The Most Awesome Spring Break Ever!

10 days, 2000 miles, 6 states makes for a pretty great spring break.  We have a lot to talk about so we will just get into it!

We left on Friday morning and headed south to Albuquerque where we spent the first night of our vacation with Nana and Mr. Walker.  Uncle Adam, Auntie Erin and baby Sophia came down from the mountain to spend the afternoon with us.  Sophia is toddling all over the place and is amazingly cute.  So cute that she got a lot of the attention which did not sit well with this only child.  Other than that, we had a great time with everyone.

We were up and out the door early Saturday for our drive to Tucson.  We arrived to find clear blue skies and 75 degree temps.  We made a quick check of the Denver weather and saw that it was 20 degrees and snowing.  Obviously, we made a good choice, getting the heck out of there.

We checked into our hotel (our favorite, La Paloma) and spent some time eating our lunch out in the patio, soaking in the sunshine.

Just before we moved from Tucson to Denver, mom and dad's good friends, Brian and Christina, asked them to be godparents for their son but until now, we haven't been able to get back for his baptism.  We were finally able to get it done this weekend.  We all met at the church for Evan's baptism and then headed to Brian and Christina's for dinner with the family.  It was an awesome time to be with such good friends again. (And to be warm!)
We finally called it a night and headed back to our hotel for a good night's sleep.  On Sunday, dad got in a nice long bike ride with his old team (66 miles!  Not to shabby considering how much basement riding he has been doing the last several months.) while mom and I headed to Sabino Canyon for a beautiful hike.  I have pretty much forgotten all about saguaros and prickly things but in the end, I wanted to keep going farther and farther.  Mom finally turned us around because we did have some other things on the calendar.

We did manage to find some time to play in the stream and it was wonderful.  Did I mention it was 24 degrees in Denver at that time?

We met Grandma Sue and Grandpa Vern at Grandma's house and then headed out to La Parilla Suiza for lunch.  Mmmmm- the first of three Mexicans restaurants for us!
The best part of the day though was probably the gorgeous traditional Korean party dress that Grandma got me.  She got a pink one and a red one and let me pick which one I wanted.  I chose the pink one because I liked the glittery flowers.  I just love it!

Sunday night, we met all of our camping friends for dinner at another Mexican restaurant- 2 in one day- heaven!
It was another fabulous day- mom was able to catch up with her mom friends, I was completely entertained with the other kids there and dad was able to plan his next camping trip with boys.

I wish every Sunday could be this good!

Monday, mom went out for a nice long run while Dad and I made a bagel run for breakfast.  We got ourselves showered and headed out for another great day of "meet and greet".  We made a stop at my old preschool- Casita Jose- and checked in on all my favorite people.  Ms. Barbara, Ms. Liz, Ms. Becky, Ms. Alesha and Ms. Connie.  Either they are a lot shorter than the last time I saw them or I am a bit taller!

After that, we met Grandma and Grandpa at a really yummy Korean restaurant for lunch.  Then, dad headed out for an afternoon ride while mom and I headed to Frost for some gelato and then to meet mom's friend Audrey and her daughter Madeline (my camping buddy) for an afternoon at the park.
After that, we headed to our third Mexican restaurant in two days to have dinner with dad's old bike team mates.  I had an awesome time with Mr. Poore's son who is also in first grade and loves Bey Blades (my new obsession).  We grabbed a table in the corner and Bey Bladeded away.

After a whirlwind of a time of family, friends and food, we headed out Tuesday morning for Disneyland.  We got checked into our hotel around three and made a bee line for Disney.  The very first place I found was the Lego store with a giant table set up outside to build race cars.

I then entered it in a race- and I won!  I was the only one racing but no bother.  At least my car actually rolled and stayed together which is more than I can say for some of the other cars!

We finally got home around 11 and hit the sack by 11:30.  We were planning a nice morning of sleeping in but I was up and going at 5:30 AM.  Good gawd.  It was an exhausting but fun day.  The big ride of the day was California Screamin' and it was awesome!  It had a super fast start, upside down loops, corkscrews and drops.  We all loved it!

We got an early start on Thursday because we wanted to make sure we got onto Radiator Springs Racers.  We got there right as it opened and already the wait was 80 minutes!

