November 27, 2009

Not many people can do this after Thanksgiving!

November 20, 2009

Yay! Elise, Kirk, Blake and Asher are here! The Phoenix Children's Museum had a fun filled morning in store for us all, including a mini-market, kitchen with pizza ovens and utensils and lots and lots of slides. We love when family visits!

(Owen in red, Eli in stripes)

November 13, 2009

Checking out the horse jumping competition at West World, just minutes from home. The boys were interested in the horses for a little while, but in the end, they were more interested in walking around and exploring - as always!

November 11, 2009

Pinnacle Peak is probably the closest hikeable mountain from where we live. Charlie and I have used the packs with the boys on it before, but only to the first lookout point, about a 1/2 mile from the trail head. The trail is actually 3.5 miles round trip and the last 1/2 mile is by far the most strenuous. We weren't sure how it would go with the boys and my parents, but everyone was a trooper (not a peep from the boys or my mom! ; )) and we made it the whole way out and back! It was a great view with tons of really cool cactus to see. A very accomplished morning indeed! (I have Owen, Charlie has Eli)

Pinnacle Peak Trail: Conquered!!

October 20, 2009

Thanks to one of Charlie's coworkers, we were able to go on a date last night to celebrate the last 10 YEARS that we have been dating. It was an awesome night at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, which has gondola rides - how cool is that?! We started the evening by riding around the canal and listening to the gondolier singing a beautiful Italian song to us. The we headed to the wood-fired restaurant for some margarita's (pomegranate/prickly pear and strawberry/peach - delish!), fresh guacamole and fried zucchini sticks... then we risked it all and went swimming in the hotel's huge outdoor jacuzzi. I'm sure it was just for guests, but how can they keep track of everyone in a 2.5 acre water garden?!

It was such a fantastic night, which was almost cut short because the boys are getting sick and we didn't know if we should leave them or not... but they slept the whole time we were gone and we came back refreshed and recharged.

October 17, 2009

Charlie's company picnic was at the Scottsdale Stadium. Last year, it was held in September and the temperature was over 100 degrees. They thought they learned their lesson and moved the picnic to October, but it was still 100 degrees! The boys had a great time, eating cookies and running around in the outfield, but they were so hot by the time we left that we had to put snow cone ice in their hair and on their cheeks! Poor little guys were chugging water all afternoon. They were given their new wagon for their birthday from Charlie's parents and loved it!

October 14, 2009

Kate's Cup hosted their annual event called Kate's Closet this morning. Basically, all the moms in the group brought their clothes, kids clothes, household items, books, shoes, and miscellaneous baby items to our weekly meeting and you could exchange your items for everyone else's items. It's a great way to trade up some sizes that your kids outgrew and to clean out some closet space. I brought an entire laundry basket filled with clothes and baby items and took these treasures home in their place. I got a really cool suede jacket and a black maternity skirt for myself and lots of 18-2T clothes and pajamas for the boys. The best part is that it was totally free and all the extra stuff gets donated to charity. Score!

October 11, 2009

There is a train park in Scottsdale that is perfect for little boys! It has a train, a carosel, a huge playground and lots of real life trains. The ice cream parlor even has a train table that they can play with while they wait! The rides are free if you're under 3 and only $2 for adults - what a bargain! It's the perfect place to grill out and/or picnic on these beautiful fall days in AZ. We can't wait to take my nephews there when they come to visit in November.

October 6, 2009

I was introduced to Tara through a mutual friend at Kate's Cup - the weekly mom's group I attend. She has twin boys, Jack and Noah, who are almost exactly two months younger than the boys. The boys are so cute together, and we get the best looks from people when we have both sets of twins side-by-side in strollers!

October 4, 2009

From Mesa Verde we drove to Four Corners National Monument. It's the only place in the country where four states all touch at one point... and the only time I'll ever be ok with the boys being in two different states than me ; )

(Charlie with Eli)

We knew that we had a lot of driving ahead of us, but we decided to stop at Petrified Forest National Park (and Painted Desert National Park) anyway. I was expecting a real forest - though I don't know why - Petrified Forest is in Arizona, in the desert. I didn't have high hopes and wasn't really expecting to like it very much, but I was pleasantly surprised. We arrived at the park at 5:05pm and it closed at 6:00. We had a 20 mile drive in the park (meaning we couldn't drive very fast) and wanted to complete a .8 mile trail with the boys. Since we had the park to ourselves, we felt safe leaving the boys in the car and sprinting to and from the car and and overlooks to get a good look at the Painted Desert portion of the park.

At Newspaper Rock, we saw the park's most dense collection of petroglyphs. It took us awhile to even figure out what we were supposed to be looking for!

Crystal Forest was the trail recommended to us. It was a .8 mile paved trail and we could push the boys in the stroller - but what we didn't account for was the wind. It was intense! Petrified wood is unbelievable! From a distance it looks like fallen down tree stumps, but up close they contain the most amazing colors and look and feel like crystals. I don't know how it happened, but what started as wood turned into brilliance!

(Owen)

Though it's highly illegal, you wouldn't believe how badly we wanted to take a piece of the wood. Good thing we didn't - they inspect your car before you leave! It was an extremely long drive home, but we really enjoyed everything we saw and did and love taking advantage of living in the west.

October 3, 2009

On Sunday morning we headed towards Mesa Verde National Park. It was a LONG drive up a very steep mountain to get to the visitors center - and it was cold and windy at the top. We thought that we would squeeze in a short hike, but thought otherwise after realizing that it would be miserable for the boys (and for us!). We ended up just looking at the ruins, which were really cool and much more expansive than the ruins at Canyon de Chelly. There were some great options for hikes that sounded adventurous and awesome, but we decided that the overlook was our best option this time around.

(me and Owen, Charlie and Eli)

On the long drive out of the park, Owen had had enough. As I was making them a PB&J sandwich, he started nodding off to sleep. I put a piece of sandwich in his hand and he kept his eyes closed as he started to eat it. Even that was too much for him, because he fell sound asleep mid-bite - snoring and all!