Hanging out with Heather

After Heather and I returned from our girls' trip, Tim headed back to work and it was our challenge to find fun things to do with the kids in tow. First we hit the Desert Museum. It is part zoo, part botanical garden, part history museum. We saw the mountain lions, the lobos, some prairie dogs, snakes, birds and this cute little squirrel. They made an enclosed habitat for some small critters and they made some underground tunnels with glass or some transparent material. Tessa and this guy had staring contests and he kept high-fiving her when she put her hand to the glass. She loved it.
Part of the man made habitat included a tunnel you could navigate through. Tessa was very nervous the first time but after she braved it through once we had to force her to leave it.
Finishing off with an ice cream cone. Perfect on a hot Arizona spring day.
Happy Phoebe.

On our way home we decided to stop by the Mission San Xavier. They have finished restoring half of it so this was the first time I saw it without scaffolding in front. The chapel inside is still used for Catholic mass by the Tohono O'odahm people whose land this mission is on.

A plaque on an outside wall.

Girls' Trip!

My friend Heather needed to burn some vacation time and we decided that after she flew in from Texas we would hit the road and see the sights in Arizona.

Montezuma's Castle - We got the 5 minute tour as the park was closing up when we got there. You can't get any closer than this, so we didn't mind. Spent the night in Flagstaff then, after a delicious crepe breakfast at a little stand in downtown Flag, headed toward Sedona the next day. It was drizzling and foggy the whole day but that didn't dampen our spirits. It also made the scenery even prettier.

We stopped to walk around Slide Rock State Park and checked out the old homestead, cabins and the apple packinghouse. Some family made this their home about a hundred years ago and farmed apples. It's so remote, even now, but what an amazing backyard they had!
The river cutting through the red rock. There were a handful of people insane enough to be swimming in this. The air temp was at best in the low 60s.
Walking the trail above the river gave me an excellent view. Heather wouldn't go near the edge.
Loved the colors of the wet wood.
We also shopped at an Indian Trading Post (a real one, not a tourist trap building with plastic chachkis inside) and bought a couple pieces of handmade jewelry. Later we saw Jerome, an old mining town and had a late dinner at Carraba's before returning home to reality.

Preschool Commencement

Tessa isn't going to Kindergarten yet, so it wasn't really a graduation, but the preschool did have a little program to show off some songs and the pledge of allegiance they had memorized. She loved school and did really well. They used a smiley face system, where bad behavior meant crossing out a smiley face. She rarely got one crossed out and we always made a big deal about her coming home with all three.

She did well during the program in doing her hand motions and singing. Most of the kids just stood there. I like this shot because the boy on the right has to go pee. His mom ran up to the stage and I didn't know what was going on, until she grabbed him and ran out the door, then came back a couple of minutes later and returned him, dry and able to concentrate again.
No stage fright here!
Walking across the "bridge" to shake hands with the principal.

Good Times with Good Friends

Looking through photos from the last month I realized that we had a quite a few "occasions" to get together with friends. I decided to lump them all together in one post.
Catching up with Tim's Academy friends.

Picnic in the canyon with Sadie and Maddock.

Tessa took this picture all by herself. I didn't know it until I was taking the pictures off the camera. Not bad for a 3 year old. This is our friend Jessie and her youngest, Lisette, when she and all her girls came over for dinner and playtime.

Phoebe's best friend....a horse, any horse, as long as it is rideable. We got to "test drive" TROT before their spring session ended. She is on the list to ride next school year.

Hanging out in the culdesac. I thought it was funny that our street is all boys except for my three (I was babysitting Hailey that night). The boys were having gun and sword fights and somehow they formed an audience while Tim talked about real guns.

Tessa doing what she does best. Making a mess. Our neighbors Cameron and Nicholas joined in.

Field trip to the zoo with her class.Our friend Lina getting nibbled by a giraffe. They didn't let anyone pet them, they just wanted to eat the biscuits people handed them. Lina must look like a biscuit. Three monkeys...Tessa, Lina and greybeard. :)