Tucson

On my birthday Rick had the idea to go to Tucson so we did. Our kids love a trip, so they didn't need any convincing.  On the way down there we went to the San Xavier Mission, which is the oldest in-tact European-built structure in Arizona.  It was built in the 1700s.  I know I have posted photos of it before, but here are a few more:

 

This side of it has been recently restored.  

You can tell when you compare it to the other side, which is still being worked on.

We were there on December 30th, so the inside was still decorated for Christmas.

The very Southwestern looking Nativity Scene

Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus

The Three Wise Men

The kids' favorite part, climbing the rocks outside

Another thing we did was go to Saguaro National Park, which was beautiful.

 

Did you know the inside of a saguaro is made of wood like the trunk of a tree? It is designed kind of like an accordion so that it can expand and contract to hold tons, literally tons of water. 

They had some very scenic hiking trails which allowed us to an up-close view of the desert.

Saguaros can weigh up to 16,000 pounds when they are full of water.  I think this one was one of the biggest ones we have ever seen.  At first Maya didn't want to be in the picture...

 Then she did...

 

These two birds don't look it from the picture, but they were huge.  It was a fun trip and we will definitely go back soon for some more desert hiking.  We just barely scratched the surface when we were there.  It was a great way to spend my birthday!

If you want to read more about saguaro cacti with your children, here are two very good books you probably have at your library:

Christmas Morning

Our December Trip North

The weekend before Christmas we went north to Flagstaff for the weekend.  It was perfect because there was snow on the ground, and it even snowed a bit on the Sunday we were there, but the roads were fine the whole time.  We got there on Friday afternoon.  On Saturday we went to the Grand Canyon which is a little over an hour from Flagstaff.  It was beautiful with all of the snow, but windy and cold.

 Next to the Christmas tree at the main visitor's center
 

 

This is a campground right down the road from the entrance to the National Park that we have always thought was funny.
 

We woke up Sunday morning to a fresh layer of snow.  This is Shayne's first experience scraping a windshield.  Later we went sledding.

Great sledding hill by NAU (Northern Arizona University)  Shayne and Maya are the ones in pink and grey about to go down the starting ramp

Their first time sledding was definitely a hit :)

Shayne Hits the Double Digits

Shayne turned ten on December 14th.  Hard to believe our baby is in the double digits already.  Time flies...

Still Catching Up: Halloween

Maya really wanted to make "green slime" for Halloween.  I think she had seen it on Sid the Science Kid.  We already had cornstarch and water, which were the main ingredients.  We only needed something to turn it green.  We chose to use food coloring.  That is generally thought to be safe, right?

 Well, safe it is, washable it is not...her hands looked like this all night.  They faded a bit after some scrubbing, but it took a few days for the "green slime" hands to be gone.

Shayne was a wizard...happy here...

 More serious here...

 Maya was Rapunzel

She loved the wig!  We had a great time trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.

Still Catching Up: September Trip to St. George

We took another trip to St. George in September, to say goodbye to Grandma here on Earth and to celebrate her life.  It was just as she would have wanted it, everyone there together and happy to see each other.  All of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren were there along with many other family members and dear friends.  Here are some photos we took the day of the service:

 All of Grandma's great grandchildren except for Crystal

 All of Grandma's grandchildren

My dad with grandkids Jack, Maya, Rayzel, Sydney, Melissa and Savannah

 My Uncle Craig, Aunt Linda and cousins Spencer, Kim, Christy and Rebecca

Steve, Alison, Dale, Me, Tom, Mom, Dad

 All Mom and Dad's grandkids and Wendy, who is Steve's wife holding Crystal

Our little family

Still Catching Up: August in St. George

Still catching up here.  My goal is to be to January by the time I go back to work in a few days..These are some photos of a trip we took to St. George in August when my Grandma was in the hospital.  It was nice spending time with her.  My parents and cousins Christy and Spencer and his wife Shannon were there also.  One of the days we were there we spent the evening in Snow Canyon, which is very close to Grandma's house and one of our favorite places ever.  We stayed to watch the sun go down.

They also have a fun splash park a few blocks from Grandma's house that the kids had fun playing at.

We are very grateful to have been able to make the trip and to have had a nice last visit with Gram in St. George, a place we have grown to love over the past 18 years or so of visiting her there.

We stopped off at the fairly new bridge that goes over the Hoover Dam now.  It is dizzyingly high up and an has an amazing view that is well worth the stop.  When you drive over it, you cannot see over the side.  Unless you are paying close attention you wouldn't even realize you are going over a bridge at all.  Before you go over it, there is an exit where you can park and walk up to the pedestrian part of the bridge, which is what we did.