Day two of our travels....

Okay.....so back to our little miniature road trip. We hopped in the car the second day to head up to Flagstaff. HA! I love how I say "hopped in the car" as if it's just such a breeze to get my kids packed up and situated. Natalie and Richard met us at our house in the morning- at the -time we told them to meet us- and then ended up having to sit in their car and wait for almost an hour for us to get our crap together. Life with kids. Yay.

I just love this drive! Even with kids. I love Phoenix, and I love driving north of Phoenix- leaving the city and seeing everything turn all deserty and then the cacti pop up everywhere and you drive further and further into the hills and then you get to Sedona and see this popping up outside your window:


I mean, really...who could ever get sick of that?! This state's landscape is so diverse and beautiful. I have already been here 3 yrs. (can you believe that?) and I haven't gotten sick of it yet. In fact, as I've said before, I think I have grown to love it even more than the first time I laid eyes on it. So I, for one, enjoyed the drive just as much as, if not more than, the rest of the trip.

One of our stops in Sedona was to see the only McDonald's that doesn't have golden arches. In Sedona, they gave it turquoise arches to blend in and complement the town's main attractions. We kind of thought there were actually going to be big arches instead of this little wall, but it was still fun- because we had fudge sundaes.



Once we got into Flagstaff, I found plenty of opportunities (scenic overlooks) to make the kids pose for pictures. It's so fun to visit Flagstaff in the winter to play in the snow, but I had no idea how gorgeous it is this time of the year. The weather was perfection and everything was in bloom. I'm pretty sure I want to live there.

How cute are they?!?!?! I just can't get over how grown up my kids are. At one of our stops, we used these little mountainside toilets. I couldn't get a great picture, but it was basically this huge, dark abyss poorly disguised by a toilet seat. Hazel was a little apprehensive, and I could totally understand why. It was so far down that you couldn't even hear when her pee finally hit bottom. That's a little unnerving!!! Who knows? Maybe it is still floating down right now trying to find an appropriate landing spot.

We visited Flagstaff's famous Lowell Observatory. I missed out on getting to look through the huge telescope the night before, but I did get to participate in the tour the next morning, and it was pretty awesome.

Here's the building where Pluto was discovered. Cool? I think so. Sure, Pluto is no longer recognized as a planet, but it was a planet long enough for me to think it was pretty spectacular to see the exact spot where it was discovered!

Here's the original observatory:

which houses this huge telescope. This telescope was made partially with random scrap materials- parts of it are made from old bike parts (you can see bicycle chains, etc. all over it) and one part of it is even made out of an old frying pan. Genius.

So- those were our awesome sights for that morning....tomorrow you can sign back on to see our pictures of the giant meteor crater. Aren't you excited?!?!

Stinkin' Cute

We interrupt the much anticipated (boring) travel log to bring you this special guest appearance by Sleeping Beauty.

Hazel loves dressing up. I'm assuming most little girls do. This is her one and only dress-up costume, but that doesn't stop her from getting excited every time she puts it on. This time she added wings, blue "Cinderella" earrings and lots of bling to the ensemble and then asked me to take a picture.

Here is a close-up of her make-up. When she wants to wear make-up she smears her lip gloss all over her eyes and cheeks and lips. It's quite becoming.

After her photo session, she ran into my room to look at herself in the mirror and proclaimed,

"HOLY COW! I am SO stinkin' cute!"

And her latest quote that took me by surprise "Mom. Your hair is WAY too brownish. You need to get more sunshine."

Touristy treasures....

Nathan's sister, Natalie, and her husband, Richard came for a visit this past weekend. We took them around Phoenix and a little further north to see some of the touristy things we could think of. The first day we visited the Phoenix Children's Museum. I know I have posted pictures of this place before, but I just love it. It's just so darn cute and my kids could have stayed all day.

*Disclaimer- All pictures from this weekend were taken on my cell phone.

Owen had to be snagged for a picture

Here is an example of some of the cool artwork.. a fish made from recycled plastic bottles. So creative.

I think this was our favorite exhibit of the day. These are vacuum tubes that you can shove scarves in and watch them make their way to the top, shoot out, and float down for you to catch.

Hazel liked to change the direction of the tubes to be right on her level so they would shoot out into her face.

And she also liked her reading time with Aunt Natalie ...

She jumped in one of these tubes and started running in place and clawing at the walls and said "Look! I'm one of those things!" Luckily Aunt Natalie was smart enough to figure out that she meant a hamster....I would have guessed crazed lunatic.

Day two will be documented tomorrow.....

What's happening in YOUR neighborhood?

In OUR neighborhood, we have sidewalk chalk swastikas, gas station air guitar and pedal-by shootings.

I love our neighborhood. It's a quiet street with quaint little houses and relatively well-maintained yards. It's a family- friendly neighborhood in a great school district. Yet it still remains that we live in central Phoenix. And that will be made known.

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Owen is good friends with Zack- a neighborhood boy. I think I have mentioned him before. What I have never mentioned about Zack is his affinity for all things German. Once, when riding in our car, he said "I don't like the American flag, I like the German flag. When I grow up, I'm going to work for the Germans." Did this raise a red flag? Yes, indeedy. And I don't mean a red flag with a white circle and a black cross whose arms continue at right angles.

