Dog Days of Summer

Boy, it has just been miserably hot here lately, so Jack and I have been on a mission to stay cool while trying to keep cabin fever at bay. Between trips to the library for storytime, the dinosaur museum and the splash park up the street we are keeping busy. I will be so grateful when September arrives with cooler temperatures, so that trips to the park or the backyard will be more frequent and less torturous! As you all know, a little boy who isn't getting enough exercise can be quite a handful. The other day out of the blue, Jack bit my leg! After a time out, I asked him why he bit me and he said," I couldn't help it your leg is so delicious mommy!" Now exactly what do you say to that?! I guess that is what I get for asking a question that there is really no good answer to:) Last weekend, Daddy took Jack to see a Jack and The Beanstalk puppet show at a local library. He now tromps around the house saying "Fee Fi Fo Fum!" and talking about the giants stinky feet. Needles to say,he LOVED it, so that will be our theme for his 3rd birthday. Yes folks, I know everyone thinks I am nuts, but I am already planning in advance for February. The great thing about the show at the library is that is was FREE! We have seen puppet shows before from this same company at their location in Phoenix, but is cost $6-8 per person! Here are a couple pics I took yesterday of Jack being Jack. Hope you are all well!

Jack's Summer Uniform

I took these pics of Jack in his summer "uniform" yesterday out by the pool. We are lucky that undies were part of the equation as Jack prefers to go au natural most of the time even though potty training has been completed:) Our pool vacuum has been on the fritz lately, so we had a specialist come out to flush out our lines and get us back on track. The pool was pretty green when we got back from Flagstaff due to all the leaves from our messy tree choking it. Jack was excited about the "pool guy" coming and told me he wanted to kiss him!

Engine Engine Number 9!

Today, I took Jack to meet the firefighters at Chandler Firehouse #5. For 2 weeks, he has been asking when we are seeing the firemen. He even helped me make "monkey munch" to give to the guys as a token of our appreciation. They were very gracious to show Jack their truck and hoses. He even got to sit up in the drivers seat and put on a real fire helmet. Jack grinned the whole time! They were so patient with him, let him climb all over inside the truck, let him turn it on and sound the horn. At the sounding of the horn, a look of shock and then glee spread over his little face. I am certain he will be talking about it for a long time! God Bless our local heroes!

Mandarin Cowboy

Well, you have all heard of The Urban Cowboy and The Rhinestone Cowboy, and now I would like to introduce you to the Madarin Cowboy. Jack was all "cowboy-ed up" riding his stick horse around the house. He was yelling out something that I couldn't understand. At first I thought it was the typical "yeehaw" that we usually hear from him, but I came to realize he was saying "NiHao KaiLan" which is the title of a show he watches occasionally. Now for those of you without small children who watch the Noggin Channel, "KaiLan" is a little Chinese girl and "NiHao" is how you say hello in Mandarin(Chinese). This was a new one even for us! When he was yelling NiHao at the top of his lungs, it sounded quite a bit like Yeehaw. First it was counting in Spanish and now he is learning Chinese. I bet John Wayne would be impressed! At this rate, Jack won't even need a voice over when he makes his first western! I can see it now, "Showdown in Beijing" starring Jackson Schwieger!

Tiny Toes at Oak Creek

While up north, we continued the fun in The Village of Oak Creek(just north of Sedona)with a goal of having almond-encrusted rainbow trout at the Junipine Cafe and dipping Jack's toes in the creek for the first time. Daddy and Jack climbed down a very rustic rock "staircase" to Oak Creek. Jack was dazzled by the beauty and sounds of the creek rushing along. Both the boys quickly retired their shoes and socks for a quick dip in the icy water. Bryan held tight to Jack since the creek rocks were slightly slippery due to a little algae. Silly me, I wore flip flops and a sun dress, so I was content to take pics rather than attempt to climb down without the proper foot wear. I can hear my Dad saying, "see I knew you would never make it to Jenny Ellis Lake!" So to him I say, "Silencio Old Man!" Sorry, I guess that was an inside joke and a reference to the movie Juno!

Snow Bowl in June

Next stop on the Flagstaff adventure was the ski lift at Snow Bowl. Snow Bowl is Arizona's ski destination and in the spring and summer months, the lift is open for people to take a leisurely ride to the summit and take in the beautiful sites 11,500 feet below. Now you are probably asking, what did Jack do while you two ding dongs were riding the ski lift? Well, the short and stupid answer is we took him with us. Now they did have a bar that went across our laps, but I was so anxiety ridden about taking him up the mountain with very little restraint that I thought I would have a panic attack. Jack seemed to enjoy himself as long as I continually sang "Tinkle Tinkle Little Pee" a song we sang during potty training. However, as soon as I stopped, he would start asking to get down. Well, down was a really LONG WAY DOWN, so I continued to sing to keep his attention. At the base of the lift, the elevation was 9500 feet, at the top 11,500. Absolutely beautiful and Phoenix winter cool at just 55 degrees at the top! I couldn't enjoy it as I was looking for an alternate route back to the bottom when it occurred to me that we had to go back the same way we came. Madness!!! I will say that we were not alone. There were many other idiots, I mean parents, who also brought small children along. Next time, I think I will pass.

Grand Canyon Deer Farm

Well, we had a slight change of plans. A dear friend of ours offered up her cabin for us to use, but thought she may also come up north to be there. Since Jack was just coming off strep and a cold and hasn't been sleeping the best, we decided to decline the offer so that we didn't disturb our hosts. Bryan knowing how much I was looking forward to the trip decided to take us to Flagstaff anyway. We were able to write much of the trip off since he visited some clients while we were there. The first stop on our trip was The Grand Canyon Deer Farm which is ironically in Williams, AZ., not The Grand Canyon! Jack had a blast and so did Mom and Dad. We got to feed the deer and pet them. They even had 4 adorable fawns for us to "fawn" all over. The tiniest one was called Belle and she was just so precious, I had to include a picture. Our little adventurer had trouble staying on the paved path, so our host had to keep giving us gentle(but very obvious) reminders that we were not in the "approved" area! Jack went wild for the reindeer and their fuzzy antlers! I was absolutely smitten with a miniature donkey called Nikki. I made Bryan promise me that if we ever are fortunate enough to have a piece of land that we could loosely interpret as a "farm" that we could add one of these little donkeys to the running list of one eyed cows and three-legged dogs I have in my mental inventory! Too fun:)