Cheese Shopping with Nicole!

As promised, here are the pictures from cheese shopping with Nicole!

After church, we went up to AJ's market and gazed upon their cheese display cases. We ended up buying four cheeses to try prematurely and then provided them for our party. However, we decided to try more than just cheese......

We also tried sushi! As many of you know, this was not my first time trying sushi. But it was unfamiliar terrain for Nicole!

I helped her pick out a nice easy starter roll, while going crazy with a super spicy tuna roll covered in Sirache. It was flaming.

Fun Times at the Zoo!!

So today, we went to the zoo!! It was so much fun! The zoo in this town is pretty small so we managed to see the whole thing in one day. Unlike the San Francisco zoo for instance, which I've been to two or three times and still have not seen the whole thing...

Some of the birds (peacocks and ducks and non-zoo birds like pigeons and grackles) roamed the pathways and you could get really close to them.

They also walked really close to the fence which was ideal for picture taking! Or maybe this one just liked me... Who knows?

This turtle (tortoise?) was gargantuine!! You can't even tell how big he was in this picture! We watched him practically trample that turtle in the bottom left corner. (I caught him in motion in this picture.) Turns out he was hungry! But seriously, it looked like he just crushed that other turtle. We came back and he wasn't moving at all. O_o I witnessed a murder at the zoo!!!

The monkeys and apes and chimps and other such creatures were one of my favorite parts. Me and Cam were singing If It doesn't have a tail it's not a monkey the whole while. And coincidentally, that's exactly what the signs said!!! My respect for Veggietales has increased that much more!

The Gibbon (pictured in the bottom of the two above pictures) was in action! He was swinging all across his little.. I don't know what to call it... Area. Back and forth. It was very impressive. Then there was a second Gibbon (which you can see at the back of the giant cage in the picture) climbed down to get a corn cob on the ground and it was too far for him to get it without walking on the ground. And it was seriously like watching someone walk on hot cement watching him get it. It was so funny! (Because their toes are designed for swinging, not walking on the ground.)

And last but not least:

 The Giraffes!! I found the Giraffes quite enthralling. There were about five of them. I took so many pictures of them!!

Nothing particularly exciting happened in the giraffe exhibit but they were still fun to watch.

And there's me!! ^-^ With a giraffe in the background. Don't I look cute? :)

So that concludes our trip to the zoo. :)

Seven Falls Hike

Our homeschool group went on a hike to a place called Seven Falls.

It was a lovely hike- about two miles there and back. We ate lunch at the falls and splashed around in the water (believe it or not, there was water and it was freezing!!! I dunked my head under.)

We had two groups: a fast-paced group and a slow-paced group. Cam was at the head of the fast-paced group for most of the way. 

We had interesting conversations along the way. Jim's dad is a lawyer and he started talking to us about the difference between the various charges of manslaughter. Interesting stuff!!

In this picture, if you look really hard, you can see Cam. He is the one with the orange hat (Thank you Grandma Kaaren!) and blue backpack. He's almost dead center of the photo.

The falls were so beautiful!! I should've taken more pictures, I really should have. At least I got some. I will try to see if my friends got any pictures.

It was a truly wonderful hike!! I'm gonna try to lead my family back there at some point. ;)

New Prom Dress!

What do you think of the dress?

Yesterday, on a whim, we decided to go to the Tucson book festival!! It was super fun! There was a whole avenue full of tents and demonstrations. Different bands played and there was food and workshops and of course, books!!

This was along the National Parks row and they had some real chainmail! It was actually quite heavy-- about 25-30 pounds and weighed the person down quite a bit. It looked like a dress on me so I posed for the camera. I also did a super manly muscle-y pose too but I like this picture better. :) What do you think?

AWANA–What Happens in the Van, Stays in the Van

Or not. ;)

Yesterday, we had the annual Awana Quizzing/Games competitions in Phoenix. These competitions test the students' skills in Bible memorization and athletic games played on a circle.

