The Semi-Frozen North

My parents invited our family to share their timeshare in Flagstaff again this year and we were happy to take them up on it. It's been a few years since we've been and I'm a little glad we waited - I think things were much easier now that the boys are a little older.

We scrounged snow clothes for the boys and the boys played in the quickly-melting snow around the condo. When we arrived at 8pm, Roland wanted to go right out. We obligingly left him on the porch in his PJs, where he shivered for a minute and declared it too cold that night. But the next morning we suited the boys up and sent them out. While the sun wasn't great for the snow, it made it much more comfortable to be outside for more than few minutes.



I couldn't resist this picture of Roley crying with a face covered in snow. His brothers got a little rough.



We had a great few days, hitting McDonald's, Bookmans, church, redbox, etc. And on Monday we went sledding with the Rasmussens, who drove up just for the day. It was a beautiful, warm day, with lots of slushy hills. We left our camera in the car, but imagine Alden as the young daredevil, who would go off the tallest and steepest hills face down! He loved it so much and we're pretty sure he's going to become an Olympian in some winter sport. Emmett and Roland had fun too, going down the hills plenty of times. Roley constantly wanted to have a snowball fight and would throw handfuls of snow constantly while giggling - he's a cutie. Alden went off with the Rasmussens to build a snowman and have a real snowball fight. Kirk & Jody said that even when he had a faceful of snow, he was smiling wide and laughing. Here are a few shots from the car afterwards. We were all soaking wet because of the barely-there snow, and I loved Alden's face covered in dirt from going face first down the hills.

Thanks for inviting us, Ma'am and Grandpa - we want to go again next year!

Parents Day Out

Aaron was asked to speak at a Security Conference down in Tucson and I was able to go down to spend the day with him yesterday. Thanks to Candice & my Mom for taking our boys for the day. Hopefully they weren't too much trouble. Oh yeah - there was the whole diaper explosion from Roley, but maybe that was all.

We left early and were there by 8:30. It's hard to remember the last time Aaron and I had uninterrupted conversation for two hours. Even when we go out together there are distractions and activities. We really enjoyed it. And then I really enjoyed hearing Aaron's presentation at the conference. I learned more about his job than ever before and was impressed with his delivery and competence. The attendees seemed to like it, which was more evident by their attention to the next speaker, whose material was pretty boring.

After the morning session we were free to pursue our own pleasures - which means FOOD! We found a great pizza place on 4th Ave. (like Mill Ave. in Tempe) where we enjoyed a salad with warm sauteed veggies and a Greek pizza with feta, pine nuts, and spinach. If you're ever in Tucson, try Magpies - the pizza crusts are delicious. Then we found ourselves a fancy outdoor shopping center to stroll around, enjoy the nice weather, and do a little window shopping. La Encantada has great stores & restaurants, including a Sephora, Tiffany, Kenneth Cole, and an Apple Store. I slobbered over the iPod Touch for a while, and Aaron occupied himself while I did other browsing. And after all the walking around we were hungry again, naturally. So we stopped at Ra for happy hour. For under $20 we enjoyed the outside weather, a couple sushi rolls and a couple appetizers, a soft couch where we could cuddle, and a good view of the Tucson mountains.

I had my new camera and tried out some different features while we were eating. Here's Aaron making his most handsome faces while I try out the continuous shoot mode.

We headed back pretty early and picked up the boys before anyone lost patience and tied them up. I even got a little bit of napping time on the drive back. I hope he gets invited to speak every year!

FHE at the Rolls

My parents pull all their family together once a month for a big family home evening. We're supposed to take turns hosting, but the rest of us are slackers and my parents end up doing most of the work. This month they got their quads all tuned up and invited us for a BBQ in the desert. This place is called the Rolls because of all the fun riding terrain, rolling you up and down. Here are my cute boys when we first got there - nice and clean. You can see the light progression in the pictures - and the dirt quotient too.

Here are some shots after the delicious dinner. Emmett was filthy because we never cleaned the ketchup and food from his hands and face and the dirt just stuck to it like muddy glue. So fun! Isn't my Mom beautiful? She was a big help with Roland (so I could assemble their BBQ and then chase Emmett). Notice the Baby Bjorn is all wet. Turns out Roley is taking after Alden in the drooling department. Nice.

