easter & a mini road trip

I like easter. I like to sit outside and eat lamb with mint jelly. I like to watch Espen hunt for eggs. I like the weather. Last easter I got sick and ended up throwing up while my dad was over after dinner trying to help me hang a headboard I made while Jeremy was in CA. This year I was healthy, happy and had a great day with my family and a fun night in Tucson with Jeremy.

{acid mothers temple, tucson}

February is the shortest month of the year and it certainly felt that way this year, for sure. The holidays are over, my birthday came and went and now February, poof, gone. Luckily, aside from being sick for the umpteenth time this year, February was a really good month.

Espen's school had a mailbox set up in the office the week before Valentine's day where parents could drop off cards or notes to their kids that would hand delivered to the students in their classroom. Here's what I made for Espen. He didn't think it was as cool as I did. Oh well...





I got a wacko idea that I would hand make all 9 of the girls in Espen's class Valentine's and little barrettes. It took me forever, but it was totally worth it, they turned out so cute. The boys in the class just got Bakugan cards and chocolates, sorry boys.







Mom!! Come look at me....Fancy hat, dude.



On a Friday we decided to let Espen take the day off of school so he could join us on a motor home adventure to Quartzsite. I forgot how much fun motor homes are! And the best part (or maybe the worst part) was that I got to bring my laptop/phone and was able to work comfortably at the 'dinette' while flying down the highway. So cool.



After a few hours of driving we finally arrived and my sister and I were unleashed in a giant warehouse filled with all of the stones, gems and jewelry findings you could ever imaging. I found a lovely 'diamond', wouldn't it make such a lovely ring?

While Seester and I scoured the warehouse the kids with Grandma & Grandpa's help stayed busy digging for dinosaurs.



Oh my gosh, such pretty little things are going to be made by Block & Battaglia with all of this loot. Can't wait. I've already made a couple of beautiful drop earrings.



I spent a lot of time in bed with these two guys, not feeling well=naps, naps, naps.



Sunday at the park, probably not the best thing for me...being outside and riding a bike depleted my energy but the boys had fun.





It was SO nice to be able to go for a bike ride, come on Spring, we're waiting!



Man, I snapped this at THE perfect time...love it.



Jeremy & his fake smile, at least he tried and his tongue isn't sticking out.


Au revoir February...it's been fun.

happy new year

Last year we had without a doubt the craziest new years ever. I'm sure you've heard me tell the story and/or seen the videos. All I wanted to do was stay home last year but instead we went out and it was terrible.

This year was going to be our year to stay at home, cuddle with Espen (who we've only spent one new years eve with) and lay low. My parents had Espen at their house for one last visit before his winter break was over and the plan was to pick him up from there house and head up north to play in the snow. Now, my parents house got hit pretty hard with snow this year and we could have easily stayed around their house in Yarnell but we thought we'd try Prescott for a change of scenery. After about an hour of driving up crazy switch backs with snow everywhere we finally made it to Prescott around 3:30. How cute is Prescott, by the way? The center of town and the county court house building looked amazingly quaint and the snow and people all bundled up made me want to immediately plan a weekend trip up there. I'm not sure how it happened but Jeremy said we were going to head to Flagstaff without even looking for a place in Prescott to play in the snow. So, I plugged in the info on the navigation and off we went. I was desperately watching the clock because our navigation told us we'd be in Flagg in over an hour and a half and I wasn't sure we'd make it there in time to a) play in the snow and b) make it home in time for a relaxing night at home...well, it turns out I was right. We didn't reach Flagstaff till 5pm. We passed the main part of town and headed towards Wing Mountain, to try to find a snowy spot that we pulled off and played in last year. We couldn't find the old spot so we pulled off in another just long enough for me to use the most disgusting/frozen/stinky public/park restroom. At this point I was getting anxious. I'm normally the kind of girl to just roll with things and make the best of a situation but this time was different. All year I was looking forward to being home on new years, my monthly bitch from hell decided to visit that day (and if you know me then you know that I become completely useless), I was cold and starving. Jeremy talked me down from my mild freak out and the next thing you know we were checking in to a crappy Super 8, ordering pizza & wings and settling into our new digs. We thought at some point we were going to be able to stop by Jeremy's parents on the way home from playing in the snow so we brought a bottle of Glogg to give them and thank god we did, we immediately opened the bottle and started to drink! Espen was asleep by 10:30 and while Jeremy & I waited till midnight to arrive we watched bad Mexican new years countdowns, flipped between Harry Potter and Road Trip and a couple of times, fought the cold long enough for me to grab a quick smoke. By 8pm it was 0 degrees out and by midnight it 10 below. At midnight we watched the ball drop on TV, snuck out for one last smoke and an impromptu photo shoot with my camera (who's battery was about to die since I didn't think we'd be gone all day, I had only charged it half way, ugh).

In the end, after all of my complaining and freaking out about not having a relaxing new years at home we ended up having one of the best new years ever and from now on, we're thinking about heading out of town every year, next year...El Tovar at the Grand Canyon! And, it turned out that staying the night totally worked in our favor. The next morning after weathering the -17 degree temperature, we ate a not so yummy continental breakfast and headed out to Wing Mountain, but I'll save that for another post.









{espen & his icicle or what he calls 'obstacles'}

{before we left Yarnell my dad asked jeremy to help him drag his canoe up a hill on the side of their house and tried to ride it down, somewhat unsuccessfully}

{family portrait with our pizza}

{zero}

{super 8 is totally fun}

{super 8 is totally metal}

{ugh, so mad that jeremy made his weird tongue/eye face and what a lovely background, chevron}

{new years kiss}

{happy new year, it's effing cold out}

{by the time we woke up it, this is what we had to deal with}

How do you stay warm when it's below zero? Layers!!

camping-part two

Our first day of camping was a success, the night on the other hand got a little weird. After taking a nap once the weather cooled off, we all woke up in time to have dinner, camping style. Jalapeno/pablano burgers covered in chili. Although it didn't look that great it was delicious!

