Conversation with Colt

Me: Colt, finish your lunch.
Colt: I can't.
Me: Why not?
Colt: Because it tastes like slop.

A Day at the Zoo

On President's Day we headed to the zoo! What a great day. We packed a picnic lunch, ate there, and then spent 4 hours exploring the zoo. I think the highlight for the children was the petting zoo where they got to brush and pet a bunch of goats. We were all sad to leave our new-found goat friends, but we still needed to see the wolves and the rhinos. Being at the zoo made me ache even more for a little piece of land somewhere, anywhere where we could have a goat, a pony and some chickens.









By the looks of these pictures it seems like the only live animals were the goats and the rest were stone sculptures. But, I promise we did see a TON of real life animals.

One cool thing we saw: there were these monkeys on a little island in a lake at the zoo. The island consisted of ropes and trees and poles for the monkeys to climb. One monkey saw a pigeon land on top of one of the tall poles. Said monkey then stealthily climbed the pole, reached his hand up to the top of the pole AND GRABBED THE PIGEON. It was amazing (where's the video camera when ya need one?). He held the pigeon for a moment (I totally thought he was going to stick the pigeon in his mouth and eat it) and then let it go. It quickly flew out of the monkey island area and hid in a tree.

(P.S. - notice in practically every picture Colt is holding the zoo map. He was in charge of that map the entire day and would periodically consult the map as to where we were to go next. He was quite the navigator!)

I Kinda Thought This Was Cool, then I changed my mind

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Now, my thoughts on this. First, I thought wow! That's incredible. But then I thought some more and seriously, this is how I typically live every day of every year and I haven't been in the news, much less the front page of FoxNews.com. When I first read the headline I thought that they had $1,500 to spend on everything - utilities, groceries, gas, etc. But this is just for groceries and personal items like shampoo. Big deal.

And I love how the article says that "so far this year, their monthly grocery bill has averaged $125.00." Again - big deal - it's only February!

Now, I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from their attempts at saving money and getting by on what they already have, but come on. This isn't a huge feat. Lots of people do it and do it with less.

And these people could do better - I mean, they have paper towels! Get rid of those and save even more! And buy generic aluminum foil, not Reynold's (and I don't care if they bought it at Sam's). And that toilet paper? Come on! Corn cobs work just as well. I also see bottles and bottles of juice. Lady, ya gotta ditch the juice. Drink water - it's cheaper and isn't pumping you full of sugars (even if they are naturally occurring sugars).

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The people named in this article have requested that I remove this post. I will remove the article itself, but I'll keep my two cents posted. I think most of us have already read the article anyway.

I felt I was a tad harsh in my critique of the article, but I just want to say that my point is this: "We could all do better with our spending." In times of financial stress, you really need to sit down and assess what you could do without in order to save money. And yes, you may have to do without an item of convenience in order to pay your bills and be able to buy groceries.

Saturday Hike: Valentine's Edition

The kids started their Valentine's Day off with a Valentine's Day card and a small box of chocolates left at each of their spots at the kitchen table. Jonathan carried his card around all day and would show it to us periodically. The chocolates didn't last long (and that's why we got them each a very tiny box).

After that excitement, Carena and I headed out for our weekly hike. This week we went on the Hieroglyphic Trail in the Superstitions - out Gold Canyon way. I've done this hike before and always loved it. This time was no exception except everything was so much greener because of our recent rains - very lovely scenery . . . even if it is in Arizona. The weather was cool and pleasant, bright and sunny. My favorite part was getting to the end to look at all the petroglyphs/hieroglyphs left by Native Americans many many years ago. I always get this feeling of awe, sitting where they perhaps sat hundreds of years ago. The end of the hike was especially nice because, due to the rain we've had, there was a small "waterfall" that led to a fairly decent sized pool of water at the base of the rocks. Carena and I sat down there while eating our lunch. Let me take a moment to talk about our lunch - Chris made it for us - his Valentine to us. We had egg salad sandwiches, beef jerky, granola, dried mangoes, fruit leather and bottled water. It was fantastic. While sitting there, a couple of boys with their Mastiffs (one of the dogs being 230 pounds - he was HUGE) came along, and the boys and dogs got into the little pool and started swimming! Did I mention that up there in the rocks, it's pretty dang cold? And the water was even icier? And those boys got in the water - jeans and all? I shiver just thinking about it. But they were great entertainment! I wish I had gotten some pictures of them taking a dip!





After our hike, we headed home where I began preparing dinner. This year for Valentine's Day I thought I'd make everyone their favorite dinner. Carena wanted a "flop over" (refried beans and cheese inbetween two buttered tortillas, cooked on the griddle), Colt requetsed hot wings, Chris a cheeseburger, and Jonathan some chicken fingers. For a side - some corn on the cob. There was a lot going on in the kitchen, but everything turned out well.

For dessert, I made a heart-shaped cake with pink peppermint frosting and chocolate drizzle (if I were on Top Chef, I could probably describe that a lot better than that - maybe throw in the word ganache or something) served with vanilla icecream and crushed peppermint candy. It was so good!

100 Days of School

A few weeks ago, the kids celebrated their 100th day of school this year. Colt filled out a wonderful little packet talking about all things 100. This is the most hilarious page in that packet:

Introducing: The Nature Walkers!

Carena and I have started our own hiking club (it's very exclusive - only two members) and we're calling ourselves The Nature Walkers. For 10 weeks we have a new hike planned for each Saturday. This past Saturday we hiked the Wind Cave Trail off of Usery. It was so much fun! Carena was totally in her element (as was I). The hike was absolutely gorgeous. It was also rugged. It started out benign enough but before I knew it we were crawling over boulders and telling each other, "Don't look down!" But, we made it to the top to the wind cave where we had our lunch of peanut butter sandwiches, fruit rolls and dehydrated ice cream. Of course we also had plenty of water.


The view from the top:

The Running Man

For some reason, my children have been enamored with the treadmill lately. I told Colt that he could walk on it yesterday. As the day progressed, however, we both forgot until RIGHT BEFORE bedtime. So, I told him to go put his flip flops on (I mean, he's five, he's not going to be running on the thing, right?). Chris stayed close by to ensure safety, while I tucked in Jonathan and Carena.

This is the scene I came upon:




Colt ran for 16 minutes straight at 4 miles per hour (he actually started out at 2 to warm up but quickly progressed to 4). All the while he was chit chatting and skipping here and there.

Know how much I can run at one time? Like 30 seconds and not at 4 mph. And I don't talk or skip. I just think about how I'm going to die.

This morning he wakes up and the first thing he asks me is if he can run on the treadmill. I made him wait till after breakfast. He then runs for 25 minutes fluctuating between 2 mph and 4 mph. He talked all the while.

Oh, to be five.