AZ Trip Days 7 and 8: Going Home

On Friday, we packed up and left Tucson to head for Phoenix, but only after eating pancakes at IHOP. My kids have never been to an IHOP and you would have thought that we brought them to the best restaurant ever. They were pretty excited that they could choose from a huge selection of pancakes. After all, pancakes are their favorite food.
On the trip to Phoenix we made a stop in Coolidge to visit Casa Grande National Monument. Casa Grande is a ruin that was built by the Hohokam People 800 years or so ago. The kids loved how small some of the spaces were. Perfect for them to climb in and out of.

When we arrived in Phoenix, Dennis and the kids headed out to play mini-golf while I visited my good friend, Juniper.

Saturday, we packed up and headed to the airport to make the long journey home. We were planning on staying another night with auntie Mick and uncle Mel in Minneapolis and attending the Gopher v. Hawkeye wrestling duel, but with Eli being sick and with a big winter storm moving in we decided to head home and sleep in the comforts of our own beds.

It was a fantastic trip. I hope we can make it to the SW sometime again soon. Next time visiting Northern AZ and the Grand Canyon and all of Navajo Rez. along with Albuquerque and northern New Mexico or perhaps southern Utah... There's just too much to see and I love it all. Man, I can't wait until the kids can carry their own backpacks and we can do some backcountry camping. Soon.

AZ Trip Day 6: The Desert

As mentioned earlier, we saved all of the desert stuff for when Dennis was done with his conference. All of these desert pictures sort of look like one another, so I won't go into too much detail. We went to Sabino Canyon, The Sonoran Desert Museum, and Saguaro National Park. I wish we would have had more time to do some serious hiking because the weather was perfect, but we settled for a few short walks. I love desert plants and animals and how adaptable they are to the environment.

Eli is hugging the teddy bear cholla. Doesn't it look soft and cuddly.

Sadie touching the barrel cactus spikes.

That's a hedgehog cactus and Eli holding his poked finger. Ouch!

This is from the raptor show at the desert museum, which a fun stop: botanical garden, zoo, and history museum in one place.
A sweet hummingbird:

This is Ocotillo. Ocotillo is my favorite desert plant. Why? I know it looks like a very spiky stick, but after the rains, it gets bright green leaves all over that stick with a bright red fluffy flower tassel on the end. It looks like an exotic seaweed smack dab in the middle of the desert.


Skipping through the desert. Both kids learned that falling in the desert is not quite as comfy as falling on the lush green grass of MN. One fall even ripped Sadie's pants, and scraped up her cheek, shoulder, elbow, and knee. She slowed down (a little) after that!

AZ Trip Day 5: Still Exploring Without Dad

The second day of Dennis' conference we decided that we were going to to the Valley of the Moon park because it promised fairy houses and the like. Well, it turns out that it's only open for special events. Sadie was bummed. Instead, much to the kids chagrin, we went to Native Seeds Search, a store that sells beans, spices, herbs, flours and chiles that are native to the Sonoran desert. Well, you know how much I love that sort of stuff, so I spent a lot of time carefully selecting the items that I wanted to take home. Lots of different beans, dried chiles, and pancake mixes made the cut, as well as a couple of baskets. I was a happy camper
Then, we spent the rest of the day at the pool. The weather was delightful, not a cloud in the sky and close to 80. The hotel has 5! swimming pools so the kids had their pick and spent a little time in each. We even had our lunch poolside. Corn dogs, french fries, soda and a swimming pool. The kids were happy.Eli is head first on his back going down the waterslide. "Look out below!" was Sadie's call every time she went down the waterslide.

The kids got dive toys and water squirters for Valentine's Day. They were a hit!

AZ Trip Day 4: Exploring Tucson Without Dad

Did I mention that the whole reason we were in Tucson was for Dennis to attend an Indian Health Conference? So while he was learning about how to improve patient care, the kids and I went exploring. We held off doing all the deserty things because Dennis really wanted to join us for those so we went to the zoo and a children's museum.

Reid Park Zoo is a relatively small zoo, but it is really nice and actually it was big enough for us having all of the "big" animals that one hopes to see at a zoo: lions, polar bears, tigers, giraffes and elephants! This zoo also had a South America section which most zoos don't have. I don't think I've ever seen an anteater, capybara, tapir or jaguar before. I felt a little like Diego.The highlight of the zoo however, was feeding the giraffes. Giraffes have long tongues (long enough to pick their own nose with) that are a little rough (like a cats) and very slimy. The giraffes were not shy at all, but the kids were a little reluctant. I myself was a little gung-ho, because I have never felt a giraffes tongue before. I picked a very small piece of lettuce and put it in the palm of my hand and the giraffe licked and licked my hand. It was gross, but cool too. (Gosh am I 8 years old, or what?)

