"I'm So Happy"

I’ll get to the week synopsis in a minute, but first my favorite thing from the last week (other than having the Stokes’ here) was Rohan’s off the cuff comment. While we were standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon he looks over at Mara and said “I’m so happy” with a giant smile and then hugged us both. Seriously the cutest thing I have ever seen.
This last week started off with a couple of days of work for Mara and I, then the Stokes’ landed and the non-stop party between Rohan and Jackson erupted. We meet back at our house and Rohan and Jackson were instant friends, sharing a hug, then Rohan showed Jackson his toys and they were off playing. We gave Chris & Michelle a tour of the house, went and got our rental van, then caught up on a walk around our neighborhood. It was great to have them here.
We set out for the Grand Canyon pretty early, and the 5hr drive felt like less than an hour with all the talking and joking around. The canyon was spectacular, and even the boys seemed amazed by it…its hard not to be. We stopped along several overlooks over the next couple of hours before heading to our hotel (only about 5mi South of the canyon). We checked in and had an awesome hour long impromptu pillow fight with the boys (and girls). Afterwards we hit the pool so the boys could swim off some energy. Jackson is awesome in the water, and really made Rohan want to swim more. They shared a swim cube life vest (have to get one of those!) and did a ton of laughing and splashing.
After the pool we hit up the canyon again to see it at dusk, and even caught a few pictures of the stars. I wish we had stayed longer to take more, but I am not real quick with all the camera settings yet, so it takes a while and the boys were getting hungry! The boys played a little more after supper and then everyone crashed.
We got up early enough that we got to the canyon around sunrise, and that was gorgeous! The winter sun is a little off the canyon, but sent some beautiful shadows across the canyon walls. I found a cool pillar to climb out on to. It took a little bit of climbing/scurrying around some boulders, but the view was fantastic. I felt isolated. On our way out of the park we saw some huge elk and tried to snap a couple of picture of them from the van…still not sure if we have some good ones or not…:)
 We swung by Flagstaff on the way back and hit up a couple of parks for the boys to get out. One was crazy windy, but one was well sheltered. We also stopped by a train café that Chris & Michelle had been to before (a couple years ago). That really kept the boys’ interest! After we returned the van the boys helped Mara and Michelle make cookies for Santa and the reindeer, with me taste testing to ensure quality, then we went for another walk around our neighborhood to see all the Xmas lights. Since it was Xmas eve, the boys were chatting about Santa and we looked him up on the NORAD Santa tracking site when we got back.
After they went to bed, Santa came and went just like that…:) To kick off Xmas right, Michelle was the driving force at getting us up at 4am for a 7.1mi run. We were all decked out in our running gloves/hats/headlamps and sleeves. Considering it was 34°F, about 10°F warmer than WI, we all stayed warm, and it was really fun to start the Xmas day like that. We got home and showered then woke up Rohan & Jackson. The boys were CRAZY excited to see what Santa had brought. After getting everyone toileted and woken up, we headed downstairs for the insanity. Jackson gave Rohan some tips to open presents and they were both tearing them apart in no time. It was fairly subdued, but we had to referee to keep them from opening everyone’s presents. Rohan says THANK YOU for all of the awesome gifts!
 After the gifts were done and everyone had some breakfast we hit up Granada Park near Piestewa Peak and fed some ducks/geese, played on the playground, and then played soccer & football before climbing some trees and heading back home for lunch/naps. After that we all watched the Packers win over the Bears (my parent s had tickets to that game too!). It was a really great/fun day.
The day after Xmas, we all walked to our favorite coffee shop, Matador, and relaxed a bit. After caffeinating ourselves we headed to the McDowell Mountains and went on a 3+mi trail run. The boys played in the rocks near one of the trailheads and Mara and I took turns with Chris & Michelle running up and down some loop trials. It felt awesome! The sun was shining and no breeze, plus awesome views and 60°F is hard to beat! We grabbed a quick picnic salad lunch from Trader Joe's and ate near a playground at the Scottsdale Sports Complex near where we used to live. To completely wear the boys out we headed to AZR and got everyone climbing! Michelle liked it just as much as she did last time she was here, and Chris did awesome for his first time as well, even trying some of the harder routes and shredding some skin off his fingers…:) Rohan and Jackson played great. Jackson got pretty high up one route, and Rohan got higher than he has ever gotten before (on his own or otherwise!). They mostly played on some bouldering routes that Rohan likes to climb. Jackson did get to the top of that one, and even jumped to the mats below…pretty impressive…:) We capped off the day with some shopping (where Shell got some awesome running gloves for her winter running…:P), and of course a trip to REI. After we chilled out at home we relaxed and had some wine and cheese and chatted some more since the Stokes’ had to leave the next day…:(
What better way to kick off the last day of AZ weather than with another early morning run…this time at 6am. Mara and Michelle had gotten up, but I was boycotting in favor of my warm bed. After hearing them getting ready I was regretting my decision and decided to join them. As always, I was glad I did. The run felt great, and a great way to stretch our legs after the trail runs the day before. We grabbed a bite to eat with the boys, then headed back to the duck park to feed them more before heading to the airport. Rohan was sad, but gave everyone a big hug and waved goodbye. Later that day he wanted to go see Jackson at the airport (I think he thinks they live there). They had a blast together, and we can’t wait to get them together again!
Thanks again Chris & Michelle & Jackson for making it an awesome Xmas!!! Enjoyt the pics and vids...there's a TON!

Put the Panoramas in a separate slideshow. Doesn't do it justice, but the views were AMAZING! Rohan & Jackson in the snow:

Xmas morning...Syring's view:

Xmas morning...Stokes' View:

Playing Soccer:

Staycation

Didn't have a post last week, so there is come catchup to do! :)
These last couple weeks we have spent A TON of time outside. We kicked off the end of last week with a birthday party for one of Rohan's friends. Rohan had fun, and it was cool to see him interact with kids he is comfortable around and ones he talks about outside daycare. He played hard for over 2hrs on the slide, games, tree house, and bounce house.
We also hit up Zoo Lights with some friends at the Phoenix Zoo. 3.5 million lights make the zoo light up awesome!
Mara had off this last week, which was a well-deserved vacation given her last 6 weeks of nights! I took most of the week off as well and we spent 80% of the waking hours outdoors, and 90% doing some sort of activity. We hit up the climbing gym and climbed a couple times without Rohan, which was nice. We hit up our favorite city trail (The Greenbelt/Camelback Walk) for an awesome 22.2mi bike ride with a Thai lunch halfway.

We also did the summit trail of Squaw Peak (AKA: Piestewa Peak). It was a lot easier than the last time we did it (when we hiked ~6mi before we found the summit trail!), but it was still a gasser. We had some time to chill at the top and relax a bit without Rohan. We also spotted a park nearby that had 2 ponds so we checked it out. Turns out it has an awesome playground as well and a ton of ducks & geese in the ponds. We brought Rohan there twice this last weekend, and he loved feeding the birds!

We bought Rohan a kids (lefty) golf club this last week and took him to the driving range.  He has so much fun hitting it, he probably went through 20-25 balls pretty much on his own.

Sunday we were happy to be a part of Heather & John's Santa Express tradition of handing out toys & candy in less fortunate areas.  They really go all out, and had lots of help this year.  The kids all loved Santa, and even a couple of adults did too...:)

Another busy week of 2 days of work for me this week, and 3 for Mara before her XMas break...:)  Looking forward to Chris & Shell & Jackson's visit!  Rohan can't stop talking about all the stuff he and Jackson are going to do!

