Thankful in Phoenix

My parents have a vacation house in a suburb of Phoenix, so on Monday we headed out to celebrate Thanksgiving with them down there. Brian and I have both been to Phoenix a couple of times, one of the times together for an ASU basketball tournament he played in during College, but the kids had never been there before. This was also Levi's very first time on an airplane and he did wonderfully. It is a bit more of a challenge traveling with three kiddos, but Jonah is getting older and more able to sit still, so that makes plane rides MUCH more pleasant. We crammed all kinds of fun stuff into our five days in Phoenix. All that is pictured below, as well as blue-lipped swimming (the kids insisted and had a blast, but 65 degrees and cloudy isn't exactly ideal for swimming), the movie Tangled on Thanksgiving day (Abby's voice reached a new level of high pitched while watching. "The PRINCESS!!!" "The princess and the prince are together at last!!"), many delicious meals, golf cart rides, visiting Great Grandpa Rumbaugh, and Brian and I even managed to squeeze in a run as well. We had our Thanksgiving meal at the country club in my parent's resort complex that was fun and delicious as well. Now, for the pictures....

On our first full day there we made an attempt to strike it rich. There is an old gold mine in the Superstition mountains area and Jonah and Abby have seen a Backyardigans episode that made them very excited at the idea of digging for gold. It was beautiful!
This is our "before we become unimaginably wealthy" family picture.
After a quick train ride to survey the hills, Jonah had to get some training in how to effectively pan for gold.

I thought he would need quite a bit of help, but he did a really great job swirling and swishing on his own.

Next, we use tweezers and collect out our treasure.

Once again, Jonah did great! Abby even saved a few garnets for us, too. There was quite a bit of fool's gold mixed in, so the only way to find the real gold is by it's slightly more yellowish color.

In the words of Jonah (and Pablo from Backyardigans, actually) "We're rich, dag nabit!"

Grandma entertained prospector Levi while we were mining. I venture to say that if we make it back down to Phoenix in the future, Abby and Jonah will be wanting to go on the hunt for gold once again. They had a blast.

The next day, we went to the Phoenix Children's Museum. I wish they would move it to Omaha. It was wonderful and extremely interactive and entertaining for the kids. This was probably Abby's favorite activity. You put a scarf into this tube and you could adjust it's path as it was sucked through these tubes.

Eventually it would shoot out through one of the holes and then you would try and catch it. Abby could have played this all day if we had let her.

This time Grandpa was on Levi duty. Tough job.

While Abby was doing that, Jonah was busy getting lost in this enormous climber. I may or may not have gotten lost in there as well. It was super fun and if they decide to box it up and sell it for $59.99, I'm buying one for our backyard. Jonah is three stories high (I think) in this picture.

Upstairs they had a bike car wash.

Complete with rickshaw bikes. Abby got the complete princess treatment.

And this is what Abby claims was her favorite activity of the day: painting the castle. It lasted about five minutes, but it must have made an impact.

Then we made a turkey hat...

scooped some ice cream...

made some pizza... grocery shopped... walked through a funoodle forest.... and then tried to figure out where Levi's lost sock went.

Two of my boys.

With so many activities, it's no wonder that when I asked Brian to go and wake up Abby, this is what occured.

Thanks for bringing us down to celebrate with you Grandma and Grandpa! We had a blast!

Fall Y'all

We LOVE our trees, but man do the leaves make for plenty of hours of yard work. Knowing this, the kids and I got Brian a leaf blower and chopper for his birthday this year and he has loved it and how it speeds up the process. The other day I took some pictures while the kids were enjoying playing. Let this also serve as a hair update. :) It's getting longer, but we've still got a long way to go...

It is also worth mentioning that Abby is obsessed with her new pink winter coat. She is all pink and purple, all the time. The shinier the better, too. The girl would love a bedazzler if she knew what one was.

And Jonah has probably grown three inches in the last three months. He is just shooting up.

And THIS guy is now four months old! We just took him to the Dr. for a checkup yesterday and he is 14 lbs 8.5 oz and 26 inches, I believe. Tall and thin, relatively. I wonder where he gets that from? We are also fairly certain that he will be blue eyed with blond hair. And devastatingly handsome.