The next stop was the Tucson Children's museum. I didn't take many pictures for several reasons. The first is that the lighting was really bad. Secondly, the kids were moving kind of fast and I frankly was getting tired of taking pictures. I wanted to play too (Remember? I am 8.)
This was a fun rope maze that the kids tried. They tied themselves to a rope and had to get through the maze by going over and under other ropes.
The rest of the day was spent, you guessed it, at the pool. Again, I'm going to make you wait for those pictures.

AZ Trip Day 3: Getting to Tucson

We left Pinetop on Monday morning and took our time driving to Tucson. To get to Tucson you must drive through the Salt River Canyon. It's a beautiful place and a twisty turny kind of a drive. Note: Since having children, my body just doesn't like twisty, turny mountain roads (or swings, or rocking chairs...). Actually now that I think about it, my body never really liked them, but I would only feel sick after 3 hours or so of bumpy, turny roads, now I just look at curvy roads and my head gets light and my belly starts to turn. I found that I'm better if I drive.

We made it to the the bottom of the canyon and found a place to pull off to throw rocks into the Salt River. Throwing rocks is a favorite past time for all of us. We could do it for hours.
Eli found a prickly pear, one of millions, that we saw on the trip. Here is touching one just to prove that he's tough like that!

Even Sadie found a prickly pear to pose by. One just cannot get enough of those prickly plants!Ahhh, blue sky and it's not 15 below!! We enjoyed the sunshine as much as we could and tried to get a lot of the mood boosting Vitamin D that we were all missing. I think it worked, we were all in good spirits and I'm still feeling it 2 days after arriving home. oh yeah, the picture. This is a fun game called "mountain lion". Grrrrrr... Aren't they ferocious?

We arrived in Tucson in the early part of the afternoon and spent the rest of our day getting checked in at the hotel and checking out the swimming pool, but you'll have to wait until later to see those pictures.

AZ Trip Day 2: Exploring Our Old Stomping Grounds

We stayed with our good friends, David and Kathleen. David and Kathleen are perhaps the quirkiest and genuinely nicest people I know. Kathleen, among the zillion other things she does, just happens to rescue guinea pigs. Holding Kathleen's guinea pigs was Eli's favorite part of the whole trip. He loved those guinea pigs. Pigs, yes, there are 10!!
Funny story: Before we left on Monday, Eli and Sadie wanted to say one last good-bye to the guinea pigs. Kathleen already left for work so I took 2 out of their cages (there are 4 different cages holding the 10 guinea pigs) and let the kids hold them. Then I put them back and we left. Kathleen called later that night laughing. Turns out I put the guinea pigs back in the wrong place and I put the boy in with all the girls. Oops!! I really hope Kathleen doesn't have 24 extra guinea pigs to find homes for. Or, I hope she doesn't send us 24 guinea pigs. She did promise though that she would name any possible guinea pigs Eli and Sadie. :)

We showed Eli and Sadie where we used to live and teach. We took them to the Catholic church in Whiteriver to meet Father Eddie. We took them to Rainbow, Over the Rainbow, Down Below, and Seven Mile (neighborhoods on the rez). Then, we went to one of my favorite little places on the rez, the fish hatchery. I like it mostly because it's a pretty drive down between the canyons with a little river running through it and because it was the very first place Dennis ever sent me to exlore by myself on the rez.

We went back up to Pinetop and took the kids on a hike where they could view the edge of the Mogollon Rim. Can't you see why we just love this place? Lots of rocks and trees and canyons and crazy formations. And the hiking. Oh the hiking. It goes on for miles...

Anyways, the kids collected lots of rocks and learned that it's a lot easier getting into a canyon then it is getting out. They asked us lots of questions about before they were born. There was lots of reminiscing. We ended our short trip to Pinetop by having dinner with most of our good friends that still live in the area. It was so great to see everyone and see how much their children have grown and introduce them to Eli and Sadie. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I was too busy talking and catching up to take pictures. It was a great day!

AZ Trip Day 1: Getting There

We left from Minneapolis on Sat, Feb. 12. Because Dennis was going to a conference, and we didn't want to pay the high price that his ticket cost, we ended up flying on separate flights. Our flight left before his, so he dropped us off and parked the car. He was also in charge of luggage (another perk of being military. You can check 3 bags for free!). So that made our journey easier. Both of the kids have flown before, but their memories aren't that great, so it was like a new experience for them. They loved the "fresh" baked chocolate chip cookies and that I let them have pop.

We beat Dennis to Phoenix which gave us just enough time to pick up the rental car. Crazy rental car story: While getting our car, I started making small talk with the guy about our trip. I told him we were heading up to Pinetop/Lakeside. He told me that he was from there and was wondering what we were going to do there. I told him that we used to teach there. He asked where I taught I told him Cradleboard. Then he proceeded to tell me that his aunt was Toni, who just happens to be one of the people that we were going to see while we were there. He upgraded our car for free! Small World.

