Flip Flops and Hiking

What did we do for President's Day?  I'm so glad you asked!  We've spent a lot of time at home lately, unpacking and all, so we decided to venture out a little bit and explore one of the hiking trails close by.  I loved that we didn't have to get up early to go and that it wasn't an all day thing.  We waited until Isaac woke up from his nap and drove about 10 minutes away from our house and boom, we were there!

The warning sign about the rattlesnakes made some of us (KP) a little nervous, but after reassuring that it was still too cold for snakes we were able to move on.  There were a lot of cacti (plural, right?) and rocks around.  We were even close enough to see the Tram on the mountain moving up and down.

This was Isaac's first time in the backpack and I had forgotten how much hair is fun to play with.  Most of the time we were hiking he was pulling my hair and I was trying to keep it out of his hands!

We had to stop more than a few times to empty rocks out of shoes, check out the terrain, have a sword fight with a granola bar, and enjoy the view.  Caleb got a little worried when Brandon told him that there were wild animals out there that would eat him alive. 

We also found an arroyo that the kids had fun in climbing over the rocks.  Caleb filled his pockets with rocks while Kelsie and Brandon raced up and down and all around.  I am so curious to see what it's going to look like around here when things start to turn green less brown.  We're looking forward to more hikes and possibly even a backpacking trip this summer.  We may have to rethink that one since Isaac likes to pull hair and Kelsie almost had a breakdown when we talked about it, but it might happen!

 

It has been so nice here that we've finally had to break out the flip flops and turn off the heat during the day.  I have been opening windows as well!  I can't remember the last time I did that in February! 

*pictures by Kelsie

Smile

V-Day 2011 from Ronni Paxton on Vimeo.

Cuteness

It's been a while since I've posted some pictures of Isaac.  He's growing up so fast and I wish I had the ability to slow time down (I'm sure every parent feels the same way).  Isaac is now 9 months old and is crawling all over the place!  We think it's funny that he learned how to crawl and still has yet to roll over!  He only wants to eat the food that the rest of us are eating instead of any kind of baby food.  He has learned to clap and even dance, more like bob his head back and forth to music.  We think he has an internal sensor for any lego piece or marble left on the floor and makes a bee line towards it!  He says "mama" and is real close to saying "dada".  Isaac is such a happy little baby and we're so glad he's a part of our family!

Isaac Crawling from Ronni Paxton on Vimeo.

Lego Bowl I

Untitled from Ronni Paxton on Vimeo.

Snow Day(s)!

Whew!  What a week we've had here!  We got hit with some interesting weather.  The kind of weather I would have expected if we were still living in Chicago, but for the desert?  I think the whole state was caught off guard too when an arctic blast came over the area.  As a result, we had our first snow days ever for the Paxtonians.  I never really thought this would happen in the desert, I mean, it's supposed to be warmer here, right?  It also doesn't help that we just moved from Chicago where in the whole 3 years that we lived there, school was not canceled once.  We would walk to school in single digit weather, and even below single digit weather.  I wore that like a badge on my chest for 3 years.  To be honest, we're a little sad about missing the record breaking storm that hit Chicago.

 

We had a storm this week that brought more snow and cold than I ever imagined here and school was canceled for 4 days.  The first day I wasn't prepared for it, I was really hoping it was just going to be a delay.  Wally drove the car to work since biking wasn't an option so I was home all day with all the kids.  Which isn't that abnormal or anything, but usually by the time Saturday comes around, I'm ready for it!  We managed to make it through the day unharmed and without too many incidentals between the kids.  They even went sledding together with a new friend in the neighborhood and had a great time.

When they canceled school again the next day, I was a little more prepared.  We declared it a pajama day and played games, made homemade cookies (which if you know me, that's a huge thing!), made some Valentine's, had a few Lego battles and just had fun together.  By day three and four, it was starting to get old.  We tried to make the most of it though and still had fun together.  Wally even ended up home from work because we were put on a natural gas ration all over the city so thermostats were turned waaaaaaay down and it was cold.  It's a sad, sad thing to not have heat keeping you warm when it's only a few degrees above zero outside.  We did our part at home and turned off our heat during the day (thank goodness for lots of windows and the sun!) and turned it down to 55* through the night.  I'm not going to lie, it was a cold night with temperatures dropping below zero outside.  The hardest part was keeping little Isaac warm throughout the night.  Every time I would check on him, his hands were freezing!  He ended up in bed between us to stay warm.  Because of the extreme cold around here, pipes all over the city were freezing and bursting, including one in Wally's building at work and also at our church.

It turns out that having a snow day (or four) isn't so bad after all.  I just hope it doesn't become a regular thing around here.  Brandon, especially, is getting a little too comfortable with the whole idea of a snow day.  He may be a little disappointed when Monday rolls around and things have (hopefully) gotten back to normal!