These two already have quite the bond. Jonah simply talks and Levi starts cracking up. I can't wait to see the two of them grow up together.

Boo!

We have declared this year the Year of the Lame Costumes. Bumblebee Transformer and Fairy are just too cliche.

A look back... UPS boy and turtle were adorable. And unique.

Love this picture.

I skipped a year here because I couldn't find it, but Jonah was a sandwich two years in a row. How awesome was this costume? Wish I still had it, but the kids ruined it after too much play and I'm not sure i have it in me to remake it. It was a bit time consuming and I only had one child. Maybe next year we can stir their creative juices once again....

Spooktacular

Last Sunday we headed to the zoo for an event that we hadn't been to there before: Spooktacular. Apparently the rest of the city decided to head out there too. It was insanely crazy when we initially got there. So many kids, all in costumes, and it was like a lost child waiting to happen. That being said, we didn't get too many pictures. There were stations set up all over where you could get candy and do different activities.

First up, face painting and hair spraying for Abby. As you can see, her hair has grown in quite a bit. Thankful for fast growing hair!! She is attempting to sit perfectly still here.
Can you see the sparkles and blue spray in her hair? They didn't have pink, so blue had to do. Speaking of which, Abby is on costume number three this year. She was going to be a mermaid (which we bought and now are in need of returning), then SuperGirl (I vetoed that one due to price) and her third choice then was the fairy which she's content with.

They were feeding the elephants while we were there, which was fun to see. We had never seen an elephant being fed before and it's amazing how much they use their noses like a hand. This guy had even discovered how to beg for more.

Our little cub. Have you ever seen a more adorable guy?

The fun even wore him out a bit. Jonah isn't in the pictures, but I'm sure we'll get him covered this weekend.

Prepare to Be Amazed

River City Rodeo

A few weekends ago Brian, the kids and I headed out to the River City Rodeo to check out the sights... and smells. It just so happens that the second largest rodeo in the world is held in Omaha every year and we have never been out to see it! There were tons of free activities for the kids and in true rodeo fashion, the kids and I even shared a turkey leg for lunch. Yep, we're that family.

We didn't really know what to expect when we arrived and this is what we walked in to. There were calves, sheep, pigs, chickens, and other livestock lined up from wall to wall. The animals were being ushered from here to there by all the 4-H kids, so we even had some close encounters with animals. And our strollers might have gotten caked with manure too. :)

In my attempt to get a picture of the kids in the Qwest Center "barn", I squatted. The kids decided they should too. :) Can you see Abby's new cowgirl boots? She loves them.

Levi's favorite part: the lights. As we were sitting back and admiring the livestock, the man on the left asked us where we were from. We told him Omaha, chatted a bit, and then he asked if the kids would like to see a calf up close. Nebraskans are the best, I tell you. So nice!! Anyway, we said sure and he brought his calf over to this holding pen and let the kids have a turn at grooming her. The kids were so grateful and loved pretending to be a cowboy/cowgirl. Although you can't tell, there were all kinds of studded leather for purchase. I always had wondered where some of these cowgirl items were found. :)
Upstairs they had a special area with all kinds of educational agricultural activities. We don't have any pictures of those (daddy was on the phone working and mommy was attempting to not lose any of the children at this time). There was also face painting and since everything else was free, we indulged the kids. They loved getting to choose what to have painted.
We couldn't leave Levi out of all the fun! What a cute little cornhusker.
After lunch they gave a free tour of where the rodeo actually was being held. It was so cool to get behind the scenes info about the rodeo and we learned a lot about this sport. We would love to get tickets to go next year! By the way, this is the Qwest Center arena, where Brian actually played Creighton at. In this picture we are standing on 8 inches of dirt. Amazing!

Ah, Memories

I was listing a bunch of things on Craigslist this morning and came across these long lost pictures from when Uncle Nick and Aunt Ali were here in early July. We loved having you guys out!! Can't wait to do it again sometime. On a side note, look at Abby's long, flowing hair. Holy cow. Brian and I both commented that we hardly recognize her like this. I am never cutting her hair again. Just kidding... sort of.

Thank you, Nick and Abby, for being the only ones to listen when I said, "Say cheese!" :) Come on, Ali!