Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Hallowe'en 2012

This year is the last hot hallowe'en, I hope. As always, the kids are sweating under their costumes. But, at least they get candy!

G-man: Enderman from MineCraft
Kiwi: Sorceress with the staff from the May campout (totally cool by the way)
Mr S: Spiderman
JW: Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc.


Saturday, October 27, 2012

Double Digits

In the middle of all the crazy moving stuff, G-man turned 10.  Let me repeat.  G-man turned TEN!  I have a kid in double digits! It just blows my mind. 

We had an awesome ten year old party.  We borrowed some TV's and Wii's from friends, and had a video game party.  Three TV's, three game consoles, everyone brought their own remote.  It was awesome.  Ordered some pizza, made some cupcakes.  BOOM! There's your party. 

Playing
Celebrating  
G-man had a lot happen this year.  He left his school he'd been attending for three years.  His classmates didn't change much in those three years.  He left behind some good friends.  He skipped a grade when we moved to the school.  Now he's changing schools again.  I worry about how he'll handle it, but based on past behavior, I'm sure he'll sore.  A few words to describe G: SMART, mellow, friendly, empathetic, soccer player, Wii champion, lego builder, book reader. I love you soon.  Stop growing so fast!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Farwell Tour of AZ Part 2

After the Grand Canyon we went to Flagstaff and stayed a night at a resort there.  It was probably the coolest hotel we've ever been to because there were stairs.  And three stories!  The kids loved it.  It's too bad we were so tired and only able to stay one night. 

The next day we drove to Sedona and had lunch with Chad's parents.  No time for hiking, but rest assured, we have spent many hours in Sedona hiking. It was a fun visit and a perfect rest stop as we moved on to our next adventure: A cabin near Prescott.

We proceeded to a cabin in the mountains south of Prescott to celebrate my mom's birthday.  It was fun, it was beautiful, and most of my family came.  Fun included Ruth falling out of a chair and head slapping for entertainment. 




My family is a fun group, let me tell you. It was great to see most of them so close to the time we had to move.  It will be hard to be so far away, but the great thing about family is we can always have fun when we are together.

I can't believe how much we did all in the space of five days.  I guess I'll just have to start my Massachusetts bucket list, because even if we stay five years, I doubt I'll be able to squeeze in everything I want to do over there.  So exciting!

Farewell Tour of AZ

Over the summer Chad and I decided it was time to leave Arizona.  We've been trying to find a job out of state since he finished his MBA back in 2009.  It's been a long three years with no prospects of any change. This year his job changed and he found himself in a mobile position.  We could live anywhere we wanted as long as we were close to an airport. We started making plans to move to Colorado next year.  I made a plan to see all the sites in Arizona we always wanted to see. We planned to start with the Grand Canyon over Fall break.

Fast forward one month and suddenly he has a job in Boston and I have two months to move instead of nine.  But I was still going to the Grand Canyon!

We started the trip with a session at the temple we were married in:

Followed by my favorite teenage hangout:

Where we took some awesome pictures:


Then we spent a day at the Grand Canyon.  With four kids.  Including a two year old. I'm much more scared of heights when there's a two year old around.  They do lots of running and tripping.  It's quite frightening.


We hiked, watched squirrels, collected acorns, stared at the canyon, and put on a play.  We also saw some deer and an elk.  That was an unexpected surprise. 
 






But this was not the end by any means...

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Pierced Ears!

Kiwi got her ears pierced! As a little girl, I was not allowed to get my ears pierced until I was 12.  I decided to allow Kiwi to get her's pierced when she turned 8 in February.  Then I decided I would let her do it for Christmas so she could pick out earrings for her baptism. Then we decided to move and I wanted to do it early with my sister on our semi-annual "meet in Casa Grande and go shopping for clothing for our birthdays" trip.

Before under the Claire's sign with Aunt Ruth
Kiwi does not handle pain well and we talked a lot about the fact that it would hurt.  I told her she only could do it if she was brave enough to handle it.  She must have really wanted pierced ears because she let the lady pierce her second ear after getting the first done.
 
Before:
Happy Kiwi, ready but nervous
After:
Don't you love the random lady in the background?  I need to learn how to photo shop.

She was so brave and held still as the tears fell.  There was lots of hand holding followed by hugs and cuddles (after the picture).  Now if I can just convince her to pull out her tooth!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Piano Recital

This year I struggled to get a piano recital done.  I usually do it April/May time frame.  But with rampant sickness and Chad traveling more it just didn't happen.  So finally I decided we were having one in September, no matter what.  It was scheduled, the kids were preparing.

One week before the recital, Chad accepted the Boston job.  I am so grateful I didn't get my act together to get the recital done sooner.  It was a wonderful time to be with friends and see the fruits of my labors as a piano teacher.  I also was able to see the fruits of my efforts to get my own kids to practice. I do not teach them.  I trade with a friend and we have a combined recital. I love to teach and hope these kids find a love for music like I have.



G-man and Kiwi's performances. Hopefully we can find a good teacher in Boston!

Saturday, October 13, 2012

The Fate of The Chickens

Since we are moving to a much colder climate, we determined the chickens would not be coming with us. Luckily it seems chickens are not too hard to give away, especially if they come with a coop and food and all that is required to keep them. 

The Lines had been talking about getting chickens for a while (kind of like us) and were more than happy to take them off our hands. We lost another to a coyote just a few weeks before we left. It was the Nutmeg, second one of our originals. She was nearing the end of her laying life, so it wasn't too upsetting.

Here are a few pics of the girls making themselves at home in the Lines' backyard.
Snowball, Pepper, and Belina taking a dust bath
From left to right: Snowball, Paprika, Buffy, Pepper, and Belina
There was a slight mishap the first day there.  The family dog made his way into the fence and bit Snowball's tail off.  It was pretty sad to see, but she's a pretty feisty bird and pulled through. I sure do miss those gals. I would love it if we could find a property and raise chickens again.  They are the best pets.

Monday, October 1, 2012

I Think I'll Go To Boston...

I think I'll start a new life (not really, I'm sure everything will be about the same)
I think I'll start it over, where no one knows my name (No one really ever remembers my name anyway)
 I'll get out of California, I'm tired of the weather (Well, Arizona, but close right?)
I think I'll get a lover and fly him out to Spain...(Hmmm, nope, not going to do that one)
Oh yeah and I think I'll go to Boston, (On November 7th to be exact, although we leave AZ the 5th)
I think that I'm just tired (I think I'm tired because I'm going to Boston)
I think I need a new town, to leave this all behind... (Unfortunately most of the crazy is coming with me)
I think I need a sunrise, I'm tired of the sunset (Some ocean would be nice too!)
I hear it's nice in the Summer, some snow would be nice... oh yeah (I'm excited for the snow!)

 I don't know how one cannot have Augustana running through their head after deciding to move to Boston.

Yeah for grand adventures! Yeah for a new job that is helping us pay for our adventure!  Yeah for a new area full of history that I've been wanting to see forever!  Yeah for packing up and cleaning out 7 years of accumulated stuff!  Oh wait... no....not so much.  I guess every adventure comes with a price.

Life is changing.  I'm so excited! Most of the time...