Davis!

Fourth of July Weekend.....

Posting quickly before I fully immerse myself in the wonder that is my mom's digital cable package....ahhhhh. Movies on Demand! I love YOU the best!

We drove up caravan style from Show Low to Hatch. 384 miles.
Stopped for breakfast. Stopped for gasoline. Stopped to eat. Stopped to pee.

Note to my friends: NEVER EVER buy off-brand beef jerky at a third-rate convenience store on an indian reservation. You will puke. Or at least, you will want to.
Despite the attractive 99 cent price, Tom's beef jerky - or whatever made up brand it was - did not cut the mustard, as they say.

You get the drift. We stopped in Page, Arizona to shop for essential supplies before crossing over into Utah. Chips, pretzels and above all else SODA! Apparently, this is very important to my husband.

We finally get to our destination. Fun times ensue.
There was a Fourth of July omelette breakfast. Fourth of July candy parade. Fourth of July carnival (at which Dylan won a race as he was the fastest three year old in attendance!). Fourth of July Potluck dinner and finally the moment we were all waiting for....the fireworks!!!

There were THREE fireworks shows within our view, and we also totally did not set off our own fireworks as that would be illegal. It was lots of fun!

Sunday was spent lounging around, enjoying the weather and sights.
We had burgers for dinner on the front porch. Very nice.

That night, we certainly did not let off more fireworks along the highway.
Much fun.

This morning we woke up, cleaned, packed up and we took off for California!
From Hatch, Utah to Simi Valley = 522 miles...IF you take the RIGHT exit off the 15 in Barstow and not the WRONG exit and end up at Edwards AFB. Whoops!
My accidental trip through the high desert added 26 miles to the drive, but with such fun towns to drive through as Hinkley, famous as the town poisoned by PG&E from "Erin Brockovich" and the aptly named Boron...who notices!!

We FINALLY made it here! Yay!
We had spaghetti dinner and are now relaxing.
Aaaahhhhh.
Vacation!

We're home!

Sigh. I miss the CA weather already!
It's 26 degrees here. Brrrrr.

I'm not happy about that. I guess we just missed the snow, though you wouldn't know it from here, it's all melted already.

Well, back to real life!

We're here and having fun!

Road trip?

My mom has offered to front the gas money for the kids and I to come out and visit for a week. I'm considering it...
We would leave tomorrow morning.
It's about 600 miles driving.
I'm just not sure yet if I'm up to it....

Seems I wasn't the only one with this idea!
DOUBLE THE ADVENTURE: And They Say You Can't Go Back Home

Four Hours of Fun

Yesterday we had a teacher home visit from Elizabeth's school. They say they're not checking out your house, but come on. They must be!
I cleaned like crazy. The house looked very nice and the home visit was smooooooth.

Afterwards, I loaded the kids into the car so that we could make the hour-long drive to Holbrook, Ariz. the Navajo County seat. We had to go there so I could get copies of all the kids' birth certificates. The school needs a copy to make sure I haven't smuggled illegal immigrants into their program.
I could have done it over the interweb, but it would have cost me upwards of $40 for each certificate. Times three kids = way too much money. AND it takes like 5-8 weeks to get the dang things through the mail.
To go in person is a long drive, but I'd get them in hand that day AND it only costs $10 a copy. NO brainer right.

So we set out for Holbrook at around 11 am.
Here's the drive from north of Snowflake to the fantastic hustling bustling big city of Holbrook....



Ha! Tricked ya! It's a whole lot of hot nothing. Well, some cows.

We got to the office at 10 minutes to noon, which was great because they don't process anything between noon and 1 pm. Lunch time!
I filled out the applications, and the gal printed the certificates out in less than 5 minutes. Easy peasy.

Oh, but wait....
I go to write a check for the $30. She immediately snatches the certificates back to her side of the desk.

"You can write a check, but then I have to hold these until it clears. Five weeks."

"FIVE weeks??!?"

"Five weeks."

OK. Shit.
I tell her I'll go get cash and come back. She puts the certs in her drawer and shuffles us out of the office and runs out the back door to her lunch break.
Shit!!
Now I have to go get cash and then waste an hour. In Holbrook.
Christina is laughing her butt off right now.

So yeah, what to do.
I went and got cash from the Chevron ATM and drove BACK to the offices, parked my car and discovered that we were one block away from the Navajo County Museum. Sounds like fun!

Here's the building itself.


Kinda old and cool no? It used to be the county courthouse. The first one ever. It also used to house county offices. There was a big famous hanging there once. Now it's a museum and the chamber of commerce.

The kids played jail in a cage that was outside. Better get used to those bars kid.


Inside was a REAL jail, the first Navajo County jail. It was friggin creepy! I went into the jail and I was totally creeped out instantly, the kids ran out screaming.


Then we saw an old-timey model of a post office. That was pretty cool also.


There were all kinds of exhibits, a real chuck wagon, a replica of a early 20th century western kitchen and living room. It was pretty neat. Even the kids, who normally couldn't care less about that sort of thing, thought it was awesome.

Being that it's Holbrook, the gateway to the petrified forest, there are dinosaurs and petrified wood and geodes and all kind of rock shops all over the place. This one was right outside the museum. I hit my head on it's scary claw. Dinos ARE dangerous!



Of course, we had to go visit the giant dinos as well.



We walked around town a bit, killing time. We happened to stroll by a house with a giant pit bull in the front yard that wanted to kill us.
Dylan screamed like he WAS getting eaten. Then he froze. I had to drag him, the baby in the stroller and his sister away from the insane barking dog. It was another block before the dog shut up and Dylan stopped screaming. I seriously thought the cops would come.

After that fun experience, we went back to the health office, paid for the certs and left. Bada bing bada boom. In and out.

On the way home I decided to go through Heber-Overgaard instead of Snowflake/Taylor. Yes, the punctuation matters.
H-O is about 40 or so miles west of Holbrook. Here is the drive between the two.


I swear this is not the same picture as before! There's just a whole lot of nada out there. Look to the left of the road, nada. Look to the right, nada!

We did come up on a pretty nice view of the rain coming up the rim.


Other than that though....nada. Nada damn thing out there.
No wonder my mom calls it the moon.

By the time we got home it was coming up on 3 pm. The actual procuring the birth certificates took a total of 10 minutes. Twenty if you count the time it took me to drive to get cash from the ATM and back.
And THAT is the joy of living in a rural county!

Our Scottsdale Weekend, Part III - Cocktail Party

Previously...
After RailFair, we took some time to decompress and relax.
I rested my weary leg. Pooooor me. It really hurt, I was hobbled. It sucked.

Dylan and Elizabeth were bouncing off the walls so my mom got the key to the tennis courts and took them down there to run around safely. It was like a sporty zoo exhibit I'm sure.

While they were off burning off their energy, Ben and I took a much needed snooze together on the couch. It was a great nap.

Mom and the kids came back and they were nice enough to TRY not to wake me, but, it was inevitable.

So, I showered and we went down to the cocktail party.
Here's the fun part...I got carded!

I went back to our table, no drinks. My mom's face was quizzical.
"I got carded," I said.
She snorted a laugh and said "Happy 30th birthday!"
I had to walk ALL the way back up to our third floor room, get my license and come back down to get my silly margarita. I could hear my mom laughing the whole time!

"I'm so sorry!" the bartender said. "Was your room very far?"
"Nah! I could use the exercise anyway."

She checked out my ID, saw that I was the big 3-0 and handed the license back.
"Dang! You look good!"

I thanked her and took our margaritas back to our table.
Ah, feels good to still get carded, even at my old, ancient, decrepit age. :)

Now, the pix!

