We Moved Again

In keeping with our vagabond lifestyle...we have moved again, to our fifth home this year. This time we are living in Albuquerque, New Mexico for 1 month. Josh will be doing a rotation in disaster medicine through the emergency department at the University of New Mexico. He is pretty excited about it because he'll get to do cool stuff like go on ambulance and helicopter rides, learn about hazardous materials, learn about mountain rescues, etc.

So far, we are enjoying Albuquerque. It looks a lot like Phoenix being in a desert, but it actually has a lot more big trees and no cactus. The temperature is about 10-15 degrees cooler, there is an actual river with water running through it, and there are big mountains nearby. It is way smaller than the Phoenix area, but it is still a big city with big city features: big established freeways, malls, museums, a zoo, traffic, suburbs. The only thing it's missing is a big sports team. But, we think we'll like it here.

We decided to take a longer, more scenic route to Albuquerque and we made a few stops on the way. We spent a day in Flagstaff and enjoyed going for a walk in the cool pines.

Next, we headed to northeastern Arizona, a region of Arizona neither Josh nor I had ever been to before. We went to Monument Valley because it has all those famous buttes you see whenever somone/something wants to depict the 'typical' Southwest. It's so famous, even our road atlas has a picture of Monument Valley!

The whole region really is quite beautiful and amazing. We only wish that we had had more time and the means to hike around longer.

Our last point of interested was Four Corners. Now we can say we've been in four states at one time! It was our first time touching ground in Colorado, since the only other times we had been to Colorado was in the Denver airport.

Family Pictures

We got family pictures taken while we were in Phoenix. My friend Kaylea did them, and I think they turned out great! (http://kayleapphotography.blogspot.com/) We found a fun place in downtown Chandler, and Owen even cooperated well, most of the time!

Josh is 30!!!

This is what a 30 year old looks like.

Don't we hope/wish we could all look this good?

:)

We were excited to be able to spend Josh's birthday with family. We did a lot more than we would have done if it were just the two of us. I made him a warm breakfast of pancakes and made him a cheesy, yet still fun, candybar poster. For his birthday presents I gave him the only things he wanted...some nice Smith sunglasses from one of our favorite websites, Steep and Cheap, and an Iron Gym pull-up bar that fits in a doorway. He has been a happy man with his gifts.

Thursday we left Owen with the babysitter (grandma) and we went out for dinner to Texas Roadhouse. Josh hates it when they come sing to you at restaurants, and somehow I let it slip that it was his birthday. So Josh was thoroughly embarrased by the birthday YEEHA'S the waitresses shouted out. But we got a free dessert out of it all, which was the best part.

Saturday we had a little family BBQ for his birthday. I made him angel food cake, per his request. I put 30 candles on it, and he blew them all out in one puff!

Sunday evening we had another get-together with some of my extended family where we had a combined celebration for Josh and my sister Cassie who turns 16 next week. As the birthday boy, Josh had to wear some birthday stickers. You can tell he was thrilled. Over the past few days we have been spoiled with lots of attention and good food and lots of cake! We've loved it!

Canyon Lake

On Friday we spent the afternoon at Canyon Lake. Josh's sister and her husband have a boat and we were lucky enough to have them take us out. One reason why I love Arizona is because even though it's October, we can still have fun at the lake while other places are getting snow already! {sorry if you're one of them, ha ha!} The water was a bit on the chilly side but not enough to stop us from getting in.

We did a little wakeboarding, and for not having done much wakeboarding before, Josh was pretty good at it. I had only tried wakeboarding once before and never could get up, so I didn't have very high expectations this time. To my surprise, I got up on my second try! I only lasted a few seconds though. Unfortunately, I forgot to have Josh take pictures or video so I have no proof. Next time.

Owen had a great time on the boat! We did make him wear a pink life jacket, and he did get called a girl, but he still had fun nonetheless. We put him in the water for just a few seconds and he wanted right out because it was too cold for him. The motor and movement of the boat seemed to calm him and he just relaxed and enjoyed himself much of the time. He loved looking at all the other boats too.

The cousins pooped out after a long day.

Owen is such a serious sleeper!

