Stuff....

Stuff that I wanted to do when I came out here last Fall:

Go to the Opera

Bake a Souflee

Eat Sushi

Go Hiking in the Mountains

See the Stargate

Go Horseback Riding in the Garden of the Gods

See a Concert at Red Rocks

Fun Stuff that I have done since I came out here last Fall:

Went to Santa Fe, New Mexico

Went Line Dancing at the Grizzly Rose

Visited Dinosaur Ridge

Have seen almost every Downtown Mueseum (Only one more to go!)

Protested at one of the largest Pro-life rallies in the country

Ate pizza at Bea Jos

Went Panning for Gold. I even found a piece!

Hung out with some Hippies

Learned how to do Wheel Pottery

Joined the Trail Patrol

Went to Tuscon, Arizona

Went to a Fall Festival and ate disgusting Banana flavored Cotton Candy

Made new Friends

Became part of a new Family

Have been able to watch, love, and play with two adorable baby boys as they grow up!

When did they get so big?

Bubble Boy

Louise and I are currently in the process of baby-proofing the house. Today I was going through some boxes and found a container of bubbles! Boo and I decided to play with them

He really liked them. He got so excited he started waving his arms and screeching in typical Boo style.

Then he popped one in his face and the fun was over. Poor Boo.

TUCSON!

I already told you about all of the cool plants we saw in Tucson, but there were a lot of other really cool things we did there too! Like the Desert Museum.


I think this might have been one of my favorite things we did. It is sort of like a big zoo of all the different animals that live in the dessert. We saw bobcats, frogs that if you lick them are hallucinogenic, tarantulas, rattlesnakes, scorpions, and lizards that squirt blood out of their eyes!

We got to see this really cool roadrunner. I had never seen one before and was very excited. Ryan said "If you listen really closley you can hear it say 'meep meep'" "REALLY!" I asked, "Er... No. I was teasing."

These are called javelina and they are giant furry pigs! I want one. I asked Ryan if I could have one and he said he would buy me one for my birthday. I am still waiting for that present. =(

And one of my favorites, quail! They have funny little hats that bob when they walk and they have a hillarious sounding sqwak. They are so cute!

Here are some more pictures from the Desert Mueseum.

Even with food on her face Louise is adorabe!

We also went to San Xavier Del Bach, which means "The White Dove of the Desert"

It was beautiful.

As you can see in this picture the building is currently under renovation. the left side has been restored and the right side is still under construction.

We got to take the babies for their first swim. Ryan's parents have a hot tub so we turned the temp. down, put the boys in swim trunks and took a dip. They loved it.

Look at those rolls!

Baaaaby shark do do dodedo...

Auntie G, Uncle Doug and I took off for the day and went to Old Tucson to see some "real" cowboys...

"Welcome to Old Tucson.... The Hollywood of the West!"

Old Tucson is a little town that they built to shoot a bunch of westerns in. Pretty much every Western ever filmed was at least partially shot here. Some of the most popular are "The Three Amigos" and pretty much anything with Clint Eastwood or John Wayne in it. =)

Me outside of Olsen's Mercantile. Some scenes from "Little House on the Praire" were shot here.

Now it is pretty much a tourist attraction with shootouts, rope spinning, and fudge shops. Auntie G says "This is more like the Frankenmuth of the West!"

Uncle Doug and I waiting for the shootout!

We did a lot of other fun things like going for a "hike" (our hike turned into us riding up and down on the tram while the babies took a nap =) ) in Sabino Canyon, went to a Rockies Spring training game and had a get together with Wayne and Danna's friends so they could meet the babies. My favorite part about the trip however was my birthday party!

On our last night in Tucson we were all sitting at the table talking and laughing, just finishing up dinner. Next thing I know the lights flick off and Ryan comes around the corner with a huge grin and a chocolate cake with candles! Everyone starts singing happy birthday. It was so nice! I was very surprised. Sometimes it is hard having two families, especially when they don't even know each other, and sometimes it is not. Sometimes things are just perfect, and everything is right...

This was one of those times...

I know this was a rather long post and congratulations on finishing it! I had a wonderful time in Tucson and can't wait for anouther trip!

Pucker Up!

Victor started making this face the other day and we all thought it was so funny we laughed at him. Now, no matter how hard we try, we can't get him to make this face again. We got a picture though. Isn't he cute!

A Field Guide to the Plants of Tucscon.

I love traveling! I love going places I have never been, I love seeing things I have never seen, and Tucson was definitely unlike anything I had ever seen before! We hoped off the plane and everything looked so strange. I had never been to the desert before and to be honest was a little surprised by the vast amount of plants (I pictured it something like the Sahara). There were so many different kinds of shrubs and bushes and REAL LIVE cacti growing right on the side of the road. Ryan is very cool and just as my eyes were starting to get big and I could feel hundreds of questions bubbling up inside of me, he spins around and says "What would you like to know about the flora and fauna Bodecia?"