Our Scottsdale Weekend, Part II

Previously...
We arrived at the hotel and rested then enjoyed a morning at the zoo!

Before we go further I should add that I love the Phoenix Zoo. It is great for kids. But it is a LOT of walking, especially when you are pushing 70+ pounds of kids in the double stroller and they won't walk for NOTHING!
I kept trying to tell them to walk over to the very next exhibit, they would have none of it.
They preferred their conveyance, thankyouverymuch!

We were very lucky though, in that we got to see the zoo employees give the jaguar a jack o'lantern stuffed with lemongrass as a toy. That was hilarious. We got there early enough that we hit most of the exhibits before it got mad crowded. We did save the zoo trifecta (lions, tigers, giraffes) for last though and that got a bit insane.

By far the most favorite exhibit was the walk through monkey habitat. Dylan is still talking about it.

Ok...after the zoo we went to the BK Lounge for lunch then back to the hotel. I forgot my bathing suit, so my mom took the kids swimming in the jacuzzi. I tried to put the baby down for a nap but he wasn't having it.
After a hotel restaurant dinner we were all tired and ready to sleep. We were scheduled to check out on Sunday morning, but my mom decided to stay one more night so we could go to the RailFair on Sunday.
Dylan LOVES trains and we skipped the zoo train ride causing him to wail "my traaaaaaaaiiiiin" all the way out the gates...so yeah, we sort of owed him a train ride.

RailFair was close by, right up the street, and after our complimentary breakfast we headed to the traaiiiiins!


There were tons of model train enthusiasts with their trainscapes all set up. We were checking out one HUGE model and because I'm so funny I said...

"Look, I can see where Beetlejuice lives."

Ha ha ha. Oh boy. That was a good one.

Then we stumbled onto a Thomas the Tank Engine setup. Holy moses. Thomas is the second coming of Christ apparently. Dylan went berserk!
"IT'S THOMASSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!"

So we stood there looking at Thomas go around and around for about 10 minutes.

We finally convinced Dylan to leave Thomas and we rode the miniature train that travels around the park. It was about a 10 minute ride, totally worth the $2 fare.






During RailFair I was only pushing Ben in the little stroller, but I had damaged myself so badly at the zoo the day before that as I'm walking I hear this "POP" and my leg wants to die.
Then I got shooting pains in my hip and was forced to sit down for a second. I have no idea what happened, pinched nerve, pulled muscle whathaveyou, but I limped around like Dr. Gregory House for the rest of that day. At some points I just could not walk at all and had to sit. It was kind of lame.
My mom took the kids over to the bounce houses (free!) while I sat with Ben at the playground and tried not to fall COMPLETELY apart.


And Ben napped while the biggers rode the giant carousel.


We also got to tour a train that was used by four (or five) presidents, mostnotably FDR. Here's my mom and the kids being presidential.


And Ben and I in front of the train.


We spent about three hours there and worked up quite an appetite. Elizabeth decided we should feast on the sumptuous menu items featured at the local Denny's. And so we did!

Next installment: Cocktail party!

Our Scottsdale weekend

The kids and I left Friday morning for Scottsdale.
It took about three hours and it's a 160 mile trip, but before you think I am the world's slowest driver...the part from Payson, Ariz. all the way to Fountain Hills, Ariz. is steep, rocky, one-lane, twisty, down the mountain, scary-ass road.
Plus it was super windy that day, and I am extremely cautious while conveying my precious cargo.

We had to stop in Payson (about 80+ miles from our house) to get lunch for the kids and specifically to feed Benjamin. He was HOWLING!
After that, it was no stops all the way to Scottsdale.

Our hotel - Hospitality Suites Resort - was really cool, it was set up almost like my college dorms. All the room doors facing inward on a courtyard. All the courtyards were poolside...no grass-side, shucks.
We happened to be in the A Building, which housed the lobby, restaurant, the sole jacuzzi in the place, a ramada bar (where there were free cocktails every night from 5 to 6:30 pm!), BBQ areas and of course, the pool.
Across the parking lot were B and C Buildings and a tennis court/basketball court, shuffleboard, ping pong, two more pools, more BBQ areas and more guest rooms, naturally.