But he is such a sweet innocent boy, I knew that he didn't really know what he was saying. I ignored it. I ignored it when he came home from school one day with a swastika drawn on his arm (apparently his teacher doesn't see the same red flags I saw). But when I walked out my front door one afternoon and found my driveway covered in sidewalk chalk swastikas, I decided to take action. After I quickly hosed down the whole driveway, I had a long 'discussion' with poor little Zack. A discussion that involved my finger in his face. If nothing else, I at least made it clear to him that I don't want any more swastikas on my driveway.

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The other day I took my Young Women to the corner store for some candy bars (long story). I sent them inside with some money, and as I waited in the car, a man exited the gas station. This man was dirty and hairy, dressed poorly, and riding a bike. No surprise there. But as he walked to his bike (parked directly in front of my car) and set down his mysterious "brown bag" that contained his corner store purchases, he proceeded to give me quite the air guitar performance. This was no joke. His head was down...so as to better concentrate on the fingers furiously plucking away at his jeans pocket while the other was high in the air constructing chords. This was the longest guitar I have ever seen. And he was not messing around. He did stop periodically to look around with a drunken smile, and then continued on with his five minute song. It worries me that watching him brought a smile to my face. But I will readily admit that I sighed with relief when my girls were safely in the car.

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The other night at around 9:30, Nathan and I heard several loud, sharp noises. We thought that it was someone rapping on one of our windows. We ran to the front of the house and looked through the blinds to see some of our neighbors standing in their driveway. We walked outside and joined what quickly became a neighborhood block party formed to discuss the gunfire that we all heard. Then, the young man who lives down the street came out with his gangsta friends and nonchalantly told us (and soon thereafter told a policeman) a story of a guy riding by on a bicycle and firing shots. A pedal-by shooting. Since this neighborhood young man had recently been released from prison, we were all pretty darn sure that he was somehow involved in this shooting. It is so funny to me that half the neighborhood stood around with this guy and his friends and expressed their outrage while he pretended to be a part of us. I still have no idea what actually happened. He was taken away in handcuffs later that evening, but walking down the street early the next morning. Apparently whatever his story was eventually checked out. But that certainly doesn't make me feel safe living on his same street.

So....what's happening in YOUR neighborhood?

Unconnected...

And now I shall bore you all further by posting my recently uploaded pictures...

Hazel got a haircut. For those of you who never see her, you probably won't be able to tell that she is missing about 3-4 inches of stringy, dead, strangely colored hair. I asked her if I could take a picture to send to Aunt Meredith and she proceeded to strike pose after pose with no encouragement or direction from me.

She had her friend Alex over for the whole day on Friday. I was in HEAVEN. Those girls played happily in Hazel's room the whole day. It was divine. They would come out periodically to show me their costumes and/or jewelry. I was especially impressed with Hazel's sharing abilities. She let Alex have the real princess dress and shoes while she settled for a fancy church dress and shoes. She was just thrilled to actually have a girl to play with for a change.

With all this quiet playing there was bound to be a huge mess. I couldn't have cared less. But I did suggest at one point that they try to pick a few things up so they would have more room to breathe. I found them a few minutes later cleaning up (angels) and making up a cleaning song to motivate themselves. I'm not sure why the chorus was "kite kite kite" or why they were "walking through the woods" while cleaning, but it was precious nonetheless.

Owen loves glowsticks. I'm not sure why. But I found a big box for $1.00 at Michael's and I've been trying to convince him to only light one or two a day so he doesn't waste them all at once. Last night, when I went in his room to see if he was asleep yet, I found him like this.

Oh well. It was a temporary joy anyway. I guess Ben 10 wears some kind of bracelet like that.

Yesterday, Hazel was using my potty and it took me a while to realize that she was in there for a good 15 minutes. Doing this....

It's hard to tell from the picture, but she had a bunch of makeup on her face and clips in her hair. I had just bought several new eyeshadows and she had managed to dig big holes in every single one. I sure am glad I use the "cheap" make-up.



It's hard work being a princess...

Funnies

I took the kids to a morning movie the other day. After leaving the theater four times in the first 5 minutes of the movie, I decided to buy the kids a big fat coke...thinking "That ought to shut them up!"

I walked back in and plopped the coke down. Hazel, barely taking her eyes off the screen, leaned over and took a sip. She turned to me with wide eyes and whispered "Mom! Is this for us?" I nodded and she got so excited that she forgot all about the whispering and yelled "OWEN! IT'S CAFFEINE!!!"


After the movie we went to get haircuts. Owen was in the chair and I was keeping Hazel entertained. She kept spinning the chair and hitting my leg, so I said "Hazel- please quit hitting my shin" which of course led to an explanation of what a shin is. After that conversation, there was a short silence and then Owen announced to the salon:

"My mom has three chins."

Summertime....and the livin' is NOT easy (unless you are under the age of 16)

If only I had a picture of me looking tired, frazzled and stressed out, this post would be complete. But here are some things around the never-will-be-clean-again house that say it is Summer...

sidewalk chalk

deflated floats


towels that never get put away

a disgustingly filthy porch

kiddie pool surrounded by lifeguard chairs

owen's glasses