Staycation 2009 - The Rest of it

We took a lot of pictures during Spring Break!! Can you tell?

Day two of our staycation was St. Patrick's Day so we cruised to "Ireland." We enjoyed an Irish breakfast of Lucky Charms while I told the kids about their ancestors, the Driscoll's, on my Dad's side of the family who immigrated to the United States from Ireland. Yes, we really are Irish and we wore our green proudly.

Our Irish activity for the day was a stretch but since one Irish tradition is the Blarney Stone, we went to the Mining and Mineral Musuem in downtown Phoenix and learned about rocks.

The kids loved seeing the huge truck tire, scoop and mining car. And our favorite thing was posing at a mine which is actually an incredibly huge mural on the back side of the museum.

This is a small museum that is FREE for kids and the experience includes getting to pick out your own rocks to take home. Don't ask me why my kids love rocks, but they do. This trip helped us add to our huge collection of rocks.

We spent the afternoon at the $1 movie seeing Bolt. We left Cupcake home with a babysitter and I was so happy not to be chasing her around. After baths the kids played Wii while Tim and I relaxed downstairs. We found Snausage passed out on the floor at 7:30. Our first two days of fun had completely worn him out.

Day three we planned to go to Australia, one of our favorite countries. A guy from Australia bought a car from Tim a few years ago and Tim has stayed in touch with him. About a year ago, he sent us a huge package of Australian stuff for the kids including stuffed animals, books and chocolate and a cool video of the outback. We LOVED it!!! Ever since we received that package, we have been facinated with Australia.

Our plan for this day was to go to the zoo. There is a great Wallaby exhibit at the zoo. However, we got a really late start due to my lovely sinus headache and when we finally got to the zoo, the kids only wanted to pet the stingrays and play on the splash pad.

By Day Four, I was running a little ragged with a sinus infection so I called in the reinforcements, which means Grandma joined us for "Japan" day at the Commemorative Air Force Museum at Falcon Field. This was the most expensive thing we did but it was totally worth it. I have driven by this museum a million times and had no idea the cool things inside.

We were very surprised when one of the first exhibits we saw displayed a picture of our Uncle Helaman (Tim's Great Uncle) along with a story about his service in a tank in WWII. Our kids know Uncle Helaman. They have been to his house and see him at family get togethers so it was awesome to learn about his experiences in the war that we knew nothing about.

For some reason this girl was so excited and happy to pose in front of an airplane engine.

The highlight of this museum visit was getting to go inside a B-17 called the Sentimental Journey. The boys were apprehensive at first because it is a tight squeeze but after the first time through they wanted to go again. We ended up going through the B-17 three times. If you haven't guessed by now, I love doing things where we can have fun and learn at the same time. Tim says I am a museum nerd. I wear the title proudly.

After a quick lunch at Sonic (which has nothing to do with Japan), we had a quiet afternoon at home making our version of sushi. This was another great idea Albert found on Family Fun. The sushi is made from rice crispie treats rolled around a gummy worm and wrapped in fruit roll-ups. Yummy!!!!

Day Five we planned to do something tropical around a Hawaiian theme but our plans did not work out. (We are saving this idea for the summer.) So we just relaxed at home, went to the library and got a nice, cool treat at Dairy Queen--a perfect way to end our lovely staycation.

Our entire staycation cost us about $75, a tank of gas and a lot of creativity. The week did not go exactly as I had planned in my mind but it was a total success because we learned some things, had fun together, and shut out the rest of the world for five days. Small and simple...just how we like it.

Staycation 2009 - Day 1

We had an awesome Staycation spring break. I can't believe how much stuff we did in one week and how we discovered a lot of cool things right here in our backyard.

Several weeks before spring break, the kids were inspired by an article in Family Fun magazine and decided they wanted the theme of our "staycation" to be a cruise. They came up with the idea to "visit" a different place everyday. It was an awesome idea and they get all the credit. They made room numbers for all of our bedroom doors and we set up a "mini-bar" in the kitchen which was a bin full of tons of different treats.

