Dinner al fresco

Refried black beans, chips, and salsa. Mmmm.

Back in Flagstaff

So, we've made our 3rd annual summer trek to Flagstaff to escape the Phoenix heat for a spell. We're here for three weeks instead of two like last year. We're also in a different house, although it's in the same cul-de-sac. The owners of the house we rented for the last two years decided to rent it out full time, but they were kind enough to introduce us to their neighbors. Here's the house.


We arrived here early yesterday afternoon to low 80s temperatures. We wasted no time and went for a hike as soon as we had unpacked and had some lunch.

Aaahhh. The pine trees.

Due to abundant winter snows, the wildflowers are out in full force this year. This is also our first year coming here with Briseis. I think she's enjoying the cooler temperatures.


We stopped back at the "Camp Six String" wigwam to find that the table and guest book were gone. Annie was quite sad about that.



Jay remarked on how peaceful it is here. I don't think we met more than two other people on our walk.


We went out again this morning and hiked all the way to Cairn Garden. Annie made her own masterpiece to add to the garden.



I went out for longer, more up-tempo hike later this morning and the kids had lunch on the cliffs above Pumphouse Trail. I think this will be a very nice routine!

Christmas Piano Recital

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Info-mercial

I've been in a puppy sleep-deprived state lately, but I thought I'd share this bit of Jay's creativity with you.

This video is an assignment for Jay's online Latin class. He was assigned to make a commercial trying to convince people to vacation in Ancient Rome. There were certain things he was required to mention in commercial. He wanted to make it into a Billy Mays style infomercial. As you can see, the other two kids wanted in on the action.



I had very little to do with this video. It was all Jay's inventiveness. Michael makes an excellent cameraman and Annie is very good at looking like Minerva!

30

So this is my 30th post in 30 days. All in all, it wasn't that difficult. I took lots of pictures and videos this month and that's probably a good thing. I won't continue this pace, but I would like to post at least once a week. We've got some big things coming up this month, so I might do a little more often than that.

Today has been a very long day. It started with an 8:00 a.m. doctor's appointment to get Annie's stitches out -- she is healing well. Then to play practice from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Next, to Jay's hockey practice from 8:20 to 9:20 p.m. I'm a little tired.

I thought I'd show you a couple of videos with Michael learning how to do some 50s style dancing for their production of Twelfth Night.

This first one is the assistant director working with the two dancing couples.




Then, here's the cast and director blocking the dance scene. That's Jay weaving his way through the dancers. This scene should be really good in the real play. They've got the lighting fixed now, too.



This play is going to be great!

Oh, Christmas Trees!

Each of the kids has his/her own room now. I thought it would be nice this year to get them each a Christmas tree to decorate for their rooms.
Michael's tree is surrounded by his art work.
Jay's kind of has a hippie flair.
I was proud of this "artistic" photo of Annie's tree. I got her slightly different decorations to coordinate with her room.

They are all talking about the other decorations they want to put on their trees. It will be interesting to see how these trees evolve over the coming weeks!

Odds and Ends

Laura finished Jay's hat and sent it to him. He really likes it and wore it all day after the package arrived!
In other "Jay" news, he finished his 30,000 word novel for NaNoWriMo.

This is how he looked as he wrote the final words.


And this is how little girls behave after having a soda a little too late in the evening.