Tucson Vacation and Harmony

For our vacation we went to Green Valley and the Titan Missile Museum. The main draw was the indoor swimming pool. We were lucky to have Ben, Tara, Harmony and Becky join us for part of the trip. Harmony was not that impressed with the Titan Missile Museum. I was thrilled to finally get to see my great niece Harmony, she is so sweet as you will see on the video (if I can figure out how to load it). Andrew is confused at his relationship to Harmony and calls her his great cousin. I personally like that better than second cousin. On the way home we stopped at the San Xavier Mission which is beautiful but I don't think Green Valley will become the next vacation hot spot.

Christmas is over!

Every year I make plans to celebrate Christmas with all kinds of bonding time activities with Andrew. Making sugar cookies, seeing the Christmas lights, making a gingerbread house, zoolights, temple lights, watching great Christmas movies, decorating the tree etc. We end up doing most of those things but they seem hurried and not quite the picture perfect activities of magazines. Oh well, Andrew loves the traditions with all their flaws. We were lucky to have Becky in town to help make tamales (maybe Becky will post the pictures on her blog since I didn't take any) and Jared to take Andrew to Sportsman's Warehouse during the process. Mom wants to share the tamales but I say NO Way! Andrew got a mountain of gifts as always. His favorites are the Air Hog Helicopters, Nerf gun and new Flip video camcorder.

We have been making videos all day and posting them to you tube (he will tell you more on his blog). The Flip camera is a lot of fun and so easy to use expect to see lots of videos in the future. We may go down to Tucson overnight for a quick trip. Grandma's close friend lost her husband over the holidays so we don't want to venture to far from home. Andrew was decided he doesn't want to see snow since that will be his claimed to fame (I tried to tell him that millions of people have never seen snow so he will not be unique but there is no arguing with him). Here are a couple of pictures

All Alone

This weekend I got to practice what it will be like when Andrew leaves home. Andrew announced on Tuesday that Bruce and him were going camping this weekend. They left Friday morning and Grandma and I totally expected them home when we saw the dark clouds and lightning in the direction of their camping site. Instead we got a call from them saying that there was a problem with the tent and they were staying at a nearby motel and would come home late on Saturday (this actually scared me more than the camping in lightning given their bad taste in motels). This afternoon we got a call that they got the tent up and were going to stay another night. So Grandma and I went out to eat at Mi Amigos (0ur favorite Mexican restaurant-that the boys don't like). I made three gingerbread houses, visited the make-up counter at Dillard's and Sephora, went to Michaels, shopped online, balanced my checkbook, put up the Christmas tree and put on the lights, spot cleaned the carpet............

What in the world did I do all day before I had Andrew-oh yeah I called everyone and told them I was bored!!

Back to School!

I haven't been writing lately because I decided to take a grad class in the education dept. I was convinced it would be so easy. To be honest, it hasn't strained my brain but it has been terribly time-consuming and I have learned so much. The class is in Instructional Technology. We have basically only used software that I already use regularly but we are using new features that I would never have tried. We are also using Inspiration and Taskstream-specific education programs. I have enjoyed getting out of the house once a week and learning new things. I am trying hard not to obsess about grades but I mourn every lost point. Tonight as I was rewriting an assignment, I forced myself to upload it when it was far from perfect.

We haven't been doing much. We went to the Emergency Preparedness Fair at Bass Pro Shop last Saturday and saw this awesome Incident Command Center. We love Bass Pro Shop and to make it even better the Boy Scout Shop is just around the corner.

I am a GREAT AUNT!

Okay, I think I have always been a fairly good Aunt but now I am a Great-Aunt. Ben and Tara had a beautiful baby girl on Friday, August 22. Her name is Harmony. She is beautiful (based on pictures and word-of-mouth since I haven't actually seen her). Maybe it is my imagination but she looks like all the other Layton babies I have ever seen.

I can't wait to meet her and hold her. See the picture below to confirm the rumors.

San Diego

Once again, we went to San Diego for our summer vacation. We got to San Diego about 2 pm and decided to go see Mission San Diego de Alcala. We ended up going to the wrong direction and ended up at the Mission Gorge Park and Old Mission Dam. It was really beautiful with a nice interpretive center. We finally found the Mission later.

The next day we went to Sea World and went on the Journey to Atlantis which was scarier than we expected. We went on a Saving the Species Tour and got to touch sharks and feed sea turtles.

On Tuesday, we went to the USS Midway Museum and toured the whole aircraft carrier. I have never thought I was claustrophobic but boy did I want out of there. Andrew loved seeing the F-14 Tomcat. We then took the ferry to Coronado and on the way back stopped at the Naval Base.

We went to Sea World again on Wednesday and then heading home on Thursday. We stopped at the Chula Vista Nature Center which has sea turtles, sharks, rays, raptors and shorebirds. The vacation was lots of fun but we were sure glad to head home.

Poop Scene Investigator

The Arizona Museum of Natural History has a new exhibit called "Poop Scene Investigator". Bruce, Andrew and I went to see it a couple of weeks ago. Andrew refuses to add any information on his blog because he said it was "too childish". But how often do you get to hear an angelic looking blond three-year old girl scream across the room of a museum, " Daddy, Daddy I found some poop". Grandma didn't come because as Andrew said, "she is a party POOPer". I added a couple of pictures. They also had a great exhibit about feathered dinosaurs that was amazing but not as funny.