Catching Up

This post is just for Aunt Kathryn, so here you go:
What have we been up to? Well, in October, Rebecca had her cousins Alex & Josh over. Here is a pic of all three of them sitting in the recliner together:
They really have a lot of fun playing together. They took turns wearing Rebecca's princess crown:
Then on Veteran's Day, Richard took Rebecca to downtown Mesa for the Veteran's Day Parade:
Richard started a new job right before Thanksgiving and I took a pic of him in his new office:
Yep, he gets to work from home! He just needs a new desk and an actual chair. Maybe for Christmas!

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. We were able to see some of my family and most of Richard's. Here is a pic of Rebecca before the fun day:
And here is just a random pic I took of her before bed.
She sure is growing up fast! We will be taking her Christmas pictures on Wednesday so I will post more then.

Looking Back

For some reason I started thinking about all the vehicles Sharon and I have owned. In 7 years or marriage we have had 9 vehicles (and we had the Trailblazer for 4 years). Yikes! If your reading this post I know you are a cyber-stalker and I feel like giving you useless information about me.

Sharon's Update

Okay, so I will finally update the blog:
Here is what we have been up to:
We took a trip to the AZ State Fair. We go every year to see the Demolition Derby. I didn't get to see it this year since we took Becca, but we did have a lot of fun!
Here is the one picture of Rebecca we got (our batteries died):
We did get to ride the ferris wheel and it was a lot of fun. Rebecca really does enjoy carnival rides. I can't wait till she is older, I will finally have someone to ride the rides with!! =)
This year my Mom actually entered her afghans in the fair. She got second place on one of them:
It was really neat to see it there! Great Job Momsie!!!!!
Obviously Richard already put some Halloween pictures on here but Rebecca just loved her costume so much this year here are a few more:
This is Rebecca right before we went Trick or Treating on Halloween. She was so excited to use her Elmo bucket again this year ( you would think this child would eventually get over Elmo!)
And finally one last picture:
We hope you all had a great October!!!

Halloween, Finally!

Since Sharon does not want to put a Halloween post on here I will.



For Halloween we got Rebecca a butterfly costume (thanks Old Navy).




On Thursday Becca's pre-school had a dress-up day and parade.




Just look how she bosses the other kids around. I can here it now... "No talking in line. This is a parade."




Rebecca was sooooooo excited to go. The first thing she asked to do Friday morning was go trick-or-treating.

We carved our pumpkin.




We did a quick spin in Windsor Shadows and filled up her Elmo bucket... twice. The worst candy Becca got was those orange and black wrapped candies. Yuck, who still buys those?



I will add that I am a great dad. Rebecca did not want to eat lunch, all she wanted to do was go trick-or-treating. I made her car shaped PB&J. I rock!

CAMPING...The Long Version by Richard

So, we decided to go camping as a family... An easy trip would be to Roosevelt Lake (or so we thought)

Phase 1: The Preparation

Rebecca has never been camping so we needed to get her a sleeping bag. Of course it had to be pink, her favorite color. Here is a pic of her trying it out.



Then we needed to get the other items in order. Like the tent, air bed for mom and dad, and camp stove. Rebecca had to test the durability of the air bed...





Phase 2: The Driving

So, off we go with a newly burned "road trip" mix CD. All was going great... until we got to Superior.




Here you can see for almost a mile up the road.


We did not know what to do so Sharon called up her favorite radio station, KMLE 108! They told her the road was shut down and they did not know when it would reopen... ugh!


Phase 2.5: The Drive Back

We decided to turn back and head toward home until we could figure it out. We did not want to give up on our trip but at this point it was getting late.

The decision to press on was made and we took another route. Back to Ellsworth Road and to the Beeline. So, it was only a hour and a half detour.



Rebecca took the delay well...
Phase 3: The Camping!

It is always great setting up camp in the dark, but whatever... The campsites at Roosevelt are actually very nice.


We had cheese crisp for dinner, then roasted marshmallows.



Sharon had a VERY hard time dealing with the bugs.



We feasted on breakfast burritos the next morning. And, a great looking cook showed up and showed off his skills.



Phase 4: The Sight Seeing


We stopped by the Native American cliff dwellings. On the way up the road we saw not one but two Tarantulas... Yuck!







We decided to pay the $6 and take (hike) the trail up to the dwellings. After half a mile of switch backs the trail was closed. What a let down!


We did have some great views though.





Other stops included the visitors center, dam, and bridge.






Phase 5: Going home, the right way


We made it back into Globe and had some lunch. Sharon is now is the #1 record holder on some arcade game, of course it was a word search game. Who in their right mind makes an arcade game that is a word search??? Only at Pizza Hut!

As we made our way out of town we stumbled on the Apache Jii festival. A celebration of dancing, fry bread, and the best flee market of Native American crap money can buy.



Rebecca thought it was a Christmas celebration because of the Jingle Bells on the dancers. She actually broke out into an impromptu rendition of Jingle Bells to commemorate the Christmas spirit.



We finally found the illusive two tone purple ice cream truck. In Globe AZ, who would have thought. Now, I need to find that shifty Waldo guy and my life's mission will be complete.



We got our grub on the fry bread. Not bad for a buck and a half.



The place was crowded, so, we went to the elementary school to eat and let Becca play.






Over all it was a fun trip and I can wait until we do it again... and check the traffic reports.