It was so worth it once we got in.  It was really fun and mom totally wanted to go again but wasn't about to wait 120+ minutes.

 Here we are in our new official Disney uniforms- we love Disneyland!



After another fantastic two and half days in Disney, it was time to start our long trek home.  We drove from LA to St. George, Utah.  That is some amazingly beautiful country.  We got in early enough that dad was able to squeeze in a bike ride and mom and I headed out for another hike.

We finally headed back to the land of Subarus and good craft beer on Saturday and after a long 10 hour drive, we were exhausted.  We still didn't want to be home though.  Usually after these long vacations, we are looking forward to our own bed and electric toothbrushes but this time, I think we could have gone for another week.
Sunday was Easter and very low keyed.  I was sick with some weird cold thing and spent the day on the couch while mom and dad got caught up on the drudgery that is life- laundry, taxes etc.  The only good things are that we missed the worst weather (it was 70 degrees today) and we are back to good beer.
It was a wonderful, wonderful vacation with lots of good memories and we can't wait to do it again!

Catching Up

We are back- we had to wait a week because we thought we didn't have pictures to post- but it turns out we did.  So we are just a week behind!

We've had a mellow two weeks and went from really cold and snowy to really, really beautiful 60 degree days.

We had enough snow two weeks ago that mom and I were able to build a snowman.  We are definitely getting better at this and were actually able to roll Mr. Man's middle and head.  It was kind of a mile stone for us!

Last Saturday, we had a kind of big snow storm.  They were predicting a blizzard of epic proportions but it really wasn't bad.  After burying me in some snow, we were able to head out to do some shopping.

I had the first of my three private swim lessons with Ms. Suzy on Wednesday and I loved it.  I worked hard and was tired but it was fun!
On Thursday, after having freezing temps early in the week, it was warm enough that we could have our girl scout meeting outside at the park.  It was awesome!

So up to this weekend- another quiet, mellow weekend.  My soccer season starts next week and I've completely outgrown all my soccer stuff from last season.  Mom and I headed out to buy some new cleats and shorts and that was it for the day.  It was pretty stellar.

So, it is the middle of March here and still kind of cold but mom is still on Tucson time.  In Tucson by this time of year, we have our garden in and are sitting on the patio eating our dinner.  Mom just couldn't take the winter stuff  here anymore and headed out to start hacking away at the ugly bushes we have in our front yard.  Her plan is to pull them out and plant something more native.  It was actually a chilly but nice morning and she made good progress.  She would have made better progress if she didn't have to stop every 2 minutes to help me climb our tree, but at least I was outside.
In the afternoon,  we headed out to the most awesomest park ever!  It is about 15 minutes from our house and has all kind of dangerous things to make parents nervous!
The is a huge, high climbing rock with a giant slide back down to the bottom...

It was so cool that even mom and dad gave it a try.  Dad made it look a little easier than mom but look at how high mom got off the ground.

After a fun afternoon, we headed home for some homemade pizza and a movie.  Dad is heading out for another week long business trip but then we are leaving our for our 10 day road trip to Tucson and Disneyland!  We will have lots of exciting updates coming up!  Until then, everyone have a wonderful week!

