A little piece of Heaven...

This city has a large piece of my heart...I did a large part of finding myself, growing as an individual, finding the path that would take me where I am now...I miss this place so much and wish so deeply that I could live there, raise my children there, just breath the air....

So in lieu of not living there, my friend Jessamyn and I took a girls trip up, children free to play with our camera's, catch up on girl talk and just regain some mama strength that we desperately needed.

It was just wonderful to not change diapers, take several potty brakes, wipe faces, entertain little babes, and just look through the lens and dream about how I wish my life was taking place in Flagstaff and not the desert heat...

Being up there always give me a sense of peace, creativity and settles my soul...it was hard to get in the car and drive back down...I think that we would have stayed if not for babes waiting to see their mama's again...

Out of Africa

So I am a little late getting these pictures up...but my great friend Jessamyn and I packed up the kids and headed up to Camp Verde to the Out of Africa Wildlife Park last week. We were thinking that it was going to be a little cooler than it was, but still hot (and wouldn't you know that it cooled off and started raining as we were driving away). However, we had a great time. This park really allows you to get up close and personal with most of the animals...we got to feed the giraffe carrot sticks and pet the camel, who's name was appropriately Humphrey. Plus we saw lots of zebras and tigers, and the kids had such a good time experiencing all this greatness together.

This is a little zebra family, isn't this baby just too cute...

This is a sable, not really found in any other form of captivity cause they are just too aggressive, but beautiful animals...

***Warning for my mother...there is going to be a picture of a snake next, close your eyes if you don't want to see it...

And there is this bad boy, yes this Anaconda got to be loved on by the kids, they go to pet and touch him...good fun...

To end our day at the park we watched the tiger splash show with these amazing cats and their trainers just playing freely in the water and grass. The tigers would jump up in the air on their way to the water and pop balloons. So now Griffin wants me to blow up balloons all the time so he can be a tiger and pop them...Griffin was in this state of pure joy for most of this show and then all the kids started growling and walking around like they were tigers, too cute...

And this little one is sucking on a delicious ice cube, can you tell it is quenching her need for coolness...

We decided that we would go back up when it was cooler and take our hubbies along for extra hands...thanks Jess we had a great time :)

My little hero...

So yesterday I went to gym, like just about everyday and drop the kids off at the kid center and head off to my workout...I had done some lifting and was off to the treadmill...about two minutes into my run one of the girls from the kids area came and got me. She said that McKenna had been bit by another kid and she was crying...I asked if it was bad, the answer:yes, I asked if it broke the skin, thankfully she said no. So we made our way to where the kids were...


The first thing I see is Griffin standing next to one of the staff and I did a brief glance for Kenna unable to see her until I saw her feet behind Griffin. Griffin was standing in front of her and "guarding" her from other kids. When he saw me he started to walk towards me and I saw that he was holding Kenna's hand...we walked towards each other and Griffin's face turned red and his eyes filled with tears...he started to tell me that McKenna got bite by another little girl...He was so upset, I think more so than McKenna was. McKenna of course was still crying and I saw the damage that had been done to her cheek. I wanted to know who had bit her and it was another little girl a little smaller than her, so I wasn't upset about that.



Anyway, we left and Tim was working out too, so we went and found him and Griffin was telling us what happened. Griffin is extremely honest when it comes to things like this so here is the story...McKenna was playing with a little toy plane and the other little girl wanted it and McKenna was holding on to it, so the little girl bit her in the cheek and Griffin stopped her and told her "no, no". Then he hugged McKenna until I got there and he told us he made sure no one else would bite her. He told us several times last night that when he gets big he is going to be a police officer and put that little girl in timeout because we don't bite. I was so proud of him for taking care of his sister and protecting her until I got there. What a good big brother...



So here is the damage from last night, and she has a pretty sweet bruise of teeth marks on her face today, I am sure that it will be there for a few more days...

Camping Adventure

My sister moved back up to NAU this weekend, so in a desperate plee to get out of town and heat for a few days we tagged along and camped for the weekend 20 miles outside of Flag and drove in on Saturday to get Rachel all moved in. This was McKenna's first camping trip since she has been able to walk, I knew that she would get dirty, but she was only outside the truck for about 5 minutes before her face was covered in dirt as she was taste testing all the rocks to make sure they were good to play with...

We went exploring to collect treasures and found some beautiful things along the way...

Including Eeyore food...

After all that it does a body good to relax a bit...

What is camping trip without a fire...

The kids had so much fun and the bathtub needed a bath after we cleaned the kids...

