South Mountain, visit #2.

Cassidy and I enjoyed our second drive to the top of South Mountain. This was the first time for Matt, Lincoln, and Granny.

Cassidy, Granny, Lincoln, Matt

It really is amazing to see cactus growing all around.

Lots of saguaro cactus.

View of downtown Phoenix from the top of the mountain.
Nice and hazy. Gotta love the air quality living in the valley. 

Linc and Cass enjoying the shaded lookout area.
Temps have been between 103-108 degrees for the last couple of weeks!

Cassidy, Granny, Lincoln, Julie

eight.

Lincoln's birthday celebration was slightly different this year since we are at quite a distance from our friends and family. Granny is here visiting and Lincoln has been enjoying her company, but to touch base with other family members and friends, Linc spent pieces of his birthday on Skype, FaceTime, and on the phone. He seemed to enjoy it as the gift opening was spread throughout the day...he tried to open presents as he talked to each person. Very enjoyable for an 8-year-old.

He was thrilled that everyone remembered his special day and he is happily playing new video games and apps, playing with new pool stuff, and playing new board games. He has new books on his book shelf (great for summer reading), lots of iTunes money to spend, and will be figuring out how to ride his new skateboard soon. Actually I imagine he'll be butt surfing down the driveway on the skateboard until he gains confidence.  

His favorite part of the day was swimming in the afternoon. He got some new fins for his feet so he's become a little fish in the water and he and and Cassie have new floaties with built-in squirt guns. 

The birthday boy in his new UFO floatie. 

Big bro and little sis living it up in the pool.
Of course, Linc's squirt gun is pointed right at Cassidy! 

For dinner, we went to Peter Piper Pizza (very similar to Chuck E. Cheese's). 

This is what "8" looks like. 

Playing a little skee ball. 

Lincoln requested a chocolate mint cake for his birthday, which I was happy to make. I made the cake the day before his birthday and, unfortunately, I didn't take the dang Arizona heat into consideration when I left the cake on the counter. The lovely mint filling that I made must have been so light and fluffy that the top layer of the cake broke into four pieces and slid down the sides. Disappointing. I did my best to reassemble the dang cake and refrigerated it until it was time to blow out the candles. Ah well...it still tasted pretty good. Live and learn.

Linc & I with the wonky birthday cake. 

Happy birthday, buddy!

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.