The Nitty Gritty

We went to Geek's Night Out Thursday night at Mill Avenue. Because William loves geeky stuff like robots, aliens, and Star Wars, we didn't want to miss out. There were booths geared for kids. The boys made colored snow, glowing bracelets, controlled a robot built by high school students, and touched those "clear balls with the  lightning inside." It was fun to get out and discover what downtown Tempe is like in the evenings.  Our home teacher brought a robot car that he built for fun and  so that he could show the boys during his visit. He and Wiiliam always have good conversations about robots. Brother Skidmore related the robot to working together as a family--just like the parts of the robot work together. Will practically idolizes Brother Skidmore and ever since the Sunday visit I've been saying "be a good helper so we can tell Brother Skidmore" and Will immediately helps. I told Isaac "that is home teaching at its finest." Will has been dr...

As you can see it was a warm day on Saturday--warm enough that we had to run through the splash pad to cool off. Then Van had to take his clothes off because they were dripping wet. At one point Isaac noted, "are we one of THOSE families that lets their kid run around in his underwear?" I replied "looks like it! Who cares? It's Arizona!"  We love you AZ but PLEASE don't have unusually hot days in the summer. We only like record breaking temperatures in the winter. 

Saturday is our favorite day of the week. It's the day we treat ourselves to some outdoor fun, clean up the house, and restock our fridge with food. Now that Isaac and I are both working full time, we look forward to Saturday when we can have a day with each other and our kids. We love discovering what Tempe has to offer us. Yesterday, we went to Papago Park. It used to be a National park until Arizona bargained to get it back by agreeing to make it into a state park and a zoo. Turns out the park and the Phoenix Zoo are just minutes from our house. Papago Park is beautiful with several trails, fishing ponds, and picnic areas. There was one particular hike called "hole in the rock". You walk up a rocky staircase and at the top there is an actual hole in the rock. It's pretty cool. Will and Van kept calling it a bear cave. We also packed a picnic and played on a playground. Later we went back to the park to see Hunt's Tomb. I love being in high places at sunset. It ...

This has been the most enjoyable winter of our lives! I'm sure in 3 months I will be blogging about how much I hate the heat so for now I want to rave about the winter and cherish the 75 degree weather.  In January, we spent as much time as we could being outside. We took the boys mini golfing at Golfland, biked on various bike paths in the city, played at parks, and hiked a few trails.  Today we spent the first day of February at the park and rented a family bike. We want this month to be no different than last month--soaking up the sun and being active outdoors.