Sunday, January 24, 2010

Vacation Fail

I'm about to tell you a very sad story...

So upon hearing that a great storm was about to hit Arizona, we decided to try and go skiing in Flagstaff for a few days this past week. Clark moved mountains at work to get a few days off and we cashed in a favor and left our kids with friends (thank you, thank you Matsons!) The rain was falling in southern Arizona, snow falling up north- it was going to be EPIC.

Too epic in fact. Apparently Arizona has never seen snow like that before and the entire region went into a state of emergency. After staying a night in Prescott with my sister we tried to head up to Flagstaff but interstate 17 was closed. We changed plans and headed east towards Show Low, only to discover that the ski resort had closed down due to power outages. We got a hotel and hoped that the lifts would open the next day.

We needed to kill some time but the snow was falling hard enough that the entire town was in and out of power. I had to eat dinner at Taco Bell because it was the only place open. Taco Bell, folks. The movie theater managed to stay open and we watched Avatar in an empty theater while the wind howled outside. Did anyone else think that movie was kinda cheesy? With nothing else to do we headed back to the hotel to watch the news to see if a tornado would actually touch down in Tucson. Tornados in Tucson?! Seriously?! I fell asleep and had nightmares of my house being lifted off by a tornado.

We woke up to this...


And news that the lifts would not be opening any time soon.


And I tried not to cry but laughed instead because normally visions of such snow would make a skier giddy with delight. Once we knew the lifts weren't opening and the snow was only getting worse, we decided to get out before we got trapped.

Long story short- the snow never stopped. Never. stopped. once.

Here's how the trip home went...
- Several locals/policemen/highway patrol discouraging us from trying to leave.
- Putting chains on the tires, taking chains off. Putting chains on and taking them off again. In the snow of course.
- Creeping along treacherous little highways at 15 miles an hour.
- Facing road closure after road closure. We had to go from Show Low to Payson to Globe to Phoenix to Tucson in order to get home.
- Watching Julie and Julia, Labyrinth and the entire third season of Arrested Development while Clark drove. That's a lot of time spent in the car.

And it looked something like this...

And then this as we moved south...

I'm trying hard to look on the bright side. I got to see my sister. It was a "vacation" without kids. It's always fun to stay at a hotel, even if it doesn't have power. It certainly was an adventure and a break from the norm. And I got to wear my cute new coat that I gifted myself for Christmas.


But to be honest, I'm really disappointed that this didn't work out. And Clark, who never gets bugged by anything, may have actually done a little moping. I'm not sure what lesson I need to learn from this, but I have decided on one thing- it's time for me and my family to go Cairo. There I said it. Now my parents and little brother can hold me to it. I'm going to do a family vacation right this time. As soon as my mom gets her medical clearance to go home (did you know she was done with cancer?), I'm going to seriously look at dates. And if a sandstorm tries to thwart me, I will lose it.


Monday, January 11, 2010

Eek

I'm nervous already. It never occurred to me that Booker would speak in church before we did.
What if he picks his nose and eats it while he's talking about Jesus?
What if he sticks his hand down his pants and then his fellow sunbeams follow suit?
What if he incites a riot in the primary room?
Really I shouldn't be asking what happens if, but what happens when. We'll be sure to let you know.
(Also, as someone who has never had a kid in primary before I'm not sure what a primary talk is. I figure 15 minutes of McConkie quotes might be a bit much... ideas?)

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Yes! Ostrich Bite


We found out firsthand.


But that didn't stop us from having lots of fun at the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch at Picacho Peak on Saturday. Besides ostriches, you can feed deer, goats, donkeys and lorikeets. We also opted to take a ride on the monster truck which gives you a little tour of the Sonoran desert.


Nothing like a warm sunny afternoon spent feeding animals and racing around in the desert. Throw in some ostriches and I'd call it a perfect day. I'm a tiny bit obsessed with ostriches, they're such fascinating creatures. I think I'll have to make a trip up to the annual Chandler Ostrich Festival. I haven't been back since this and this. Anyone with me?

Photos from Saturday here.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

My New Year's Resolution

For 2010, I'm going to keep it simple.

I want to do less.

Yes, that's right- less. I know what you're thinking, "You're a stay-at-home mom, how can you possibly do less?" Oh, but I can...

And what I'm hoping is that by doing less, I'll be getting much more.

Less calories consumed, more weight lost.
Less time in the car and more time in the backyard.
Less of saying yes to other people and more of saying yes to my family.
Less time in the office room and more time in the toy room.
Less trashy TV, more good books.
Less time trying to get the perfect shot and more time just enjoying the moment.
Less fretting, more loving.

You get the idea. But just to be clear, I'm not one of those super-moms who does it all and is trying to scale back. Far from it. Nope, I'm just lazy and want to be a little lazier. Lazier as long as it's with my kids. I've always felt like if I'm not busy, then I'm not important. And this year, I want to care less about being important and more about being a better mom. So in 2010, less is more for me.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Wanted: Babies

I just finished making some baby announcements for a friend of mine and it hit me...

I might be a wee bit baby hungry.

And for me, a wee bit grows into crazy psycho pretty fast. Unfortunately, my doctor (Dr. Soandso, Breast Oncologist Extraordinaire) wants me to wait at least six months before getting pregnant to have two evenly spaced and hopefully squeaky clean MRI's.

Six months might seem like nothing but when you're staring at stunning photos of brand new baby boys with fuzzy arms and tiny fingernails, that crazypsychonagging feeling starts to kick in bad.

So for now I'll just channel those urges into something creative and make way more birth announcements than necessary, which is fine- who doesn't like options? And if that doesn't work or if staring at baby photos is too unbearable, I'll just read this old blog post.

In the meantime, I'm throwing these up here because frankly, my website is a pain to update and I'm thinking about doing away with it anyways. And I'm curious about which one you like best...