Farewell Arizona

On the eve of our departure, I wanted to note some of the highlights for future memories, so here goes.

William's nightly ritual of falling asleep in front of the TV. I think he fell asleep on every person's lap at least once, and tonight the final night, he fell asleep next to Mary Grace on the floor watching Happy Feet. He seemed to really enjoy going to sleep in this way, but sadly, it won't continue once we return home.

Mary Grace's "thing" was playing with Nate. He teased her daily, and the loved every minute of it. She asked me to help her hide her lovie and blankie one afternoon because she didn't want Nate to get it. They played and played and wrestled and teased and played some more. It was wonderful to see.

The kids loved seeing all the pretty Christmas lights in the desert, and they also loved echoing Anne's early observation "that snowman looks silly in the desert", and applying that to everything; "Christmas lights look silly in the desert!"

They got to play with Jon's huge Lego collection, dominos, Uno, checkers, hot wheels racetrack, Connect-4 and finally Monopoly. Monopoly was a bust, but Uno was a big winner.

We saw beautiful sunsets every evening, swam in toasty hot tubs, shopped, ate out and saw beautiful sights. But for the last few days, Mary Grace has been telling us that she wanted to go home because she missed school. She's drawn some beautiful pictures of her getting on the school bus and I think she got a little Teary-eyed wishing she was back home.

One last long day of travel tomorrow and we'll be back to snow and cold and home. Hold on kids, here we go!

Williams first car ride

Another night where William fell asleep on the couch before 8:00pm. The little angel just can't seem to adjust to Arizona time. So there he sleeps on the couch with his blue blankie wrapped around him as the rest of the family plays and talks all around him.

Today we went to the McCormick Stillman Train Park for a carousel ride, a miniature train ride and some ice cream. We played legos for a long time this morning while Mommy went shopping.

The day before Thanksgiving we went to a local kid play park called Crackerjack. We started playing miniature golf, then progressed to young kids go carts and indoor games.

first car ride

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year, we decided to spend our Thanksgiving in Arizona. So far the trip has been great; fine weather, lots of fun activities, and cactai. We're looking forward to a trip to an old west town, the Phoenix Zoo, and Ikea!

William and BFF Joe

Nobody has bonded more with William than our neighbor Joe. He's the guy that William wants to play with all the time, and William is Joe's go-to guy as well.

This week he got to go to the Sandbox (local indoor playground) with Joe and had a fantastic time. They have a fantastic time whenever they're together.

Oh, and William has yet to master Joe's name. He still calls him "Jophes", instead of "Joseph". What's in a name though?

Hope they stay close always!

We had a nice Halloween weekend. On Saturday afternoon, we went to Strong Museum for their trick-or-treating event. Lots of costumes, halloween activities, prizes, etc. Then we went to Jines for dinner (kids in costume).

Sunday afternoon was kind of low-key, but we did get a leaf maze raked into the backyard. It's one of the kids favorite activities. I rake paths in the leaves and the kids run through trying to get the best time.

Sunday evening we had a neighborhood pre-trick-or-treating pizza party with all the usual suspects (all the kids under 8 in the neighborhood) and the parents. The magical beer wagon makes an appearance and we all head out for candy gathering together.

This year, unlike past years, the weather turned sour and we got graupeledupon. That led to a general consensus that it would be best to abandon trick or treating, so after about an hour, we threw in the towel.

Heading into the house, Mary Grace started crying somewhat hysterically, complaining that she couldn't feel her hands! Yeah, it was THAT cold. So we put the poor thing on the heat duct and let her warm up, and all was good.

After a little inventory effort Mary Grace decided she wanted to go out for another round, so at 7:45, we went back out into the cold rain. We got 3 houses in when she stumbled, fell out of her rain boot and with a soaking wet foot, demanded to be carried back home. Looking back, it was quite entertaining :)

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Oh, also, William claims that he was throwing up out of his butt today. I guess he was feeling left out of the stomach bug loop. :)