Words can't express the fun we had the last 2 weeks so here are a boatload of pics & vids...:)

Zoo Lights & Music:

Rohan & His National Geographic Kids:

Feeding The Ducks:

Be Nice Birds!:

The Beginning (before the lefty club):

Another Busy Weekend!

With Mara finishing up her month of working nights, we again took full advantage of the weekend's gorgeous weather. Friday we had some friends over for a BBQ and had a blast. It's been fun to get together at least once a week outside the gym with our climbing friends, and Rohan even got a surprise visit from Mila and her family. Not a lot of pictures, but there was one we wish we had. Linus fell into the cold pool and Mara found him when she went out to check the grill...poor guy was shivering from the ~65F water and ~50F temps. He dried off in the garage the rest of the night
Saturday we headed out on another bike ride on the trail by our house, then hit up the climbing gym. Rohan ended up climbing his highest so far, and even showed some inkling of wanting to go higher. Can't wait for that! :) After the gym we grabbed some Thai (since Rohan requested tofu & edamame for lunch).
Afterwards we hit up a nursery and picked out our first real Xmas tree! Rohan was excited to do it, but fell asleep just before we got there. He woke up when they were chainsawing the base of our tree. He was really excited to get a little piece of the tree and even more excited when we got it home. It fit great in our front room and Rohan had a lot of fun decorating with lights and tree balls. Later we went back to AZR for a showing of the Reel Rock Film 2011. LOTS of awesome climbing and some crazy people! :) After that, and after Rohan crashed, Mara had the bright idea of making a wreath from the branches of our tree so at 11:30 at night we started that. It actually turned out pretty good!
Sunday we went back to the park and climbed some trees in search of pine cones to make bird feeders eventually add them to the wreath. Rohan had a blast in the trees and catching pine cones! After making the bird feeders and cookies, Mara headed to work, and Rohan and I crashed after a long, fun weekend.
It's getting colder now, but still nothing like we're used to...:) Hope everyone had a great weekend too!
There are LOTS of pictures and videos...enjoy...:)


Rohan Climbing Like A Rock Star!:

Rohan Decends:

Crossing The Swing Things:

Tree Climbing:

Tossing Pine Cones Down To Rohan:

Teaching Rohan To Climb:

Happy Thanksgiving!

This last week was a short one for me (only 2 days of work), but Mara had to work her normal shifts as usual...:(  We did make the most of the time though.
Thursday we met up with friends at our friend Kim's house for a n awesome potluck.  Rohan has such a blast playing with all of "his people".  Rohan was going strong all night, and ended up still running around our house when we got back at 11:30!  He has some epic endurance!
Friday we met up with everyone at the gym the next day for several hours of climbing.  Rohan was still exhausted from the night before and napped for almost 2hrs at the gym.  Since he's been mobile, he's never napped longer than 20min at the gym, so he was pooped!  We met up with everyone at Four Peaks to bid our friend Ed good luck.  It was his last day working at the gym. He'll still be around, so hopefully we'll still get to see him.
After we left Four Peaks we put Rohan to bed, then started our newest project, replacing our kitchen sink!  My parents gave us a gift card to Home Depot when we moved and this sink has been sitting in our front room ever since...:)  It was pretty easy to install, and the black resin sink now matched our black faucet, and black appliances...including our dishwasher which we found this week at a garage sale for super cheap...:)
Saturday we wrapped up the sink project and headed out for a long bike ride up and down the canal near our house.  We ended up hitting the Reach 11 Sports Complex where a lacrosse tourney was going on.  Rohan didn't really seem that interested until a bunch of girls in skirt uniforms practiced nearby...:)  We met Kim and Angelika at IKEA for some knick nacks before crashing when we got home...:)
Sunday we spent the day wrapping up little projects, catching up on laundry and dishes, and started putting up Xmas lights.  I havn't done Xmas lights since I was little, and even then it was mostly Dad, so it was a lot of fun to do on our own.  We didn't go nuts (like Dad did...:P), but we had a nice outline of the house and garage.  Rohan's toy room got our 4' tree and he LOVES to turn it on.
Mara took Rohan to the library for the first time today and he absolutely LOVED it.  He came home with 7 books ranging from baseball to dragons, to Chinese dragons and cookies...:)
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!!

Enjoying The Weather

This last weekend we took FULL advantage of the mid- to upper-70F temps in the Valley of the Sun.
Friday we took the oppurtinity to hit a park with Rohan and soak up some sun after a long week.
Saturday we started off by exploring the canal near our house and found it's an awesome bike trail that hooks up to a hore park and soccer complex!  We'll be hitting that up for trial rides and trial runs...:)  We also came across an Australian Shepard Club's agility competition.  Rohan was having a blast watching the dogs run up and over A-frames and through tunnels.  After the bike ride we met up with friends at AZR and climbed for quite a while, getting some pretty good routes in considering we've been hit and miss lately with Mara working nights.  Saturday night we met with friends who are moving to New Mexico after some military and professional promotions...wish them the best!
Sunday we actually slpet in a little (8:30am) which felt great.  We then hit up another park, then met some friends at Lookout Mountain to climb.  We got on a couple good routes, and the weather, with partly sunny skies, was perfect!  Man, do we love fall/winter in AZ!
Looking forward to a short week this week; for me at least, Mara has to work every day...:(  But we'll find some things to do while she's available.
Enjoy the pics & vids!

Rohan hoisted up at the gym was having a blast with Taylor trying to get his legs:

Rohan ran almost a half mile after these birds...:)