We picked up Dennis after his plane arrived and we drove up to Pinetop/Lakeside (3 hours from Phoenix).

Another crazy story: On the way to Pinetop/Lakeside we stopped at Globe for dinner. While we were there we hear "Sperle!!" in that typical way that Apache boys would call Dennis. There was one of Dennis' former students and his family. Small world.
We arrived at David and Kathleen's house in Pinetop late and went straight to bed knowing that the next day would be a very busy day for us.

Random Vacation Thoughts

I'll get to the pictures and the day-to-day events from our trip to Arizona in another post. Before I start though, I have a few thoughts to share about the trip.

* The kids traveled the best yet. They were awesome. No problems on flights, no problems with them carrying their bags and keeping track of their stuff. They were enthusiastic and eager. They were polite and friendly. They tried new things and were just good sports all-around. Yea!

* This is the first trip ever for us as a family (even before kids) where we spent more than 3 days in one place. We like to see the highlights and move on. But, I think hanging out in one place for awhile allowed for some down time which contributed to the kids being so good. That being said, we still put on 850 miles on the rental car and 400 miles on our own car. We stayed at 2 different family/friend's homes and 3 different hotels. So, we were still on the move!

* Eli got sick on the flight home. Actually, he was sick before the flight, so I don't think it was the flight that caused the vomiting. But, we boarded the plane (we were in the third row), I looked over and Eli was puking. He tried to catch it, bless his heart, but it was on the seat, the floor, his clothes. A mess and everyone boarding the plane had to walk by us. They held up the plane and the maintenence people came and changed out his seat, the seatbelt and cleaned up the floor. I had a clean shirt for him, but no pants, which were drenched. I cleaned him up the best I could and wrapped my sweatshirt around him to keep him warm. He was a trooper, the poor guy.

* I love AZ and the high desert with all of my heart. I hadn't been back since we moved and everytime I saw pictures of AZ and mountains or lava rocks or cactus or Indian ruins, I had such a feeling of longing, a feeling of wanting to go home. I was sort of hoping that that feeling wouldn't be there when I got there. I was hoping that I'd think it was too brown, too hot, too cactusy, too something that would make me wonder why I ever loved lived there and make me feel good about our decision to move to Minnesota. But, that didn't happen. I hated Phoenix (and I always have) but the rest of AZ was awesome. I love it just as I did. It was as good as I remembered. And Dennis feels the same way. And the kids thought it was awesome too. I'm not sure what that means for us.

Stay tuned, there is more to come....

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope that you are having a lovey-dovey kind of a Valentine's Day. Or, if not, at least enjoying a pint of Ben and Jerry's while watching 30 Rock or Modern Family on Hulu... (which really, if you ask me, sounds like the best way to spend Valentine's Day!)
Enjoy these pictures of the kids making homemade conversation hearts, which are remarkably similar to the real thing. For the full directions, go here.( I bought the edible magic markers at JoAnn's.)

Crafting with Eli

While prepping for our trip to AZ, I discovered that Eli didn't have any short-sleeved t-shirts that fit him. I had Eli look through some catalogs so I could get an idea of what he wanted. Well, he picked out this shirt from Boden. My first thought was, "$30?? For a t-shirt??" My second thought was, "I can make that for $5." So, that's we did. We made a peace sign applique t-shirt for $4. Take that, Mini Boden. (the peace sign is NOT crooked, Eli is just standing funny.)At the same time I was buying the other t-shirt I picked up another one since they were only $4. Eli freezer-paper stenciled a shark onto this one. But, alas, no picture of him in the shart t-shirt yet...

A Trip: Tucson!

"Arizona" by Sadie

We're leaving today for a trip to Tucson. I'm so excited to show Eli and Sadie one of my most favorite places on Earth: the desert. I hope they love it as much as I do!!

Sewing With Sadie

I am constantly amazed by Sadie's independence and her desire to "do" and "make" and "create". She needed envelopes for her valentines. I got out the sewing machine. She's sewn before, just once, or maybe twice, so she had the idea. But this is the first time I let her drive. I moved the machine to her art center so she could reach the pedal, gave her the basics and let her go. And go she did. She didn't even ask for any help, she just sewed. She sewed 9 envelopes. All. By. Herself.

They say "I'm Stuck on You, Valentine!" because she made each of her friends a heart magnet made out of fuse beads. Yes, we've been working on Valentines since January! They turned out so cute and she was so proud of her work. She even picked out the colors according to whom she was making the heart for and we had to label each heart so we wouldn't give someone the wrong heart.

A Valentine Box

Eli's very first Valentine box. Although I'm not sure if it's a monster or an alien or a monster/alien...