Thanks to my generous friend Yulia,we were able to spend the night of December 28th in Chandler, Arizona, in a cozy warm apartment. The girls shared a bed, Aurora cuddled up with several blankets in a crib, and Nathan and I got comfortable on a memory foam mattress...*sigh of contentment*. The next morning, we were ready to have some fun in Phoenix before heading home.
And oh what fun we had! We decided to visit the Arizona Science Center, a science museum of which we'd heard good word, for the first time ever. Luckily, we had recently purchased a membership with a partnering museum, so we would get into this museum for free! I had heard rumors there would be real, honest-to-goodness snow at the Science Center that week, so we decided to pay them a visit and find out...
...and we weren't disappointed! I'm not quite sure where it came from (the staff alluded to "buying" it from people who apparently "make" snow for a living), but there was a nice little snowdrift on the museum's front lawn when we arrived at the museum just as it was opening for business.
As you can imagine, our girls (and every other kid in the vicinity) was going nuts over the snow.
The background kids were even making a snowman...and another kid brought a sled!
We ended up staying outside a lot longer than expected...it was tough to pull the kids away from the snow! But we finally made it inside, to check out the cool Lego creations...
...and then head down the cavernous main hall...
...and finally, before going through the main gate, checking out the giant floating microscope with an eyeball staring at us (hint: the "eyeball" was Aurora's; she was peering into a matching super-microscope nearby). We liked the design of this place, and were excited to see the rest of the building.
Can I just say how much fun this museum was for everybody? So, after getting cold and wet from the snow, our first stop was the outdoor courtyard with all these cool water experiments. So then our kids got super-wet all over again. This time, Nathan and I got wet, too!
Nathan got really involved in creating this water-pipe sculpture-fountain thingy
In the summer, I am sure this is a nice refreshing area for everyone, what with all the water splashing around. It was still really fun, but it was a chilly day, so we were pretty cold after playing there!
To warm up, we headed back inside and played with a bunch of Legos...
...and then moved on ahead to check out the "human body" portion of the museum. The little girls loved crawling around in a giant stomach (ew!)
...and Lorelai loved this interactive board. There's an "unadorned" diagram of a human body on the tabletop, but when you move the special panel across the body, it "reveals" the various body systems, depending on what settings you enter (digestive, circulatory, etc.)
There was also this balanced bike that older kids could ride through the air on a tightrope. Lorelai was old enough to go, but she refused...I can't blame her! It looked pretty high up to me, too!
Here's a rotating drum with guitar strings in front. Hard to tell by the picture, but the interweaving moving lines reveal the shape of the vibrating guitar strings...basically, you can "see" the sound-waves. Cool!
The next room we found dealt with various kinds of force and energy...it might have been our favorite. The girls could have stayed in this room for hours!
Haul the wheels up the groove...
...let them roll down the slope...
...and then start it all over again! Yay...it never gets dull!
Celeste on the centrifugal force machine
Lorelai in a pulley "tug of war"
Mama, trying to pull her fat self up using only her own strength
Each of us took a turn lying on the retractable "bed of nails"...for the record, it was fairly comfy!
We found another cool room upstairs that had lots of displays about weather. The highlight was an interactive platform that re-created natural disasters in miniature.
Standing atop this platform, you'd alternately get sizzled by heat lamps
(for "volcano eruptions" or "heat waves"), blasted by wind (for
"tornados" and "hurricanes"), get damp from actual "rainfall" (for
"hurricanes" and "monsoons"), get blinded by strobe lights (for
"lightning"), and even have the ground beneath your feet rumble and
shake (for "earthquakes" and "volcanoes").
The program ran every several minutes, and there were a lot of visitors who just kept jumping back on that platform and getting blasted by all the intense "weather" over and over again...including Celeste and Aurora. Lorelai, with her huge imagination, was actually pretty scared of it...I think she was imagining an actual hurricane sweeping us all away.
She felt better after a few minutes, though, when she wandered off to try out some other experiments!
After a long but very fun visit, we bid the Science Center a reluctant farewell. On the way out, we checked out the snowdrift. This being Phoenix (where a day in the 60s is considered "cold"), the snow level was sadly depleted...
Before...
...and after.
Since it was just a few days after Christmas, some of the museum volunteers were holding a "fruitcake launch" outside as well, complete with catapults! Funny stuff.
All that science made us hungry, so on the way out of town we stopped by a restaurant Nathan had heard a lot about and wanted to try. It's a Texas-style barbecue joint called Rudy's.
The interior was pretty no-frills (everyone sat on benches at cheap tables, for instance), and you are served food by the half-pound, poured out on butcher paper, for you to divide the spoils with whomever you see fit. And the food. Ooooh...the food...
