Mommathon

In the morning we took a beautiful hike in the desert right outside our hotel. We were IN the desert. Colm is absolutely terrified of snakes and there was a VERY real possibility of us seeing one. I am super thankful that we did not because I don’t know what we would have done. The weather was perfect…a little warm with a light breeze…and it was a great family hike.

In case you are wondering what Colm is doing, he’s eating a pretzel.

Then we headed to Old Tucson Studios which is where they have shot lots of movies and TV shows. People walk around dressed up in time period clothes and the boys thought it was super cool.

This engine is apparently the most filmed engine ever.

Liam learning how to shoot a real gun with real bullets. He got three out of five shots close to the bullseye which I was impressed with since he’s never shot a gun in his life.

Panning for gold

We spent our morning at the Sonoran Desert Museum which I absolutely love. This was the third time I’d been there. Unfortunately, it was pretty hot that day, so a lot of animals were hiding in the shade and we didn’t get to see as many animals as I remember seeing on previous visits. It was still a great outing though and the boys still got to see lots of critters that live in the Sonoran Desert. My favorite are the javelinas which Liam also saw outside our hotel room one morning.

We spent the morning in Phoenix hiking around Papago Park which is near where I lived back in the late ’90s.

We hiked around on the path for a while and then decided to climb up a hill that was not on the path. We climbed up and scooted on our bottoms on the way down. Sean ripped out his pants and Liam got all the way down to the bottom of the hill safe and sound and then tripped on a rock and scraped up his knee pretty badly. We were done hiking anyways, so we went to a Walgreens where we could get some Band-Aids and Sean doctored him up.

We had lunch and then headed towards Tucson for the remainder of our trip.

The view from our room in Tucson.

A little poolside ping pong. I don’t know how I did’t get any pictures of them swimming in the lazy river. Both of our hotels had a lazy river and they spent quite a bit of time playing in both of them.

My friend, Kim, who grew up in Arizona highly recommended the Musical Instrument Museum. Holy cow! This is SUCH a cool place. A couple traveled the world and not only brought back instruments from every nook and cranny from all around the world, but also videotaped the native people playing the instruments…SO VERY COOL. The museum is divided up into continents and also has a room devoted to instruments for the children to play. This place is almost too big. We couldn’t do the whole thing.

See Colm’s headphones? The headphones know where you are in the museum so you can travel around the museum in whatever fashion you’d like and when you stop in front of a station it plays the music that is on the film footage that goes with that instrument.





One of the more “interesting” instruments. It’s from Malta.

After spending a large chunk of the day at the museum and another large chunk of the day playing at the pool I then went and met a couple of friends from when I lived in Phoenix. Rebecca was my roommate and I carpooled with Denise. Denise was also one of my maids of honor. They are two awesome ladies and I wish I would have taken a picture!!!

The view from our hotel room in Phoenix

The boys really wanted to go to Legoland again this year. I like Legoland as much as the next person, but it was definitely time to take a different direction with our vacations. I suggested Arizona since it’s warm and sunny and we used to live there. It turned out to be a great idea.

We went to Surprise, AZ where we watched the KC Royals play the Texas Rangers. We left in the middle of the 10th inning since we’d been up since 5:30 that morning so we’re not sure who won.

This is also where a very unhelpful policeman totally yelled at me when I stopped to ask him for directions. It’s a long story, but to sum it up, he felt like I should have had my blinker on and proceeded to be totally sarcastic with me and yell at me in front of the boys and Sean. It was fairly surreal and I was certain the Candid Camera must have been in the area. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Snowcones and baseball…the perfect combo!

Ever since my friend Kim told us there are salamanders and frogs that you can catch at our local pond, I knew we had to go. I knew the boys would love it and I am always up for anything that will get them out in nature a bit more. Today was the day. Kim and her girls and some neighbor girls met us at the pond with their three nets and the kids had a blast. They didn’t catch any frogs, but they did catch two salamanders. I don’t think I have ever seen a salamander up close before…they’re kind of slimy and alien-like. Oh well, the kids had fun.

The salamanders even made it into the group shot! 🙂

First of all, let me just say that I am eternally grateful that the boys are on the same baseball team this season. It means SO much to me. It makes my life so much easier and I hope they make a lot of fun memories together as well.

Their first practice last week was very chilly. They were dressed in lots of layers though and they did great. Their second practice was in the snow. Luckily, that also happened to be our wedding anniversary so the boys got to skip that practice since we all went out to dinner.

Last night’s practice was perfect until the sun began to set and then it got chilly. Today’s practice was PERFECT! (Yes, they have a lot of practices…four this week which is why I am so grateful they are on the same team. Otherwise, we would be going to eight different practices a week.) Blue skies and 63 degrees…it was so great, in fact, that practice ran an extra 30 minutes long which was totally fine. The boys were having a great time and no one had anywhere else they needed to be.

It snowed enough on Wednesday night that Thursday morning the boys had a late start for school which means they didn’t have to be there until 10:30 which was awesome because it gave them plenty of time to play in the snow before it melted.

Colm using my Martha Stewart lemon juicer to make snowballs.

I randomly chose this book of the library shelf, but when I went to go check it out, the librarian gave it rave reviews. I will say, it was a very good book. It was also a quick read. This isn’t the happiest of books and is actually quite depressing, but still, very good.

It follows the life of Charley, age 15, whose mom has abandoned him and whose dad gets killed shortly after the story begins. He is left in a new town with no parents, no friends and no way to make any money. He ends up taking a job with a man near the horse track that is near his house and that’s where the adventure begins. This poor kids sees and hears things that no one should ever have to, but his resiliency is amazing. With a little help from Pete, his beloved horse at the race track, he might just make it.

We had a busy night tonight. Colm had TKD belt testing and Liam had a music program at school. They both did a great job and we even managed to eat dinner before 8:00. 🙂

Forms

Admiring the medal he earned

The little girl to the left of Colm is the cutest little girl EVER.

Liam and his friends ready to sing and dance their way along the Oregon Trail