"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: