Paradise Found

Oh craziness.

We have been married for 10 years.

As in: a decade. As in: 2 college degrees, 3 kids, a roller coaster of life experiences, part time to full time to career employment, and settling into the more stable (fingers crossed) 30s that are heralded as the prime of life. Cheers.

So we took the celebration to Havasupi and enjoyed a few days in the most beautiful place on earth. Being there made me want to quit my job and run away from home.

So this hike began here, on the south side of the Grand Canyon, Hilltop trailhead. The town of Supai is the most remote town in the United States. It is an 8-mile hike from a parking lot that's pretty much in the middle of nowhere itself, and all of the town's mail is brought in by donkey.

Smart people carry their packs in like this. (donkey) Note that we are crazy.

After about 8 miles hiking through desert and red rocks, you hit the town of Supai...which kind of looks like a third world country. Animals are running through yards, clothes are hung on the line, residents are digging irrigation ditches, fences are made of chicken coop, and the garbage man is riding on a tractor. Except for the elementary school: that place was surrounded by security gates and cameras and had a marquis out front announcing the last day of school. I guess if I had that many strangers walking through my town each day I'd spend the money on the kids too.
Also check out those two eroding rock pillars on the cliff face coming into the village. Our guide book told us that those were the guardians of the village--male and female--and that the legend is that when they fall, it will be the end of the Havasu people and their canyon.

Then you hike for two hot miles on a very sandy road and coming around the bend you see this...

...and that crazy crystal clear water is so invitingly blue, it's like you've stepped into paradise. People are wading in shallow pools and jumping into the deeper terraces off Havasu Falls.

After you've caught a glimpse of the awesomeness, the hike winds down and halleluia: the campground! I felt so zen.

Also we were so happy to take our backpacks off. Apparently it is harder than it looks to carry 40 pounds through sand for 10 miles. We camped on top of Mooney Falls.

You could see straight to the bottom in that water. The next day we hiked to Beaver Falls, an 8-mile roundtrip. We started off just going right through the water and hiking down waterfalls, which weren't slippery because of mineral deposits from the water that coated the bottom in a white, coral-textured surface.

And when we did have to step out, it was from one postcard to another.

Beaver Falls looked like a little Hawaiian paradise. A tour guide who arrived about the same time as us told us about the cave hidden underneath the falls. We were all too chicken to check it out though! You have to swim really hard through the falls to get there.

Heading out the last day, we noticed Navajo Falls, which we hadn't really made time to see. Love that blue-green water on the dark rocks too. Guess we needed to leave a reason to go back, right?

3 days was not enough time. Not nearly enough time.

The Christmas Motherload

Well, it is obvious (by the fact that it's almost February) that I've been putting off my Christmas vacay recap. It was such a crazy busy fun trip and then it was over too quick and back to real life that I wasn't in the mood for the first little while to recap. And then, life got in the way. But really, I'm going to need to start posting other stuff...like Christmas 2013 at some point...so...

This year was a FL Christmas!!! It's really not Christmas unless you get to go home for Christmas, so the world was right this year, HOLLA!

We flew on a red eye to Orlando and were picked up by my mom at noon in a car that could fit everyone except for one person. Or we could have left the luggage. We are so resourceful though, that we squeezed every last person and thing in that car with a little bit hanging out the windows and trunk and one or two not-seatbelted persons. Luckily, there was no incident as we illegally made our way home. It was such gorgeous, sunny, 80-something-degree weather. We went to Daytona Beach twice and went swimming in the ocean. Ella got to take a coveted special outing with Nana to the shell shop and was enamoured with all the shell options that lay before her.


We took walks with the kids to the neighborhood park and duck pond, we taught Becca how to ride a bike, we went to Hontoon Island, to the movies, horseback riding, to a bonfire, played card games with the neighbors, and went shopping. And we ate LOTS and LOTS of yummy food.

One night we wrapped the kids in seran wrap. My dad had a ginormo roll leftover from work. Wouldn't Avery and Addie make cute yin and yang siamese twins???

Christmas Eve is always so fun because my mom has her traditional dinner and games. We played the left-right game, the M&M game, and ate shrimp and garlic bread and salad. Then we all went to bed early to get ready for Santa.

Christmas morning was a blast. The girls all got matching skirts...

...and Santa brought these cool art project/cottages that they could design and color and play inside all at the same time. One for the Terry girls, one for the Green girlies. The world is your canvas: ready, set, go!

Ella got her Julie doll that she had been asking for! And Avery got legos...love at first sight.

DISNEY WORLD!!!
And to top off the trip, we took the kids to Disney World Magic Kingdom for their first time ever! Christmastime is a ridiculously crowded time of year to go...and we happened to go on the same day as former president Jimmy Carter (we saw him in line at Peter Pan), but it's still magical. I love that bringing your kids makes going to Disney a whole different experience. We spent less time on roller coasters and even the Haunted Mansion scared the little girlies, and more time on It's a Small World, Buzz Lightyear, and Tom Sawyer Island. I swear Avery's jaw dropped to the ground as she oggled over all the dollies on Small World.

The girls were super excited for Splash Mountain, despite the huge drop at the end, because Brandon McCook had told them all about Briar Rabbit and how awesome that ride was...and he's a trusted source, after all. Ella went on Splash Mountain twice in a row (thank you, fast pass).

Here we are trying to escape the craziness in the park by heading to Tom Sawyer Island for a minute. Everyone's favorite ride by far was Buzz Lightyear, where you get to shoot targets with a lazer gun for points. Ella and Avery liked driving the cars at the race track too! Hopefully we can make the trek out to Disneyland sometime soon, and on a less crowded day of course.

It was a great trip and the two weeks of no responsibility flew by way too fast.

Gymnastics Meet
Also in December the girls had their first gymnastics meet!!! They go to class together every Tuesday and it's been fun to watch them get stronger every week and learn new tricks. Also...it's not easy to take pictures at a gymnastics meet. At least not the kind that are in focus. The park has become our practice gym, so that's where these kiddos bust out their moves...skin the cat, spidermans, dolphin, mummys, tall trees, handsprings...oh the possibilities! Lovin gymnastics class...and lovin the muscle demonstrations that follow :)

It wouldn't be Christmas without...

...the classic pose. Poor baby :(

Ella told me she was too old to sit on Santa's lap this year. Boo.

Just Go With the Flo

Now that's progressive!

Also I loved saying, "Unicorns and glitter!!!...No?"

The night before Halloween (which also happened to be a Sunday), I was trying to put together a costume last minute. I saw this idea and thought, hmmm, I have a white shirt and white pants. I have brown hair. Sold. Whipped out the sewing machine and made an apron out of a printed-on-a-piece-of-paper Progressive logo and an old sheet. Progressive.com had logos, Flo's badge, and Flo's button ready to print. Done and done.

It was a blast. But...I have to say...not sure whether to be offended or complimented by the insane number of people who told me I looked just like her. Um...thanks?

We have a kindergartener now! That makes Halloween even better. They partied it up on Friday with the school costume parade (pictured here) and games in the gym.

And popcorn hands. Oh, it isn't Halloween without one or two of these delicious appendages.

This is Ella's class and her cute teacher Miss Gardiner. Ella was Rapunzel that day and is wearing the crazy blond wig. The kindergarten teachers were all roadkill beauty contestants, hilarious!

For the ward party, Avery wanted to get her hands on that wig. Poor Avery, her hair has never gotten any longer than the base of her neck. She put that little number on and kept stroking her lucious locks. One day, Aves, one day!

My little lady! I would almost like her to wear this outfit every day because of the extra fluffy padding protecting this little mover. Safety first.

And of course, no Halloween would be complete without some mummy dogs and chili. Happy Halloweenie, 2011 :)

We gonna light it up, like it's dynamite!

Serious shout out to the St. George Marathon 2011! If I hadn't mentioned it before, this is the best marathon out there. Not only is it held on our stompin grounds, but it has been ranked time and time again as the best organized race with the most hometown volunteer support. And it's a fabulous course. It kicked my trash yesterday, but I love it.

