kite flying.

We had an unseasonably cool day or two last week, with high's around 80 degrees. One of the days was quite windy, perfect for flying kites. I can't remember the last time we remembered to get our kites out. I was inspired by some kids down the street who had their kites flying high in the sky.

Cassie (still in her pj's), holding on tight to her kite string.

Cassie's American Flag kite flying high. 

Linc whipping his kite strings around. 

Go Spidey!

The kite flying ended after a successful 30 minutes or so when Spiderman landed in one of our trees. When dad has to get the ladder out to retrieve things from the roof or from trees, it's time to move on to the next activity. :)

obsessed with monopoly.

While my parents were visiting, my mom got the Monopoly game out to play with Lincoln. He'd never played, but she felt like he was old enough to learn. She was right. They played one game together where he learned the ropes of the game. YiaYia knocked him out with her hotels on Boardwalk and Park Place. Linc wasn't happy.

He was willing, however, to start up another game. I joined in this time. Because we are all busy, we played at 15-minute intervals for several days in a row. We played before school, after school, after swimming, when homework was done, before bed. We played whenever we could fit a few minutes in. Lincoln knocked YiaYia out when she landed on one of his green properties, thus he inherited all of her mortgaged properties. The game was left to Lincoln and Mom. We went on for quite a while as our properties were pretty evenly matched. Lincoln eventually wiped me out when I landed on Illinois avenue, which had a hotel on it. Way to go, buddy!

Lincoln proudly showing off his loot and his hotels. 

After this game, we played on our Simpson's Monopoly board. I think YiaYia won that time by wiping us out with her hotels on Burns Manor and Springfield Glen Country Club (i.e. Boardwalk and Park Place).

Cassidy got into the mix by using some of her birthday money to by Monopoly Jr.  The saga continues...

the tooth fairy found our new house.

When we were staying in a hotel in Tempe just before we closed on the new house, Cassidy noticed that one of her bottom teeth was wiggly -- her first loose tooth! It seemed surreal to hear that my little girl's tooth was loose. Another moment when my heart did a little flip-flop. A happy flip-flop. 

Nearly an entire month later, the tooth made its way out on its own. You were coloring Mr. X (one of the letter people from your old preschool class) at the dining room table when YiaYia asked how your tooth was doing. You wiggled it a bit and it came right out! Finally.  

It's been a while since we've had a visit from the tooth fairy. Lincoln's last two baby teeth are still sitting in his little baseball-shaped box. He refused to put them under his pillow for the tooth fairy to visit. He sometimes finds it difficult to let go of things. He may be a hoarder someday. Cassidy had no problem allowing the tooth fairy to visit. She proudly put her tooth in a small silver box and let it rest under her pillow. Sometime while she was in dreamland, the tooth fairy came. She left a dollar bill for Cassie, which was promptly placed in her "Spend" jar.

Congrats, Cass! 

Note: the space in her top teeth comes naturally; the lost tooth is on the bottom.

South Mountain.

We drove about 30 minutes from the house to South Mountain, located in Phoenix, AZ. This range of mountains offers a lot of hiking, mountain biking, and equestrian trails. 

We opted to drive up to the highest lookout point, Dobbins Lookout, which is at 2,330 feet. It was a 5.5 mile drive up that had fantastic views of the valley. My minivan made the slow, steep, curvy climb to the top. We just had to keep Cassidy's and Yiayia's stomachs in check as they looked out from certain vantage points. 

 

Cassidy, myself, and Pops.

YiaYia and Papou in the desert.

Cassidy at Dobbin's Lookout.
At one of the lookout spots about halfway up the mountain, she wouldn't get out of the car for fear of heights!
When we got to the last lookout, however, she got out and really seemed to enjoy being up high. 

This brass plaque is like a compass, pointing out the distant features that you can see from the lookout site. It pointed to various cities, other mountain ranges, etc.

 

This is a stone rest house that you can go in to catch some shade and look out over the valley.  

In the distance, you can see the tall buildings of downtown Phoenix. 

Me. In the desert.

As we drove up , we were amazed by all of the cacti I believe the tall cacti are Saguaro. I read that the arms on these cacti  may show the age of the cactus. Again, I need to get a book to learn more!

 

Cassidy and YiaYia sitting in a garden with a variety of small cacti.

More cacti. 

What a fun drive. I'm sure I'll do this one multiple times as we have guests. 

Phoenix Zoo.

We bought an annual pass to the Phoenix Zoo, figuring that it'd be something to do when we have visitors. This was our second visit to the zoo and Yia and Pops joined us this time around. We were able to do some things this time that we didn't do the first time around like....

The Petting Zoo

Me at the entrance to the Petting Zoo with my two little munchkins.

The kids loved brushing the goats. 

At the close of the petting zoo, the kids could milk a fake cow. Cassie really got into it! 

More cow milking. 

Mom and daughter chillin in the shade near the giraffes.

Father and son watching some monkeys. Wait, were they just looking in a mirror? 

Great view of the giraffes having an afternoon snack.

I can't get enough of the cacti here. I think this one is a prickly pear cactus.
I need to get a book on cacti from the library. 

We lucked out with a gorgeous 80-degree day (it was unseasonably cool that day). Perfect for walking around the zoo.

Easter 2014.

