Preschool Program

The preschool year is almost over.  Timothy has only two days left.  Wow!!  His school does not have a gradation, but they did have a program.  The sang some songs along with the 3/4 year old class.  A perfect chance to see our boy shine without being too much.  Timothy did a good job with his actions and singing.  And he was very happy to have an icee for a treat at the end!

Timothy and his self portrait.

Arizona part 2

Our journey in Arizona continued with a little road trip up to Flagstaff.  It was a bit of a drive, (lengthened by a half hour stop to talk with the realtor about the 5 offers on the our house!) but overall the kids did great.  We drove through Sedona and the scenery there was gorgeous.  We stopped for a picnic lunch and we were surrounded by mountains. Fun!  We had the Lightening McQueen music playing as we approached Flagstaff and Route 66.

We stopped at a scenic overlook to see the valley we had just driven out of.  So beautiful and so different than what we see at home.

In Flagstaff we visited the visitor's center and then went to the Lowell observatory to see one really huge telescope.  (We also firmed up the sale of our house and made plans to sign a purchase agreement.)  We spent the night at a hotel.  We ended up ordering in pizza to our hotel as the kids didn't seem in the mood to wait at a restaurant.  So we had a picnic on the floor and then went swimming in the pool.  It was an outdoor pool heated to about 80 degrees.  That sounds nice, but it was probably only 60 degrees outside, so the water was chilly.  There was a hot tub too, which felt great!  The kids, however, wanted to swim in the big pool, so we went back and forth from one pool to the other.  I am pretty sure Troy and I deserve some good parenting award for our willingness to get out of a hot tub and dip into a freezing cold pool over and over for the sake of our kids!!

Timothy and Teresa slept very well in the hotel and were delighted with the breakfast the next morning...waffles, yogurt, chocolate muffins...yummy!

 

We had to get a picture with the route 66 sign in honor of Lightening McQueen.  We took a drive east of Flagstaff to see a meteor crater.  It was a pretty impressive hole in the ground!  We started a tour of the rim, but rain stopped that.

Back in Mesa, we did some more child-friendly sightseeing.  We made a trip to the Children's museum.  There was a fun climbing structure, trikes to ride, and lots of pretend play.

We spent some afternoons just hanging out at Aunt Donna's  I love this picture of Teresa.  She looks like a vacation girl with her sunglasses and books!

To keep cool one afternoon we did a little water play.  Timothy had bought a little water gun in Flagstaff and I brought a few water balloons.  We also improvised and just used a cup to toss water at each other.

One night Aunt Donna treated us to dinner and entertainment.  Organ Pizza!  You order some pizza for dinner and then get to hear a very talented organist play all sorts of music.  And there are all sorts of visual effects.  The favorite by far were the dancing kitties shown above the organ in the picture below.  Donna was amused at how entertaining the evening was for a 5 and 2.5 year old!

By the end of the week we finally found one water play area that was open.  A lovely splash park kept us cool and happy.

One picture of Troy and me!

The morning before we flew out, we headed out to visit Donna's daughter's home.  She had chickens that the kids got to feed and pet.  And even better, she had a pool that Timothy and Teresa got to do a little swimming in!

We hadn't brought their swimsuits, so Timothy had to swim in shorts and Teresa in her diaper. And that is why in the family picture Timothy doesn't have shorts on. 

Our family along with Donna and her daughter and daughter's husband.

One last picture at the airport before we headed home.  The lines to check in were really long, but the kids handled it okay.  We ended up leaving an hour late, but with a movie on the plan and some dinner the time went fast. Upon getting in our car at the airport, Timothy cried the whole way home because he was sad vacation was over.  I think that means it was a pretty good trip!

Arizona part 1

Our trip to Arizona has been in the works since we bought plane tickets last November.  We picked a good year to go since it has been such a cold spring.  Timothy was very pleased with the thought of shorts everyday!  Troy's Aunt Donna lives near Phoenix and was gracious enough to put up with our crew for a week.  It was fun to be in an actual house and neighborhood instead a hotel.  The kids had a yard to play in, a golf cart to cruise around in, and we even had dinner cooked for us!  And hopefully the life and energy we brought gave Troy's aunt a few days of entertainment!!

Teresa takes after me a bit and loves her sweatshirt.  I finally had to force her to take it off as she was getting hot.

Timothy and Teresa explore Donna's front yard--seeing cactus for the first time was fun.  A yard full of rocks was a whole new sight too.

We had some great weather for Arizona in May.  The first part of the week I think it was in the upper 80s to lower 90s which is nice and cool for their standards.  We spent our first morning at a park.  Playing on the play ground and watching birds and ducks.

We had hoped to go to a splash park in the afternoon, but none were open yet.  Summer season (which equals water stuff, does not begin until the end of May!)  So we found our way to another sort of playground in the afternoon.  It was pretty hot there, but the kids had fun climbing around.

To cool off we walked around the arcade a bit.  The kids did not actually play any games but they were rather amused by pretending to play.

After our dinner, we got into the habit of borrowing Donna's golf cart to ride around her neighborhood.  The kids loved it--especially the few times Troy drove us through some sprinklers on the golf course.  We drove around and checked out every one's landscaping and looked for cool cactus.

Timothy playing outside of Aunt Donna's house.  The kids both took to Donna very well.  To her she was just like another Grandma--and they love Grandmas!!

Another day we went to the zoo.  The kids were still a little tired from our late plane ride, but the zoo was still fun.

Timothy got to go on a camel ride.

There was a little splash area at the zoo that we stopped at.  Teresa really enjoyed splashing in the puddles.

And of course no trip to the zoo is complete without a ride on the carousel.

We took a drive up into the Superstition mountains to the town of Tortilla Flats.  It is called the smallest town with a population of 6...otherwise known as an old west tourist attraction!  The saloon had saddles for seats, but we had to go to the little store next door to get our ice cream. 

The drive up was very pretty with lots of winding roads for Troy to navigate.  We stopped at one overlook to get a view of a lake and the surrounding mountains.

1st airplane ride...sort of

At the beginning of May we went on a wonderful family vacation to Arizona.  I have lots of pictures to share, so I thought I would break them up a bit into different posts.  The first part of the adventure was the plane ride.  Although it was not technically Timothy's first plane ride, it is the first one he remembers.  (He was on a plane when Troy interviewed in Grand Forks in 2008).

Since we flew out of GF, the check in and security was very easy with little wait time.  Waiting at the gate was a bit longer, but the kids did great and were super excited.  Timothy was just about as excited to chew gum on the take off as he was to be on a plane!  Our plane was supposed to leave about 8:30 and I think we left around 9.  So it was pretty late for the kids and Teresa was so tired.  She snuggled with me a lot, but never fell asleep.  The both made it to the rental car in Phoenix and then were out once we started driving to Troy's aunt's house.  Overall, the plane ride was very smooth.  A little dvd watching and a few treats to snack on made the 3 hours go quickly.

 A family picture as we start out on our adventure.  Checking in at GF airport.

 Passing the time by sitting on the cute animal chairs at the gate.

 A very tired Teresa snuggles up with mom for a few minutes of rest.  She hugged her kitty the whole plane ride and made sure her kitty was buckled in too!

Timothy and me waiting for the exciting take off!

Finally we reached our destination in Arizona.  Timothy noticed right away that it was warm!  I think we had the kids into bed by about 1 am central time.  The latest they have ever been up!