"Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

Monday, May 25, 2009

Seasons Change

It's officially hot in Phoenix. While our east coast friends are celebrating spring and turning to their outdoor activities, we are doing just the opposite... switching gears and enjoying our indoor pursuits for most of the day. We are still geocaching (in fact we logged a marathon session of 39 finds this weekend!) but we're sticking to side-of-the-road “park and grabs” now, instead of those that require hikes. Spencer brings his radar gun, and entertains himself by shooting the passing cars when he's not looking for a cache.

Everett and I have been doing a lot of puzzles and playing a lot of card games, and the big boys are rediscovering old computer programs – Spencer is currently immersed in Roller Coaster Tycoon, and is giving us frequent updates on his visitors, attractions, and food. Paxton is keeping busy with Zoo Tycoon, and his most recent experiment involved letting the lions out of their pen to see if they would eat the scientist. (They did)

We made homemade donuts this weekend, which was a first, and is a project that will likely be repeated in the future







Finally, dad celebrates his 60th birthday next weekend. We surprised him by showing up with the kids and a cake on Saturday. We grilled burgers, drank prickly pear margaritas, and just generally enjoyed the day. Happy Birthday Dad!!





Sunday, May 17, 2009

Happy Saturdays

A baseball game, the final game of the season. Another strong showing by our favorite player. A visit from Mom and Dad

A pizza party with coach, players, and families at Peter Pipers

An afternoon of swimming (first of the season!) and visiting at my sister's. A ride in her new Prius

A day around people who love my kids and who let me be me

I needed that




Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Cache us if you can


Ha. Couldn't resist.

We hid our first cache last weekend, and three days later it was approved, listed on geocaching.com, and ready to find. We've been caching for 3 months now, and have found 44 caches. The excitement of the hunt though is nothing compared to the excitement of hiding our own!

Tucking it into its hiding place


Double-checking the coordinates


Check out the view! I love Phoenix.






Because there are sometimes hiccups in life, our very first cache was stolen less than 24 hours after we planted it. And because life goes on, the following weekend we hid a new one in a better place, updated our listing, and all is right with the world once again.




Saturday, May 02, 2009

Phoenix in April


Last week, Skip & Barbara, and Rob, Celia and little Ayla all came to visit. I posted this one picture (the rest of the weeks pics can be found here, here, here, and here) because the outdoors seemed to be the theme of the week. We spent much of the time just sitting out back - watching the kids play, chatting around the patio table, eating (always eating!), and catching up. We spent a day at the Wildlife Zoo and Aquarium, another exploring an old ghost town, and an afternoon playing at Makutu's Island. We watched Paxton's baseball game, celebrated at Everett's 5th birthday party, and rocked out on Rock Band. Celia made us an authentic puerto rican meal, filled with yummy foods with fancy names that I vowed to myself I'd remember, then of course promptly forgot.

The week wasn't without it's snafus though. We never did get to take them geocaching or offroading. I never made my berry dessert (I hope introducing them to Jamba Juice made up for it!) We learned that the children's museum is closed on Mondays, that Mike's truck will overheat after too much heavy mountain driving, and that it takes a long time to get 11 people all moving in the same direction at the same time. I'd like to think we'd all agree it was worth it!

It was so good to see them all, to get to spend time with our neice who we'd previously only known through photos, and to share our little corner of the world. I only hope they all had a good time, and that their vacation was a great one.

And last but absolutely not least:



Happy, happy birthday to my beautiful five year old Everett. I loved petting all the baby goats with you last week!!!!




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