Around Our House

The other night our garbage disposal died.  Just a little buzz and then nothing.  David got out his headlamp, a screwdriver and messed with some stuff.  Wa la!  It worked.  I was very impressed.

It was super cold here the past few days.  We had the fireplace going.  But, unless you sit a few feet in front of it, you don't get any of the warmth.  When we bought the house, they offered to put a blower in for like $500 or something crazy.  It basically blows the warm air out.  We were trying to cut corners, so we didn't get it.

David found a youtube video show how to do it and found one on amazon for $38.  We got it today and wa la!  He got it installed!  He's turning into Mr. Home Improvement.  It works, but now that it's warmed up we can't really test it out as we don't want to heat up the room anymore than it already is.  But, next week, our highs are in the low 50's again, so it'll be nice to use it.

Emily posted the picture on Instagram yesterday.  She took over my Instagram account, even renamed it.  So this morning we had this conversation:

Me:  Emily, what were those gang symbols you were throwing down on Instagram.

Emily:  That's the symbol for hashtag.

Me:  Oh.

Emily:  What's a gang?  

Good golly, I have a lot to learn about kids today.

I bought two baguettes.  I was dividing them up and wrapping them for future meals.  Noah saw the wrappers and immediately thought they'd make great robot arms.  I love the mind of a 6 year old.

Halloween came and went and we missed watching half of our favorite movies.  So, we made a list of all of our Christmas movies and we are trying to watch several a week.  We've already knocked off three.  I figure we should get them all in before Christmas.

That's about all that's going on around here.

A Good Start

There was some chance of snow last night, but we really never take it seriously. When they say it will snow, it never does and when they say it won't snow, it does.

I got up at 3 AM and 5 AM to pee (thanks to my lovely children, I can't make it through a night). Both times, I looked out the window and nothing. I wake up at 7 and there's a few inches of snow and the school has emailed and called and we are on a 2 hour delay. I know it's only a few inches, but they really look at the fact that they don't want kids standing at bus stops when 2 inches of snow is coming down. It's more for safety.

I let the kids sleep in. Ben was the only one who woke up concerned. "It's 8:02, we are going to be late for school!"

I told him we better hurry up and get dressed....to play in the snow! He was so happy. He ran and woke up Emily. Noah was already up. He is allergic to sleep.

Most mornings, I have to tell them 5 times to get dressed and it takes them all a good 10-15 minutes. Today, they were all dressed in 60 seconds. It was impressive!  They got busy playing.

Emily always loves to go down the slide first when there is a bunch of snow on it.

I'm pretty sure those gloves are useless at this point.

She does handstands all the time, everywhere.

The boys decided to work on a snowman.

They were so proud of themselves.  It's the world's smallest snowman.

Then, they went out front and I saw our scarecrow and had to laugh.  Poor guy.  It's Monday.  It's Fall.  It's Arizona.  I'm sure he wasn't prepared for snow drift in his face.  

Surprisingly, he looks how I feel most mornings.

All You Need Is Love

Today is our 12 year wedding anniversary. Twelve years. I can hardly believe it. For our 10 year anniversary, we went to Vegas. It was the first time we did something big for our anniversary. Last year, we went to Chicago. We didn't plan anything big this year after an expensive Fall Break trip to New York City with the kids in October.

David was going to go to work, but decided to take a personal day instead. With the kids all in school now, we can spend the day together. Alone. We decided to go for a hike that we knew would be too hard for the kids, mainly Noah since he's little. And out for some lunch.

I decided to take selfies along the way. I'm not very good at it.  Can you tell?  It was so sunny out that I didn't realize I had a shadow of a cell phone on my face.  That and my walking stick.  And David literally looks like he has a dead tree sprouting out of his head, like some sort of unmagical unicorn.

We had to stop and rest along the way. It was about 1500 feet elevation climb and some parts were mighty steep. So, when we stopped, I'd snap a selfie and try to get some of the pretty scenery in the background.

Then, we got to almost the top and it was such a pretty view of Prescott.

Then, this nice man and women were up there and offered to take a picture of us that had more scenery than our selfies could handle. And no, I will never get a selfie stick. So, he got a pic of us.

We started talking. Sometimes, I am just like my mother. It's a good thing. Evelyn was telling us that she comes up there as her son was killed by a gang years ago on this day. They spread his ashes up there. So, they try to come up there every year. She used to live in Idaho, about 45 minutes from my Dad and Suzy's cabin, but she moved back down her to be near her son and grandkids. And guess what? The son and grandkids live in our neighborhood and we know them pretty well. Small, small world.

Then, we hiked some more and found a memorial for the 19 firefighters who died a few years ago. Who would've though there was a memorial at the top of the mountain?

It had all their ID badges. The top one there is the son of another neighbor. See, that's kind of how small towns work.

We could see this nice tree at the very top of the mountain. That was a separate trail. It looked like The Dreaming Tree from Dave Matthew's and we wanted to head up there. So off we went. What a view!

That's the dreaming tree behind us.

Then, on the advice of a hippie with a giant blood hound dog, we rock climbed almost to the tippity top. Another 20 feet or so. And, I learned one very valuable lesson today. When a blood hound shakes his head, you better prepare to get soaked in his saliva. Holy moly, it was awful, but funny. So, we left our hiking sticks and water as we needed our hands and rock climbed to about 15 feet from the top. We probably could've went all the way, but literally, if you slipped, there was nothing under you, so we stopped. We didn't want to make the kids orphans today.

Then, it was down, down, down and our knees were killing.

Here's a view at the end of what we climbed. It really doesn't look that big in the photo, but it was.

Then, we got Mongollon BBQ for lunch. YUM!

It was a wonderful day and I'm glad we got to spend it together. If I could go back and do it all over again, I would. Exactly the same. Well, I'd stand back when the blood hound shakes his head. I'd redo the past 12 years too, exactly the same.

A Nice Hike

The kids and David were off today for Veteran's Day. We took our family photos last weekend, and Ben was disappointed that there wasn't more rocks around to climb. So, we promised him a trip to The Dells, our rocky area here in Prescott. And boy, it did not disappoint. The only thing I regret is that I didn't bring my good camera. I only had my phone.

They didn't waste any time heading off the trail to explore.

Can you find Noah?  David, Emily and Ben are at the top and Noah is down to the right in a green jacket.

A cool staircase to more rocks.

David and the kids headed off the trail again.  I thought they were just going for a minute.  But, they climbed a huge mountain.  I'm taking a selfie.

They are next to that big rock that I was hoping wouldn't fall while I was standing there.

You can't even see them in this picture.  See the big tree, go to your left a little and you'll see a small bush tree.  Then, just to the left of that is David and the kids.

David took these pics from the top of the mountain on his phone.

Time to relax.

And hike some more...

This trail was called Castle Rock because that little area David and Ben are on looks castleish.

The rocks are so cool.

And the trees!  They were just stunning with light and fall colors.

I do have one other regret, that we haven't explored this area sooner.  There is another trail here, so we'll come back soon and check out.