We spent Easter doing Easter things -- dyed eggs, hunted for eggs around the house, ate too much chocolate and too many jelly beans, went to church, had ham for dinner. That's a typical Gough Easter.

Papou and Yiayia with the kids all ready for church.

Dying eggs.
Cassidy enjoys dying the eggs, Lincoln likes to eat the eggs.

Linc making a half-and-half egg. 

Cassidy's going for a golden egg.

Look at the enthusiasm on Linc's face. He just can't contain himself. 

 

The finished products. Gorgeous and delicious.

Loot from the Easter bunny and the grandparents. 

Happy Easter everyone! 

Tempe.

Yiayia and Papou (my parents) arrived for their first ever visit to Arizona just before Easter. They helped with lots of small projects around the house and we spent time exploring the area. We headed to Tempe to meet Matt for dinner after work one of the days. We saw some of the ASU campus, walked around the downtown area, enjoyed dinner at My Big Fat Greek Restaurant, and climbed "A" Mountain.

ASU campus.

Lincoln and Cassidy.

Julie, Cass, Linc, and Yia.

A view of "A" mountain from campus. We later climbed this with the kids.

Time for dinner!

Lots of outdoor restaurant seating everywhere we go.
My personal review of the Greek food: 3 out of 5 stars.
The pastitio (mine and Linc's favorite) is far better in Detroit's Greektown.
The spinach pie and saganaki were respectable. 

After our meal, we walked over to "A" Mountain. The kids and I climbed it when we first arrived in AZ, but Matt's been busy working so this was his first opportunity to climb. The old folks opted to sit on a bench in town and people watch. Smart. 

View of the Sun Devil stadium.

Two cuties resting at the first lookout point.

One cutie climbing all the way to the top. 

View from the top. Certainly different landscape than we are used to seeing.

View of Tempe Town Lake. 

About half of the climb up is on a paved path and the rest requires that you climb up several large steps. It was not Cassidy's favorite thing to do. One day she claims she is afraid of heights and the next she wants us to "go up higher". I can't make heads or tails of her brain. Here, you can see that this was an "afraid of heights" day. 

Linc - not afraid of heights. 

Here is the step path that we climbed to get to the top.
 

Much better going down.

And super fun racing dad to the bottom!

six weeks in.

We have spent the last six weeks busily unpacking and getting settled in our new home. I have tried to take some pictures along the way to document and share out adventure. Here goes...

This is what brought us here.
The office is in a lovely area of Tempe, AZ right next to the Arizona State University campus. 

Our new southwestern home. 

Another view of the front of the house.
We are learning lots about desert landscaping and are happy to have several flowering bushes in the yard.
As you can see, the front yard is all rock, which is quite common here. We do have a nice grassy area in the backyard. 

Big bro and little sis at the front door.
Note that we are proudly displaying our Detroit Tigers flag!

The kiddos sitting in front of the cactus in the front yard.
They are not big fans of it as it has popped two of their playground balls!

Notice the red flowers on the cactus.
We're all rather amazed by how well things grow here, especially after trying to dig in the yard.
The ground is as hard as a rock.

Another pretty, flowering bush.

Guess we should move the little mower to the backyard! 

Back of the house.
Here is the grass that Cassie can mow!
Of the houses we looked at, this one had the largest grassy area which was a big selling feature for us Midwesterner's.
Gotta have some of the green stuff! 

Another view of the back of the house.
You can see the large patch of sand/dirt. We are guessing the previous owner had a swing set or something back there. We hope to landscape it at some point, possibly to match what we've got in the front yard. We've also seen several homes with nice, paved areas with fire pits in their backyards so that's an option as well. 

And another view from the other corner of the backyard.
Here you can see the pool with the grassy area off to the right. 

We have a pool! 

We've noticed several hummingbirds in the yard.
They seem to enjoy some of the flowering bushes, like the one above. 

Here are the kids standing in front of our citrus tree! I never thought I'd be saying that.
We aren't sure yet if it's a lemon or a lime tree. Our neighbor has grapefruit, orange, and lemon trees. How cool.
The kids are already talking about having a lemonade/limeade stand. 

 

Cassidy dipping her feet in the pool with her fish floaty friend (whom she has named Dorothy). 

Lincoln taking one of the first dips in the pool.
Papou (grandpa) was actually the very first person in the pool on Easter weekend! Our pool isn't heated, which is kind of a shame as a heater would extend the swimming season quite a bit. No doubt, it will be like bath water when the summer heat hits, but springtime swimming is not for the faint of heart. The pool has been holding steady at about 78 degrees. Our thick, midwest blood can handle it though, so we've all been in a few times since we had air temps in the 90s on a pretty regular basis throughout April. Most people have said that Arizona newbies are in their pools in April their first year here and not until later in May during subsequent years.

Cassie floating around in Dorothy. Her body is like a furnace (always hot) so she seems to do fine in the chilly pool water. Lincoln, on the other hand, has blue lips after about five minutes in the pool. 

This is our chlorine buddy aptly named "Sharkie". 

How much fun was it to unpack all of these boxes? So much fun!
I am glad we are through the boxes and packing paper. It's all been hauled away and we are feeling pretty settled in our new home. One of the biggest differences for us here is that we no longer have a basement. Hence the 3-car garage. The third car area is packed with our "stuff". I continue to question why we have so much "stuff" but somehow we can't seem to get rid of it.