What's up Doc?: October 2008

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Halloween Arizona Style

For FHE on Monday we carved pumpkins. Jagen had the great idea of doing it outside. Here in AZ it is still in the 70's that time of night and I LOVED the idea. It kept the mess outside and not in my newly cleaned house. Asey wanted to clean out her pumpkin all by herself. So after working on it for almost a half hour (to only get out like 10 seeds) we had to step in and help. Reese had a blast. She kept walking through pumpkin guts swinging a big spoon, until she had to go to bed.

Our neighborhood is still under construction and my kids would get maybe 5 pieces of candy if we stayed in our neighborhood. Some friends invited us to come to their neighborhood. (Thanks again Trendlers, so much fun!!) Basically we stepped into Mayberry. They closed the street, potluck dinner, everyone sat in their driveways, some with fire pits (because it is so chilly...NOT), kids running all over the place, a little tractor train, couple of houses had spook allies. It was so much fun for all. I gotta say didn't miss putting on gloves and jackets at all. Check out my cuties below. Check out what a cutie JD is.

Dorothy up close.

Dorothy and her little dog Toto.

Asey and her friends!

Jagen and her friends.

J.D. and his "friend".

J.D. the tractor train driver!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Goose Egg and a Black Eye

So the kids have "made" a "secret hideout" on an unfinished lot in the neighborhood that has a big mound of dirt and lots of rocks and stuff. On Friday, Tyce was there with a friend and was attempting to run up a rocky side of the mound, he slipped, fell and cracked his head on a rock. They rode their bikes back and came in all frantic. The poor kid had the biggest goose egg on his head and a scratch that didn't really bleed. Hard to believe, but I kept my whits about me and quickly sat him down, got ice for it, and got him some Motrin. The next morning it had gone down and looked pretty good, but this morning the swelling has dropped down to the bridge of his nose and he now has a black eye. We told him he should make up a really good story to tell his friends tomorrow at school...you know something about a big fight and you should have seen how the other kid looked.

See the scrape and wide nose?

The black eye!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Fun in Los Alamos

The kids had last week off for fall break. I decided to take them and head to Los Alamos for a visit. This trip was really great! There was something different about it. When we go to Los Alamos we try and time it with my siblings so we can all be there together. We usually spend our time doing fun stuff with all the cousins, games and hanging out. This time it was just us visiting. Most importantly we had a lot of great time with my parents all to ourselves. Jagen got in a couple of games of scrabble with grandpa. Which I say kudos to her if she likes it. (Personally, hate scrabble, can't spell, suck at the game.) We helped my parents with some projects. We spent a day doing fun stuff in LA that I realized I had never done with my kids. We went to Santa Fe one day, of course. We did get to see my two brothers that live in Los Alamos and Albuquerque, so the kids still got in some fun cousin time. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Watching the squirrels on grandmas deck.

The kids built a cousin fort in the front yard. The board says cousin club and they all signed their names.

A hike to the golf course tunnel

Resting on the wall

Cousin wrestle mania

Game of scrabble

We hiked out to the end of Barranca Mesa so I could show the kids how Los Alamos is situated on a bunch of plateaus. Tyce just learned about land formations in science so they thought it was pretty cool.

Tyce checking it out

Jagen crawling down the rocks

They insisted on climbing down to the edge. I can't believe I let them do it. But it was pretty cool!

Asey and I stayed up top
We went to the duck pond to feed the ducks of course.
Jagen helped Reese, all Reese wanted to do was eat the bread.

Grandma was nervous the whole time that someone was going to fall in.

I took the kids to see the three schools that I attended.

We went to Overlook Park so we could see the mighty Rio Grande.

My mom and the kids at Overlook Park

My four kiddos

This is the morning we left to come home. We had a great time with my parents! Thanks so much.

This picture may seem weird, but if you are from Los Alamos you know exactly where this is. When you come into town you see this mountain. It caught my eye right off and I decided I needed a picture of it. This makes me think of my youth and growing up in Los Alamos. It makes me think of beautiful fall colors (which I don't really see here in the desert.) It makes me think of the Cerro Grande fire that tore through this town in 2000. You can still see the skeletons of the burned trees on the bottom half of the mountain. It makes me think of my parents that love this town so much. My parents have lived here for 50+ years and this is where their hearts are.

Friday, October 03, 2008

We met Brook

So we had a small brush with fame. Brook White from American Idol is from Mesa. So she did a free charity concert here last weekend - and it happened to be at the Mesa Amphitheater. (One of J.D.'s venues) Jagen was so excited!! She wanted to go so bad. We met my sister's family there. Brook is super nice and personable. Her mom is a chatter (J.D. and her talked for almost an hour about the economy) and her husband is a nervous Nelly. He kept freaking out every time someone hugged her. Which was a lot. We got to go back stage and meet her and get autographs. It was so fun!