The Life and Times of Jordan!: We're Baaaaack- I Think

Well, apparently, mom takes a little longer to get out of vacation mode than others- thus the missing blog last week and the late one this week. We'll try to catch every one up on our super, duper exciting lives.

Last weekend was a kind of "everyone doing their own thing" weekend. Each of us had a spectacular time at too. We love, love, love being together as a family but sometimes branching out and actually engaging with other people is a good thing!

Dad left to go on a boys only camping trip on Friday. He went 4 wheeling and camping for one night with the old gang. He said the 4 wheeling was really rough and a couple of the guys lost some internal organs. I think it sounds like a perfect trip for boys only....

While dad was out camping, mom was thoroughly enjoying a girl's night at her friend Janet's house. Janet did all the cooking and had the beer cold when the ladies arrived. They even got to enjoy desert out on the patio with the firepit burning and beautiful views of the city. It was perfect.

While mom and dad were off doing their thing, I was home doing laundry and mopping the floors.

Ha! Just kidding! I was having a blast spending the night at my friend Madeline's house! Madeline's mom was at Janet's house too so Madeline and I got to hang out with her dad all night. So. Much. Fun. We got to eat pizza, make ice cream sundaes, slide down her stairs into a pile of pillows and the best part for Mr. Mike was that we were crashed out by 9 o'clock. Woo-hoo! When mom was driving me over to drop me off, I pointed out that it had been waaaay to long since I've had a sleep over with any friends- since Colorado. Mom had to agree with me- we need to do stuff like that more often.

Saturday was a recoup day for all of us since we were a little tired. It's exhausting being out of our routine but we were back it on Sunday. Mom's good friend Shari was in town from Wisconsin so they headed out for a nice, long hike up Phone Line trail in Sabino Canyon and then to another friend's house for brunch. I had a play date with my friends Max and Claire all afternoon. While mom and I were enjoying friends and good food, dad was having good times of his own, doing our taxes. Don't think that wasn't loads of fun!

This past week went by kind of slow. Mom was sick all week and she is never fun when she's sick but we survived and so far dad and I have avoided her cooties.

We were certainly ready for the weekend! Dad was in a 3 day bike race with the first race being a time trial on Friday afternoon. Everything was looking good for him when a freak wind/rain squall started just has he took off. Cleared up as soon as finished riding. That's his excuse anyway. But really, he didn't do too bad.

I got to bring our class hamster, Fluffernutter, home for the weekend, so I spent Friday afternoon chasing her around the house.

On Saturday, dad had stage two of his race. No rain, just wind this time but he managed to finish with the leaders. When he got home, we headed out to do some shopping and pizza eating. (We love pizza here and it's been MONTHS since we've had any. It was good.....)

Sunday was another really fun day. Dad had stage three of his race and again he finished with the lead pack and ended up 27th overall. He is however, paying for it with complete exhaustion. He's taken the last two days off from riding so you know it was bad. He and mom decided on a new categorization system for cyclists. Instead of Categories 1-5 or age groupings, it should be "people with jobs and kids", "retired people" and "young people with no obligations other than riding". That would be more fair.

Mom and I spent our Sunday in a more cerebral way, enjoying the Tucson Festival of Books. This is an enormous, fun event put on every year. This year, we didn't see too many books but spent most our time in Science City, enjoying all the fun things there. We learned about comets and I'm going to have my name put on the space capsule that is going to the astroid Bennu then I made a bracelet out of test tubes from the microbiology department at the UofA, I rode on a hover craft thingy, ate pretzels and just generally had a fun time with my old mom.

Now that spring has sprung, mom had resumed her daily patrols of our yard looking at all the stuff in bloom. We put in a bunch of pictures in honor of our friend Heidi who is in Stockholm, Sweden with a case of cabin fever. These are for you!