halloween vacation

I decided to take the kids to Arizona for Halloween this year to see my parents. I needed a sunshine with warmth break and I was also in need of serious retail therapy. That and Katie and Evie wanted to be fairies and it's difficult to bundle a fairy properly so that her dress still shows when it's 35 degrees at night. So I thought we'd go trick-or-treating one time where the weather is more like 80 degrees at night. We all had a great time except for Liam. He was sick for the whole vacation. Liam was supposed to be a monkey for Halloween, but he wound up with a fever and so went as himself and sported an orange and green pacifier as his costume.

Liam also didn't get to join in the swimming fun. Katie loves the water! She jumps in, dives under and splashes everything in sight.

Evie spends her time on the steps. My little girl Evie. She is like none other. Only once did she decide to "jump" into the pool and have me "catch" her. This is how the conversation went:

Me: Would you like to jump to me Evie, I'll catch you?

Evie: Yes (as she stands on the edge of the pool) but come closer.

Me: (Already about a foot away) Ok (I move up 6")

Evie: No, closer!

Me: Ok (As I move ALL the way up to the edge of the pool)

Evie then puts both arms around my neck, wraps her legs around my waist and without ever entering the water says, "Whee!"

Shopping was fun, fun, fun!

Except for car troubles that made me leave a day after I was supposed to and the long drive there and back by myself, oh and the fact that Liam was sick, we all had a wonderful vacation. It was hard to leave the 90 degree temps to return to P-town and SNOW the next day, but it was nice while it lasted!

travel tips

Ok, so it's been a while since I've posted anything and there is a good reason for that. I've been busy. Really, really busy. Part of the busyness was getting ready for the Silver Ring Thing, but I will blog about that later. This post is about vacations and how you should take them. First: you should not take them BEFORE any event you are helping with. Something will inevitably go wrong and you will be late getting home or not make it at all. You should go AFTER the event. Then you can truly relax. Second: If you have more than one child and you are traveling by yourself (with no spouse) you should NOT drive in the middle of the night. Especially on a windy pass. Sidebar- I do not like windy, mountain passes. This is a slight problem as I live in Colorado. I can handle Wolf Creek Pass, I cope with Red Mountain Pass. These are the "local" roads I must deal with. However, I refuse to ever again drive through Salt River Canyon in Arizona, at night and by myself. As I mentioned before, I live in CO. I've seen my fair share of elk, I have however never almost hit one as big as a horse going 75 miles an hour... I have also not had to deal with psycho semi-truck drivers who sit on your bumper. Never in my life have I ever felt so excited to see the "AZ State Prison- Do Not Stop For Hitchhikers" sign, it signals the END of the canyon -end sidebar. Third: If you are having car problems before you leave, you should fix them before you have to drive 9 hours to get to where you are going or vice versa. (Or you might end up leaving for home, getting an hour away and then having to drive back an hour to take your car in to get fixed. As I did.) These are helpful tips to traveling. Traveling sanely.

crazy hair night

Katie attends AWANA and a couple of weeks ago they had crazy hair night. Katie won. Enough said.