The Most Funnest 4-Day Holiday Weekend

You know that feeling where work is actually a break from your normal, exhausting life? Well...that is what most of our work weeks feel like, and this one is no different! We started Thursday when I got off a little early and we had a lot of time before we had to pick Rohan up from daycare so we decided to bike there to pick him up. Mara looked up a route and it turns out that there is some GREAT bike trails that cover 99% of the 6.2mi from our house to his daycare...yes, coincidentally it's a 10K...:) The bike trail took us past some parks we surely need to check out (especially when Chris & Shell come in December!), and also took us over several pedestrian bridges which Rohan would LOVE on the way back. About half way we realized I had run over a nail at some point and was leaking air slowly. We stopped a couple times and filled the tire up (luckily we always bring a pump!), but didn't take the nail out for fear of a full on flat tire. We picked up Rohan and he was SUPER excited to get picked up with the bike stroller; he talked about it the rest of the weekend. A mile from daycare my tire lost air really quickly. We decided to pull the nail out and hope the tire slime would plug the hole, and luckily it did! If you are unfamiliar with tire slime, we are huge proponents of it's use, especially with all the thorny trees and shrubs around AZ! All in all we ended up going about 13mi, with some exploring we did, and Rohan had a blast travelling in style. My legs were a little sore with pulling his chariot, with a low pressure tire (more drag), and to cap it off a swirling wind which felt like it was uphill both ways...:) Friday, Veteran's Day, I had to run into work quick, but afterwards Mara and I got in some climbing at AZR, which we usually never get to do by ourselves. Afterwards we picked up Rohan and headed to Lee Lee's Oriental Market in Glendale. It's a drive for us, but always worth the trip. This time we were on a mission to experiment with Thai food, which we have been eating out quite a bit, but really haven't been able to find all the right ingredients at the local chain supermarkets. We found all we were looking for, and even stuff we weren't! :) We ended up making an AWESOME Tofu Panang with rice noodles and Tom Ka Ga soup. We might have to stock up on Thai ingredients! We capped the night off with a good long walk with Rohan and the dogs. We came to a small community park around 10pm, and let the dogs run around. Rohan was still a little antsy and asked to get out. He preceeded to run for about 30min, non-stop, at full speed, and even a little faster! We must not have wore him out that day, but he definitely showed us how much energy he had! Saturday was a pretty awesome day as well, and the best/busiest day of the holiday weekend. We got up early and made some waffles and turkey bacon (the key is to microwave it!). After a filling breakfast we hit up the Gateway Trailhead in the McDowell mountains. We LOVE the trails out of this trailhead, but haven't been there since we moved. Rohan hiked about 1/3 of a mile before we put him in the backpack and headed up to Bell Pass. It's a trail we hadn't been on before, and gave us an elevation gain of over 1500ft! Rohan was asking all sorts of questions about what rocks, trees and plants were so that was pretty fun. We even got to see our first tarantula...lots of pictures...:) When we got to the top of Bell Pass we had an awesome view. To the SW we had the views we usually see from the McDowell's, but since Bell Pass is a saddle, we had an awesome view to the NE of the Mazatzal Mountains and Four Peaks range...very cool. We had a nice picnic lunch at the pass, then headed back down the mountain. After we picked up some fruit to get back some of that energy we just burned we headed WAY South to a petty zoo, called Marley Farms. It was one of those areas where you take as far South as it goes and ends...and there's the farm. Rohan was geeked up by the horses they had near the ticket booth before we even parked, so we knew this was going to be a good trip. The ticket booth person told us of a couple unique animals they had there too...we'll get to them. We started off by feeding the goats, which Rohan liked a lot now that he's about their size. There was one in particular that kept hanging around Rohan and us. After the goats we saw some llamas, kangaroos, a duck, a peacock, chickens, roosters, turtles and cows. The we saw the Zonkey...Donkey Mom/Zebra Dad...called Ms. Pippy...as in Pippy Longstockings due to her zebra stripped legs...pretty cute. Rohan liked feeding her, and never shied away from feeding any of the animals. The big test was when we met James the Camel. He was massive, probably about 7ft tall, and very friendly. Rohan leaned back at first, then smiled and held his hand out to touch him. After the camel we fed some horses and a deer followed by another trip in to the goat pen to pet them some more and say goodbye to Rohan's goat buddy. After driving back to civilization, we picked up some well deserved kabobs and steak and beer and headed to our friend Kim's house. We spent the rest of the night grilling out, watching climbing/skiing/Epic Mealtime videos, and of course, several rounds of the Mike Tyson Quotes song...:) Sunday was our "slowest day" which we spent climbing for a couple hours, eating Thai leftovers, and switching Rohan's room with the guest bedroom. Rohan showed us he needed to burn more energy off by taking his bike around our block, which we do often, but then Mara and I each took turns running around the block again, with very little rest...this kid had some endurance!!! We are so happy our bed is so comfortable...:) Hope everyone else had a great weekend, and remembered to thank a veteran, not just on Veteran's Day, but everyday we enjoy our freedom. Halfway up Bell Pass Trail:

Tufa Fest

This last weekend we had the awesome pleasure of a Rohan-free weekend!  A HUGE thanks to Heater & John for taking the little guy for the weekend!  Mara and I attended Tufa Fest (a climbing festival) and the weather & climbing location wasn't really "kid friendly".
We got to the area (Oak Flat Campground) Friday afternoon and hung out with a couple friends who were brave enough to camp with wind & rain the forecast.  When it did start to rain we headed to our tent and found it was leaking...shitty.  We grabbed what wasn't wet and slept in the RAV4...which wasn't very comfortable.  Neither of us slept well given the rain, hail, strong winds and eventual flurrues in the morning...yeah, it was 34°F in the morning.  We checked on the tent and one of the poles had shattered during the wind storm!  Glad it was leaking otherwise we would have been in there! :)  The only reason our tent stuck around was because I had tied it to a tree...fun!
We warmed up with some coffee and oatmeal, then met up with some friends from my work (Kim & Aaron) who we were taking outdoor climbing for the first time.  We scrambled up about 150ft above the highway to some awesome climbing areas.  We all climbed several routes, and I got up a 5.10c which is the highest rated outdoor climb I've done.
We capped the night off with about 150 other climbers with a huge bonfire, a burn bar, potluck, drunken climbing games, and a raffle.  We came out pretty good in the raffle winning a shirt, chalk, climbing gear, headlamp, and guide book!
Again, a hhuge thanks to Heather & John for entertaining Rohan!  He got to go to his first movie (Puss In Boots, which he LOVED!), and got to watch some horse racing with John.  He was almost sad to see us! :P  Rohan as been accelerating in his biking abilities since he can practice indoor on our tile whenever he wants.  He now goes around the block without help, when just a month ago he was stuggleing to peddle.  Awesome to see how excited he gets to ride outside!
We are hoping to be able to get out again this weekend, but the forecast is for rain, so we'll have to see!  Hope everyone is getting some solid outdoor time before winter is upon us!


He can do this, and has done this, for hours...:

Happy Halloween!

This weekend we celebrated Halloween with friends and tried to spend as much time outside as possible!!!
Friday night we headed to our friend Irena's house for a party.  Rohan got to dress as a pirate at daycare, and pretty much wore the costume all weekend.  He's been practicing his pirate ever since we saw the Treasure Island pirate show in Las Vegas last weekend (see video!).  Irena's was a blast.  Mara and I coped out and went as a Researcher and a Dr...I know...I know...but not many people were drinking from a beaker like me, so it was somewhat original...:)  Rohan had a lot of fun with the pumpkin this year, and really like the scooping guts part.
Saturday Mara had to work all day (her last shift on Well Baby) so Rohan and I watched some football and played at the park by our house.  Rohan has also been loving the prism that I found.  I've had it for probably 20yrs and we set it high on our windows in our living room and he chases the spectrum is casts around the room as it moves with the day...pretty fun to watch.  After Mara got home we went on a bike ride and ended the long day with some fresh, desert night aire!
Sunday we all slept in until 10am..yep...10am.  Haven't done that since Rohan has been around!  We made up for the lazyness by going for a 15mi bike ride to Jeanette's and met her for lunch at Pei Wei before biking back.  Found some cool areas and Rohan loved the pedestrian bridge that goes over Greenway Blvd.
After the bike ride we rested for an hour or so, then headed to AZR for about 3hrs of climbing.  Rohan showed off his costume to more people and afterwards we cameback and perfected our basil/cilantro, tomato, motzerella cheese, basalmic vinegar homemade grilled pizza...MAN was that good!  Capped it off with a bottle of wine and capped off a great weekend of getting outdoors!
Hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather as much as we are!

Pirates Have To Practice:

Vegas!

