conversations with chi

today i had a couple funny conversations with malachi...

1) scene- walking home from dropping rayna off at school, we'd forgotten to bring his binky, so he 'couldn't' fall asleep, i was trying to distract him from his sadness:
mom: see the pick-up truck chi?
chi: i want my binky...
mom: look there's another truck. do you like trucks? do you want a truck like that when you're big?
chi: no.
mom: rayna likes bugs (vw's). afton likes jeeps, what kind of car do you like?
chi: train, garbage truck, dump truck (those may have been with a little prompting...)
mom: what do you to drive want when you're bigger?
chi: dump truck
chi: dump truck
mom: what color dump truck? red? blue? orange?
chi: ORANGE!!! (pause) ORANGE DUMP TRUCK!!!
(few minutes pass, i think he's distracted now...)
Chi: want an orange vacuum mom.

jump scene, nearly 4 hours later, after naptime and school are long over. chi talking with rayna over after-school snack.
chi: i wanna orange vacuum rayna
rayna: ????

2) scene-laying malachi down for his nap (with his much-loved binky)

Chi (agitated tone): mom, there's no monsters here!
mom: what? are you worried about monsters?
chi: mom there's no monsters in here... :(
mom: we can look for some monsters after your nap
chi: okay.

Camelback Mountain, New Year's Eve, part 1

so, one of our favorite things to do on new year's eve (which of course, we like to do at grandma w's house) is climb a mountain (remember). unfortunately, this year hil & nesto's family couldn't join us because they were sick, but we still had a fun time, and a great hike! i was so impressed with the girls!

here we are at the trailhead, we had about a 1/2 mile walk just to get here...

 

a view about half way to the first major saddle. it always amazes me to remember how far you can see in az, and especially how far when you climb a little for the view!

 

sometimes you nees a little rest. (if i remember right, we were nearly to the first saddle here), we debated turning back at that saddle because the rest of the way looked pretty hard, lots of big boulders to clambor over, so paul and i were talking and the girls were resting, and all of the sudden we turned around, and the girls had started on up without us :), so we quickly started after them, and i was truely impressed with how they finished the climb! i think most of the 12-15 yr olds i know would have whined a lot more, and probably moved slower too!

 

there was this little palo verde tree that the girls particularly liked, it only took us about 3 minutes to realize that it was freezing up there too!

 

so we grabbed our sweatshirts and then posed at the highest rock we could find!

 

just to give you a little idea of the hike back down, it never looks as big in photos as it is in person, the first saddle i was talking about is the one down in front.

the trail was just over 1.5 miles long, with a 1330 ft. elevation climb

 

if it helps put things in perspective, that blue dot up behind rayna is a person.

 

and just to let everyone know, malachi was there too... though he wasn't too happy about it! poor boy was cold and tired and didn't mind being on daddy's back (or mom's, i helped a bit too), but he did NOT like the idea of 'hiking' on the hike at all.

 

and really, the main reason we love hiking as part of our new year's eve traditions, is because it really tuckers everyone out! we get great naps, and then we're good to stay up really, really late!

 (see next post to realize that's like 10 pm...)

AZ trip, part 2--cousins visit

we got to spend about 2 days playing with aunt elaine's family, down for a special visit just to see us! (okay, i'm sure they wanted to see grandma too). her family is especially fun because she has kids to play with! we played a lot with grandma's toys, read stories with aunt sarah, and went on a long walk (complete with a few races and balancing beams~aka walking on the top of the curb or a retaining wall).

this silly boy does that lip thing with his binky on purpose :D

LOTS of cool new toys at grandma's house, there were a number of doctors in that house!

killer smile! and great old phone too

Aunt Sarah read Anistasia dozens of times, she's so patient!
and ps, we may have accidentally stolen that book! sorry :)

big group of the walkers (only missing camera-mom) don't you love those arizona 'lawns'?

these two cousins are best buds! i think they played together constantly for the 2 days they were together, afton played too, but these girly girls are a lot alike!

great times folks! thanks for making that long trip through the snow to see us!!!

Arizona trip, part 1

i'm so far behind, yet i still feel the need to put these posts up in order, it just may be the death of me! i have so much other stuff i'm trying to get done right now too (spring cleaning, taxes... etc)

we got to arizona... believe it or not.

and grandma had presents waiting, definately easy to believe!

rayna got this lovely new baby, she absolutely loves rosabella

and as soon as we opened the presents, we took a walk to the park to run and play some energy out!

this was one of our favorite playthings last time we were there too

and some blocks to relax with too...

 

i have a lot of pictures with the people too, i hope! the first day i was still a little out of it from the drive, but we had a great visit with everyone, and i'll try to get the rest of the pics up soon so we can move on to valentines day ;) and other more recent events!