Jerome

I'm trying to make an effort on 3-day weekends to get the family out doing something we've never done. For MLK day, we decided to head to Jerome with our friends. It sits at the top on the other side of the mountain that is just 20 minutes from our house, so it made for a short drive and a nice trip. We've gone up there before, but never really did much.  I think the kids and David took Gwynne up there for ice cream once. But, they didn't go splorin'. That's our term for exploring.  :)

After winding up the mountain, we finally came to Jerome. It's an old mining town, but now it's an artsy town with a population of a little over 400.

Here's the Fire Dept. They were on the roof doing drills.

We parked and headed for the first old structure we saw. It was an old hotel that was destroyed in a fire.  Now they put out toilets and people throw coins in. I gave everyone change and Emily was the only one to make her penny in the potty.

In the middle of town is a little park with a playground. So, you now, we all had to go play. This is an old school slide. The ones that would burn your thighs when you went down them in shorts in the middle of an Arizona summer.

Here's Ryan going down. You know all the adults went down. We couldn't help ourselves.

There was even a horse shoe pit.  How quaint is that?

And there was Ted the teddy bear in the backseat of the car. 

Dak and I...

This is an old movie projector.  It's crazy how big it is and now a high def 3 hour movie fits on a tiny thumb drive.

We went to this cafe and got brunch.  Noah got hot cocoa and he thought the foam looked like an angel.

The kids were playing outside while everyone went to the bathroom.

I went in with Noah and they had a chalkboard wall.  I put g+d and then Noah put N+G.  How cute is that?  I love that he loves me so much.

We were headed to see the old jail and came across this cool building. So much of the town got destroyed in fires. Also, some of it just slide down the hill. With all the blasting underground, it would sometimes get unsettled and cause slides.

This just makes me laugh.  Ish.

Gorgeous views of Sedona behind the kids.

And here's the old jail. It slid over 200 feet and now it just sits in a random spot.  This is the bed.  Looks comfy, eh?

The boys are happy anywhere they can run and climb things.

We hit the candy store.

And this is the old Mexican Methodist Church. I liked the Italian Cypress trees. I knew my Dad would too.

Because of MLK day, all state parks were free. So, we decided to head to the museum. We probably would've never done the museum as it would've been $30 for my family to get in.  But, if it's free, it's for me!  It was cool. We even saw a video about the history of Jerome.  The investors of the mine made over 20 million dollars and that was in the early 1900's. That's an insane amount of money.

Here's an old period room.  The kids liked the phone on the wall.

And this is a model of the underground mines for copper, zinc, silver and gold.

And this is all the different bottles from that era. And it totally reminded me of the beach glass we find every year in Gibsons.  The blue pieces are super rare.  This is what it comes from.

The minerals on these rocks glow under LED lights.  So bizarre. I wanted to hang some from my bedroom ceiling.

Here's a view of the town. Did I mention that it's supposedly haunted? Maybe that's not the sunlight on the left side of my picture, but Casper flying through.

Our final stop was to visit an old mining area.  This is one of the "elevators" they used to take down. I wonder how many men would cram in there?  My 3 kids barely fit.

Then, there was a glass and you could look down 1900 feet into a mine.  That's 650 taller than the Empire State Building. The kids put some rocks down there.

Talk about scary. Your mind plays tricks on you when you stand on it.

This is the Jerome Grand Hotel that is haunted. It was a hospital; then, a mental hospital and now a hotel. They offer haunting tours around Halloween. We'll have to go sometime and see what or whom we can find. 

It was an awesome day and I'm so glad we went.  Sometimes, I just feel like being a hermit. But, it's so good to get out with family and friends and go splorin'!

Big 4

We had our friends over for carnitas last weekend. Emily and her group of 3 girlfriends have been referred to as the Big 4. So, it's the Big 4 families.

 

David made amazing carnitas and we enjoyed hanging with our friends. 

But, the cutest part is Noah and these two girls.  Savannah is the little one and Clara is the older. Noah is smack dab between the two in age and they are all great friends.

I'm convinced one will be my daughter in law one day. At least, I hope so!  They are both beyond adorable.

Noah and Savannah even made little people out of a popped ball.  How cute is that?

I save all these pictures for the wedding video one day.  :)

Growing Up

For Christmas, Emily asked for a lot of things to redo her room. She went from Disney Princesses to Hello Kitty to owls and now it's boys.  What?  I guess at 13, it was bound to happen.  Company was gone, Christmas was put away and I had some time, so we got to work. She didn't want any games on her bookshelves anymore.  She still had Candy Land in there, so I get it. She still likes games, she just wanted to put them in Noah's room. So, we did. 

