Holiday Merriment!

It has been a fun filled couple of weeks!  My last day of school was December 19 (Woot woot!) and it has been non stop since then.  We kicked off the holiday merriment with a Christmas party at Tanque Verde Ranch.  Mom, dad and I had such a great time when stayed there a few weeks ago, we thought it would be a great place for all of our friends.  It was a perfect night- chilly enough to break out the winter gear and feel a little bit Christmassy but not so cold that we could enjoy ourselves.  There was all kinds of stuff to do (including line dancing lessons) and Madeline and I are old enough now that we just took care of ourselves most of the night.  The parents were able to relax and enjoy themselves.  Win-wine!  Perfect!

On Sunday, dad and I built our annual gingerbread house.  We are getting better and better every year building it.  Ginger tried to help this year but it didn't go well.......

Dad's birthday was Monday the 22nd and to celebrate, he took me up to Dave and Busters in Phoenix.  We won all kinds of tickets and prizes- it was a successful day.  When we got home, Nana D and Mr. Walker were waiting to greet us!  Yeah!  Grandpa Vern and Grandma Sue came over and we had a delicious birthday dinner of meatloaf, brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes.  Hopefully, it was a good day for Foo-Foo.

Tuesday, mom had to work while the rest of us enjoyed a beautiful day.  Dad and Mr. Walker went mountain biking while Nana and I headed to the zoo.  Did I mentioned mom was working- she had almost as good a time as we did.....

Wednesday was Christmas Eve and the ladies spent the day in the kitchen cooking and baking up a storm.  We aren't sure what the boys were doing, but I'm sure it was productive.  Oh wait, Mr. Walker was so bored that he did some yard work for us.  Things look definitely cleaner out there now!

 We headed to church Wednesday evening and came home to have dinner and drinks with our old neighbors who were in town.  (As we are writing this blog, we have come to realization that we need to be taking more pictures- we have none!  Boooooo!)
I finally got to bed about 10 and not a moment to soon- Santa was coming for peet's sake!  I had the cookies and milk ready and a special treat for the reindeer.
Christmas day was spectacular (but again, no pictures.  Booooo!)  I got some cool stuff- Dino-opoly, hair chalk, mine craft books.  My favorite however is my iPod touch.  I now have the ability to text!  So far, I have mom, dad, Nana, Mr. Walker, Uncle Adam and Aunt Erin on speed text and have been a non-stop texting machine ever since.  Everyone is really enjoying it!

Everyone left on Friday morning and then it got cold!  We woke up to this on Saturday morning.....

We practically couldn't leave the house all day because it was too danged cold.  Mom did manage to get in a run- with two pairs of socks, two sets of running tights, two shirts and a jacket.  It was a little too close to Denver temperatures to make her happy but she soldiered on.

On Sunday, it was still cold and it was dad's turn to brave the cold for the sake of exercise.  Mom and I headed out around 10 and met some friends at Sabino Canyon and enjoyed a wonderful day of sunshine and learning how to skip rocks.

We hope everyone has a wonderful, safe New Year's!

A Real Shredder!

We are finally getting into the Christmas frenzy spirit around here.  We got our tree up the day after Thanksgiving but it continued to be 80 degrees.  That's warm even for Tucson this time of year.  Things finally cooled off this weekend with a great, cold, rainy Saturday and a beautiful, clear, cool Sunday.

I'm still in school for another week but it kind of seems like the whole month of December is just fun- we had our Christmas play at school last Friday.  The whole lower school (K-3) is up on stage but only the third graders get speaking parts.  Probably because we are so mature......Anyway, I was a crayon.  A green crayon.  I didn't exactly want to be a green crayon but it was better than being a teddy bear because teddy bears had to dance with and hug a boy.  Blech.  I did awesomely well- spoke my lines clearly and loudly and ended up having a good time.  My two best friends were crayons too- Claire was pink and Lily was yellow so that helped some too.

Then last week, our class Christmas party was on Wednesday afternoon.  That was totally fun with charades and popcorn and glitter.  I had glitter everywhere and now, mom's car has glitter everywhere.

She pulled me away from my party a little early because I had a doctor's appointment.  This was actually supposed to be my 8 year old check up, just a little late.  Sadly, I'm no longer in the 99th percentile for height.  I'm only in the 82nd.  Mom was a little disappointed in that but what can you do?

This past Friday, we headed up to the fancy mall for dinner, snow fall and the Apple store to buy dad's birthday present, the iPhone 6.  We learned our lesson from last year and didn't look up into the snow.  It was all and all a great time.

Saturday was the cold and rainy day so we spent most of it inside.  Mom and I did venture out in the afternoon for a Christmas party from mom's work.  At first, I really did not want to go because it sounded boring, insert eye roll here.  But, turns out there were other kids my age and a cat named Steve who was pretty tolerant of being chased and petted.  We also got to decorate gingerbread cookies, which involved sugar.  So you know that was good thing.  I ended up having a good time.

