Our Cotton Anniversary

We had a wonderful anniversary day that we shared with the kiddos, even though some of Shawn's counterparts from work were offering to babysit (at least that's what Shawn said!). Before heading to work in the morning, Shawn brought me breakfast in bed, although I quickly climbed out of bed and ate it at the table because I hate getting crumbs in the sheets! lol

While he worked, I got the kids ready for our afternoon trip to Sedona. Shawn knows that this is my ultimate favorite place to visit when we come to Arizona. The landscape is just so pretty and the views are breathtaking. I love to just sit and stare at the scenery. Sedona is referred to as "Red Rock Country" because the dirt has a high concentration of iron, and when the iron oxidizes it turns red. So, essentially, the dirt is rusting! :) Who knew rust could be so beautiful!When we got to Sedona, we drove around a bit to explore the parks and see some of the sights and re-familiarize ourselves with the area. We even found our future vacation home! Can you spot it in the picture? It blends so well with the landscape.After our drive, we took a stroll through the Sedona Gallery District, which is the small city's downtown area with lots of little touristy shops and dining. We enjoyed dinner at a mexican restaurant called Oaxaca. I had their sopapillas and a margarita...yumm yummmm.
I thought that Shawn would be cheesy enough to buy me a t-shirt for our 'cotton' anniversary, but I guess I always underestimate how romantical :) he can be behind that tough-guy image of his. On the way to Sedona from Flagstaff, there is a State Park where Native Americans sell their beautiful jewelry and other crafts. We stopped here last year and I picked up a number of pieces. We stopped again this time, and Shawn bought me this beautiful necklace as another anniversary gift. (This entire trip has been my anniversary present already!)

The design is a traditional Navajo symbol call a 'Nazha' which means 'protector of mother earth; connection of earth and sky.' The Nazha surrounds a beautiful green jade stone (my favorite!). The piece is also very interesting because it is made using one of the earliest Native American methods of metal molding. The mold for the Nazha is carved out of sandstone and the mold is then filled with melted metal, in this case silver. Then, the piece is polished to make it smooth and shiny. But, only the front is polished, so if you look at the back side, it is still very porous and rough from the sandstone mold. Just so simple and gorgeous! I love it!

Family Fun Magazine

Ok. I must admit that I LOVE Family Fun Magazine! They have the coolest and cutest craft ideas, recipes that the kids can do themselves (Isaiah LOVES to cook), party ideas (I love to party plan! :)) and printable stuff (I love giving Mikey different things to do).

I was reading my latest issue on the airplane and loved their article, "Five Ways to Reuse This Magazine". I tried to search their website (http://familyfun.go.com/) for it, but couldn't find it. So, I'll happily type up the craft ideas to share it with anyone else interested!

1. Create surreal collages
Deliberately mismatch magazine images and family photos to make hilariously impossible scenes.

2. Make self-portrait masks
Glue a paint stirrer to a paper plate, then turn kids loose with magazines and craft supplies.

3. Build a play house
Cut out a paper-house base, then let your kids transform it into the home of their dreams with furnishings (and visitors!) cut from magazines.

4. Design hip jewelry
Cut a long tapering triangle from a colorful magazine page, apply glue stick to one side, then roll the triangle around a straw. When the glue dries, cut the straw on either side of the bead, and string.

5. Let them bloom
Trace a CD on a magazine page, cut out the circle, fold it in half several times as you would a paper snowflake, then cut out a petal shape. Unfold, stack with other petals, and use a paper fastener to join the stack to a rolled-magazine-page stem.

Happy Crafting!!!

The Grand Canyon

We arrived in Phoenix on Saturday afternoon and made the two hour drive to Flagstaff, which is our home base for this trip, arriving there around dinner time. We just relaxed and unwound at the hotel for the night then made the short 1.5 hour excursion to the Grand Canyon on Sunday morning.
The Grand Canyon never ceases to amaze me. It is often described as the Earth's 'greatest geological showcase' because of its stunning combination of length, depth and width: 277 river miles long, 18 miles wide and 1 mile deep. And it truly is just astonishingly beautiful. No photos could ever do its beauty justice.I love that we are able to bring our kids here and show them what nature and the Earth is all about. This is the ultimate display. And I love that Isaiah showed so much interest. Many kids his age could really care less; people even asked me why I'd even take the kids there at such a young age. My answer is 'because they care!' and he completely proved me right. He flooded me with questions the whole time we were there: How did it get here? Was it from dinosaurs? Why is there a river? Is this canyon like the Niles canyon? :) Do animals live down there? I reveled in every second of it; curious children make me happy.
Both times we have visited, we have explored just the South Rim as a day trip, which is the shortest drive from Flagstaff. But when the boys get older, we plan to camp a few days at the bottom of the canyon, hike around and see the river. Did you know people actually live down there?!?!

Our Little Seasoned Travelers

I must say that Shawn and I were both expecting the very worst in preparation for this trip. Shawn was scared sick all morning; I was afraid we wouldn't make it to the airport! And I watched the episode of J&K plus 8, where they took a plane ride with the kids, over and over and over, so I could get ideas from Kate on how keep control! But, WOW! What a relief! We were very pleasantly surprised and extremely relieved with the well-behaved bunch of boys we had on our hands. I didn't even have to break out any of my ninja-mommy tactics I had tucked away under my scarf. :)

The big boys munching on cheetos while waiting at the airport.

Baby Mikey quietly playing with his toys.

Mikey took to the flight so well! He looked like a grown little man with his headphones and neck pillow. (lol) And Isaiah can be kept occupied for hours, as long as he has his DS.

Even Baby Liam was having a grand time having the stewardesses swoon over him.
It seems that we underestimate how seasoned our boys are at traveling. They know the drill. Baby Mikey's now been to Arizona twice before he has even turned two years old! (I've only been the same two times and I'm 26! lol) There's also the plane trips to SoCal. But, the next test of their traveling abilities will be our flight to Hawaii (not to mention, our interisland flight to Hilo), which is more than 3x as long as this one to Phoenix. So, I won't get too excited until we survive that one!