Yes, the presentation is poor, but trust me...this is great stuff!
I am not a huge barbecue fan normally...I enjoy it, but don't seek it out (in fact, I've come to prefer the "Mexican-style BBQ" to the "Texas-style" since moving to Arizona). However, maybe that's just because I haven't had Texas barbecue done right before. And now, thanks to Rudy's, I have seen the light. There was not one thing I ate there that was bad.
Yes, we devoured everything so quickly that all I could photograph was the greasy aftermath! Well, except for their ridiculously yummy creamed corn, because we ordered a lot of it...
For the record, we bought a half-pound each of pulled pork, moist brisket, sausage, and spare ribs. None of it survived long! Besides the corn, we also bought some potato salad and green chili stew, which was surprisingly my favorite item! I could have slurped that stew down all day! Maybe if I were to visit in the summer, it would be less appealing, but in the winter it really hit the spot.
The kids seemed to enjoy it too! Suffice it to say, we will definitely be returning sometime later!
After our filling meal, we piled into the car and headed for home. It had been a great weekend...not only were we able to discover some cool new places in Phoenix, but we had a great time visiting the temple and having some spiritual uplift as well. On to 2013!
Even though Christmas had come and gone, our family wasn't finished partying yet. And by "partying," I mean, "traveling up to Phoenix for an overnighter and a trip to the Mesa Temple." So, not partying, per se, but taking a day trip, visiting some new places, eating out a few times, and generally having fun with the family.
We made it up to Phoenix in the early afternoon of December 28th; Nathan and I decided to each attend a temple session solo, while the other person watched the kids. This is usually our arrangement during our family temple trips; however, this time we had slightly more ambitious plans for what to do while we attended the temple...at least, Nathan did. My goal was to simply keep them entertained and hopefully help them get some wiggles out.
Nathan got first "shift" in the temple, and since it was lunchtime (albeit a little late), I cruised around central Mesa trying to find a place to eat. I finally settled on this place...
Look! They conveniently carve their names on every booth, in case you're old and forget where you are!
...a decision I would come to regret for a few reasons. I guess we've been spoiled living in Tucson, which is a Mecca for high-quality, authentic Mexican food, but everything at this "family restaurant" tasted "off" to me...especially my chicken cooked in spicy ketchup (ugh...). The girls seemed okay with most of their food, but a sit-down restaurant is still very hard for them; they wiggled like crazy the entire time. Thank goodness we were there at off-peak time, because they put up quite a fuss (and as you can see from the picture, Aurora turned her utensils into musical instruments for a distressingly long portion of the meal).
Thankfully, once all our bellies were full, the kids were able to run to their heart's content for an hour or so at Pioneer Park, a large park (with a large playground!) just north of the temple itself.
Here, Lorelai and Celeste played an interesting game called "Space Danger," which involved scenario after scenario of a spaceship being attacked by aliens/destroyed by asteroids, and the "astronauts"/us having to jump out into space to "survive." Kind of a psychologically stressful game, but the girls enjoyed it.
Aurora, on the other hand, was content to run and run, as is her wont:
Pretty soon after that, Nathan got out of the temple, and it was my turn to attend a session inside. While there, Nathan took the girls back to the SeaLife Aquarium at the Arizona Mills Mall, a place the girls and I had visited over the summer. Nathan regretted missing out, so we got him some tickets, and off they went for another round! He didn't take any pictures of the event; I imagine it looked just like it did last time we attended. They all had great fun, and they arrived back at the Temple's Visitors Center just a short time before I made it out of the temple itself.
The girls always enjoy sitting near the statue of Christ...
...and feeling the prints of the nails in his feet.
By this time, the temple was starting to look very festive; one reason we love coming up at Christmastime are the beautiful lights all over the temple grounds.
After taking in the beautiful lights, we drove around aimlessly looking for some dinner (we finally settled on a nearby Red Robin). By dinner's end, our kids were exhausted, and it was time to hit the hay. A friend of mine from my mission lives in nearby Gilbert, and she graciously let us spend the night at her cozy apartment, since she and her family were out of town for the holidays. It was so nice to have a "real" home to sleep in, instead of an impersonal (and more expensive!) hotel. Yulia's apartment was clean, cozy, and felt full of love. The girls enjoyed playing with the little girl toys lying around, and then everyone quickly fell asleep.
The next day of our Phoenix trip would bring even more excitement!
This one will be mostly pictures, since mere words can't really do the Christmas madness justice!
Anyway, this is what Christmas Eve looks like in my neck of the woods...
...it looks a lot like Labor Day (or maybe Halloween) everywhere else! Green grass, blue skies, cool breezes, bright sunshine...aah. This is the time of year when I can gloat about living in Arizona. I love snow, and I love cold days, and I do miss them sometimes down here. However, I have also come to appreciate the mild, crisp Arizona winters.