Prepare for cuteness...

We went to a party last week for this handsome little guy...

And there was just too much cuteness not to snap a few shots...

And this beauty, is she just one of the most beautiful girls...

Happy Birthday buddy, hope you had a great day...

Talented...

I had to work on an assignment for class and was trying to capture this...

Then I was able to capture that...

And as were were getting ready to pack up and go home, Griffin asked if he could take a picture...since I had the camera on the tripod I let him snap a few pictures. He moved the camera up and down and then took a couple of shots...

I was so impressed with his pictures when I got them on the computer...great job my little talented man!

Turning Circles

This has been one of the longest weekends for Tim and I, not necessarily in the best possible way. We had one the most disturbing experiences since becoming parents that took place on Friday night, that I just keeping running around and around in my head...

Both of us got home late from work and errands on Friday night, and decided that we would go out to dinner. So we went to a little local family restaurant. As we were sitting and waiting for our food, McKenna started to squeal. Not a tantrum or yell, when she get excited or wants something, she has this high pitched "girly" squeal. She was making noise, but Tim and I were keeping her entertained with snacks and playing with her...Then the unbelievable...

This older man in his 60's came around the corner and started to walk past until he stopped and said, "Is that your kid making the noise?" Me thinking that he was going to say something like What is all the noise about, you know in a joking way, like I usually get if she squeals like that... No, not so much. Tim responded, yes. Then this man proceeded to start yelling and us...not talking, yelling...as loud as he could, to where everyone in the restaurant turned and were looking...some people started to "boo" this guy. In the middle of his first yelling sentence or two, Tim said, "Are you serious???". This man yelled, "Yes, I am serious, you may not care what your children do, but the rest of us want to have a quiet, uninterrupted dinner. You need to learn how to control your children." He actually said that we needed to control our children several times. Even after he saw that McKenna was a baby, and he didn't know that we had "children" until he walked around to where we were sitting cause Griffin had taken a transformer car with him and had hardly talked because he was engrossed with transforming. Not to mention there were TV's everywhere with ESPN on half and Winnie the Pooh on the others.

I was literally in a state of shock, and as this guy continued with his voice raised, he started to walk away and Tim told him what he thought of him, the best way possible since we had our kids with us. After the man walked away, a couple of people around us came up and said to ignore him. Since this a local family owned restaurant, the owner was there and came up and apologized and tried to accommodate us for the rest of the meal. But after she came up, I lost it...Pathetically, I just started crying, uncontrollably...our food came out at that moment, so I told Tim we needed to leave and we took our food to go. I felt the need to go for several reasons, I was crying and couldn't see my plate...Griffin was confused to what just happened, and McKenna was still squealing and I didn't know the mind set of this man and I had children to protect. So we walked out to car and when I was inside the car with the kids, Tim went back in and really told this guy what he thought of him.

I think that I was so emotional, because this was such a heartless thing to do. Such a mean, cruel thing, that happened in front of my children. You know when you are in a situation and wish you knew what to say at that moment, or what to do, only to sit on it later and wished you would have handled it different. I felt trapped as to what to do in that moment. This man needed to know what he had done was completely inappropriate, rude and intolerable. But at the same time, how do you articulate that when your children are present, so you don't have to justify your actions if you handle the situation poorly. I do so desperately wish that I could go back to that night and start over. Both Tim and I do, as we have been reliving this event all weekend and wish we could go back and start over. Since Tim did go back in, he got a little relief, but I didn't even say anything to this man. I know that this will never be seen by this person but for my own sense of moving on...To you sir I say this:

I am so sorry that my daughter was making noise, she was not throwing a tantrum, she was just excited. I am sorry that you did not have a quiet, uninterrupted dinner. Maybe if want a dinner like that, I would suggest staying home or going to an adult restaurant, not a family restaurant with Winnie the Pooh on the TV's. Furthermore, when you came around the corner and saw that the noise was coming from a one year old, you should have walked away. When you saw that we had another child with us, you should have walked away. If you really felt that way, you should have talked to your waitress or the owner. You sir should be ashamed of yourself, for behaving that way in place full of children. Children including my own that witnessed your repulsive behavior. We made the decision to leave not because our daughter was making noise, but because we had to explain to our son why a person would come up to his family and yell horrible things to them, and let him know if he ever chooses to behave that way there will be consequences and he will be punished. So when you look in the mirror, I hope you are happy with the reflection, because I am sad for the lack of joy and happiness that is obviously missing from your life.

Okay, I feel a little better...