Babbling

Well- we don't have a whole lot to report this week but that has never stopped mom from finding a lot to babble about.  I'm sure this post will end up being longer than usual.
Let's see- swim lessons on Tuesday.  It was "Show and Tell" night which mean parents are allowed back in the last 5 minutes of class and the instructors update on our progress.  I seem to have regressed but that may have something to do with my inability to focus and mom and dad's inability to get me to the pool to practice.  So with that in mind, mom took me to the pool at our rec center here to practice a little.  Now, for those of you that don't know, mom is an expert swimmer.  She was on the swim team when she was 6 and then again when she was 14.  She took all of that expert knowledge and attempted to give me some pointers.  ( Insert my eyeroll here).  Fortunately for us, there was a life guard on duty at the pool who is a master's level swimmer and swim coach.  She offered us a few pointers for free (not that mom needed any) which led to mom signing me up for some private lessons with her once a week. It seems mom and dad are very set on me getting an athletic scholarship to Stanford.  We really did like Ms. Suzy and I am excited about getting some lessons from her, so we'll see how it goes!
The rest of the week passed pretty quietly- oh and we almost forgot- mom started yet another job.  She has been lucky enough through most of her career to have exceptional bosses and has never had to deal with truly bad management until now.  She finally had enough and with dad's blessing quit her old job.   So, now, she is doing part time home health with a different agency and part time outpatient ortho.  We will see if this keeps her happy for awhile.
On Saturday we headed down to the 37th annual RV and Boat show.  Now, don't judge us.  We love our little A-liner but it is getting a little small for the three of us so we wanted to see what else was out there.  We spent 4+ hours wandering around and found some pretty cool things (think granite counter tops, built in fireplaces) but since we don't have an extra 100 grand, we will stick with the pop up for now.  It was tons of fun anyway.
I somehow have developed a thing for lemons and desperately wanted to make lemonade, so on the way home from the RV show, we made a stop at Costco to buy a 5# bag of lemons and spent the evening juicing them and making lemonade.  It was pretty dang tasty!
Sunday was another gorgeous day.  Mom and I hit the pool again in the morning and we spent the afternoon tooling around the park on my scooter and playing in the front yard.
Oh my- I almost forgot another majorly important happening in our lives-  I lost yet another tooth!  It was my second top tooth and it had been hanging on like a thread for 3 weeks and mom was getting tired of watching it flop around when I talked.  It finally fell out Saturday morning- much to everyone's relief.  The Toothfairy came and life was good!

Have a great week!

Winter is Finally Here:(

We have had such a mild winter here this year that I think Tucson has gotten more snow than us so far. I think this week has changed all that though and gave us a sharp reminder that yes, we do live in Colorado and yes, it is February.  We will get into all of that in a minute.

I had a nice long 4 day weekend and on Monday, mom and I spent the afternoon at Monster Mini Golf.  It is a really cool indoor, glow in the dark mini golf place.  We had an awesome time.  We thought for sure we were going to have a 5 day weekend with a snow day on Tuesday but dang it, we didn't even get a delay.  What we did get was 6" of snow.  I was incredibly disappointed I had to go to school and spent the morning taking it out on mom.  It was a day she was happy to drop me off at school!   The snow was really pretty and we did got a picture of a lone coyote wandering around the open space behind our house.   

I was in a better mood when we got home in the afternoon so mom and I got some snow painting in and besides being bitterly cold, we had fun and made some cool designs.

The rest of the week was pretty quiet but dad and I had a fabulous weekend!  Mom was in a class to learn how to stick needles into people to make them feel better (I don't get it either) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday so it was some intense, quality father/daughter time.
On Friday, we went out to dinner and headed to Target to buy another Skylander.
On Saturday, dad and I were going non-stop from sun up to sun down.  We started the morning at Snooze for breakfast and then headed to the Natural History Museum to see the mammoth exhibit.

 (We took this picture in front of the Sonoran Desert diorama for old time's sake)
After that, we headed to Dave and Buster's where I managed to win yet another gigantic snake.  I picked a red one this time.  It goes fabulous with my green one.  We finally got home and everyone collapsed into bed.

Sunday was a quiet day inside watching the blizzard blow in.  We did manage to get in a little sledding but the wind was blowing so much that it got snow in our eyes and we had to turn around.  I think we ended up getting over a foot of snow and it was nice that it was on a Sunday so we could enjoy it.  Mom also didn't mind it so much because it gave her a chance to test out her new Subaru and it was great!  We are still hoping for  snow day on Monday though....

Have a happy, safe week!  Stay warm!

Cautiously Optimistic

Well, here we are- seven days without germs.  We aren't quite sure what to do with ourselves.

We had a pretty good week with it being Valentine's Day and all.  We had a pretty good day-  Dad made me special Valentine's pancakes for breakfast, served on Mom's award winning plate.  We had a party at school and I came home with tons of candy, which had mom really excited too.

I had my Daisy Scout meeting Thursday night and we went swimming.  It was a perfect night for it since it was snowing and sleeting all day.  Nothing better than a good swim on a freezing night.  We came home to a romantic dinner of grilled cheese.  Mom loved it because she didn't have to make it.  The only bummer of the whole day was the fact that both Mom and Dad gave up sweets for Lent, so they just lived vicariously through me.  Dad had the crazy idea of giving both sweets AND beer but mom put the kabash on that one.  That would be just no fun.