There was ample parking, day or night AND we were right across the side street from a Food City (a grocery store) and a Big Lots!

The actual room itself was also super cool. There was a living room area with a fold out couch bed and a dining table area. There was also a FULL kitchen with a small stove, microwave, fridge...even DISHES and pots and pans! Perfect for traveling with kids!
There was a HUGE closet for storing our clothes, suitcases, strollers...seriously, I could have set up the port-a-crib in there and given Ben his own room. But I didn't. I swear I did not.

The bedroom (which had a closing door separating it from the living area, awesome for naps!) had two double beds, built-in dresser, a smaller TV and the bathroom was off of that room and was also a great size, lots of counter space.

So, we were beyond pleased with the accomodations, especially since it was only $105 a night! Incredible! The kids also enjoyed riding in the elevator multiple times per day, since we were on the third floor.

Friday afternoon, after our arrival, we just unpacked and settled in. Of course we visited the cocktail party. The kids had Shirley Temples, mom and I had margaritas. Very nice.

Saturday morning was ZOO day!
We were only about a 10 minute drive from the Phoenix Zoo. No freeways! Yay!
There's free parking at the zoo too, so, that's awesome.
Mom was so smart and bought our tickets online so we whisked by the lines forming at the ticket booths and jetted through the Advanced Ticket Sales line and bam! Zoo time!
Thank goodness it was an unusually cool weekend in Phoenix. The temps never got into the 80s during the day. We went around to all the exhibits, the kids loved every single animal they saw, even the sleeping giant anteater.
I was particularly in love with the baby orangutan. So cute.
We arrived there around 9 am and were finished with our tour of the zoo by just after noon. It was a LOT of walking, but totally worth it.
And without further ado, zoo pics!







Next installment: RailFair!

My LORD!

So I didn't get any pictures at the field trip because it was a crazy mob scene of 4 year olds and Dylan. Yikes!
There were other siblings along for the trip who were around his age, so I didn't feel weird about taking him. There was even another baby!
But, Dylan is clearly a handful, so my attention was focused on him and not, I repeat NOT on the cute firemen. Not at all!

Here's the recap.
We started out at school where the kids got a sack lunch and then sang some songs while we waited to go over to the fire department.
This was a WALKING field trip, the FD is right around the corner from the school.
So, picture about 40 four year olds all holding onto those ring lines like from "Jon & Kate Plus 8" yeaaaah.
Then add in the five or six younger siblings, the two babies, all the moms, the frazzled teachers...
It was quite a scene.
When we got to the fire department all the kids got to climb up into the cab of a fire engine and check it out and then come right back out the other side.
My kids loved this part.

Then we climbed up these HUGE stairs (which made me sort of queasy) and watched a movie about fire safety featuring Donald Duck. I'm 99 percent sure that I watched the same movie when I was a kid.
This time around though, I noticed that the movie featured a very young Mark-Paul Gosselaar and I think Brian Dunkleman. Weird. Very weird.

During this part of the field trip, the baby got restless so he nursed in the back of the room. Dylan demonstrated the fire safety techniques he learned from the film by crawling all over the floor, presumably to avoid the invisible smoke gathering in the upper half of the room.

Then we had to go DOWN the big giant stairs, which was slightly MORE quease-inducing and made more than a few kids freak out.

Then a fireman slid down the fire pole, to the delight of all the kids. I think some moms will be scrambling to change Halloween costumes at the last minute after THAT display!

After that it was all over and we walked back to the school without incident.

I let the kids play in the playground for a while, but school was over and we left after about a half hour of playing.

