2012 Year In Reveiw

This is our first real attempt at a Xmas/New Years letter.
This year has gone down as one of our most active & exploratory.  Some of the activities that brought us to new & exciting places are rock climbing, running, camping, hiking, kayaking, biking, star gazing, any other sport you can think of, and even work.  We saw some awesome scenery and areas most people never make it back to, and that makes all the work to get there worth its weight.  We do it for ourselves, but also we do it to show Rohan the awesome world around us.
This year we went all over the Southwestern US with a quick foray into the Pacific Northwest.  Outside Arizona we hiked a couple state parks in Colorado, Canyonlands & Arches NP in Utah, several state parks in Oregon & Washington, camped in Joshua Tree NP and Cuyamaca Rancho SP in California.  Within AZ we explored East Clear Creek Canyon, Fossil Creek, Mount Lemmon and quite a few lakes, rivers, and reservoirs.
A little about the family:

Rohan is a week or so from turning 4 and as energetic as ever.  He had changed everything we knew about the endurance of a kid.  Rohan enjoyed playing TBall and was one of the better players (thanks to his awesome coach!).  He has just started soccer and loves to chase that ball as well.  Rohan has been intensifying his love affair with space shuttles, dinosaurs and Legos...the trifecta of any soon to be 4yr old.
Rohan has weathered 99% of all the adventures we have gone on and loves everything that goes along with exploring the world around us.

Mara is doing great in her 2nd year of her Pediatrics residency at Phoenix Children's Hospital.  She is also showing no signs of slowing down despite being 25 weeks pregnant with twin girls!  She really is a superwoman!  With the twins due in April (but planning for March) she'll have some time off with maternity leave.

Michael is still with Translational Genomics in their Center for Proteomics division.  He had a blast coaching Rohan's TBall team (despite the annoying parents).  Currently training for the Tough Mudder in February.

The Endeavor

We have been on countdown for what seems like forever for this trip.  I think we started the countdown at about 30 days for Rohan, which to an almost-4-year-old had to seem like an eternity.

First we had some stuff to do.  We had Rohan's last TBall game a couple weekends back followed by his party with his team at a friends house.  It was a lot of fun to hang out with the parents outside of TBall, and great to see the kids have so much fun playing anything other than TBall.

We also had Mara's party for PCH which we had our friend Shannon watch Rohan.  She always spoils him rotten when she's here so he's glad to get rid of us for several hours.  We had a lot of fun without Rohan, and even made some time for a quick coffee (just us!) at Matador before heading to the party.  We can back around 10 to Rohan sitting with Shannon on the couch (past his bedtime) watching The Avengers...spoiled...:)

After all that we finally hit the last day before the trip.  Mara worked a Noon to Midnight shift on Monday, so I picked her up at Midnight (after a quick nap) and we headed towards California.  We stopped around 3:30am in Joshua Tree National Park and found our normal spot for camping and slept for 3hrs before heading in the rest of the way.

We hit the California Science Center around opening time and got in line with our free timed ticket to see the space shuttle.  It was insane.  Thousands of kids were busing in from all over.  The shuttle iteself wasn't too crazy, but we see why they needed timed tickets.  Before the shuttle they showed a quick video of the Endeavor being brought through the streets of LA.  Here is a similar time lapse video:

Rohan was so amazed by this video...we watch it at least once a day now...:)
After the video we get full reign of the the shed it's currently in.  I will have to say...for someone who has been waiting ~27 years to see a space shuttle in person...it was beautiful.  Never had I had so much pride looking at a national monument.  I cannot wait until they set it up in it's final position, upright with the booster rockets and fuel tank attached.
We roamed the shuttle for about 45 min before heading to an IMAX movie about Earth.  Rohan liked that a lot too!  We finally grabbed lunch on the gorgeous USC campus and headed back towards the museum.  We had several more hours until it closed so we decided (well...Rohan decided) to see the shuttle again.  It was perfect timing.  It was around 2pm so the schools were all headed back home, and before others got off work to come.  We didn't even need to wait in line for a ticket, they just opened the door.  There was only about 15 people in there, and it was so nice to have it quieter and more open this time around.  We spent almost another 45min there before calling it a day.
We wondered around USC a little more, got some stuff for breakfast in the morning, and ate at the Lab Gastropub...very cool place...:)
The next day we got an early start (after some coffee) and hit the rose gardens on the museum's campus.  Rohan went around smelling tons of roses, and just running around being a kid.  Today we were hitting the Natural History Museum to see their Dinosaur Hall and whatever else they have...turns out A LOT!  Rohan was yelling TRICERATOPS at the top of his lungs when we walked in because they had a T-Rex attacking a Triceriatops in the front rotunda...it was hilarious...:)
We spent A LOT of time at the Dinosaur Hall and also checked out the mammal, gemstone, and evolution exhibits.  All in all and awesome museum!  It was great to see Rohan SO excited about everything.  Every time he saw a dinosaur exhibit or foot print or preserved dung, he would run and get us and tell us we HAD to see it.  We were there for almost 4 hours before grabbing lunch at a great Indian place.  We had some time before we had to head home, and around 2:00 we hit the space shuttle for the 3rd time in less than 2 days.  It was really quiet again, and very nice to see one last time before heading home.
The car ride back was mostly at night, and one nice thing is it was almost the peak of the Geminid meteor shower!  I saw more shooting stars on the way home than I have in the last 5 years...it was a great way to end the trip...:)
Enjoy the pics and hop everyone has a great XMas!

We ended the 3 days off by taking Rohan to a tampoline place called AZ AirTime.  It was a blast!
Double Trust Fall:  

Rohan Jumping:


Mike Jumping: