January Little Things

:: Visited the Children's Museum on $3 admission day during the last week of Christmas break:

I think this was their favorite exhibit. You jump as high as you can and the camera takes a picture at the peak. Alice may have been more interested in modeling than jumping (and I make jumping while pregnant look really difficult :) ).

:: Alice went on a preschool field trip to Jump and Claire tagged along

:: Colby

Colby started soccer on the 10th. Robb goes to practices and helps out and tells me how quickly Colby is catching on to the basics of the game.

Colby's 100 thing shirt (Minecraft stickers) in honor of the 100th day of school (he's been telling us about this day for months...I think mainly because he thought after 100 days he would move up to 1st grade). He almost missed it because of the flu, but he made a miraculous recovery just in time.

At school in his 100th day crown

I volunteered to read a book in Colby's classroom for the school's literacy day. He was so excited to see us there and to show off his little sister.

• "I'm going to poke you because you're being a bummer."

:: Alice

Alice threw me a surprise picnic/tea party while Claire napped. She loves making things for Robb and I. We find little love notes, pictures, or "presents" as she calls them all over the house. She has such a giving heart.

One of my presents

How Alice does housework

She also caught the flu

Alice found an old bird's nest that fell out of a tree and brought it home for our yard. "Now we can have pet birdies!" For someone who is afraid of all animals, she desperately wants a pet.

Alice's "pirate crab." She likes to talk to her sculptures before eating them and tell them how much she'll miss them, but how fun it will be to swim around in her stomach.

I love her sense of style

• "When you grow up you can be lonely in the house."
• "Don't step on the line (in the sidewalk). There are scorpions and snails under there. 
• Alice likes to tell me what to dream about before I take a nap. Here are some examples:
• Living in a castle and wearing princess dresses 
• Being little and putting fire on these (the red numbers on my alarm clock). 
• Kissing all the babies with all your lips
• Knocking over big towers that are stuck in the ground
• Being a mermaid

:: Claire

Is it sad that my little girl walks around in heels better than I do?

We moved Claire to Alice's bed for naps to prep her for sleeping there full time. The transition from crib to bed is a process, but she's still napping even when she's on the floor, so I count it as a win.

• At Costco Claire waved at everyone, even people in their cars, and they would slow their carts or cars and wave back at our sweet girl.

These two are the best of friends and it melts my heart watching them play together.

MLK Day in King's Canyon

Our dreams of an MLK snow day fell through (snow reports on Mt. Lemmon were not promising), so we went hiking instead. The trailhead started just past the Desert Museum. 

The kids are doing a great job remembering the names of the plants around here. They can identify Saguaro, Cholla, Teddy bear Cholla, Prickley Pear, Palo Verde, and Ocotillo.

Colby wanted to snack on the drive up because he hadn't eaten in an hour and even while hiking he talked about how much he wanted snack time. Goldalicious is the word he coined to describe delicious gold things or treats (aka goldfish crackers). 

We stopped at Mam-a-gah picnic area for food and chatted with a nice group of hikers who meet together once a week. 

The view from our table

We decided to hike back through the wash instead of following the trail back. We saw petroglyphs and the kids loved climbing down the rocks. Alice in particular was pretty proud of her climbing skills. She wouldn't let me help her and kept saying things like: "I'm a perfect hiker" or "This way is meant for kids who work really hard at hiking"

One of the more experienced hikers recommended we take the trail back instead of the wash because of the kids. Little did he know what awesome hikers they are.

A couple of the petroglyphs we came across

I accidentally knocked Colby over while we were playing around. He lightly grazed his hand and he later told Robb, "This wash is full of pain."  For the rest of the trip we referred to this as the Wash of Pain.

Alice's new favorite thing is taking pictures of me on the phone. Here I am next to a very purple rock. 

I love my little hiking family.

12 on 12 in January

1. Early morning scripture study (prepping for FHE) and my 26 week baby belly
2. Pancake Friday!
3. Alice wanted gloves before taking Colby to the bus. We didn't have any in her size, so she improvised.
4. How the girls entertained themselves while I showered: stickers!
5. Park time was our small reward for angelic behavior while I collected Boxtops and counted out of dress code money at SPS.
6. Leftovers for lunch: Chicken Zucchini Kebabs
7. Sorting Boxtops 
8. Broken heater=68 degrees inside
9. Reading homework with Colby
10. Dinner: Eggs and Breakfast Potatoes
11. Baths for everyone
12. Trying out Mr. Jack for the first time.   

Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Parks

We stopped for lunch on the way at Nurd Berger, in Globe, which in addition to good burgers and awesome Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and superhero decor, also has a Super Nintendo to play while you wait for your order. Colby was in heaven (especially since the game featured Donkey and Diddy Kong). The place was packed with elderly bikers, but they were more interested in talking than eating, so we snuck our order in before the crowd.

The drive with all the different rock formations and canyons was beautiful. We stopped at the Salt River Canyon to admire the view.

And a different set of elderly bikers took our picture (they really are nice).

Then we went to the visitors' center and stamped our National Parks Passport. We have officially visited all the National Parks in Arizona!

Digging for fossils 

And hiking around the Visitor's Center

Alice quote: "You don't want to fall down there or you have to be resurrected."

In front of Old Faithful, the biggest petrified tree in the park

Then we continued driving to our Airbnb

The kids loved the house and Alice immediately got to work organizing everything. For some reason Claire didn't sleep great that night. On her 5th time waking up, Alice went and calmed her down. She can be such a great helper.
The next morning we discovered a mouse had nibbled through our grocery bag and started munching on a bagel. He didn't eat much, just a couple tiny bites.  We like to think that one of Claire's nighttime howls saved our breakfast :)

Our first hike was the Painted Desert Rim trail. It was 32 degrees and we froze, but the views were amazing.

The hike ended at the Historic Painted Desert Inn. Robb ran back for the car while we endured Claire's first tantrum (she didn't want to wear her coat). By the time he got back, the Inn opened for tours and we got to peak inside.

It was filled with artwork from the 1930's  and had lots of little architectural details that made the whole building beautiful.  

Alice and Claire were both very interested in the old ice cream parlor

They also commissioned a local artist to build this kaleidoscope that you could rotate around to view rocks and pieces of petrified wood through different lenses.

Then we drove to Blue Mesa and somehow convinced the kids to go on another hike...maybe it was Robb promising to push them in stroller. The trail went down into the canyon and we got to admire the different colors of sediment up close

Or at least until Claire started on her second tantrum. Then Robb took our screaming bear-cat and I pushed the stroller (the older kids had to get out and walk once the trail started moving out of the canyon). Robb told me the tantrum was very similar to the time he had to give her a bath after she rubbed peanut butter all over her face and hair.

She immediately fell asleep on the way home

And we also passed over a section of Historic Route 66