, it was fun! We did lots of things with just enough downtime. Family-wise, it was so good. It was really good for the boys to see their grandparents and cousins, and all the adults enjoyed seeing each other. Just good times all around. Our only plan was to go to the Grand Canyon, but then we nixed it. Really, my only goal was to be outside as much as possible. And that we did. And now for the travelogue:

Saturday. We left Maryland on a direct (but not non-stop) flight. We stopped in snowy Columbus and felt sooooo lucky to get out of the airport and on to Phoenix.




Sunday. We started with a walk around the neighborhood, then to sacrament meeting, and finally enjoyed family. Lucky me got to have lunch with a dear friend who now lives in AZ.




Monday. The whole family met up with our friends, Nikki and Collin. We played, ate, and visited. It was so great seeing them, even if Ollie and Freddie are frenemies. That evening was more family time.


Tuesday. As we all needed a down day, we spent the morning at some botanical gardens, and then went home to rest and have a regular bedtime. Everyone benefited!






Friday, February 13, 2015

We're Doing Stuff and I'm Taking Pictures

Last Sunday was really warm and so we thought we'd go downtown. It was perfect. We had a perfect parking spot, perfect weather, and perfect children. Well, two out of three. The boys ran around and we yelled at them to be respectful. Typical, I guess.


Ollie the photo bomber.




Then on Monday we made and decorated some Valentine's Day cookies. Ollie likes making me crazy by crossing his eyes. Ugh.

Monday, February 9, 2015

The Cutest Dinner Conversation (at least, before it dissolved)

Last night at dinner I asked Rhett, "If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be?" And as we were having white chicken chili (which, if gauged by the boys' reaction, was the worst dinner ever), he wanted to find someone who liked that dinner. Nice. So then Chuck asked him, "Oooookay, if you could have ice cream with anyone in the world, who would it be?" Still thinking along the same line, Rhett replied, "Someone who doesn't like ice cream." You know, so he could eat theirs. So then we amended the question further to, "If you could spend 30 minutes with anyone in the world, who would it be?" While Rhett was thinking, Ollie was quietly whispering to him, "Pick me. Pick me." If only that moment could have lasted longer.

But no. Soon it was return of the dinner battle. Sigh. Some day they'll eat what I cook, right?

Friday, February 6, 2015

Pictures

I guess I took some pictures, finally. Rhett was sick on Tuesday. I guess older sick kids do puzzles.


And I lied when I said I wasn't making anything. Every week I'm doing something for Ollie's little preschool (of class size 1). Wednesday was X. X is the worst. But mixing colors until you have five jars of root beer is the best.

Monday, February 2, 2015

A Groundhog's Day Life

Truly, nothing is going on. I'm not sewing. I'm not doing any other fun crafts. I'm not taking fun pictures of my kids (January 2015 had the record lowest number). I'm just cold. And boring. To make it worse (and I kid you not that this just happened), look what I posted almost exactly one year ago?! I tell you. My life is just on repeat.

I'm still buttering toast, but not freshly-baked bread. And as our butter dish was broken Saturday night, it might be put on hold for a couple of days until its replacement can be found. And let it be noted, I will never, ever toast banana bread and then put butter on it. WHO DOES THIS?!

Hot water heater is going strong, as is the heated mattress pad (best. anniversary. gift. ever).

Sad to say diet root beer has made a reappearance. When it's on sale for buy two, get three free, I just can't resist. I have resisted the vanilla ice cream, sadly.

I just want it to be warm. But not too warm. At least it's February!

This is one of the nine pictures I took.