Just steps from our house

We are moved into our house!  Sort of.  One week in and there are still boxes everywhere.  And a depressing lack of places to sit.  But that hasn't stopped us from enjoying our new neighborhood.  And because we're homeschoolers, we have a reputation to protect.  So here we go!

The Phoenix Mountain Preserve is 390 steps from our front door.  (Those are my steps.  Both kids gave up counting because they kept losing count.)

At 491 steps, here is the scene (BYO kid):

 

590 steps:

 

761 steps:

 



 



 

798 steps:

   

852 steps:

     

It was very close to this place where (today) we saw four coyotes walking across near the top of the hill.

   

And finally at the nearby (accessible) peak, 1155 steps.  Marcus says, "We finally made it!"

 

Stuart says, "This is the kind of place where I could sit and write a story."  Not that he's even filling in his nature journal.

         

You can see part of our house in this picture, it you know where to look.

 

Everyday life.

Just a few snippets of everyday life.  Today I walked up the stairs to find this:


Stuart is doing a book for Which Way USA.  He loves them and has been completing many of the state books lately.  Marcus was reading a book he borrowed from Stuart.  Here's the loan slip.  Yes, Stuart rarely remembers to capitalize anything.



Spike has taken to sleeping at the foot of our apartment stairs.  The boys jump over him all the time.

 

Halloween costumes!  Stuart was thrilled to finally be Robin hood.  Marcus, inundated with change lately, chose to wear a costume he got for Christmas almost two years ago.

 

Apache Trail and another trail

Yes, I haven't posted in too long.  We've been busy.  But I did take some pictures this weekend!  We took a nice loooooooong drive on the Apache trail.  It's in the Tonto National Forest, which was closed-due-to-shutdown.  But that meant mostly locked bathrooms and no camping.  The viewpoints weren't closed.  That would be stupid.


   

Stu finally got his new Outback onto a dirt road!  See all the dirt?



Even a rare picture of me.  With the boys, of course.

 

This next picture is actually from a trail near our apartment.  We were hiking there with some friends earlier today.  Stuart (and another boy) spent a great deal of time leaping around so I could get midair pictures of them.  Here's the most obvious midair pic from Stuart.  Someday I should compile all the midair pics I have of Stuart, starting back when his dad would throw him in the air--before he could even walk.

Bike path!

We found some bike paths near our apartment.  We also saw some quail, two chipmunks, and a rabbit.

             

Arizona Science Center.

Yesterday we used a Culture Pass from the library and went to the Arizona Science Center.  I'm fairly sure we could still be there today, in the atrium, putting balls into various contraptions and getting wet.

So many balls.  What to do with them?



  

House building!



 

Stuart designed a floor plan for a house.  It had five bedrooms, four bathrooms, an interior courtyard, lots of backyard shaded patio.  For some reason the sofa was in the dining room, though.

 

Back to the atrium!  More balls!

 

Stuart pulled himself up using pullies.

   

Then he used his considerable strength to play tug-of-war.



Marcus spun on the spinny thing and looked cute.

  

Is that the atrium?  Can we go back out there again?

 

 

 

The boys may also be on local TV on Tuesday afternoon, as there was a film crew there and they both participated in the filming.