Soon after we ate, Espen headed to the tent to go to sleep. He wanted me to cuddle with him for a bit and once he was asleep I unzipped the tent and saw Jeremy walking off into the dark towards one of the two entries into our camp site. I yelled to him and heard his muffled voice in the distance. I stood there, staring off into the dark for a few minutes when he finally came out from the shadows.

We camp just minutes away from a Boy Scout camp so we typically see cars driving to and from the camp and it's no big deal.  We can't seem to figure out the schedule there, cars drive by day and night. Jeremy saw a car drive down the road from the Boy Scout camp and watched it back into the campsite right next to ours. They backed in, turned off the engine and just sat there. All we could see was their headlights and tail lights. The lights would be on...and then they'd go off. They'd turn their engine on...and then turn it off. It was so dark that we couldn't see anything but these stupid lights but from where they were they could most likely see our site and our set up since we were lit up from our lantern. There are moments when you're camping that you realize just how exposed you are and you have no idea what is out beyond the light of a lantern and this is how we felt the entire time the car was there. Exposed. So needless to say, Jeremy sat on a chair for an hour and a half with his rifle between his legs ready to protect us. He said he wasn't going to sleep till that car left. About an hour after sitting there I became really tired so I went to the tent, zipped it shut but couldn't sleep. Every few minutes I'd hear something and ask Jeremy "Is the car still there?". Finally around 11:30 we heard the engine start, the car pulled out of the site and headed back to the Boy Scout camp. Then it dawned on me. Those were counselors and they were smoking weed. This is how I imagined the conversation. "Hi Boss, Suzy got her period and needs tampons, can we run to town?" "Sure, as long as you go together" "Will do boss, we'll be back in an hour and a half"...and then down the street they went so they could park, smoke a joint and then head back up. Although it is a Boy Scout camp so I'm not sure if there are any girls up there, but that's the story I told myself so I could sleep that night.

Aside from that late night annoyance, the whole day was rad. We trekked in the creek, had scrumptious dinner, roasted 'shmarshmallows' on the Coleman stove (no fires allowed in the summer) and ended up having a great night sleep with the bugs and all.








{dinner didn't look good, so i figured i'd dress up this picture with a lovely border, hahaha}


{i just don't photograph well in the woods}






{just because we're roughing it doesn't mean our teeth have to}


{gross, daddy long leg family moved in between our tent and the rain fly}


{saturday morning, rained on us all night}


{i love bacon & eggs in the morning, the perfect camping breakfast}


{i look thrilled, right?}


{cool kid, on our way to hike the nearby trail}


{this is about a mile and a half up the mountain, just before espen and i called it quits}


The trail we were on is about a 3 mile hike up, it's a fairly easy hike for adults, but not so much for a 4 year old. It was really hot and Espen & I just couldn't hang. So onto Jeremy's shoulders went Espen and down the hill we all went to cool off in the creek.





Espen was running around with dirt all over his face for about an hour before I looked at him and said 'you have no idea what you look like right now, let me take a picture so you can see'. He almost fell over laughing when he saw this picture.





I had to run to town to grab hot dogs and water and while I was there I stopped by the local Habitat for Humanity store to purchase 2 milk crates for a whopping 80 cents, which was all I had in my wallet. They were supposed to be tables/foot rests but I ended up bungee cording one to a tree to make Espen a basket ball 'hoop'. I totally kicked his butt in HORSE.




{photo by: espen  sasquatch: jeremy}


{roasting hot dogs on a stick}


While Espen and I took a nap Jeremy went out and found two perfect sticks for cooking hot dogs. He whittled  the ends to perfect points and was pretty stoked about them. So, Jeremy and I were sitting around, munching on chips when we decided to get things set up for dinner. Out came the ice chest and the Coleman stove, everything was ready. But where did the sticks go? Seriously, he just had them and then they were gone. We looked everywhere around where we were sitting, under the crates, around the ice chest but really, the entire ground is covered in sticks, pine needles and leaves. So we gave up. That's when I saw something, on the milk crate, under a bag of chips. The freakin' sticks. Right where he had left them. What the hell is wrong with us, we were cracking up. Stupid sticks! It's a good thing we found them, they ended up not being stupid at all, they were the perfect sticks for warming hot dogs on a fire.




{hooray for the sticks and for the hot dogs with cheese in them, the best!}


{espen's been working on his smile, this is an interesting version}


{i love you hot dog}


{again, why do i look so angry}

I asked Espen to hold still so I could get a picture of him, this is what I got.










After two days of camping we were ready to head home. We did things a bit different this time. We packed up the tent and all of our gear before we made breakfast. This worked out perfect! We realized what a bummer it is to wake up, stuff your face with bacon and eggs and THEN pack up. This was we were able to eat and relax for a while...then hop in the car and go. We'll be doing it that way from no on, for sure.

On the way out of the campsite we decided to drive around and explore the area. We drove for about 30 minutes on winding dirt roads till we camp across Washington Park. There are amazing homes out there, tucked away in the forest, off of the creeks. I couldn't imagine living that deep in the woods, it's gotta get a little creepy out there sometimes. But maybe that's why these people have a house like this...




How creepy can life be when you live in a little colorful replica of a house in the Swiss Alps.

Thanks to Jeremy for being such a good camper, you always take such good care of us and make the trips that much more fun for me.