Home from Arizona

We survived sunny Arizona!  It was so nice to see all of our friends and family and friends that we have known long enough to be considered family.  We arrived Saturday around noon after stopping in Albuquerque and catching some much needed Z's.  It also insured that we arrived looking and smelling fresh!  Much better impression to those that haven't seen you for months.

We grabbed some lunch and then headed to my niece's graduation party.  Very fun.  My sis was hard at work making cotton candy for everyone.

I think all the kids were in a sugar comatose state by the time we left the party.  Besides the cotton candy they had a candy table set up with all sorts of sweets in different little jars.  Very cute.  They also had Eegee's (yum! yum!) and a snow cone machine.  She also had a blow up obstacle course which I think the adults had more fun on than any of the kids.

Sunday and Monday were relax days spent with family.  The kids all went swimming in Uncle Reuben's pool.  Monday friends from all over came to visit.  So nice to see them all, kids that are growing like weeds and meeting new little faces.



This little guy is so cute and such a pefect blend of his parents.

Tuesday we visited more family and then headed up to my big sis's house.  They took us kayaking down the Salt River.  We had so much fun and the weather cooperated somewhat.  It wasn't too unbearable hot and we got too see so much wildlife.  We saw more Blue Heron Cranes than we have ever seen and we also got to see wild horses.  That was the highlight of the trip.  Hopefully my brother-in-law will send me some pictures.  They have a waterproof camera and he was snapping pics for us.

Me and the hubby after kayaking.  We went to this fabulous pizza place on the way back home called "Barro's".  Very yummy pizza.

The cousins.  Proud of themselves for making it down the river.  Z. rode in a kayak with his cousin.  J. powered his own kayak and had fun going through the rapids with his dad.  And, for those of you in the know of A.'s perils with canoes and kayaks you will be proud of her.  She powered her own kayak and at the end decided she loved it.

Me and my gorgeous big sis.  Thanks for making our trip so much fun.  We love you so much and miss you more than you know.

Friday we headed back to Tucson to see more friends we missed the first go round.  Then we hit the big highway.  Sad for those that we missed seeing AGAIN!  Ugh so sorry, I promise we will be back.



So that is our trip in a nutshell.  And now we are back home in our green, green home and busy again.  Garden updates coming soon.  Everything is growing like mad.  And I am happy to say the cages I built around the plants the deer seem to like the most worked well because they are all still alive and growing.

Love you all!

Photo of the Week - Week 41 - Girl Day

Week 41 of 52

Location:  Florence, AZ
Subject:  Mother-Daughter-Sister-Aunt-Daughter-Niece-Cousin Day

Yep, long title.  But it is THEEEE most awesome day.  I miss being so close to my sisters and nieces.  It was great spending the day with them and doing a little photo shoot.  As usual, serious pictures were quickly abandoned.  These are better anyway, they show the true us.  These pictures are courtesy of my big sis.  Enjoy!

Arizona or Bust!

Today is the day.  Seems like it took forever to get here but today finally arrived and now we sit and wait for Rachel to get off work so we can hit the road and head to Arizona.

As always, complications have arisen!  Yesterday I took a break from packing and checking off the list to check e-mails and whatnot.  Oh yeay, there is a HUGE storm covering most of our travel route.  Snow.  Lots and lots of snow.  So now I am nervous about the drive, nervous about other drivers on slippery roads.  Good news is this morning it looks as though it is breaking up and more rain than they expected instead of snow.  Whew!  But that just added to the getting prepared.  Making sure we have blankets and warmers in the car just in case.

And starting Saturday my little guy decides to be sick.  Not just sniffly nose sick, full blown, high fever, nasty throat sick.  The kind of sick where he doesn't really move all day.  My poor baby.  I hate when any of them are sick.  This morning as I woke him up in the wee hours to administer more medication he started to cry.  When I asked him what was wrong he said "I don't feel any better than I did yesterday."  I tried consoling him, telling him getting better takes time but it didn't work.  Tears kept flowing.  Finally he said "I want to go to Arizona!"  His dad was joking with him yesterday that if he didn't get better he would just have to stay home with him.  I guess he took him seriously and was really upset thinking he would have to stay home.

So this evening we will hit the road with a sick child and worries about what lies ahead of us on the interstates.  *sigh*  what fun is a roadtrip that goes perfectly as planned right?  Yeah right!

Wish us well and we will see you all in a few days!

Let the List Making Begin!

Are you a list maker?  I am, like a crazy, mad woman, I totally am.  So in light of all the crazy that has now become normal around here, I have lists.  Everywhere. 

Arizona trip is officially two weeks away.  YIKES and YEAY all at the same time.  But that also means more lists.  List of clothes for children to pack, list of don't forgets, list of items that can go in the car, list of items that must stay in the trunk, list of things to get done before we go, list of what we want to do when we get there, list of important people to visit while we are there.  See what I mean - lists!  Ugh!  On a side note, when I began the list making for the AZ trip I almost put "Michigan Trip".  So weird that I am doing things in reverse now.  So totally weird.

And with winter now here (although kids are complaining because we are into December and still do not have mentionable snow) that means work has slowed down a little for Cameron so that means work begins again on our house.  So that means another list.  Two actually.  One for items that need to be finished up and another for work that needs to begin.  Oh wait, three, I also have a list started for materials we need to do all said work.

Lists, lists, lists, story of my life.  I have always been a list maker.  Helps me stay focused on what I need to do and also helps me feel like I accomplished something when I see all those items crossed off.  You know when you have those days when you do a thousand little things but then at the end of the day it feels like you haven't really accomplished much?  Write them down, cross them off, then you can look back and say "Whew, look at all those things I did today!"

It used to drive Cameron nuts that I made lists.  Until he found them beneficial.  Until he decided one guy trip to tell me not to make him a list.  Then came back stating all the stuff that he forgot.  Now Cameron is a list maker too.  Well more like a list dictator.  He dictates and I make the list.  The kids caught the bug too.  When I am cleaning I find little lists all over the place.  A whole family of list making monsters I have created!

Happily my list today is steadily being checked off, but I needed a break, so I came to check up on blog land and see what was happening in the big wide world.  And now I am off to get back to those lists.  Can not wait to see you all in a couple of weeks.