We started our Christmas Eve with a trip to the park near our house. We ran the whole gamut of seasons that day...we also got to see a lot of fall color!
The girls (and Daddy) also got to amuse themselves on the swings...
As the sky darkened, we headed home and got our big Christmas feast ready (ham, mashed potatoes, rolls, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, the works). Why were we celebrating "Christmas dinner" on Christmas Eve? Because this year, we had some good friends coming over to visit...
The Clawsons are a great family who we've known for a few years. They lived in our LDS ward boundaries for a time, then moved to another house in the neighborhood. We still kept in touch through various church and social activities, and Tawnya is a hairdresser who has given Nathan and I pretty good haircuts over the years.
Tawnya & Josh Clawson, and their kids Kyrick and Maliyah (with another girl baby on the way!)
Sadly, Josh and Tawnya decided to move back to Idaho to pursue a different job opportunity...and they chose the day after Christmas as their moving day! By Christmas Eve, their house had already been cleared out and they were "homeless," staying at a friend's empty house until the moving van could arrive. So we decided to have them as guests and give them a slightly "homier" Christmas Eve than they may otherwise have had.
We all had a wonderful time; dinner was great, we played a few board games, and the kids all played well together. Then all the kids got to open just one present, being Christmas Eve and all. They were very excited. And what were the new gifts?
New pajamas!! (Aurora had received new PJs a month or two before, so she received a cute new outfit). Everyone couldn't wait to show off their new duds for the cameras:
After all was said & done, we bid the Clawsons a reluctant farewell. We'll really miss them!! Still, it was a great way to say goodbye. After they left, all that remained was cleaning the kitchen and making the final arrangements for the Big Morning:
Santa got baklava as his treat...we treat our guests well!! (we also left out carrots for the reindeer)
The girls went to bed late on Christmas Eve, but still awoke filled with excitement. Their grinning faces over their cereal bowls tell it all!
Look! "Santa" left a note for the kids!
We tackled the stockings first:
And then set to work slowly, methodically tearing into all the presents under the tree.
Aurora with a moose from Grandma
Each girl got a fluffy Disney princess blanket; Aurora quite liked hers!
Aurora loved her little RC dog
Compared to last Christmas (A trampoline! A Wii!), this was a little smaller and more reserved...lots of small cheap presents, few big flashy ones. But no one seemed to mind. Everyone was very excited by all their gifts and all the goodies. The biggest items we received were board games...several of them! Most of them were family games that even the girls could play with us. It was nice to get gifts we could all share!
Daddy getting in touch with his "little girl" side...
Lorelai really wanted to knock those pigs down with the Angry Birds
Celeste managed complete tower destruction pretty early on
Action shot!
The Angry Birds game was a big hit (of course; wanton destruction never goes out of style). Our favorite family game so far, though, is the a board game called Viva Topo! It's a simple cat-and-mouse game, where a cat figure chases the mice around the board, trying to catch the mice before they disappear down several strategically placed holes and make off with all the cheese. It's very simple, but it has a good built-in natural tension and the girls love it. Their excitement is contagious, and so I (and even Nathan, the seasoned board-gamer) find ourselves having a really good time.
Even Grandma and Grandpa Barrett stopped by for a little while to enjoy the fun...
...although I don't think "Hedbandz" is Grandpa's game. He kept asking needlessly complex questions. While it did not help him guess his card correctly, it did make me desperately want an adult party version of this game...it would be really fun to play it with Grandpa Barrett!
Anyway. Christmas day gradually degenerated into everyone lying around, eating chocolate and leftover ham, getting into fights, and smashing brand-new piggy banks...
Wouldn't be Christmas without at least one casualty...
We got each of the girls a piggy bank for Christmas, thinking it will get them thinking more carefully about saving money. Unfortunately, Aurora got a little keyed-up (as she is wont to do) and dropped this piggy bank on our unforgiving tile floor. Oh, well...at least Lorelai and Celeste still have piggy banks! Aurora will have to wait for hers for another few years.
After that, Aurora took a well-earned Christmas nap under her soft brand-new blanket...
Visions of sugarplums, perhaps?
I wiled away the evening watching A Christmas Story on DVD. It's still one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies. It was perfect timing for watching it, too; the movie ends on Christmas night, with Mom and Dad looking out the window of their messy living room, Christmas tree filling the room with its glow, and snow softly pouring down outside. Sadly, we had no snow out our window, but everything else in our home matched that scene. It's that contented, relaxed, peaceful feeling that only comes on Christmas night, when the house is filled with excitement, happiness, and love. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
