giving thanks and a turkey trot 2013

We had house guests again this year for Thanksgiving.  My dad, step-mom Mary, brother Todd, and Aunt Dianne/Uncle Glen all came from San Diego for our feast.  Mary's daughter Jamie and her daughter Riley also joined us for the meal! We had a delicious meal, wade smoked a ham and I cooked a turkey plus all the fixin's.  

On Thanksgiving morning, the city of Mesa has a Turkey Trot 10k and a 2 mile fun run.  Wade took the boys for the 2 mile run while I ran the 10k and it turned out to be so fun!  I think we'll make it a family tradition.

The day after Thanksgiving, we went hiking with some extended family and friends!  We love to hike!

september mind explosion

I am just going to list the things we've been up to over the last month.  

They are in no particular order, but I think my mind will explode unless I get it all out:

-Wade's grant proposal due to the NIH (This Saturday or whenever the government decides to reopen).
-Cristi working on graduate school papers/quizzes/reading/projects. I'm almost done with my first class and so far, I still have an A!  I'm really enjoying it.
-Peter's first mountain biking experience.
-Cristi gets certification to teach in AZ.
-Jack and Ben are both sent to the principals office. :(
-Cristi re-evaluates her parenting choices and determines that she has a lot to learn/perfect.
-Wade's grant proposal.
-Cristi going back to the gym, getting into a routine, training for a half-marathon, trying to lose the stress weight from the last 2 years (I'm down 4lbs, I'll take it!).
-Church camping trip including: zip-lining, "sleeping" in a cabin, hiking, exploring, apple-picking, football, walkie-talkies, exercise/dancing, Ben's own interpretation of exercise/dancing, playing with friends, and lots of hot cocoa.  I wish I'd taken more pictures and written down some of the funny things my boys did/said. They had a blast, of course.
-Working on Wade's grant proposal.
-A night out to see Spirit Family Reunion, a bluegrass band, play in Tempe, AZ.  Missing Nashville.
-Cristi subbing at the boys school sometimes a couple times a week, as needed.
-More working on Wade's grant proposal.
-Starting soccer practices and the first game!  The boys are all enjoying it as usual.
-Cristi volunteering each week in Jack and Ben's classes.
-Yard work, yard work, yard work (of course).
-Hunting and destroying scorpions (inside and outside of the house).
-Wade's grant proposal may be the death of him.
-School fundraiser selling cookie dough (it's over and grandparents to the rescue on that one!).
-Wade is stressed out over his work because of a, what do you know, grant proposal!
-Counting down until the grant proposal is done and turned in!
-The weather in Arizona is starting to cool down (think 90's during the day, 60's during the night)= more bike rides, hikes, running outside.  Yay!

Enjoy some pictures from the camping trip:

Pete

Ben

Jack

4th of july, 2013

This was our first 4th of July in Arizona, and being new here we didn't know what to do (ie: where to go to see a good fireworks show).  In Nashville, we always spent the 4th with friends and it became tradition to view the incredible downtown fireworks from somewhere in the city. In Mesa, AZ however, it seems like everyone we knew had plans to spend the day with their families.  Since we're just about the only people without our families here, we were on our own.  I was worried that it would be a bust this year, but we ended up having a really fun day and night! 

 We started with a hike to Wind Cave in Usery Park at 6am.  This hike was perfect since most of the trail is on the West side of the mountain and  is in the shade.  We had a great hike/run up the trail and then stopped for breakfast at our favorite disgusting fast food joint.  Afterwards, we went home to rest and prepare food for our yummy bbq dinner.  Wade smoked ribs and we enjoyed all the traditional summer bbq fixin's to go with it.  I was even able to squeeze in a family nap time so we could stay up late to see fireworks.  We took the light rail into Tempe to see the Tempe Town Lake fireworks where we found a spot on the grass to sit and watch the show.  It was fun and they did a good job with the fireworks. It was no Nashville, but certainly not a disappointment! We made it home on the light rail and were in bed by 11:30pm. Some of us were asleep before making it to our beds, but I won't name any names. :)  All in all, it was a fun day to spend with our little family.

  

torrey pines and cousins

Hiking with cousins Brielle and Aria at Torrey Pines.

Even little Gavin made it to the overlook!

The beach is so much better when you have to earn it.

Having fun in the ocean with Brielle.

Waves

Cute cousins at church.

legoland, take 2

We kicked off the end of the school year/beginning of summer break by driving straight to San Diego at 3:30pm on the last day of school.  I had the car all packed and we headed over right from the school.  We pulled into my Dad's house late Thursday night, spent all day Friday at Legoland, and then played with cousins the rest of the weekend. The most memorable part of the day was when Peter was too scared to go on the Coastersaurus.  We were waiting in line and he adamantly refused to go on.  I had a few minutes to convince him while we were waiting.  I tried in vain to tell  him that this roller coaster was for preschoolers (it really is).  It was designed for 3-4 year-olds.  When he still insisted that it was too scary and he wouldn't go, I tried not to laugh at him.  But I couldn't help it.  When we got to the front, one of the ride hosts told him that it was like a choo-choo train and was not scary.  He still refused.  Then she offered to let him hold her name tag (made out of Legos) if he went on the ride and he could keep it at the end.  He reluctantly agreed and did go on the ride.  He kept the name tag and is very proud of it, but when I offered to take them all on the Coastersaurus again, he declined.  Yeah, my 9-year-old is afraid of a preschooler ride. :/

At the 4-D show (FYI- the 4th "D" is some water, bubbles, and wind sprayed at you from above).  Not really impressed with it, but then again you have to remember that this whole park is aimed at children between 3-10 years old.  You could tell they made an effort to avoid anything too loud, scary, or surprising.

Pete watching Jack on the Lego Technic roller coaster (probably the most intense roller coaster in Legoland).  Yeah, he was too scared to go on it and just before this photo, he was making sympathetic frightened faces for Jack as he watched it go down and around the curves.  I believe Peter was more uncomfortable watching the roller coaster, than Jack was actually riding it.

Jack and Grandpa Danny at the end of the roller coaster ride.

Adorable.

Peter's many emotions, take 1

Peter's many emotions, take 2

This is all part of Miniland, which is a bunch of cities and scenes built out of Legos.  This "giant" duck just made himself at home.

DC in Miniland

Vegas Strip

New York

San Francisco

More San Francisco

march 2013

What a month!  I didn't realize how busy we were until I looked at all the photos from the last few weeks.  The last weekend of Spring Break, we took the boys out to shoot Pete's BB gun for the first time. They shot at some cans and clay pigeons that were left on the ground in the spot we found in the Mountains nearby.  It was a hit!  They have all requested to do it again. 

Pete and his BB gun.

Hey Jack, you really should be looking where you're shooting.

The week after Spring Break, I took my Grandmother, Billie Jean Beach out to lunch.  It was just the two of us and she requested Panda Express, so we dined on Asian inspired meat, veggies, & noodles.  As I was driving her home afterwards, I asked if she was feeling up to playing a game of Rummikub.  As she gets tired easily, I was glad she said yes and took her to my place where we played a couple rounds before I had to go pick up the boys from school.  But that didn't stop us!  Once I came back with the boys, we all joined in Grandma showed them how it's done.  I have fond memories of playing Rummikub (and other games too) with my Grandma so it was fun to get to share that with my boys.  

Billie Jean Beach, Rummikub Master.

Teaching Ben how it's done!

Peter and Jack, taking it very seriously.

The boys also dressed up for Dr. Suess week with different themes each day.  I was able to snap a photo of them dressed as their favorite character from a Dr. Suess book and I subbed in a first grade class that day, so I enjoyed seeing all the kids dressed up!

Ben is annoyed that he got in trouble.

Reality

Pete's class has been studying about the Old West and took a field trip to a local Old West re-enactment town.  He dressed up the best he could and I got to go as a chaperon and join in the fun!  

We also had a visit from Wade's parents over Easter weekend. They drove our truck down from UT for us and it just happened to be loaded with fun goodies. We were able to spend a little time with them on Saturday evening and Sunday morning/afternoon before they flew back to Salt Lake Sunday night.  It was so nice to have some family to celebrate Easter and spend time with us and the kids.

Are you ready to hunt?

ARE YOU READY TO HUNT!!!!!

Add caption

With Grandma Carol and Grandpa Howard

And finally, March was a big month for yard work at our house as it has really warmed up and our yard/trees/grass needed some attention.  First off, we have 11 good sized Ficus trees in our backyard that froze this past winter when we had a couple of days that dipped below freezing.  The branches and leaves died and turned black/then brown.  This means, our beautiful, lush green trees that are not deciduous and do not normally lose leaves, have lost all their leaves (you can see in the photo above they don't just fall off, but sit there until we cut them down or a storm knocks them off).   So we have brown leaves all over the trees and all over the yard and in the pool. This is made worse especially after a storm that creates a huge mess in the pool (very big job cleaning that out over and over) and in the yard.  So, when it warms up we were supposed to trim the dead limbs and leaves from the trees so that they will grow back healthy.  Well, this turned out to be quite a job, and after a month, we're still not finished.  Once we get them all trimmed and all the branches and debris cleaned up, we hope they will come back lush and green again!  This has meant lots of days and weekends spent outside doing yard work.  Even the boys have helped as I chop the branches up small enough, they pile them into the green waste bin.  After a good days work in the yard, we often end up in the swimming pool (after cleaning out the leaves again).  Lucky for us it has been warm enough to swim already in March (although not quite warm enough for me yet). It has been a beautiful March and April so far.  This really is a great time of year here in Phoenix!