Sunday was a beautiful day.  Mom's friend Edy (who is a hard core, great mountain biker) has started a business teaching riding skills.  Mom signed my up for her very first class which was Sunday morning.  At first, I really did not want to because it sounded boring, insert eye roll here.  (Mom thinks we are going through a new phase here.)  I even started with the crying over this one.  Surprise, surprise, I ended up having a great time.  We rode through mud puddles, over rocks, down some pretty steep hills.   My friend Madeline took the class with me and by the end, we were proclaimed "Official Shredders".  I even have the muddy back to prove it.  It was totally awesome!

In the afternoon, Grandpa Vern and Grandma Sue took us out to lunch.  Mom and dad are still full.  We spent a quiet evening with dad and I playing Skylanders and mom frantically doing all her Christmas shopping from the comfort of the couch.  Gotta beat those shipping deadlines you know!
Hope everyone has a wonderful week before Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This has been a nice long break for us and we're sad to see it end.  

We had a chilly start to the week, causing mom to pull out all our winter gear.  She sent me to school on Monday with a thick coat, gloves, scarf and a hat.  It was possibly a teeny bit of overkill but you can never have to much gear on when it comes to cold!

Thankfully, it warmed up by Wednesday because we headed out for our second annual Thanksgiving "camping" trip.

We went with our camping friends, Mike, Audrey and Madeline and this year, we had full hook ups!  That is the Ritz in RV terms.  All the water and electricity we could use so no worries about our heat conking out at 2 AM like last year.  We maintained a cozy 67 degrees both nights and were snug bugs. 

Thanksgiving day was just gorgeous- even a little warm.  Probably 80 degrees!  We spent the day bike riding, hiking, feeding the horses.  And this year, we even ate while the sun was up so the food stayed warm while we ate it!  Last year, we ate after dark, bundled up, shoveling food in before it got cold.

We got home late Friday morning, unpacked, showered and then headed out to get the tail end of Black Friday sales.  We all came away with something to show for our efforts so it was a good evening.
On Saturday, we put up our Christmas tree and all of our decorations and now we are full on into the Christmas season, even though it continues to be 75 degrees.

It's back to the grind tomorrow for a few more weeks.  Hope everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving day and have a great week!

What to do? What to do?

Greetings from toasty, warm Tucson!  This was our first weekend in a long, long time with nothing on the schedule.  No softball games, no traveling, nothing.  Mom and dad weren't not quite sure what to do with themselves.  I, on the other hand, had a friend filled weekend and it was super fun!

We made it through the week and I was kind of (OK, I WAS) a big grump.  I was tired all week from our weekend and I was getting over a little cold.  I was sure snotty in the mornings and sleepy in the afternoons but we survived.  

On Saturday, because we didn't have anything else to do, mom slept in until 7 AM!!  You'd have thought she was the sick, tired one.  Dad and I were up and raring to go at 5:30 in the AM.  Once everyone was up, we got our workouts in and mom cleaned the house.  I got out of that one because I had a nice long playdate with my friend Lily.  It was super fun.  While I was there, mom and dad headed out in two different directions to get some clothes shopping done.  Mom was successful, dad was not, so that probably means more of it in dad's future.  Good times!

My friends Max and Claire had their birthday party back in October.  (Remember the Big Kahuna??) Instead of buying them a gift, we decided to take them out to do something.  They picked the climbing gym and today was the day.  

We went to Eegees for lunch and mom was very amused by us and our conversations.

Then we headed to the climbing gym.  We were the only kids there and had the whole climbing part to ourselves.  We had climbing races, rappelling races, creative dismount competitions.....

After we wore ourselves out doing that, we came back here for a bit and finally dropped Max and Claire at home around 5.
We are mentally preparing for Thanksgiving on Thursday- that's about all we have to do since we ordered our dinner again!  Woot-woot!  Have a great week!

Return to the Scene of the Crime.....

We have had some complaints about the last two blogs.  Apparently some people don't like it when "mom" writes the blog.  They said it was better and more creative when "Jordan" wrote it.    Well, you don't have to tell us twice (and mom kind of agrees with the creative part) so I am back!  Yeah me!

And now, with further ado- back to the Goedel Family Adventures.

Softball has finally ended, thank goodness (did I say that out loud?).  I have started intramurals at school.  We are doing 4 weeks of volleyball and 4 weeks of basketball.  Our girls won the Tucson Independent Athletic League championship for volleyball this past week and our basketball team is pretty good so this will be a good learning thing for me.  I really like volleyball so far and if it weren't for the stupid boys always hogging the ball, I might actually love it.

Did you know that this past week was mom and dad's 10th wedding anniversary??  I had no idea there was even life before I was born but apparently, there was.  Mom and dad cannot believe how fast things have gone- the blink of an eye.  It's been a fun blink though!

To celebrate, dad surprised us with a trip to Tanque Verde Ranch.  This is where they had their wedding reception eons ago.  They had always talked about doing a stay-cation there one day and this seemed the perfect time.  It was tons and tons of fun.  I got to go to the kids camp on Saturday which involved not one, but two long horse back rides through the desert.  Heaven I tell you.  Mom and dad took advantage of some down time and went for a short hike and then they drove to Starbucks and then came back took a much needed nap and hung out by the pool.