The drive up wasn't so bad. We had to meet together at 5:30 a.m.! It was impossible to sleep in the car either. So, I just listened to the chatter and studied my notes, trying to calm my nerves. Our whole high school team(s) went in the same van–all 15 of us!! But the atmosphere was lighthearted and my friends made me laugh, so I wasn't as nervous.

Once we got there, we painfully watched the Trek (middle schoolers) quiz. It wasn't painful because they were bad (the Trek actually did really good.) but I was really nervous. I guess it was apparent because my leader kept telling me to take deep breaths. My quizzing partner Grace told me not to listen to the Trek questions so they wouldn't throw me off. So I recited the preamble of the Constitution over and over to myself. It helped. You can't study any extra materials once you enter the auditorium so I had nothing else to do.

Once it was our turn to quiz, I felt much better. In quizzing, there are two parts. The first part is multiple choice and the second part is called "speed quizzing" and you must be the first person to buzz in to answer the question. We got all the multiple choice questions correct!

Then we went into speed quizzing. I answered the first question. The guy only got through four words before we buzzed in. And then I got the answer correct! Our team couldn't answer any other questions cuz we weren't fast enough on the buzzer. You would not believe how fast these high schoolers buzz in. It was insane!!

The other team from our church took 5th place. With 340 points, we came in THIRD PLACE!!! It was awesome! We got "medals" and we took tons of pictures (coming soon, since I never so much as touched my camera.) We had sandwiches for lunch and got into a rousing game of Tips which is a basketball game played in a circle. I'm not very good at it but it was fun.

Shortly after, the games competition began. One church had FIVE teams competing in the games. It was crazy but nonetheless, we did so good! And we screamed so loud for each other! (And the other green team in Flight 2) If you'd been sitting next to me, you might've been temporarily deaf. I screamed until my mouth was dry and I was hoarse. It was great. And in the end, we got FIRST PLACE!! We have never ever gotten first place in Awana games so it was doubly awesome. Fifteen minutes later, I was still saying "oh my gosh." in disbelief. We all thought we were getting second but we owned in the last three races and that clinched the win for us.

There was much revelry at In-N-Out afterward. I indulged myself by ordering a vanilla milkshake and extra crispy fries. And they were tasty! We all ate together outside and did goofy stuff (but no french fry wars this time.) The boys were going to do an awesome mime of a tug rope across the drive-thru (One person stood on each side and when the car came, they were going to pull on an imaginary "rope" to see if the car would stop.) but they got in trouble before they got to test it out. The idea was hilarious though.

And then, we mustn't forget the Starbucks. Yes, after In-N-Out, once we got closer to town we stopped at Starbucks.

Ten caffeinated teenagers in a van makes for one interesting car ride! Joe was crazy. He screamed and went supersonic at random intervals. We also sang several tuneless versions of songs such as "We are the Champions" (very appropriate for our victory), "Amazing Grace", "The Song that Never Ends", and "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" among others. (I have no idea how our leaders out up with us but secretly, I think it all greatly amuses them.)

Joe began singing "The Wheels on the Bus [Go Round and Round]". He then proceeded to make up his own hilarious renditions of the song. For example, "The kids in teh van are spazzing out." and "I am about to be threatened". (The meter got messed up here but nobody cared.) There were lots of verses about different things going on. I think it was the most interesting car ride I've ever had the privilege to witness.

It was such a good day. I could not stop smiling and laughing (even with my nervousness). I had the strangest urge to say "That's it?" once it was over. We studied and practiced so hard for weeks and weeks and it was all over in a single day. A few days ago, I wanted the madness of studying to be over but it was definitely worth every minute of awesomeness.

I♥Awana!

Snow Day with Dad!

After 2 whole hours of waiting...

