Fun in the Old Pueblo

It has been a busy few weeks as usual around here but that's OK because most of it has been fun.  We have started studying electrical circuits in science class and I love it!  I dragged out my electric circuit that Mr. Walker got me and made all kinds of things happen.  I made a doorbell, a light come on, music and a fan.  I'm a regular Thomas Edison!

 That same week, I had my first Declamation Day.  In 8th grade, one of our prerequisites for graduating is reciting a really long poem from memory in front of the whole school.  We start getting ready in 4th grade by reciting a 12-14 line poem in front of the 4th and 5th graders and our families.  It's a little nerve wracking but we all did great.  I remember to talk loud enough and speak clearly.  Mom was proud of me and I thought it was kind of fun.

We made our annual pilgrimage to the County Fair with our friends, the Goods and had a great time riding rides and eating fair food.  Once again, mom is thankful for Ms. Audrey who will actually ride those awful spin-ny rides with me so mom and dad don't have too.

That same weekend, dad was out of town Friday night doing a pre-ride for a mountain bike race he has coming up so mom spent a productive weekend re-doing the dining room.  It looks exactly like she envisioned in her head and she's so happy with how it turned out.  She is, however, taking a nice long break from painting anything.  She has been on the hunt for her "secret hidden talent" lately (maybe golf?!) and she is pretty sure painting is not it.  So if you come visit, don't look too closely at the paint job!

(Kind of before)

 (And after!)

It took her three days but she got it done just in time for dad's old boss and a friend of his to come over for dinner after a round of golf on Sunday.  It was fun catching up and meeting new people.

Dad has been having a fabulous time at work.  He is in a new "leadership development" class and was volunteered to act out a part in a Shakespeare play.  All of his favorite things, rolled into one!  He made the best of it though and left everyone laughing.

We finally got our golf cart this week.  Yeah! A lot of families tool around the neighborhood in golf carts and use them on the course so of course, we needed one.  Dad found a good used cart, got a good deal on it and had it delivered on Friday afternoon.  He spent the afternoon teaching me how to drive and I didn't do that awful.  A few things left to learn though.

Since spring has sprung, our cactus are starting to bloom.  We have a beautiful night blooming cereus that greets us every morning as we leave for school/work and then is shut down by the time we get back.

I have been doing fairly well on the pitching front.  I had a pretty bad outing last Thursday and was pulled from the game but came back on Friday night, faced 4 batters and struck three of them out.  Last night I did well and had to come in for another inning because coach pulled that pitcher.   The irony being she was the pitcher who replaced me when I got pulled.  I struck out two and ended the game.  It's tough out here in 10U softball, I tell ya'.

We're wrapping up our day with a round of golf- see you next week!

Inaugurals.....

 I have accomplished a lot in the last two weeks- it's been good!  I've been bugging mom and dad for awhile to take me to the Grand Canyon.  I keep saying I'm the only kid in my class never to have been.  They keep reminding me that I've been twice already- once when I was three and once when mom was 3 months pregnant with me.  That time, apparently I even hiked from the North Rim to the South Rim.  I don't remember any of it though so I needed to go again.  We took the RV up and stayed in the South Rim RV park and it turned out to be pretty nice.  We spent Thursday walking along the rim and mom and dad spent the time telling me to be very careful because people die every year falling off the edge.  By the time we were done, I was almost too afraid to hike because I was convinced I'd be the next person off the edge.

On Friday, we got up sort of early and headed out for our big hike.  We had originally planned on camping overnight down at Indian Garden but there weren't any permits left so we just did a massively huge day hike.  We took Bright Angel down in record time.

We made it down in record time and spent awhile enjoying a relaxing lunch and kicking our shoes off.

 We finally started heading back up and that took a little mental and physical energy on my part.  I learned the huge importance of using the rest stop potties whether I needed to or not.  It isn't so much fun to really have to pee in the last mile of the hike.  Not to many places for privacy but we made something work.  Thankfully.  So overall, it was a 10 mile round trip hike and considering I have never really hiked, I rocked it.  But as the signs posted everywhere said- Going down is optional, going up is mandatory.

This past weekend, mom and I joined dad for an afternoon of golf.  This was my and mom's first trip out onto a real golf course.  Let's just the scenery was really pretty but if it were a baseball game, mom would have struck out swinging at every hole.  Let's call it a learning experience.....

Sunday has been a rainy, relaxing day.  Mom tried her hand at making English Muffins and they turned pretty good but it took a lot time.  Definitely easier to buy them!

So, to add to our animal kingdom here, we have resident squirrels.  We noticed that the bricks on our beautiful patio were collapsing in different spots do to something tunneling under.  Dad said up our trusty wildlife camera and we caught pictures of two squirrels frolicking in our backyard, just mocking us.  We were planning on trapping and relocating them but figured they probably have babies in their little den and we didn't want to be responsible for breaking up the family unit.  We'll just have to wait until we have 14 babies running around to capture them....