Pieloch. Arizona.

Tanya says I have to get blogging. I don't always do what people tell me, but I've been meaning to start blogging again.

Stu and Stuart arrived in Phoenix on Thursday.  Stuart took some pictures with Stu's phone, and that's all the pictures we have.


 


My moving experiences was less about taking pictures and more about getting rid of stuff, painting, and cleaning.  Here's another of Stuart's pictures.


 

Friday morning, I was dragging stuff out to the dumpster in the cold, hard Oregon rain.  On September 6, which is unseasonable and downright unfriendly.  Marcus, Spike and I flew out Friday afternoon.  That was blessedly uneventful, except they swabbed my hands in airport security.  Because I carried the cat in my arms through the metal detector.  Huh?  Friday evening, we ran to the car in an even heavier rain, but it was about 90 degrees and it ended quickly.

Being homeschoolers, and fitting the stereotype in some ways, our first real non-food outing was to the park and to get library cards.  Our local library branch is about three times the size of our branch back in Portland.  Larry Correia and Sarah Hoyt on the shelf! A wide selection of Terry Pratchett!  Disney movies, just sitting on the DVD rack in the kids' section!  Ten books on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in kids' nonfiction!

The kids had been getting a bit wild this morning, so it was nice to resume our post-library book-zombie reading party tradition.

Anyway, we are so glad to finally be here.  We have soooooo many things to do, boring things like buying trash cans and getting drivers' licenses and figuring out how to get to church tomorrow.  And finding doctors and a vet and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Spike is now old and blind.  He's having a harder time adjusting to the move, obviously.  Right now he's walking a circle in our living room/dining room, unable to find the litter box or his food bowl.  In a minute he'll meow and I'll pick him up and take him to each location until he stops meowing.

We aren't going to start school until after the truck comes, because all the school stuff went on the truck.  I will be SO GLAD to get back to school.  The boys learn nonstop anyway, but it will be nice to get back to a routine.

We managed to find townhome apartments, so at least we're not disturbing other residents below us when the kids stomp around.  I hope.  I haven't been to the pool yet, but I hear it's lovely.

Arizona!

We took a short-notice trip to Arizona in the last week or so.  We flew into Las Vegas, rented a car and drove to the Hoover Dam.  It was 105 degrees and windy.  Those hats and (wet) bandannas may look dorky, but they saved our wimpy Oregonian selves in the heat.  (Why on earth would homeschoolers go to the desert in the summer, you ask?  We had our reasons.)


 

Then we stayed in Flagstaff while visiting the Grand Canyon.  We have long appreciated other people who are willing to take our picture, and then regret it because they take terrible pictures.  See what that very nice gentleman did with the picture below?

 

Now look!  Multiple pictures of family members at the Grand Canyon!  But not all of us at the same time.  Pictures don't do the Grand Canyon justice, really.  We went in on the east side and really enjoyed that it wasn't crowded.

 

I think Stuart was feeling the bright sun.  But he was being too stubborn to wear his sunglasses.

 

Grand!  Canyon!

     

After our day at the Grand Canyon, we headed through Sedona and to this great place called Slide Rock State Park.  This is a place so awesome that they charge $20 per car and it's still jam packed by lunchtime.  Why?  That water is COLD.  The place is beautiful.

 

Marcus did not partake of the slide rocks, but he did enjoy the cold water.

 

Stuart, on the other hand, spent nearly three hours sliding on the rocks.



At one point I took Stuart exploring upriver.  We walked for fifteen minutes and still didn't reach the end of the easy water play--or the end of the people.

 

The water was delightful.  The boys were very happy.

 

Eventually it got so crowded (and hot) that we had lunch and moved on.  On to Phoenix!  This pic was actually taken near the end of our visit, but what the hell.  It's near an open-to-the-public outdoor shooting range.  We could hear the shots while we were hiking.



This is from our first hike in the real heat.  It was probably 100 at 9am.  We only hiked for 20 minutes total because we weren't sure how the kids would do.  Turns out they were fine.

   

Then we got lunch, went back to the house where we were staying, and swam in the pool.  The water was between 85 and 90 degrees.  But since it was 110 degrees in the shade, it still felt good.

 

So we did more hiking.  A saguaro cactus can get big.

 

Also, prickly pear cactus can get big.  I flipped my hat brim up to take a picture, then forgot to flip it back down.  Sue me.



See those brochures the kids are holding?  Turns out those are great for knocking pieces of cholla cactus off the trail so you don't step on it.

That's really all the pictures I have, despite us spending almost seven days away.  The only other real place of note was the Arizona Natural History Museum in Mesa, which had dinosaur bones like crazy.  Then we had a VERY long day getting back to Las Vegas and then back to Portland, getting to our house after midnight.  Fun trip!

A few afternoon pictures, featuring Owl.

Today was pretty busy.  After a short Friday of school, we went to both libraries and then Family Swim time at the pool.  We got home late and quiet time ran later than usual.  And the kids were beat.  (So was I.)  Later on in the day, I thought to take some pictures.
 
Marcus got a book on owls from the library.  Today he decided he would read the book to Owl (his special guy) all by himself.  It was fascinating to listen to him use his limited phonics rules to sound out very big words.



Meanwhile, Stuart has fallen asleep during quiet time.  Sansa Clip in hand, audiobook playing to deaf ears.



Marcus uses this opportunity to have Owl make friends with Stu.



We see what Stuart thinks of that!  (Now that he is finally awake.)

Marcus tries to get Owl to fly by shaking him up and down to make his wings flap.  This was the most representative picture of the bunch.



I have video too, just not the patience to edit and post right now.

Random news of the day.

Random news #1: Giant beast blender started smoking and will be returned. *sob*

Random news #2: The kids started another session of swim classes today. Before we left for the pool, Marcus declared that Abby would be his teacher. (Abby was Stuart's teacher last time, and she's excellent.) We didn't even know if she would return for the Fall sessions. Guess what? Abby is his teacher!

Random news #3: I ran out of belt holes. I am officially getting too skinny for my belt. Paleo is seriously working for me.

Random news #4: We picked up a side of pork on Sunday, from the wonderful folks at Kookoolan Farms. I would love to gush about the tasty pork chops we had for dinner tonight, but sadly they were pork popsicles when I needed to sear them. So we had meatballs instead. Meatballs are tastier with a little ground pork in them! And yes, I made the fridge warmer.