 

and waiting....

and waiting,

we finally got our rentals!! Yay! Seriously though, we arrived at about 9:30 and didn't start skiing until 1. That's what we get for going up on a Saturday! They actually ran out of rentals and were beginning to send people home. As you can see here, the line went out into the parking lot. And there were so many cars, that people parked down the hill! We actually parked about a mile (give or take) away from the place! (It was a long walk)

pre-skiing picture!

Looking good Sydney! She had some truly amazing hat hair. Also, Cam squeezed into the background of this one-even though he was being super camera shy. (ay-yi-yi.! That kid does not like his picture taken!)

Once we actually got on the slopes though, we had a great time. Well, sorta. Cam had a bad run the first go-round but he liked it much better after a good lesson. After the lesson, he was skiing down that hill like a pro!

Sydney also had a great day! She had a bunch of good runs and she picked it up so quickly. She even rode the lift by herself a couple of times! (as did Cam. We were all very good at riding the lift.) Syd fell a lot but it didn't hurt her morale one bit! She just kept getting up and trying again! And hey, everyone falls. Heck, even Dad fell this trip!☺

 

While the kids were in lessons, Dad and I took the blessed hour and a half to ourselves and rode the lift all the way up to the top of the mountain. It was a fifteen minute lift ride (15 minutes!) and it was really cold up there but boy, was the view beautiful! Absolutely made the day! This is our city from the very top! We found the general area that our house was!

On the way back down, Dad taught me how to turn with my skis straight. (I call them french fry turns as opposed to pizza turns.) I biffed it a couple times but it was all good. It was so cold up there that my eyes were watering and I started crying! But, that's to be expected when you're 9,157 feet up in the air--with sunglasses! It was really cold but the view was worth it. It's really hard to capture with a camera but we did our best.

 

All and all, it was a pretty awesome day! Even with all the waiting. Next time, we'll rent skis in town and go up. Then we can skip all the lines. And, we'll go during the week instead of on the weekend.

Farmer's Market!

Yesterday, Mom and I went gallivanting to the farmer's market! It was so different from what I'm used to. We saw a few of the coolest dogs--including a Great Dane, a couple Rottweilers, and a ginormous Russian shepherd hound thing (It was the size of a Great Dane but it had a long snout and it was fluffy!!)

We bought produce to make salsa (and man, was it good!) and there was one guy selling hydroponic tomatoes! These tomatoes were pesticides free and they were grown without any soil. He cut one up and let people sample it so that you could taste the difference between his hydroponic tomatoes and other, normal, tomatoes. And let me tell you, they tasted amazing! We bought four. Hee Hee. (shown above: tomatoes but not hydroponic ones)

We also saw a lady wearing this really interesting jacket. It was quilted and on the back it said, "A messy house is the sign of a happy quilter." (Hah! We sewed a lot of pajamas over the holidays and boy do we know how true that is!) It made us laugh. The first pic is zoomed in and the above pic is the full jacket.
And, I saw an authentic old fashioned typewriter! (I'm pretty sure it was real...) It was neat! I'd never seen a typewriter before so it was cool.

There were so many sellers and stalls. It was so new and different (As it is every time we go. No farmer's market is the same twice.) All the sights and sounds and smells... It was a lot of fun. Mom made me ask permission from the sellers before I took pictures of their merchandise. (Although, I didn't ask permission from the lady with the quilted jacket. I just pretended I was taking a picture of the mountains and zoomed in.) None of the sellers declined me but I'm sure they thought it was a strange request....oh well!

Rusty Gets a Trip to the Vet!

Yep, So Rusty got to go visit the vet!! It was quite an...interesting experience.

Yesterday, Mom was petting him and she felt this really weird bump on his back. She thought it was a tumor but when Dad checked it, it was a puncture wound.

Rusty is back to cat scrapping!!! Except this time, he didn't do so well. We think the cat bit him and it resulted in an abscess. So one hundred eighty bucks and a bottle of antibiotics later, we brought him home. He's also got a lovely shaved patch coming on. Good job Rusty!!

Rusty cowering in the vet's office.