We missed Tami & her family, though it was nice not having to share the quads with as many people. We still wish they had come. But we were very happy to see my cousin Preston & his family. Melanie has become like another daughter for my parents and like a sister for Tami & I. We just wish they hadn't moved out to Florence (seriously) and that we got to see them more often. Alden worships Bradley and Emmett loves playing with Carter and Jackson. Mel & I are hoping to get together in the next couple weeks. She's gorgeous and fits in better with my family than I do. We all love her! Oh, and Preston's not too bad either.

More Zoo Fun

We are still lovin' our season pass to the Phoenix Zoo. Saturday was Roland's first trip, and he managed to sleep through the entire thing. We did the children's zoo portion, which Aaron had never seen, and visited the wallabies, lots of birds, some monkeys (besides ours), and the Farm playground. There were lots of really cool statues that graciously agreed to pose with us. Alden still has that weird smile going on and although he was great about wearing his hat and sunglasses the whole time (to protect him), I'm not sure why the hat sat so low on his head.

Free Bowling

We got a coupon over the holidays for free bowling at AMF and last Sat. I happened to find it and realized we had one more day before it expired. So we called up our trusty friends, the Rasmussens, and invited them along. Kirk & Jody bowled with the 4 kids (ok, sometimes for the 4 kids) and even Emmett had fun pushing the ball down the ramp. Thank goodness for bumpers too. Turns out the kids' favorite part of bowling was pretending to play video games, which sounds like a good free activity to me, if not exactly educational. After dragging our 1 game out for 90 min. we finally adjourned to our house to eat pizza and watch the NFL playoffs. A fun, free activity for a Sat. afternoon - and much better than putting the kids off while I try to clean the house.

Memorial Day Fun

Sorry we're a little late on posting this. I got back into town Sun. and Aaron & the boys didn't come home Monday until noon. (So I could get some cleaning done) So after naps we spontaneously invited ourselves to the Williams for a BBQ. We sure love Boyd & Dot and all their kids! And their pool ain't bad either.

More Downtown Mesa Fun

See everyone (Shannon), Mesa is a great place to live! Last week we had fun at the Mesa SW Museum, and today we enjoyed the statues downtown. Every year there are cool bronze statues/sculptures on display and my Mom likes to gather the girls together to view the art, check out the shops, and have lunch & treats. My sister, Tami, took Brooklyn & Rex and my cousin-in-law, Melanie, took Bradley & Carter. Of course Alden & Emmett rounded out the party, along with 3 strollers. We tried not to terrorize too many shops, although they have a lot of fun boutiques and girly kinds of stuff. And Mom treated everyone to lunch at Mangoes and cookies from Sweet Cakes - thanks Mom! (Not that she ever reads our blog, her dial-up internet is tooooo slow.) Below are pictures of the group and some of our favorite statues.

Jurassic Park Day

Today we had a very fun, very red day at the Mesa Southwest Museum and the park. Not sure how we all ended up in matching outfits. Aaron doesn't appear to be working lately so we're taking advantage of it before he goes back to 60 hour weeks. He's been wanting to take us to this museum for a while and it was so cool! Tons of dinosaur stuff, mixed in with AZ southwest Indian, mining, and various what-nots. And it was pretty big too. We topped it off with a trip to the park to play with our friends, the Rasmussens.

Wonderful Weekend!

We Carpenters have had a wonderful 3 day weekend! Aaron pretty much took Friday off and we took the boys shopping at the mall in the afternoon. We were a bit worried but couldn't find a babysitter so we took them and they were so good! Aaron found the new shoes he wanted, I had tons of fun browsing, we ate bagel dogs and visited the pet store. We capped it all off with 30 min. at the kid play place. They loved it - even Emmett. Probably the highlight of the whole experience was our visit to the Godiva chocolate store. They were all so nice and gave us free samples. We let Alden choose one piece since he was a good boy and told us he had to go potty. Aaron chose 'chocoiste pearls" to take to work, I chose a Dark Chocolate Decadence Chocolixir, a frozen drink that left me speechless - quite a feat! I wanted to put a picture of it here, but apparently its copyrighted and you can't get it off the site, so I'm adding the link. http://www.godiva.com/boutique/chocolixir.aspx

Saturday was a continuation of the fun as we spent a couple hours at the company picnic for my Dad, Steve Blasnek. They had bouncy houses, slides, food, etc. and I even remembered to put sunscreen on the boys. Alden loves playing with his cousins and liked watching Abby climb the rock wall. He can't wait 'til he's big enough. Church was not a disaster and we are having Aaron's family for dinner - so overall a decent Sunday too. I love weekends like this!