Swim Lessons

Owen just finished his swim lessons at a local YMCA. He had 8 classes, and I think they were a success. The instructor didn't do a whole lot of actual instructing, because you can't really do a whole lot with a 13 month old. But by the end of the time he was a lot more comfortable in the water and he wasn't scared. He learned to kick his legs and move his arms, he got somewhat comfortable on his back, he did pretty well when we put him under water, and he even started to blow a few bubbles. I hope that these lessons prepared him for being comfortable around water and learning how to swim!

Phoenix Zoo

The Phoenix Zoo was free every Wednesday this month, so we took advantage of it and went twice! Josh finished his rotations last week so he was even able to come with us this week. It was packed with people and quite hot, but they have a really fun water splash area for kids which kept us nice and cool.


Owen loves the water and he wanted to go play in the little lake and play with the ducks. Some of his favorite animals were the giraffes, the lions, the big-horned cattle, and the flamingos. He just wished we would have let him play with the animals!

Owen's First Haircut

Owen finally got his first haircut!

I had been pretty resistant to cutting his hair, while Josh had been encouraging me to do it for quite some time now. He thought the the longer hair in back should be the same length as the shorter hair on top, but I just didn't think he had enough hair to cut, seeing as he still appears pretty bald! I said I would wait until the hair grew past the bottom of his natural hair line. Well, he finally had grown a mini mullet so it was time to bust out the buzzers!

Owen did really well and held real still for me. It helped that we put him in one of his favorite places...the bathtub. I'll admit I was a bit sad to see his super soft, super fine baby hair come off (which I saved of course), but his hair does look much better now. He is such a cute little man!!! Now hopefully he'll start to grown some hair on top. :)

before

during

after

We Love the Mountains

A favorite thing to do during hot Phoenix summers is to escape the heat and head up to Arizona's high country. We had been looking forward to taking a trip to the mountains for a long time! We had such a great time. We went to Pine and stayed with Josh's grandparents. (unfortunately I didn't get any decent pictures of them!)

I was able to borrow a baby backpack carrier (thanks Marie!!!) so we were able to do some hiking with Owen. We love hiking! We did two hikes on Strawberry Mountain in Pine...a short hike on Friday and a little longer hike on Saturday morning. Friday afternoon Josh's parents and aunt Christ joined up with us. After lunch we drove to the top of the Rim and walked around Pivot Rock Canyon. Josh and I have camped there before, and we think it's such a pretty spot! We didn't really hike because Owen had a blast just playing in the dirt and rocks and sticks! Needless to say, he got pretty dirty.

Owen taking me exploring. He held my finger and led me all around. He was so interested in everything.

We found a few little critters on our hikes. A baby horned toad...

....and a little garter snake (no, that's not me holding it).

Nice bonding moments with grampa. They both look like they're deep in thought.

We had four dogs along with us, and we tried to get a pictures of all of them together with Owen, but it was nearly impossible! Owen sure loved having all the dogs to play with though!

Crafts

I've been in a little bit of a crafty mood recently, and these are my lastest creations.

This is my first mod podge project. It was fairly easy since it involves simply covering wooden letters with paper. The most time consuming part was cutting out the paper and sanding it down on the edges. I also couldn't help but get clumps of mod podge stuck in the corners, not sure how to avoid that. I plan to hang them in Owen's bedroom in Chicago, but I still haven't decided exactly how to hang them...maybe hang them with ribbon (but is that too girly??) or perhaps mount them to larger square or circle pieces of wood.

Thanks to a tutorial my friend Tifani posted on her blog a while back, I made this adorable sock monkey for Owen. I had intended to give it to him for his birthday, but that somehow didn't manage to happen. It really was pretty easy and I hope Owen can enjoy it for years to come!

The next project I'm planning is a quiet book, you know the cute felt kind with buttons and zippers and pockets and snaps that Owen can play with in church or other places I want him to be quiet. If anyone knows of a great tutorial, please let me know!

Summoned

Today I received that dreaded letter in the mail.

I got a Jury Summons, my very first one.

I've been registered to vote for nearly 10 year now, so I think I did pretty good avoiding jury duty for 10 years!

I've always wondered when I would get my first summons, and I've often thought how I would be able to get out of it. I know it's my civil duty and all, but everyone knows jury duty is not really fun nor is it ever convenient.

Luckily for me, they summoned me to the Phoenix court (who knows why) and I am a resident of Chicago, so I don't qualify.

Whew!