This last weekend we had the chance to use some free hotel nights we earned before they expire, and since we can't really afford to jet set anywhere for just the weekend, we decided to drive up to Las Vegas.  Mara had never been there, and I have some fuzzy recollections of being there, but nothing I can clearly remember...:)
We drove up Friday night (through some cool Joshua Tree preserves), and got to our hotel around 8 or so.  Low and behold it was right next to the Hofbräuhaus Las Vegas!  There were plenty of pretzels & Oktoberfestbierin our future...:)
We were about a mile from the strip (which was nice with a 2.5yr old!).  The walk was nice to stretch our legs and take in the city from afar.  We walked up and down the strip over the next several hours.  Rohan was enthralled with everything!  He was so tired, but had his eyes peeled open the entire time, not wanting to miss a thing.  Walking with a stroller through the Las Vegas strip was a challange, but we are professionals, so it worked out just fine.  We made a trip to the Bellagio fountains thinking Rohan would like it.  The second the water cannons went off he curled up on Mom's shoulder and could barely look.  After the show was done he snapped up and said "Where'd the water go?".  He made it seem the whole time like he didn't like it.  He did like it when we saw it later, from across the street and the cannon noise wasn't so loud and echoing off the hotel.  We capped the night off with some wine back at the hotel, and nice way to start our Vegas trip.
Saturday we spent most of the day outside since it was gorgeous!  Mid-80s and mostly sunny, you can't beat that!  We hit up 2 parks in the morning.  The first had some baseball fields that Rohan ran around on, and the second had a playground and some other fun stuff. The second one had the finish of the ~200 mile Ragnar Relay Series (looking to do one in Colorado next July if anyone wants to join us!), and what turned out to be Rohan's favorite pastime...leaves.  There were several leaf piles that we scraped into one and let him run and jump into.  A couple of kids joined in too, and there was about an hour of leafing.  Afterwards we checked out some of the vendor booths at the Ragnar and came across the Rage Mud Run booth that had kiddie pools of mud for people to play in...Rohan had a blast...:)
After that busy morning we met up with Mara's cousin Steve & his wife Erin who live in Vegas.  It was really nice to catch up with them.  We might even be able to get them to do the Tough Mudder with us...:)  We hit up their favorite Thai place (and ours now), called Archi's Thai Cafe.  Rohan showed off his ability to scarf down everything in site!  He cleaned up our soup, pad thai, tofu, and some of Erin's pinapple fried rice.  No idea where he put it all!
After lunch Steve made some calls and made Rohan's year...he called up a fire station.  Steve is a fireman...and also Rohan's new idol.  We went to Station 47 where Steve, and the station Captain, gave us a VIP tour of the ladder truck and rescue vehicle.  Rohan even got to drink water from a REAL firetruck, something he is still talking about!  It was from a water cooler on the truck, not the tanker...:)  The Captain also showed Rohan their Desert Turtles they have, and we may end up getting Rohan one...maybe...  Rohan came away with a new fireman's hat and some wooden trucks from the Captain as well...what a great time!  Thanks again for making that happen Steve!  Rohan lasted about a block before passing out HARD for the drive back to the hotel...the picture says it all.
After all that, we still found a chance to check out a rock gym, Red Rock Climbing Center, which was nice, and a lot of fun to check out.  They had some really interesting routes and wall features that we didn't have at AZR.  It was also a great way to almost completely wear us out...and it was only 4:30...

I needed my Bavarian Pretzel fix so we swung by the Hofbräuhaus for pretzels the size of toilet seats, some Käsespätzle, Münchner Weisswürste, and of course a liter of Oktoberfestbierin. It all really brought us back to what a GREAT, GREAT, GREAT time we had in Germany last xmas! (did I mention it was great?)  Rohan, once again, showed his ability to eat everything in site, and even got compliments from the waitress about his pretzel eating ability...:) We saw some sweet Lederhosen for Rohan that we might have to get him for the next Oktoberfest...:)  After the pretzel gorge we met up with Steve & Erin at Treasure Island for their pirate show.  It was the same deal as the Bellagio, where Rohan wouldn't leave Mara's shoulder, but as soon as it was done he was asking where they went...:)

On Sunday we hit up one more park before heading back to Phoenix.  We had such a good time, and would love to go back for some real outdoor climbing, and maybe hit up The Strip sans-kids.
Oh, we also started our first (of I'm sure, many) painting projects.  We are livening up our laundry room with a deep red color.  It's a small job, that will help us get our painting prowess back for some bigger jobs we have planned.

Playing in the leaves:

Climbing Season Is Upon Us!!!

With the weather starting to get awesome here, it marks the beginning of the fall climbing season. That, and since the Brewers are out of the playoffs, what else is there to do!?!? :) We met up with some friends at Phoenix's Oktoberfest for some good food and great beer. Rohan had an absolute blast running around with everyone and dancing to polkas and the German Horn (alpenhorn). Our friend, Angelika is a first generation from Germany so she was working the festival. Sean, Shannon, Audrey, Ryan and Mackenzie all joined us as well. Rohan even got a drinking bracelet...:) Sunday we got a babysitter for the morning, while Mara was at work, and I met up with some friends to go climbing up near Pine, AZ. The area, Isolation Canyon, is fairly new, and mostly set by one guy who's friends with AZR. He did an amazing job with the routes and there are even several multi-pitch climbs over 200'! We also found some cool places to rappel down from the top and have some awesome plans for the next time go there. There were hundreds of routes so there wasn't much crowding. The ledge is pretty narrow at times, and your looking down a 200' drop...pretty fun...:) All in all and awesome day (11hrs!) of climbing. Hope everyone is getting a chance to enjoy the outdoors as well!

Postseason Baseball!!!

The Brewers are kicking butt in the playoffs, and we were so glad we could go to a game (even though they lost that one)! Heather & John got tickets through a lottery and John offered them to Mara and I, and since Rohan is still a "lap child" he was able to come too. The game was great for the D-Backs, and the crowd of 48,312 went nuts for a grand slam they hit...it was crazy! Rohan had a blast eating popcorn from his glove and chowing on some cotton candy. Around the 7th inning it was out of hand so we went to the kids play area so he could run off some of his sugar high. Friday the Brewers & D-Backs faced off for Game 5 and I skipped out of work a little early with some friends and watched 9 1/2 inning of the 10 inning game before I had to leave to go get Rohan. Luckily John DVR'd the game and replayed the final at-bat to send the Brewers to the NLCS against St. Louis. Rohan had a blast hanging out with Heather, John, Grandma Bacon, Great-Grandma, and Krista. They hit up parks, and Rohan even got a Ryan Braun #8 shirt from Grandma...his new favorite shirt! After I picked up Rohan we met up with friends at La Condesa Gourmet Taco Shop for our friend Sean's birthday. Mara had to work late, but after dinner she was able to meet up with us and we all walked around First Friday and checked out some art and crafts from local vendors. It's not super stoller friendly, but very fun non-the-less. Saturday Mara had to work in the morning so Rohan and I took the oppurtunity to hit up 2 parks before she got home. Before we could get him a nap we hit up the rock gym and grabbed some awesome Thai Tom Ka Gai soup from Thai House...best we've had! After the gym we got a call from one of Mara's mentors from her rotations and he remembered about 2 years ago, Mara was an active person and offered up his bike trailer for us tp pull Rohan! We drove out to Avondale and picked it up, and even got Rohan to play some hockey with his kids. It was great to meet him and his family. Since we were out that far, we swung over to Greg & Nico's for a quick visit. As busy as they/we are, it's hard to get together these days! After there we had some time to kill before supper so we took Rohan to yet another park (3rd of the day), this time we went to the Margaret T. Hance Park near downtown. Rohan had a blast running around and even found some friends to ride an alligotor toy with. Rohan had a funny thing happen too. He walked up to some random kid and tried playing with him by kicking sand at him...the kid was not amused and came running after Rohan with a cup of sand. Rohan took off running (and crying). He was able to out run the older boy so that's something...:) We met the family at the AZ Center by TGen at Sam's Cafe for a great meal and some nice relaxing convo. They even made fresh guacomole at our table...which tasted great! Sunday we took advantage of the day and got the bikes and trailer ready for the maiden voyage...problem was we had 2 flats...one on the trailer and one on my bike...so after an early trip to WalMart and some greasy hands, we were ready to go! We ended up going for about 7mi around our neightborhood and out to a park before ending up at Matador Coffee for some well deserved coffee! :) After that Mara and Rohan ran to IKEA and I got some work done in the garage making space for the bike trailer and watching some more Brewer baseball. Mara found a desk for some of her dictations and other things she has to do/look-up after work so we got that set up and hopefully start organizing our front room around a bit. After the game we got some food ready for Jeanette, and the family who came over, and bought Spinato's pizza, to watch the Packer game. It was great to entertain since we haven't had much of that yet, and also great to show the family around the house since they had not seen it yet. It was fun to relax and catch up after such a long, fun weekend! Hope everyone got a chance to enjoy the Fall weather! It's been GORGEOUS here!!!!

