Year in Review: Part 12 - Christmas Time is Here

Our Christmas Tree - We decided to get a permit to cut down our own tree this year. It was pretty cool. We went and got breakfast and then drove up to the mountain to get our tree. At first it was a little frustrating because, let's be honest, the desert isn't the place you would really look for a Christmas tree. But after some searching we ended up with one that we were all happy with. In the permit instructions they had all the guidelines and warnings. We kept quoting and laughing about "A tree in the forest looks smaller than a tree in your house." You know there are tons of people that find "the perfect tree" and get home only to find out that their 18ft tree doesn't fit in their 10ft ceiling house. I wish I would have gotten a picture of Dan cutting the tree down but... Here he is strapping it to the car. We let Orson play around in the car while we were strapping it down because we were close to a cliff and to the road. But he had fun On our way down the mountain we had to stop for a herd of big horn sheep. I didn't notice how winding the roads were on the way up but I definitely noticed on the way down. I was 8 months pregnant and got so sick we had to stop several times so I could throw up. It was awful but we got a tree and it was a good family outing. Decorating the tree, and here is the finished product. Isn't it lovely? Breakfast with Santa - Safford does this event every year that you can get tickets to have breakfast with Santa Claus. Orson started out super excited and then we saw the line. This is him so excited to sit with Santa... ...and he gets a little bored and tired... ...Dan had Orson on his shoulders so he could see Santa... Sitting with Santa Family picture with Santa You Can't Catch Me, I'm the Gingerbread Man- Orson was obsessed with gingerbread men cookies this Christmas. We found a really good recipe and had a family night making gingerbread cookies. YUM!

Year in Review: Part 11 - Halloween

We knew Dan was going to be at work for Halloween and so I didn't feel like going all out this year like usual. We went and looked at costumes, we looked on the internet and we asked Orson what he wanted to be. He chose an Angry Bird (of course) it was between that and Wall-E. But It turned out good and Orson loves his costume. I took a boys sweatshirt and I stuffed it full of plastic bags to give him the roundness. :) I sewed felt for the tail and the head feathers. I went as the King Pig and we went to trunk-or-treat and then I took Orson up and down our block. He had a lot of fun!

Year in Review: Part 10 - Orson Play

A Boy and His Dog- Late Summer got really hot here and I didn't want Orson to get heat stroke from being out in the sun. I tried to think of something we could do that would get his energy out and get him the sunshine we both needed. Before we found out about the covered playground, I had the brilliant idea to fill a tuperware bin with water and gave Orson some bath toys to play with. I also thought Oscar would like being outside with us. Orson quickly found out that throwing Oscar's sqeaker in the water was much more fun. So happy to be outside! We love our doggy! Oscar didn't think it was fun to have his sqeaker in the water. I love this picture. Oscar is all concerned that Orson has his squeaker and Orson is not giving it up. Playground- The women societies of Safford all got together and realized that the summers are WAY too hot to bring kids outside to a playground that they would burn themselves on if they were to play. So you can see all these playgrounds around town with NO kids playing because it's too hot. So these wise women decided to build a covered playground. It's amazing! Great equiptment, and the ground is covered with recycled tires or rubber so the broken legs and concussions go down to a minimum. :) Orson loves the swings, he pretends to be Spiderman. Orson always says "What's going on up here?" whenever he is at this part of the fort... I don't know why. At the top of one of the slides. In the tunnel Orson looks so much like my little brother Haelyn in this picture. We go to the playground very often. We've even been there while it was raining. Man, those ladies are smart cookies. :) Good thing for us.

Year in Review: Part 9 - Family Togetherness

Apples to Apples- One of Dan's coworkers told us about an apple orchard that is up the mountain from where we live. We thought that would be a great family activity to do on a day off. Angle Orchard is a family owned orchard that let you go pick apples yourself or select from the ones that they have picked. I think they were $.44/lb (I think, they were really cheap) and they were delicious. We got a few different varieties but the golden delicious were my very favorite. It was really cool. They let you eat the apples to taste them. Orson loved it and probably ate three apples by himself. Picking apples with Daddy I had to take a picture of this cat. It was up on the roof because one of the dogs chases it. Orson kept wanting to hold it and pet it. He was a little upset that it wouldn't come down. Me picking apples Orson eating apples A very small part of Angle Orchard This kid loves apples! Orson and Mommy Orson and Daddy with their golden delicious apples Happy family Orson was so worn out from the trip the he started an apple... ...and fell asleep eating it. :) Happy Halloween Gingerbread House- One night Dan wanted to make a Halloween gingerbread house from a kit that we had from forever ago. We mixed the frostings and Orson and Dan went to town on it. While Dan and I mixed we put on Nightmare Before Christmas. Orson got a little bored at first and played with his milk. (and by "played", I mean that he made a mess) Oscar laid on the rug by the table so he could be with the family. Phoenix Zoo- Dan had been having a rough few weeks at work and on one of his days off we got up and started to get ready for the day and decided, kind of spur of the moment, that we needed a family outing and chose to go to the zoo. Phoenix is a 3 hour drive from here so we hurried to get everything ready to go. Packing a breakfast, snacks, water, sunscreen, hats, etc. Orson stayed awake the whole drive until 15 minutes before we got to the zoo. We were sad to wake him up but we knew he would be excited. The Phoenix Zoo is SUPER expensive and even more so because you pay to get in and then they have you pay for all the other extras. Petting the stingrays, riding camels, feeding giraffes, pedal boats, viewing big horn sheep through telescope/binoculars. It was pretty ridiculous. BUT... They did have some cool exhibits, including this fort that you went up to see the savannah animals exhibit (water buffalo, giraffe, gazelle, etc). The fort was cool and had wobbley stairs that Orson went up and down about 15 times. Even though it was fall, Phoenix was still about 90 degrees and the animals were all in the shade, most of them sleeping. The lioness... One of Orson's favorite animals at the zoo is the rhino. The ones at the Denver Zoo are pretty sad compared to this one. Look at those horns! Impressive! Outside the meerkat exhibit was a little cave for kids to play in. This was one of the craziest things I've ever seen personally at a zoo. There were these two little girls that were laughing at the mama and baby mandrill and I guess the daddy didn't like that. He prowled right over to the girls (only the glass separted them) and he bared his teeth and beat his chest as if to say "Mine! Back off!" It was pretty terrifying. I'm glad there was glass separating him from us. He went back to his family and herded them away. I would have gotten more pictures but the zoo was more like a hiking trip and I was pregnant and running low on energy and enthusiasm. :) After the Zoo we went to eat some Indian food and then we stayed to do a favor for Dan's coworker. Orson fell asleep on the ride home about 7 pm and slept until 9 am the next morning. All in all... great family activity!