So Ashley had a hookup with a cabin in Pine Valley on Friday night, which was a big treat to get to sleep in! With a house full of girls, it took just a tad longer to get ready than we thought and me and Ashley found ourselves sprinting to the starting line to make it in time for our flash mob at 6:15. When we got through the gate, I could hear the beat of Dynamite and we started frantically looking for everyone before we saw a few people doing the dance. So we jumped in and finished strong.

It. Was. Magical.

There's something like 7,000 runners at the starting line not to mention all the volunteers and race staff. Everyone scooted back and made room for us to get our groove on. And there was a spotlight on us. And random people we'd never seen before dancing the dance. Fo sho, best warmup ever.

You might say it was an "explosion" of flash mob dancing.

You might say it was Dynamite.


So then the race...I had a little extra baggage to carry over the 26 miles, actually two loaded extra bags to be exact. Trying to be minimalist with what I brought up to the cabin (so that I could send it all down in my race bag on the race truck), I brought pump parts and Ashley brought her pump. And neither of us thought to bring the tubing that connects the two, shoot! I had drank a ton of water the night before and when I woke up I thought I was going to explode. So...yeah. That was painful :(

I had a strong start, but never could quite stay on pace after Veyo hill and Dammeron Valley. I was so glad to see Bryson and the kids at Snow Canyon and again coming into town! It's funny how that one second of cheering carries you for the next 3 miles or more, both the anticipation and then gratitude after. Anyway, I ended up with 4:13:55, which isn't the best of times and isn't the worst of times. It was right on track with what I'd trained for. But secretly I always hope that I'll bust out a Boston qualifier from nowhere.

Well, cheers to number 9. And if you see me flash mobbing around town, well, it was just SO FUN!

No Mo Wheelz

At least no more training wheels! Watching Bryson trying to teach Ella how to ride her big bike without training wheels, Avery hopped on her little bike and took off. She is in love. Every spare second is spent circling the median while I watch for cars.

Then this week, Ella practiced riding through the downstairs of our house (um, yeah, I was taking a nap) and she figured it out too! Not that I'm excited about my walls being used as brakes, but now we have two bike riders in our house...and that means time for a family bike ride!

Part of Your World, Ariel

We got the chance to go to Tuacahn last week to see The Little Mermaid, courtesy of the awesomest job ever.

WOW.

Tuacahn is always a fun night out, but they really went all out with this production. There were bubbles and a water curtain and glow in the dark flying knives (in the kitchen scene). It. was. awesome. And what better show for little girlies than this? My kiddos knew every word and no, I mean, that wasn't my kids singing along at the top of their lungs. Ella and Aves even brought their Ariel Barbie dolls along for the show.

They announced that Aladdin will be next year--can't wait!

Over the Rainbow

Ella informed me about 2 weeks ago that the finalized theme for her party would be rainbows and that the invitation would include a ribbon rainbow. Of all the clever marketing plans she had given me over the past two years, I wasn't sure where this would go. It took me a minute to catch her vision.

We made flag banners and dot banners sewing rainbow-colored paper together.
OK, OK...mostly I just want to relish the fact that this room is clean. I might need to frame this.

We found a fun recipe for rainbow cupcakes. These are pain in the hiney to make but they do turn out pretty colorful!

This game we called Follow the Rainbow. I took rainbow-colored yarn and strung it back and forth all over the clubhouse in 9 different strands. Each girl followed her rainbow-colored string to her own pack of Skittles, going over/under/around other people's yarn as needed. Thank goodness for the clubhouse! When we walked in, all the threads criss-crossing looked like a great big booby trap. It did require some Mission Impossible skills to get to their treats!

Look at our friends! They even gave some themed gifts :) I love it.

We also did some rainbow water balloons, danced to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," and drew rainbows on the sidewalk with chalk. And we sent everyone home with some freshly sliced rainbow playdough.

Ella had a blast with all her friends, and then got to celebrate again on Sunday with family presents and party! Keeping with rainbow theme, we got her a pair of sparkly Twinkle Toes.

Happy 6th birthday Ella! Being the artist that you are, I can't think of a better theme that is appropriate for you. I hope you will always live life vibrantly and enjoy all the colors that make up the seasons of life.