Day one was "Arizona Day." The day was jammed pack and it was probably my favorite day of our staycation. We went on a hike up Gold Canyon to the heiroglyphs with my parents, my brother and sister-in-law, Dan and Louise, and their kids. We don't do things with Dan and Louise very often due to our busy schedules and the fact that our kids are different ages. My kids LOVE their older cousins--Danielle, Tanner, Rand and Parker. It was fun to be with them.


Albert took off with the "fast" group and I didn't see her again until we got to the heiroglyphs. She loved the whole thing and I heard she talked Aunt Louise's ear off!

I wasn't sure how Cupcake was going to do but she loved being inthe backpack. I carried her both ways with no problems. She loved hangin' with Grandma H at the top. On the way down, she fell asleep and laid her head on my shoulder. She was so cute!

Hog was not fond of the actual hiking. He hung in the back of the pack with Grandma and Grandpa. But, he loved exploring on the rocks at the top and seeing the hugest lizard ever. We told him the hike would help him prepare to be a scout. Fittingly, he was wearing his cub scout hat.

Snausage took more than a few spills and if it hadn't been for Uncle Dan's pep talks and first aid kit on the way up and Danielle just holding his hand and making him go on the way down, he never would have made it. His biggest spill came when he slid down some rocks on his face. This picture was taken a few minutes after.

That night we had a campout in the backyard. We spent the afternoon setting up the tent. (Yes, we do own one. It's a leftover from a huge lot we sold on ebay. Glad we kept it.)

We made smores on the grill in the backyard for FHE. Tim is the best marshmallow roaster and he passed on his skills to the kids.

Tim volunteered to make the sacrifice and sleep in the house with Cupcake. In the tent, we read a cool book about saguaro cactus, Albert told us a ghost story and I told the kids about my college days camping out under the stars (no tent) with all my girlfriends in Oak City canyon, backpacking to the top of the peak next to Timpanogas and hiking the Y more times than I could count. I think I loved this day the most because it helped me remember some great memories from my days before I was a mom. It was fun for the kids to get to see a different side of their mom and to realize I did some things before they came along. We all crashed and I have to say that I slept so good!! I crept out of the tent at 4:45 to go to the gym. I crawled back in my sleeping bag at 6:30 a.m. and they were all still sawing logs.

A totally fun day!! The rest of the week was fun, too but I am going to do another post with all of that fun stuff.

Trip to Utah

Last weekend we made a quick trip (and a long drive) to Utah for a family get together with my entire family. I can't remember the last time that we were all together and it was fun. We hung out together all day Saturday. I got to eat my favorite french fries in the whole world at Leo's Delta Freeze and now I've got my fix for awhile. (The only thing I craved when I was pregnant with Fats was Leo's french fries and fry sauce!!) I wish I could have brought some home for myself. They are THE best. Sunday morning my parents spoke in church and got set apart for their mission to the Deseret Land & Livestock Mission - 8 miles outside of Evanston, WY. They are officially missionaries now!

All 27 members of our clan. Once again, I am the short one in the back!

The fact that the wind was blowing 50 mph (I am not exaggerating!) on Saturday did not deter Hog and cousin Rand from being outside riding the four wheeler for a good part of the day. When Hog finally came in the house he was completly covered in a layer of dust. These picture do not do it justice but he looked like a pale ghost or Pig Pen from Charlie Brown. We patted his head and dust went flying all over the house. It was hilarious and Hog loved every minute of it!

Believe it or not, Delta is actually known around the world for rocks. For our kids, a highlight of any trip to Delta is a visit to The Rock Shop downtown to look at cool fossils and trilobites and buy rocks.

Disneyland!

Our latest adventure was a quick trip to Disneyland in January with Grandpa and Uncle T and family. There were no crowds and we walked on to nearly every ride. Cupcake is noticeably absent as we left her home with Grandma and Grandpa H. We missed her lots but we stick by our family rule that you have to be 40 inches to go to Disneyland. It really is better that way. We had a blast!

These two loved being at Disneyland together!

We really did have a "blast" on Astroblasters.

Snausage ran all the way around the Dumbo ride to make sure he got to ride in "a green one"

Are we photogenic or what?!

With Grandpa by the family brick at the entrance to Disneyland.