Saturday night was probably the highlight of the weekend.  The ranch has a big cookout under the cottonwood trees and it was just beautiful.  All my friends from kids camp were there so I got to run around like a crazy woman all night.  And then.... mom and dad actually, really and truly talked to new people!  They never talk to anyone new and no one ever talks to them so this was new territory for them.  It was kind of fun but they probably won't make a habit of it. There were great big fire pits, good food and good family time.   We could not have had a more perfect night to highlight 10 years.

Have a happy week before Thanksgiving!

Recovery Week

Happy Belated Halloween!  We were exhausted after another whirlwind two days at Disneyland and just couldn't sum up the energy to do anything but stare into space last Sunday.  We had a great time and of course, Disney does it up right for the holidays.  We have Disney down to a science now and can easily get in 12-14 rides at peak season.  (We rock, I know ;) ).  This time though, it was so very not crowded that we didn't really need any of our skills so it was a little more relaxing then usual.

On Halloween night, only people with wrist bands get and they only sell about 1/3 of park capacity so it isn't too crazy.  There are 12 "treat trails" throughout the park and each trail has 4 stations that you stop, open your bag and candy is literally dumped by the handful into it.

We came home with 15, count them 15 pounds of candy.  Lordy.  We somehow managed to get it back in our suitcases and gave most of it to Rich's mom to take into work.

Nothing out of the ordinary for our week.  Softball on Tuesday and Thursday.  I took Jordan to vote on Tuesday.  It was a last minute decision because I wanted her to see the whole process so I ended up with a provisional ballot.  The poll workers were great with her, explaining how everything worked and she actually seemed interested!

Saturday was the final softball game of the less than stellar fall season.  The girls didn't win a game all season but there was definite improvement with all of them, so I guess that's good......
Rich ended up pitching to the girls during the game.  Turns out, he is a good softball pitcher and struck a whole bunch of our girls out.  It did make the game go nice and fast which is always a blessing.
Saturday night, Rich and I headed out for a date night with some friends while Jordan hung back with favorite babysitter.  Our dinner was pretty bad and we ended up being comped for part of it and the show we went to see was just OK.  At least the company was good!

Ginger and I are officially Puppy School drop outs.  I just didn't have it in me anymore to drag our butts to class once a week and come home absolutely exhausted and a little disheartened by how crazy our monkey seems.  So now, we are just doing stuff on our own and it is so much easier.  This morning, Jordan and I took Ginger to a new park to do some exploring and "manners work"  We are slowly but surely making progress and maybe some day, she can make her public debut.  Deep sigh.....

After that morning adventure, I met an old friend for brunch and finally, finally was able to try a cronut.  What is a cronut you ask?  It is a craze that has been sweeping the nation- a doughnut made from croissant dough.   Mine was chocolate caramel.  Yes, it is as good as it sounds and yes, I ate a whole one.  After eating all of my biscuits and gravy.  It was not a stellar day nutritionally but it was damn tasty.
We had Rich's parents over for dinner and had a really fun evening.  We are now gearing up for another week of the grind.  Jordan gets tomorrow off- lucky girl

Hope everyone has a great week!

Mish Mash

 We're going to be reaching a little bit for fun and exciting things to report on this week....
One thing we neglected to report in the excitement of the past few weeks was Rich's amazing makeover of Jordan's room while we were in Ohio.  If you've ever had the  misfortune, honor of staying in Jordan's room on a visit to us, you will probably remember the colossal nightmare that it was.  Crap everywhere, with no place to walk, let alone sleep.  She seems to have inherited a few of my hoarding tendencies :(.  Anyway, Rich spent his one free weekend doing a complete makeover of her room.  He moved the tons and tons of toys out of her room and they now exist in 3 enormous bins in the garage, he painted (with glitter paint even), he stained old furniture, he bought new furniture, he bought new sheets, he organized, he hung stuff.  And the result is an awesome room that we can now walk in.  Jordan loves it and it has stayed clean for two weeks now!  Yeah!

So onto our week.  It was pretty quiet which is kind of nice during the week.  We had a fun weekend with a daddy/kid campout at our favorite campground.  They managed to cram 7, count them 7 people into the RV and apparently, it didn't smell too bad at the end of the trip....
They had a great time and the moms left behind had an equally fun time.  I met up with Christina for dinner and a movie.  We discovered that the first thing we wanted to do with an empty house was to clean it. So both of us spent our free morning cleaning toilets and floors.  How pathetic is that?  But it is nice to have a clean house for 12 hours.

I spent Sunday morning going for a long run, taking Ginger for a long walk, making pork ragu and a chicken pot pie.  Rich and Jordan got home about noon and we spent the rest of the day relaxing.

We found a show on wolves to watch and Ginger was very interested in it and spent a good 5 minutes just watching the boob tube, probably planning her next hunting expedition.

Hope you have a fabulous week!