Ahhh...The Fresh Mountain Aire

This last week conlcuded Mara's 13 straight days of working in the pediatric wards.  13 straight days of 12hr+ days requires that we get out of Phoenix and relax!  Of course she had to work on Sunday, so it was only an overnight trip, but as soon as she was off on Friday we scurried up to the Mogollon Rim north of us.
We talked with some friends who had a really cool site they were going to Saturday night.  We got to the site Friday night and found there was an area that was washed out from the rain that day and we didn't want to chance getting stuck since we don't have 4WD, and it 10 o'clock at night and about 13mi back in the middle of nowhere.  We decided to camp at a more accesable site.  It was dark when we set up so we had no idea of our view.  We stargazed and got a good fire going (even with the wet wood, thank you very much! :P).
The next day we were greeted with a pretty sweet view of the valley below...:)  We found some awesome rocky points to explore.  Words are hard to describe the vastness and depth, but the pictures do a decent job, but nothing beats being there and taking it in.
We met up with the rest of the group at the site that we couldn't get to the night before.  We hung out a bit before heading back.  They had a pretty sweet site as well, and we'll definitely have to check that out sometime!  Our site had better veiws I thought, but we were close to the forest road, so when we did see vehicles it was a little annoying, but we didn't seem to mind too much...:)
Sunday Mara had to work (14hrs on her birthday!), so Rohan and I watched some of the Brewers game, Badger game, and Packer game...AWESOME weekend for WI sports! :)  When Mara got home I had dinner ready and then we went on a walk before crashing.  Mara starts her newborn nursery month today which will have it's long days, but nothing like peds wards, so just about anything will seem less hectic than last month...:)
Hope everyone is enjoying the cooler fall weather!

We saw a cool phenomenon when we made our last batch of Frappuccinos.  The bubbles made by the blender went down instead of up...reminded me of Guinness Beer...and some physics...:)

Busy Week!

Well...not for everyone...mostly Mara.  Mara is in the middle of her 13 straight days of work on the inpatient wards, so she's ready for this month to be over!  She likes the work, just lack of days off isn't much fun...:)
With Mara working so much lately Rohan has had some full days of Dad-Time.  I still am amazed at the stuff he learns and the things he puts together in his mind.  We caught him a couple of times playing with his trains and letting his imagination run wild...pretty fun to see...:)  There are a couple videos on our YouTube page, and I posted one of them below.  It's 4 minutes long, but he did this for over an hour.  Rohan has also been learning to pedal his bike so that's been interesting.  He hasn't quite caught on yet, but there are flashes where it looks like he know what to do.
Wednesday we met Heather & John and some friends for John's birthday (& Mary's).  We had a great dinner at Golden Budda before heading to our softball game this week.  I am still "D League MVP"...:)  In a related note, we are super excited that the Brewers clinched the NL Central division!  There is a chance, if the Cardinals take the wild card, that Arizona would play 2 games in in Milwaukee and then the Brewers would come here!  John said he has tickets to the first game in AZ, so it should be pretty awesome if Milwaukee is here!  If not we'll see the Phillies destroy everything in their path...
Saturday (Mara had to work all day) I went over to Greg & Nico's to let Rohan spend some time with Mila and we all watched the Hawkeyes beat up on ULM.  Afterwards Rohan took a near 5hr nap and I got some yard work and house stuff done in the meantime.  Sunday was more of the same...Mara worked and Rohan and I watched football, played outside, and caught a little baseball in there too.
All in all a good week, but an exhausting one for everyone! :)  The weather is getting pretty nice out and we can't wait to be outside all the time on the weekends and explore more of the parks in our new area!


Rohan Playing With His Trains:


Rohan Counting:


Indoor bike riding lessons:


Rohan has some words of cation for the puppies....

Cave Creek Trail #4

Not much going on this last week for us.  With Mara working so hard at the hospital, our weeks are usually pretty consumed with softball, climbing, and resting when she can.  This last week Mara was the scheduled late person Monday AND Friday, so she didn’t have much free time.  Rohan and I got to spend the evenings with some fire truck races, baseball and football games, yard/house work, and some bike riding…pretty exhausting, but so fun to watch Rohan learn, adapt, and apply.

Saturday Mara had to work a few hours (only 10! :P), so Rohan and I did tons of work outside while it was still cool and nice before we headed inside and watched a thrilling Hawkeye game!  Rohan fell asleep at halftime and proceeded to take a 5hr nap!  Can you say growth spurt!?  After Mara got home we had a nice dinner at one of our favorite Chinese restaurants (Flo's Asian Kitchen) before running some errands and having a drink by the pool to relax.

Sunday started early at 5:30 (although to Mara it was sleeping in!).  We got the car packed up, picked up Jeanette, and headed to Carefree to hike the Cave Creek Trail #4.  We had an awesome group for this hike…15 people including Rohan & 6 dogs!  The hike is pretty easy, with tons of water along the way to cool the dogs and hikers off in.  The temps weren’t too bad, probably mid 90°’s, but it was nice too to have the shade from the creek that ran along most of the canyon trail.  We found 2 areas to cool everyone off, and one even was deep enough for some 15-20’ rock jumping.  It was a lot of fun!  I think this trail is going to get some use this fall with some of us planning a couple backpacking trip to explore this Sonoran Desert area!  Afterwards we all headed back to Jeanette’s for some “brunch” even though it was now 3:00 in the afternoon…:)  It was complete with waffles, mimosas, watermelon, grapes, bagels, bread, and lots of biochemistry (what?!?)...:)

Later that night we grilled some brats and went on a nice walk in the cooler night air to cap off a busy, good weekend.  Hope everyone else had a good week/weekend!  Get out and enjoy the fall weather!!!!

More Outdoor Time!