This is where the story gets ugly.
I stopped off at the store to pick up some meat for dinner. I had $7 in my wallet and some PayPal money.
I picked out some chicken breasts (on sale, 50% off!) and almost 6 pounds of hamburger meat for about $10. Not a GREAT deal, but not bad.

I got up to the register and found $2 left in the change return. Thank you self checkout!

As I got ready to be a booper, Elizabeth demanded a push pop as compensation for the lollipop she let her brother have her brother stole from her and ate in 5 seconds.

When I went around the checkstand to get a push pop, Dylan stole an apple off a nearby fruit display and bit into it. I didn't NOTICE because Elizabeth started yelling about how she changed her mind and wanted a donut instead.
No donut! No way! Push pop only!

I scanned my items, still oblivious to the apple theft. And tried to pay. My card wasn't working...I slid it through again. Didn't work. Again. Nothing.
Gah!
I put my $7 and the $2 from the change return into the machine. Then I slid my card. That time it worked.
I'm bad at math I guess and overestimated my PayPal balance. Oops!

During that melee, ELIZABETH shoplifted an apple and started eating it!

"What are you doing!?!"
I had already paid, had NO more money and my kids were eating forbidden fruit!

The manager gal came over and said "It's ok, they can be samples."
So nice.

I did give them a good harsh talking to out in the car about not stealing.

"You cannot steal apples from the store!"
Elizabeth said "But I was hungry" and took a bite of the apple.
"So! You have to PAY FOR the things you want!"

Ugh!
I gave up trying to teach them this fine point and just started the car and headed home. I think I'll leave the rest of the lecture to their dad. I'm exhausted.

They were gooood apples though.

Trippin'

Today is Elizabeth's first official school field trip!
The kids are getting a tour of the Show Low Fire Department, so fun.
Of course I'll be going along as a parent volunteer. The brothers will come along too, I asked Elizabeth if she wouldn't mind first!
Respect!

After all, she does say that her favorite part of school is "getting away from my brothers"...
Kindness!

She's in her closet right now picking out just the right outfit for the field trip. There ARE potentially hunky firemen involved! I don't blame her for wanting to look extra fly.

And that's not ALL the excitement going down this week either!
On Friday the kids and I are packing up and heading down to Scottsdale for the weekend. My mom is meeting us there and we're all staying at a hotel and going to the zoo and hanging out.
My mom had this three day weekend and she wanted to actually go and do something instead of just staying home. So after ruling out a bunch of trips she could take by herself, she decided it would be the most fun to visit us! The drive all the way to our house is like nine hours from Simi though, a bit much for just a weekend.
But Phoenix/Scottsdale is only about five to six hours, totally doable.

We've done the Phoenix Meet-Up trip before. It's fun. My kids love staying in hotels.
In fact, the last time we did this, they thought the hotel was my mom's "other" house.
Elizabeth went on and on about how Nani has two houses...her regular house and her hotel house!

She's crazy!
So anticipate some cool field trip photos AND ZOO PIX!
Whoo hoo!

In other news:
Did anyone else watch the VH-1 Hip Hop Honors last night.
Dude. It was RAD.
I like all kinds of music, but I really love the hippity hop.
Snoopy Snoop-a-Loop is my dogg.
Anyway, they bestowed the Hip Hop Honors to, among others, Cypress Hill...ah memories.
My freshman year roommate and I would study for finals and listen to Cypress Hill. We were totally Insane in the Membrane.


In OTHER news:
I got my hair cut. Whoo wee! I had to take both the boys with me. Ben sat on my lap chillin'. Dylan spun around in a "salon" chair, illin'.
(I say "salon" because it was at WalMart, hey, $13 haircut. Can't beat it!)
Anyway, I'm just surprised that it came out straight considering all the "one-two-three-ing" I had to perpetrate on Dylan. The kid is crazy. He had this old lady getting a perm cracking up with his antics though.
Sidebar question: Why do all the old ladies get perms? Hmm.