So I asked him tons of questions, and he answered them, and then answered all of the questions that I hadn't even thought of yet. Ryan and Louise know a ridiculous amount about everything and I love it. Vacations with them are so fun because it is like traveling with a tour guide. Look out the window and point to a building or a plant and they will be able to tell you everything about it.

Being the good little home school girl that I am, I asked a lot of questions, listened closely and I learned a lot. So now I am going to share some of it with you.

The cool thing about Tucson is not only that the dirt, the rocks, the sky and the plants are different but the words themselves are different. For instance....

This is called an "arroyo" most people would look at it and think "that is a dried up riverbed" and it is. But that's not what it is called. It is called an "arroyo". Ryan said as a little kid one of the first things he learned about arroyos was never to play in them when it is raining, even if it is just a drizzle. You see Tucson is surrounded by mountains and a lot of times when it is raining in Tucson, it is pouring in the mountains. All of this water gets stored up, until the mountains can't hold it anymore, then it comes rushing down the arroyos in a massive flash flood, sweeping away whatever is in its path.

This is a "prickly-pear cactus" there are several varieties of prickly pears, but this one with the purple spines is my favorite. They grow all over the place and get fruit on top that people pick and turn into jellies and candies. Ryan says prickly-pear candy is for tourists but he still bought Louise and some to try. I thought it was really tasty. I also got a jar of prickly-pear honey for my birthday!

This is a "Barrel Cactus". It also grows fruit on top but unlike the prickly-pear, its fruit looks like tiny pineapples. I saw lots of half eaten ones all over the road and wanted to try one but Ryan said no, because there was a reason why they were only half eaten.

This is a "Saguaro Cactus". Tucson's desert is one of the only places they can grow because of its unique climate and elevation. I thought that meant they were rare and was excited that I saw one on the way out from the airport. Boy was I wrong! There are whole forests of them jutting out of the mountains and making them look as prickly as the cacti themselves. We were riding along in the car one day when Auntie G points out her window and says "Do you see that cactus leaning against the rock!?!" we look and see thousands of cacti ALL leaning against rocks and had a good laugh. They can live to be hundreds of years old. You can tell relatively how old a saguaro cactus is because they don't get their first arm until they are between eighty and hundred years old. The flower that grows on top of this cacti is the state flower and there are lots of different types of birds that live inside of them. They are very neat.

This is my favorite kind of cacti. Except I can never remember its name! It sounds something like "churro" but whenever I would say that people would laugh at me... Anyway's I like it because it looks sort of like a big fluffy teddy bear. I just wanted to give it a hug. But I was glad that I didn't because upon getting closer...

I realized that it was really more pokey than fluffy... =(

The big green curly sticks growing out of the ground in this picture are called "ocotillo". They ALSO are covered in spines =( You can't touch anything in Tucson without getting pricked! But they are very pretty and are actually despite their stick-like nature considered trees (HA, I am from Michigan and I mock your twiggy trees! HAHAHA!)

This plant looks more like a tree but is actually a type of agave plant. It grows a tall shoot that flowers just before it dies. And when I say tall I mean TALL. The white post next to it was 12 ft.

This isn't the best picture but next to the bridge you can see two green bushy plants. The lighter one is called "Pala Verde" which means green stick. It is a rather twiggy looking tree and it's bark is thin, smooth and green. Ryan says this is so that the tree can perform photosynthesis over its entire surface. "Mesquite Tree" is the name of the darker one and its wood is so hard and dense that it doesn't even float. It burns at a very high temperature which makes it good for burning in grills.

As you can tell I really liked seeing all of the different plants they have in Tucson. Actually on my first day there I went on a three hour walk just so that I could see all of the different plants and animals up close. I love it. There is a lot more that I could tell you about these plants, other kinds of plants and not to mention animals but I think I will save them for another post. I also want to give a HUGE thank you to Louise, Wayne and Danna, but especially to Ryan who showed me around, and answered all of my questions. You guys ROCK!

C is for Cookie that's good enough for me...

Cookies! YUM! Louise found this really cool way of decorating cookies on the King Arthur Flour Blog. You frost a cookie with white icing and then pipe dots, stripes and lines of colored icing on top. Then you take a toothpick and depending on how you drag it through the icing, you get different patterns. They turned out very neat!

Of cource we had to make one with the TARDIS on it

We also made hearts

and Polka dots...

Ryan made this really cool tartan-ish one

and Louise made this pretty flower.

We ate a few but most of them we wrapped up and put into a cute bag for Alexandra, as a thank you present for driving us to the airport that weekend. I stitched one of my little chicken finger puppets to the top with a sweet message and it was ready to go.

We had a lot of fun decorating these Easter cookies and I hope you had fun doing similar things with your friends and family! Happy Easter....