It was an all day affair. We got 4 bags to donate and 2 garbage bags full of trash.  I should've taken a before.  But, here's the during.

 

We got her a new desk too. Now, she needs things to fill up her bookcase. Here's the after. Waaaaa...it looks like a grown up room. 

  

Yesterday was the last day of break.  So, we went swimming. The pool is heated to a cozy 80ish degrees. And it was like 65 outside, so it was nice. I just went in the hot tub though.

 

Then, this morning was just brutal.  Brutal. 6:15 came way too early, and I was not happy.  But, I had a gorgeous sunrise to kind of encourage me.  Oh, alright...things aren't that bad!  

 

 I'm on a major cleaning spree and so many to do things around here.  I'm going to start plugging away and getting things done little by little.  Here's to a more organized and less cluttered 2018! 

Pam

It's been forever since my best friend has come up from Phoenix to spend the night with us. We've seen her other times at other places, but it was great to have her here with us for a night!

We headed out for lunch just the two of us to catch up. 

 

She still thinks she's 20 and tried the Pogo stick. It's harder than it looks. 

 

We went for a walk that night. It was cold. 

 

She always brings the kids gifts and spoils them.

And she made us snicker doodle cookies.  I think there were 24, and they were gone the next morning.  These boys eat like teenagers.

 Here they are with the pajamas she got them.

  We played games and had fun, and it was a wonderful visit.

New Year's!

I don't even know where the time has gone, but I have to get 2018 caught up. I don't like being behind. We spent New Year's at a pajama party at Dakri and Ryan's house.  It was fun.

 

We are so wild. We worked on a puzzle. But, we did finish it by the end of the night, but it was missing 1 piece!  URGH!

 

Noah and cutie Savannah! 

 

Emily and her friends. 

 

Then, at 10:00 (New Yorks new year), we all celebrated because we weren't sure we'd make it to our midnight. I got a selfie with everyone. 

 

  

 

But, we did make it to midnight!  I was so shocked.  :)  It was a fun night with great friends.  Just the right way to bring in a new year. 

Christmas Catch Up

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, so I figure I should catch up before the new year starts.

So, just a little review.  The last Friday before school got out was December 22nd.  Ben had a dance, his first dance, at school. It was during school hours.  He went and he said the girls danced and the boys just stood around and ate.  They had lots of food.  So, Ben said they got snacks, then, they got more snacks.  And then Ben went to the bathroom and threw up.  He was so nervous he didn't know what to do with himself, so he ate and ate and ate and puked.  Way to go Ben. He's a ladies man.  :)
 
So, we went to the Christmas Eve celebration at our church. They had ice skating.  It was like these white boards that are spray painted with something so it feels very much like ice skating.  I guess you can't be picky outdoors in Arizona.  We haven't had any snow yet. It's so disappointing.

Anyway, the kids had fun trying to skate.

 

They had it all decked out like a Dicken's village with carolers and dancing and tons of food.

We went on the hayride and they had a super cool light display.

Noah had 4 cookies, 2 cups of cocoa, 3 bags of kettle corn and 1 aching belly.  And, he puked in the middle of the night. All over the bed.  But, he was fine when he woke up.  Strange. We figured he just ate too much junk.

Because of all the middle of the night puke cleaning, everyone slept in.  I think it was 8 before the kids came in. It was so nice.  But, Emily seemed a little ho hum. And 3 presents in, she went and puked.  Luckily, she made it to the toilet.

Rio had to get in on the action.

Then, Emily asked for orange juice which I advised wasn't great on a pukey belly, but she had it anyway. And puked again.  Then, she went to bed for 5 hours.

But, everyone else felt fine and we made a nice turkey dinner and enjoyed a quiet day.  It was lovely.

Emily and Grammie at some point made a gingerbread house too!


David took Gwynne to the airport this morning, so she's back home in Orlando. The kids still have another week off for break. We haven't had a drop of rain here for 5 months, and all I want to do is pack the car up and drive to Colorado. But, we threw together a last minute New Year's Eve party with friends, so that will be fun. But, Colorado is still tempting. If we didn't have a dog, we'd be gone.

Nevertheless, we wish everyone a wonderful and safe new year. I'll be drinking to new adventures in the new year.