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Arizona

Jan 282012

We have reached the desert! The land is flat and dusty. The sky is blue. People grow cotton. And we can go outside without jackets.

Tonight is the last night of our time in Arizona where we got to visit with my sister Mary’s family. The thing I looked forward to the most was getting Autumn together with her cousins. There have been a few challenges, mostly to do with the need to share and hitting when sharing wasn’t happening, but overall it has been awesome.

We all had a great day at the Goldfield Ghost Town. It was a cheap, entertaining place to visit and really beautiful next to Superstition Mountain. The kids enjoyed dressing up as cowboys, watching a gunfight, and exploring the different places in the town. That night we went to San Tan Flats to eat “cowboy food” (as my sister called it). This ended up being burgers, potato cakes, and an awesome margarita. Everyone lit fires in barrels and listened to a guy sing country music. Very fun place to dine outside!

We also had fun around the house. Mary taught Clayton and I how to make espresso on her machine and we have had tasty lattes every morning (and most afternoons too). We also made a “volcano” for the kids by combining mentos and diet soda. This is something Autumn has looked forward to for a long time. It was a brief explosive volcano experience, but a lot of fun. Tonight we made a fire in their backyard firepit and ate s’mores. Bonfires are always fun, especially when none of the 6 children get burned or their eye poked out.

Thanks Broussards for letting us crash your house and relax with you these last couple of days!

Snow Days

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Jan 192012

Seattle was hit with its first snow of the winter season this weekend.

Day 1: Light snow fall. It was a little disappointing that we could still make it out of the house without emergency provisions. Dad went to work, we went to the mall to shop and drink Starbucks.

Day 2: Heavy snowfall. We had several inches of quality packing snow. What better thing to do than go swimming in it? This has become one of our favorite “winter in Seattle” experiences. It is just awesome to swim in a warm pool with snow falling on your head. We had a mini snowball fight in the pool, and made a mini snowman that we watched melt in the pool.

Day 3: Ice storm. There is a decent coat of ice on top of the snow today. Our snowman’s hat solidified and even taking one step outside is unthinkable and irresponsible. We plan to hunker down and pack for our road trip tomorrow (by which time the roads are supposed to return to normal).

4 Ways to Pretend You are Warm

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Jan 142012

Nothing says, "Stay away sleet!" like a gigantic cheery yellow umbrella.

I’m going to be honest. It’s freakin’ cold here. We have discovered a few ways to make adjusting to the mainland go a little smoother. Here they are:

1. Hot Beverages
We are drinking plenty of warm liquids like tea and hot chocolate. On average I have 4-5 cups of hot (as close to scalding as I can get) liquid a day. Mom put together a tea party for Autumn which included non-toddler-friendly china teacups, a real teapot, English tea, and petits fours. I might also have to go Russian and have some vodka at some point here.

2. Poofy Clothing
The general rule is that the closer you resemble the Michelin man the warmer you will be. Autumn has 3 new jackets, one of which has fur on the hood. I actually bought a pair of slippers. They go half way up my leg for optimal poofiness. In addition, I’m eating a lot of oatmeal cookies and peppermint bark to add to my natural poofiness.

3. Think of it as “Fun Cold”
It is forcasted to snow this evening and tomorrow, which would mean that the cold weather was a fun cold, and not just plain miserable cold. The plan is to go sledding if it really snows so we are keeping our fingers crossed.

4. Hot Tub
A heated pool and hot tub are also great ways to stay warm. We indulged in these at my parent’s condo clubhouse. Although not great for energy conservation, half of the pool is outdoors. In the winter you get some great steam coming off the pool and it makes for an otherworldly swim. For best results, you should stay in until sufficiently pruney. Other than having our hair freeze as we walked back to the condo, it was wonderful.

1 Month of Big Sister Love

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Oct 222011

Asher turned one month old! To mark this occasion he had many medical adventures:

1. Got his first cold.
2. Got a Hepatitis B shot
3. Is sporting his first band-aid (Bugs Bunny)

Autumn is still pretty fascinated by him and will quickly fetch his pacifier, a diaper, or anything she thinks he might need. Here’s a quick video of her sisterly love (and the helpless little brother).