Friday night, we went out to dinner but we were home and in our jammies by 6:45 and it was good.  As if that wasn't enough, we all slept in until past 7 Saturday morning.  It was just crazy around here.

After a run for mom, a ride for dad, we headed down to the state history museum.  It is brand new and is pretty cool with lots of technology to play with.

We got to superimpose ourselves onto a yearbook from 1918 and dad ended up as best dressed and mom was class clown.....

 I was voted best farmer- it's in my blood you know

 Mom and I got to drive a Model T

We got home just in time for me to head out to our troop's Cookie Booth Sale.  We parked it in front of King Sooper's and managed to sell 77 boxes of cookies on a Saturday night.

 Our time slot was 6PM to 9PM and we started getting a little slap happy toward the end but we all had a great night.

Sunday was an amazingly lazy day- mom and I literally did not get our of our pajamas until 2 in the afternoon.  (We spent a lot of time in our jammies this weekend but it was on purpose, so that is OK).  We did finally make it out of the house to go swimming and then headed home for dinner and a movie. So all in all, not a very exciting weekend but it was still good- no germs!

Germs Be Gone! Please?

Oh my dear Lord- can we please be done with the illnesses?  I think in our last post, we knocked on wood because we were finally feeling better after two weeks of the flu.  Well.  That was a bit premature.  We actually did feel better for a week and had a decent week.  I had swim lessons, Girl Scouts and then we headed out Friday night for our weekly Family Night Out.  Everything was going well, we had plans for an actual adventure on Saturday and everything.  Then mom had to go and ruin everything.  She went to bed Friday night feeling a little weird and woke up Saturday with a full blown stomach virus.  It was one of those that leaves you laying on the bathroom floor begging for the good Lord to take you away right now.  (He didn't, fortunately).  She was quarantined to her room so Dad and I spent the day running ice chips up to her, holding our breath and not touching anything.  Mom was better Sunday which is a good thing because she had to work!  Yeah!  So it was another Daddy/Daughter day.  Oh yeah, it was Superbowl Sunday and we watched that but, eh, it was just ok.  So, mom continued her slow recovery during the week and just as she was hitting full stride, Dad got sick.  Again.  He has been banished to the guest room.  Again.  On the positive side, it wasn't the stomach thing mom had, just a cold.  And on another positive side, I seem to have missed out on all of it.  But we learned our lesson and are not knocking on any wood.

We a little snow storm on Monday night and woke up to the most beautiful scene Tuesday morning.  It was the heavy, wet snow that sticks to everything.  The sky was brilliant blue and the mountains were pure white- just gorgeous.  And the best part?  The roads were clear so we could really enjoy it.

We made it to Friday and even though Dad still wasn't on his A game, we headed to Dave and Buster's because it was my night to pick our restaurant.  It was a mighty good choice because I won a ton of tickets which means I got another really cool prize!  I managed to get a giant snake to go with my giant Scooby!  The snake was much easier to get into the car but that doesn't make her any less cool......

On Saturday, we spent the day disinfecting the house.  Since we had either been working or sick for the past 5 weeks, things were pretty germy.  We all worked hard and I'm sure we are much healthier for it.  After that, we hit Costco and the grocery store.  It was another stellar day.  Mom did venture out Saturday night for a mom's night out with some friends and that was pretty awesome for her.  Dad and I stayed home and went to bed early.

Sunday, mom and I made Valentine's cake pops or cake blobs as we like to call them.  In the end, it doesn't matter what they look like, only what they taste like.  And they tasted good!

In the afternoon, mom and I went to a friend's house for a jewelry party and now we are watching "Journey to the Center of the Earth".  For the 5th time.  I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!

A little side note-  at my last Daisy meeting, we went to a "paint your own" pottery studio.  Mom decided she wanted to join the fun and painted the plate below.  We went to pick up our creations today and much to mom's amazement, her plate was selected to be featured in the Artist Showcase Gallery on their Facebook page!  She got a $10 gift certificate for the honor.  She is going to give up physical therapy now to focus solely on her artistic career.  Honestly though, can you imagine how bad the competition must have been for her to win?  Whatever.  It made her week.

So, here's hoping that you have an Artist Showcase Gallery kind of week!  Enjoy!