Vacation - Part III

JEROME, SEDONA AND FLAGSTAFF - ARIZONA

After leaving Phoenix we stopped in a quaint little hill town called Jerome. It was really high up with a great view, tons of stairs and funky little shops. It reminded us a bit of a small East German town

And then back in the car. This was a common sight.... Josie conked out in the back seat.

Our next stop was Sedona. The red rocks and hills were gorgeous. Little did we know it was a bit of a preview of what the Grand Canyon was going to look like.

Our little climber. It didn't matter if it was a sand dune, a red hill or a bunch of snow, all she wanted to do was climb.

And then onto Flagstaff via the famous Route 66

A few days before we got there, Flagstaff was hit with 70 (!!) inches of snow. There were huge snow banks everywhere but amazingly the roads were perfectly clear.

Up next - the Grand Canyon

Vacation - Part II

Before we travel to Arizona I have to include two of our favorite food spots in San Diego. This first one is our favorite breakfast place. It is called Hash House a Go Go and has the most enormous portion sizes I have ever seen. We normally get the sticky hot granola that is served in this HUGE bowl. It isn't nearly full but the size of the bowl alone is a bit intimidating. It is loaded with a ton of fresh, yummy fruit which is normally hard to get while traveling. Josie LOVES the fruit and can polish off a good portion of it herself. It comes with 4 or so large, juicy strawberries. Needless to say, Josie made it to the strawberries before I made it to my camera! I have to say that looking around at what other customers are eating/ordering is half the fun/torment of the place. Sometimes just looking at the piles of food on people's plates is a bit nauseating. Seriously, the portions sizes are out of control. We feel a bit less guilty since ours is mostly just fruit and cereal.

Our other favorite food spot is Yogurtland. We are both really big fans of frozen yogurt and not just because it is better for you than ice cream. We both agree that real ice cream is just too rich. Unfortunately, Seattle doesn't have many frozen yogurt places anymore. Yogurtland really is the BEST frozen yogurt place either of us have been too. You can see behind Marty and Josie, off to the right that they have 18 different serve yourself flavors. Then they have dozens of toppings including fresh fruit, nuts, candies, cookies, just about everything. And it is only 30 cents an oz. We didn't hold back at all and would normally get two pretty full cups for under $5.

OK, enough about food. Onto the desert.

The landscape on the way to Phoenix was desert, rocks and there wasn't anything really truly green for MILES. It made us appreciate the lushness of the PNW.

Josie did AMAZINGLY well on all three long legs of our road trip. She spent some time engrossed in her German Backyardigans video, a lot of time requesting songs from Marty's ipod and some time sleeping. She didn't really even have one major melt down. It made the car trips much more enjoyable.

Here is one of the desert rest stops. Very flat, dry and brown.

We were about an hour away from Grandma and Papa's house when Marty noticed a sign that said "Petroglyph National Park" This kind of purposeful detouring was what made him what to take a "road trip" in the first place. Before I knew it we were off roading it to a small little park 15-20 miles off course. It was pretty amazing to see the ancient petrogylphs etched into the rocks. Of course, all Josie wanted to do was pick up the rocks and carrying them somewhere else despite there being signs everywhere that said not to touch the rocks.

And onto Phoenix

We had a nice but short nice visit with Grandma and Papa. Marty had a radio conference in Scottsdale and Papa and Grandma treated Josie and me to a day at Wild Animal Park outside of Phoenix. It was really cool and even better than a zoo. It seemed that you really got right up close to the animals.

Josie loved the petting zoo part.

That is until the animals starting nibbling on her clothes and her bum.

Riding around in Papa's golf cart

And another frozen yogurt stop

Every morning Josie helped Grandma pick oranges and grapefruit from her tree. The morning we left Josie and Marty stocked up on some tasty citrus. Fortunately, we had eaten all of the oranges but unfortunately, we still had half of the grapefruit still left when we drove through an agricultural check and had to give them the rest of our grapefruit. Marty was seriously heartbroken.

Up next - Car trip to Flagstaff, AZ and the Grand Canyon.

Vacation - Part I

We have so many photos from our family road trip that I think I better post in parts. Otherwise I think I (and you) will be too overwhelmed.

We started off early in the morning taking the new Sounder Link light rail to the airport. It couldn't have been easier and the station is so close to our house.

Of course, Josie insisted on pulling a bag even though it is bigger than she is.


DUNES and DUCKS
First stop on our vacation is sunny San Diego. Marty had done some video work for Noble House Resorts and instead of pay he worked for trade and so we were able to stay for 3 nights in a little bungalow right on the beach for free!!

Josie LOVED being able to just walk right out of our door and run on the beach.

They had a few "sand dunes" or just really big sand hills. They were a big hit.



Building sand castles


The resort had a bunch of very aggresive and fat ducks. They sold duck food and so the ducks were very used to people feeding them. Feeding the ducks was a highlight every day.

By the last day the ducks were getting even more aggresive. Josie, who isn't afraid of any animal and literally sticks her hand half way into a horse's mouth to feed it a carrot, got a little spooked when they started snapping at her fingers.

Up next - car trip to Phoenix and time with Grandma and Papa.

January

It is more than half way through January and I'm finally updating the blog.

The past few days have been beautiful here. It has been such a nice break from the what seems to have been constant rain. We've been taking advantage of the atypical spring-like weather in January.
Here is Josie and her friend, Dawson at the zoo.

We also had a bunch of friends over on Monday and the swingset in the backyard was put to good use. It is so much nicer to play outside when the sun is shining.



Last weekend my sister, Kim, came down to help me organize the kids rooms. What a difference it has made. It feels SO good to have things all organized and ready to go. We still have about 3 more months before the little guy arrives but it is nice to get the bulk of the work out of the way. Thanks Kim!! I still plan to paint the baby room sometime between now and April :) The rugs were wonderful hand-me-downs from my friends Ron and Lisa. They were barely used, great quality, Pottery Barn rugs.

Baby's room:

Josie's room:

Everything in its place in the closet.

Last weekend Marty had his 6th annual Funny Festival. It went really well. Although it was the 6th time he has put this on it was the first time that he and Jodi did it together independently. Here they are celebrating after a looooong night.

Here is the opening video for the 2010 Marty Riemer Funny Festival:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8ojGJpiLyM