Flagstaff

You know what's great about living in Phoenix during the summer? Nothing.  Well, except for being able to drive 2 hours north to Flagstaff to escape the heat.  My mom and I took a small roadtrip a few weekends ago with Alexandra to Flagstaff.  We had a blast!

We stopped on the side of the road for some photo opportunities.  We saw a field of Black Eyed Susans and HAD to get some pictures.

We had lunch in downtown Flagstaff and walked around the little town for some shopping.  Then we went to the local park for a children's art and music festival with a live band.  Alex was in her own form of heaven with the music.  I literally had to chase her to prevent her from climbing onto the stage because she was so enthralled with the musicians.  Gulp.  I hope this isn't a sign of the future! 

She boogied down on the dance floor with the big kids and tried to hula hoop too.  

On the drive back home, we had a return visit to the field of Black Eyed Susans to hunt for my mom's lost glasses and I found them!!! I had to convince her to go back and we searched for awhile before I finally found them. Persistence pays off! What a fun story we will remember from that trip though. 

Must love dogs...

Alex has two best friends who lavish her with more love than she deserves. Sorry, I need to clarify that statement. I do believe she deserves all the love in the world, but sometimes when she pesters them, I am amazed at their patience.  She pulls on their ears, pokes her fingers into their eyes, pulls out tufts of fur by the handful, sits on them, jumps on them, and the worst......she likes to grab onto a certain male anatomical part of Thor's and pull it like taffy.  Oh, poor Thor.  Of course I am monitoring this to make sure that they don't lose their patience, but sometimes Alex is too fast for me and she just reaches out and BAM! comes the abuse.  Sadie will lay there and take it forever.  I think she is of the mentality that any attention is good attention, especially in the last year when she hasn't gotten as much time with us after Alex's arrival.  So Sadie wags her tail as Alex continues to pound, punch and pummel.  Thor is equally calm, although he doesn't stick around for long.  He usually scurries away as soon as he sees Alex running to him Frankenstein-style, with two arms outreached and a crazy look in her eyes.   So far so good when it comes to the dogs.  We are always concerned, because you just can't ever be too comfortable about dogs and kids, but mostly we are just glad that they are bringing her some entertainment and love.

Alexandra Photo session--13 months old

Dance baby dance!

Alex is crazy about dancing! Anytime she hears a tune, even commercial jingles, she starts to bop her head and wiggle her bum.  We didn't teach her this, and it makes us laugh so hard when she does it.

Georgia on my mind

We went to Georgia for vacation about a month ago and I am still homesick.  See, even though I have lived in Phoenix for longer than I ever lived in Georgia, I still think of Georgia as "home."  I can't explain it, but when I get off the airplane and breathe in the humid air of the South, see the GREEN everywhere, and hear the southern drawl of passersby, something just feels right.

My Georgia family lives in a rural area and some of my best childhood memories come from there.  I close my eyes and remember summers of climbing trees, scooping up tadpoles from the lake, catching fireflies in mayonnaise jars, eating watermelon as it dripped down my arm, and driving a golfcart through the woods.  Was I lucky or what? I do love where we live now, but there is a part of me that is sad because Alex won't know that kind of childhood, of living in the "country."  I can only hope to give her some of it by visiting.

I had just purchased my new camera before the trip, so I went a little photo-crazy.  I am pretty pleased with some of my shots and I'm finally beginning to feel like I'm making some progress in the photography department.  I bought my first manual camera 4 years ago, and I really think it has taken that long for me to feel comfortable with all of the settings and editing software.

We had a wonderful week and it was so relaxing! You know how you go on vacation sometimes, and you get back and feel exhausted because you did too much?  This wasn't that type of trip.  We talked and ate and swam and ate and ate and ate. And drank. And played. And ahhhhhh....I wish we were there again.