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous this last weekend, and looking to hover around 100°F the rest of the week! It feels awesome after the 115+°F we had recently! Friday we did some things around the house (like trying to fix the ceiling fan in our room...no luck yet...). We had a pretty laid back night
Saturday we got up early and met Greg & Nico at the Sandbar to watch the IA game. It was a VERY good game, just not the outcome we were hoping for. Father of the year...Me...left Roahn's shoes on top of the car (a pair of Thomas the Train Crocs that he LOVED), but now they are somewhere along Tatum Blvd...oops...:( We continued back at our place with some grilling, then headed to Greg & Nico's for more grilling and a horse/dice game Nico's Grandpa made. Pretty fun day!
Sunday we met up with friends and hiked around Lookout Mountain. It's not a huge mountain, but the circumference trail is about 3mi long, and pretty nice. Michelle will definitely love to do some trail runs with us when she comes in December! :) We went back to our friend Jen's place for a cookout (we skipped this time), then hit up Home Depot for some house necessities (like a ladder!). We then picked up some ingredient for Connecticut Beef (something I've been craving for a while!) The recipe usually takes about 4hrs, so starting at ~6pm...we had somewhat of a late supper...:) There were some nice adaptations we made like cooking the steak in the soup mixure for 2hrs at 300°F, that made this one of the best reditions of Conn. Beef yet!  While some of the ingredients were cooking we got some yardwork done with the low-voltage lighting in our yard that doesn't work. We replaced it with solar LED lights so we wouldn't have to re-wire our yard...:) We also replaced our front porch light which was not pretty...it was gold and glass, and not very attractive.
We are looking forward to some more outdoor time while the temps are getting cooler! We wish we had more pictures, but it hard to take pictures when you don't slow down...:)

Awesome Labor Day Weekend

This weekend we celebrated Labor Day by getting the hell out of Phoenix! :) TGen let me out at 2pm, so I was able to go get the car packed and pick up Rohan and Mara when she was done with clinic. It took us over an hour to get out of Phoenix (normally 20min) with all the traffic, and there was a lot of it! We headed about 5500 vertical feet (~140 linear miles North) to Flagstaff. You will never hear Mara and I complain about the heat in Phoenix. It's just one of those things you deal with while you wait for the awesome other 9-10 months of the year. But this August was brutal. We set several heat records, and it just sounded like a great idea to get out and cool off a bit...:) Schroeder did not enjoy the ride so much, and we also found out a little secret of his. Apparently he's been eating poop in the backyard (hopefully just his and Linus'!) because about halfway to Flagstaff he threw up in the back seat and it smelled horrendous!!! We drove on, and Mara cleaned up what she could while we had the windows open on the interstate going 80mph. We hit a rest area and rinsed off the floor mat and tried to get as much of that smell out as possible..we'll spare you the pictures... One thing that probably helped ease the smell is I left the floor mat (we think) on the roof of the RAV4 and it probably blew off on the interstate...oops...:) The smell never went away and we've been airing the RAV out since... We made it to Flagstaff and eventually drove down some random forest fire access road and came across a campsite with a fire ring and set up camp. It turned out to be a VERY isolated area, given that on Labor Day weekend we only saw ONE other car come down that road, and they camped somewhere else, so we didn't even see another person! I think we've found a pretty sweet camping spot...:) Rohan had a blast running at 7000ft above sea level...didn't seem to slow him down a bit! He eventually crashed in his camp chair and then found a more comfortable spot laying with Mom. We spent the rest of the evening watching stars and chatting next to the fire since there was a slight chill in the air...hadn't had one of those in a while...:) Since Mara had to work early on Sunday, we only stayed one night, but we had a whole day left in Flagstaff. We hit up a new coffee shop (again, new to us) called Macy’s. Very good coffee, awesome people, and we got to enjoy our french press outside, which was awesome! We love sipping coffee outside and relaxing! Afterwards we hit up a park in Flagstaff called Thorpe Park. Rohan had a blast playing on their giant playground equipment, firetruck, and enjoying real grass (as did Mara). After the park we met up with friends from AZR (Kim, Angelica, Jeremy, Shantelle, and Melissa) and hit up a new climbing spot (new to us anyway) just outside Flagstaff called The Pit. It was awesome climbing rock (limestone) and we could not have asked for a better day! The sun was intermittent, and mostly behind huge clouds, so we all stayed nice and cool on the wall. We got to lead a couple longer routes and explore some awesome canyon walls. It's great to have explorer friends that can introduce us to places like this! We climbed for almost 6 hours before everyone got all their energy out. Mara and I had to head back to PHX eventually so we grabbed a bit to eat at an awesome restaurant called Salsa Bravea. Awesome salsa bar, and really good food. Turns out I think I also left the leftovers on the roof and it blew off somewhere in Flagstaff...not a good weekend for me...:) We got back to PHX and crashed Sunday was pretty laid back for me and Rohan. Mara had to work 10hrs in the Peds ER. We all were pretty tired from the trip. Monday I got up and golfed with John (and his buddies Mike & Bud) at Desert Canyon in Fountain Hills. The 6:45am tee time made for some spectacular scenic views of the sunrise and surrounding mountains. I shot pretty good until I imploded on the last 2 holes, but a bad day of golf is still better than working, and nothing an ice cold beer can't help erase...:) Greg, Nico, and Mila came over in the afternoon to grill out. It was Greg's birthday, so we sang and danced for him...at least Rohan did... It was great catching up with them too. Greg has been crazy busy with school and extra curricular studies that his time is pretty precious. Mara was able to pass on some of her COMLEX study guide to Greg to help him bone up for the MCAT and eventually Med School. We spent the rest of the night replacing a ceiling fan since the fan quite working (but the lights still worked). Unfortunately the new fan worked, but the lights didn't... It's still up now, but we'll have to take it back to get a new one sometime this week...ahh the joys of a house...:) Enjoy the pictures, there are a ton of them! :) I do have a couple videos to add, so check back later tonight or tomorrow and I'll have them added (maybe)...
 

Updated with some videos... Rohan singing about Monkeys (sorry for the road noise...): Rohan Counting to 14: Fun little tool within Picasa's program. You can tag faces (and have it try to recognize and group them for you). You can then make a movie out of it centering on the face in the picture. Pretty cool. Could be fun with a small subset of good pictures, or time lapse over a few years. Here is Rohan over the last 32 months or so. The pics are not in any order, and it runs through them pretty quick...enjoy!:

First House Party

This last week Mara had a well deserved week off from the long days of residency...although she is having a blast...:) The first couple days she relaxed, the only way she know how, by keeping busy. She worked out, did tons of house projects, and found a few minutes to relax by the pool. Wednesday she kept Rohan home and took him to the Phoenix Children's Museum for several hours. Awesome way to beat the heat, and Rohan got to explore and run around. It's funny how different he is from the first time we went last year. Thursday and Friday I took off and we had some time together to work on the house, and just enjoy some time together! :) We both went and got our official AZ driver's licenses as well...:) Awesome to have the Grand Canyon on the license! They are good until 2043, so that's nice. Hopefully we'll be here that long! We had tons of yard work to do. We did lots of pruning, weed pulling, watering, pool cleaning, organizing and a host of other stuff. It was mostly little things we've been wanting to do since we moved in, just not a ton of time to do it until now. Unfortunately it was 115°F outside, so we were pretty wiped out when we were done, but the everything looked great, and we even found some energy to climb at AZR. Friday night we were out grocery shopping and running little errands when we came home to a surprise. A guy walked off our front porch and said "Is this where the party is?". It was my Dad! He came to crash our housewarming party! It was a really nice surprise...:) We gave him a tour and chatted until about midnight his time, then he crashed. Saturday we got up early and went and played some baseball at the park with Rohan (since it was only 95°F at 10am). Then walked to our favorite coffee house, Matador, before heading home to relax before our party. The party was pretty solid from ~2pm to the end, I think around 11pm. We had a great mix of people from TGEN, PCH, and AZR, and tons of kids to keep the dogs busy playing fetch. We had the grill going for several hours for lunch, supper, and later supper. We had tons of food since everyone brought something, and of course some adult beverages. We broke in our new volleyball net. Ringo the dog broke in our new volleyball...good thing we had a spare...and we had a great time with some great friends! Can't wait to do it again! Hope everyone had a great week, and stayed cooler than we were! Thanks again for coming Dad!!!

Yardwork!!!

It's funny that we are excited about doing yard work, but having a house again has reinvigorated us to work outside, even when it's 110°F! Friday night we hit AZR since we have been neglecting our climbing gym! It felt good, and we both were checking out some new routes they put up and doing pretty good on them too! :) One of our friends from AZR came over and helped us un-install a stubborn faucet we had. The faucet was very corroded and was unusable, so we haven't used our kitchen sink since we moved in! We could not get ONE bolt undone since it was so rusted, but Chris came over with his tools and got it taken care of. We installed our new faucet, and have been LOVING the opportunity to use our sink! Saturday we borrowed another friends truck and hauled A TON of yard waste from our yard. When we moved in 3 weeks ago we took down a HUGE vine that was taking over our back yard, as well as trimmed some palms that hadn't been trimmed in probably a year, and also removed some thorny shrubs we hated. We also got rid of the old gas stove from the previous owners...all in 2 trips! It all made the yard look SO much better though. Mara had to cross cover in the ER that night until 2am, so she was one tired girl! Good think she has a week off now! Sunday was more of the same, but this time it was our anniversary! :) We started off with some tee-ball with Rohan at the school park by our house. We got out super early so we could beat most of the heat. Afterwards we walked to our coffee shop, Matador for some iced coffees and bagels. While Rohan napped we did some more yard work in the front yard, pulling weeds, removing more vines, and cleaning up after our cactus. The cactus is HUGE and has some really big, pretty white flowers that bloom every night. Unfortunately they die that next day, fall off, and rot on our lawn. It does this every night... The cactus is due for a hacking, but that will probably wait until later this week... We spent the rest of the night celebrating our anniversary. We went swimming for a while with Rohan, then hit our new favorite sushi place, Sushi Brokers. After filling up on sushi, we went to the batting cages at Crackerjax to prep for our upcoming softball league. After thoroughly wearing Rohan out, he crashed and we had our dessert. Mara had made some tofu chocolate/espresso mousse earlier, and it was AMAZING! Highly recommend this recipe...i'ts from a chocolate company (SCHARFFEN BERGER), so you KNOW it's good!! :) Hope everyone had a great week! We are looking forward to our open house party this weekend! Can't wait to break the house in! :)


Rohan Rar-ing...Be ready for a good "RAR!" to start and end the video:

San Diego (Sans Rohan!)

Last week I presented a poster at a conference (Mechanisms & Models of Cancer) at the prestigious Salk Institute.  It was a really cool conference, albeit long.  It was 8am-10pm every night from Wednesday through Saturday, but VERY informative and lots of great science being done.

The best part, is since TGEN was paying for my ticket and hotel, we got Heather & John to watch Rohan and Mara was able to come and stay the weekend with me!  It's been a while since we've done something like that, and especially since we needed a break after finally getting the house, Mara's busy schedule, and just needing a break from the heat. We definitely got a break from the heat. It was ~110°F in Phoenix, and the first couple days in San Diego, it never got above 70°F!  We have been to San Diego a couple times, but there were things we still wanted to see.  We finally got to a rock gym we've seen before, Solid Rock Gym, near the airport.  We also got to fit in a couple runs.  I ran a couple times around my hotel in Del Mar, and Mara and I both got runs in around Torrey Pines park.  We both ran on the Broken Hill Trail, which ends at a breathtaking point!  Highly recommended!

Friday  night when Mara got in we hit up a cool restaurant called Crepes and Corks in Del Mar, then hit another place to relax by a fire pit at Zel's.  We had to head back fairly early since I had one more day at the conference...:(

Saturday., after my conference,  we hit up an AMAZING sushi place, Sushi Ota, in Del Mar.  The only way to say it, was it was awesome, period.  Afterwards we hit the boardwalk and saw some awesome ships and art along the way.  We've always driven by the boardwalk, but it was great to see close up!  We also hit up Little Italy area for some dessert before calling it a late night after walking several hours around town.

Sunday we got up early and hit a coffee shop before heading to the Gas Lamp district, and one more coffee shop...called The Village Coffee & Wine Bar.  Very good lunch there, then headed to Coronado Island and walked around Spreckels Park, and then the beach where we saw some pelicans diving and even some dolphins! One last stop before we headed to the airport was a stop at our favorite coffee shop in Pacific Beach...Cafe By The Bay.  A really cool end to our trip!

We have been working on the house little by little, and hope to have a little shindig for those who can make it!  :)

Dolphins at Coronado Beach: Bird diving (really just the first 3 seconds of video...the rest is waves and wind...):

Getting Settled

We reached a pretty awesome milestone for moving in...we got to the point we could get both cars in the garage! :)  It just means there are more boxes inside, but we are making headway trying to figure out where everything goes.  Rohan is already loving the space!  He runs around the kitchen/living room/front room/hallway track several times a day, usually we are chasing or being chased.  The dogs have adapted VERY well to the new house, I think they enjoy the room too.
We have already started some projects (like replacing some leaky faucets, light fixtures, door knobs, etc), and we are also getting reminded how big of a pain in the ass that can be too.  We are having a lot of fun though, and it's been a good weekend.  Putting things away and innumerable trips to Home Depot & Lowes are taking up most of our time, although we did get a run and stroll in through the new neighborhoods.  It will take a while getting used to the new terrain since we usually ran through less populated areas, but we're getting some good routes down.  We have also started traingin for the Tough Mudder race in January.  11 miles, 23 obstacles...10,000 volt electrocution at the end...should be fun...:)  It all supports the Wounded Warrior Project, so that's a great thing to be a part of.  There is time if you want to join us too...:)
Saturday, Greg and Nico came over for a bit and we caught up and grilled out chicken & brats, then hit the pool to cool off.  It will be a lot of fun to have a house warming party when we finally get settled!  Mila and Rohan were fast friends again.  I think she is really interested in what he's doing, and vice-versa.
Not much else to report other than getting settled and figuring out where to put everything and all the little nuances of the new place.  I have a Mechanisms & Models of Cancer conference at the Salk Institute in San Diego this week, so I fly out Tuesday night and attend Wednesday through Sunday.  Mara is going to join me on the weekend while Heather watches Rohan.  It will be a REALLY nice break for us (and Rohan).  It will be nice to get to SD without Rohan and find some fun things to do outside the conference.  We found a rock gym to check out too...:)  Should be fun!
We'll send out some more pictures of the house when it's not just boxes and tools sitting out everywhere...:) Here are some pics from the last week, and some videos from the last month or so. We had packed our camera, so the video is from our cell phones...not great, but better than nothing!

Rohan running the bases at Chase Field during the Brewer's extra innings win...:)
Rohan getting his exercise running around the house:

WHAT A RIDE!!!

YES! We are still here! We have been consumed by the home buying roller coaster that we have been riding since we put our first offer in on Valentines Day, 2011.
Long story short, banks suck, and they've been stalling this process, which took little more than 2 weeks to actually close.
Want the long story? Here ya' go...Bank of America (BoA) was the primary lender for the seller, who bought the house for $350,000 in 2007, and Wells Fargo (WF) was the lender for the second mortgage of around $50,000. The house was worth $400,000 at some point! The guy defaulted (after a divorce) in August 2010, and the house sat empty for 6 months before we saw it. The pool was clear, but lots of leave and such on the bottom, the yard was a mess, but Mara loved the house. We put an offer in on VD Day (:P) and then waited for nearly 3 months before we heard anything back from the banks.
In the meantime I started taking care of the pool. Our realtors were great and had the water and power put in their names so we could run the pump and get it cleaned up. Everyone thought the sale was right around the corner... The pool ended up being a disaster. Nothing structural, just dirty! There was a HUGE algae problem, and the organic material from the leaves wasn't helping. We drained the pool and refilled it with clean water, then fought algae for the next couple months. In this interim Mara became a D.O., I had a birthday, and our lease ran out on our apartment so we were renting week-to-week for an obscene amount of money...it's only going to be a few more weeks, right?!?!
Wrong. We closed, once on the house on July 11th...then got an e-mail right in the middle of signing documents.  It stated that the banks could not agree on the monies doe to them at closing...grrr...  The way it usually works is the 2nd mortgage (WF) get's $3,000, and the primary (BofA) gets the rest.  Kind of a "you shouldn't have given this guy any more money" to the 2nd lender.  WF wanted $5,100 instead of the $3,000, essentially 10% of the defaulted 2nd mortgage.  BofA said "No".  We talked it over, and we said we would pay the $2,100 to close this deal out.  WF said, fine, but it has to say "$5,100" on the paperwork...BofA said it had to say "$3,000".  Then the stalemate began.  The two banks were having a pissing contest, and essentially holding our house hostage.

Then the next stage of our saga began...  Our apartment complex didn't like us renting for an indefinite amount of time, and we sure as hell didn't like paying $400/week to stay there, so we moved out...but where?  Heather & John offered, but Rohan's daycare was about 30min past downtown (where we were both going to be), so it would have been a hassle that way.  We ended up crashing at our friend Jeanette's place.  Single, lives in a 3br home, and close to the house we are trying to buy.  She was such an awesome host!!!  She made a little bed for Rohan out of a futon mattress, and took us, our dogs, and a rambunctious 2 1/2 year old in without blinking an eye. Truely a great person in every sense. Thank you SO much Jeanette!
We stayed there for about 3 weeks before the good new came that WF finally accepted the $3,000...now we wait for paperwork...they had to get new HUD documents and new offer acceptance letters in.  Just in time for one guy to take a vacation and not tell anyone.  Our realtors, title company, and lender all tried contacting him, but he never responded (no "out of office rely" either).  Finally someone contact his supervisor, and within a week we had the new documents, and then we could start the closing process all over again.  Locking in rates (which went up almost a percent from when we started this deal!!!), credit checks, bank statements, the works.
FINALLY...we closed on the house, and we can start the next chapter in this saga...

For those interested, here are some pics of the house from when we toured it with my parents, back in MARCH! :)  We've already started some projects so look out for those pics.  We'll also be updating the last month or so of being "homeless"...:)

Happy 4th of July!!!

This last weekend Mara had to be on most days, but that's the nature of the beast now...:) We took full advantage of the time off though, getting some great climbing in, hitting some parties and enjoying the A/C since it was 118°F outside!
Saturday we headed to Heather & John's for their 4th of July party. As always, it was full of food and pool volleyball. They had a really good turnout too.
Sunday we helped our friend Kim break in his new house (AKA Ninja Base Camp). It was also a ton of fun, and we even got some pretty hardcore storms that night.
Monday we headed to Mark & Vicki's (friends through Heather & John) and essencially reapeated what we did at H&J's...food...pool...volleyball. Mark had some fireworks we lit off, and Rohan got to hold his first sparkler! He had no idea it was 1000°F, but he didn't do anything too crazy with it. We were all hovering just in case...:)
Last night we had Mara & I's first haboob (sandstorm). It was pretty weird how dark it got, and now everything has a fine layer of red dust on it. Check out the video below for a cool time lapse of someone driving into it...
Hope everyone had a great 4th weekend!


Haboob:

More Hiking & Pool Time!

With the temps hitting 110°F+ regularly, we have been spending a lot more time poolside with Rohan. He has so much energy, it's impossible to keep him confined indoors. The pool definitely does the trick! He is always sacked out on pool nights. He's having a lot more fun running and jumping into the pool (after he saw me do it), so now we spend 10-15 min just doing that! He's trying to swim a lot more as well, mostly flailing now, but he tried hard, so that's whats important. He also likes going underwater too...or maybe he just tolerates us dunking him...:)
Last weekend we headed North to an area called Fossil Springs Wilderness, which is just between Camp Verde, AZ and Strawberry, AZ, on a very slow travelling forest road. It took almost an hour on the rough road, but it was worth it! We stopped at the bridge (where a lot of people stop) since it's shallow and the water is amazingly clear just out of the mountain! Rohan had a blast in the water, especially watching the fish! The water is really unique and drops off from 4' to about 25' just after some rapids, so that was cool to swim around in. We don't have many pics, because we weren't sure if we should bring the camera. You'll just have to come visit and we'll take you out there...:)
We had planned on camping and meeting up with some friends at a trail nearby, but because of the massive fires raging in AZ, they've shut down a lot of the forest roads and restricted a lot of the camping we usually do...:( We drove around for almost 3 hours trying to find an isolated spot, but everything was packed. Not to say there wasn't spots, but camping immediately close to drunken hillbillies on quads didn't sound like fun. We found one site that we got Rohan and the dogs out at and let everyone stretch their legs and run around. Turns out the reason the site was vacant was because it was overrun with huge black ants...not really an appealing site for Rohan and the dogs. I did manage to take lots of any pictures though...:)
We ended up grabbing a bit to eat in Payson and heading back to PHX and spent the rest of the weekend climbing. We'll get back up to that trail in a while when Mara has another weekend off.
Other than that, we've been adjusting to Mara's schedule, and meeting up with other residents at a DBacks game and an ICU physician's house for an awesome cookout. All good ways to stay cool!
Hope the weather back home is warming up! Sounds like it's been cool and rainy there!


Running & Jumping Into The Pool:


Running & Jumping Into The Pool With Dad:


Rohan Reading (we were standing under the A/C vent...so it's a little noisy):


Rohan Discovers The CD At The Back of His Book:


Here is some video from Rohan's 0.33mi run last week. It was shot on my phone (decent quality, low frame rate), choppy (sounds gets off a few seconds at the end) and shot at night (phone has weak light sensor), so it's sub-par, but still pretty cool to see him powering through and having fun...:)

Oak Creek Canyon Hiking

This last week was mostly normal for us. Running, climbing, late night walks, etc. With Mara starting her residency orientation this week we decided to get out and hike in Sedona. We don't make it as much as we'd like, but it's ALWAYS beautiful! The brilliant red rocks and stark contrasting green pines make for awesome pictures. If it's a clear blue sky (like when we went), it's even more stunning.
We hiked a little area called Oak Creek Canyon just North of Sedona. It's crowded (took us an hour to get into the parking lot!), but well worth the hike. It's a 3mi trail, followed by an 11mi additional trial which we'd like to check out sometime. We just did the 3mi trail, but stopped at a creek area and hiked in a little off the path. We had a GREAT spot for a picnic and hung out there almost 2hrs! The water was shallow and the dogs had a blast exploring. Schroeder turned out to LOVE the water and even snorkeled a bit...the video is hilarious...:) Rohan was able to run around with Schroeder in the water and brush, and we got to sit back and enjoy them having so much fun.
It was nice to escape the heat too since the weather is getting warmer in PHX. It's supposed to hit 106°F this week...:) We are already planning our next trip when we can backpack and do some overnight, deep woods, canyon camping!
Hope everyone had a great week!


A 8.5min Peak Into Life With Rohan:


Schroeder Bobbing For Chickpeas:


Rohan Tromping Through Oak Creek:


Rohan Fishing: