Angel of Music

We did it.

We went to Vegas.

And we even took the kids.

Oh, it was a wonderful 18-hour vacation.  It really was too bad that it didn't last longer.  But I'm so glad we got to dash out when we did.

We stopped at the Hoover Dam on the way.

Dam.

We took a dam tour, walked the dam sidewalks, took some dam pictures, and stopped at the dam shop to buy some dam souvenirs.  We had some dam fun.

Dam bridge

We got to our hotel (the Mirage) and checked in.  The kids LOVED our "fancy" room but we all hated having to walk through the casino to get to the elevators.  Major bummer there, but we survived.

We were a little early for Phantom so we took a trip to the Secret Gardens behind the Mirage where you can see a pool of dolphins and the animals once used by Siegfried and Roy.  The two magicians just happened to be there right then and they agreed to take some pictures with fans.  We took the opportunity to steal a few photos of them.  We noticed the animals sense their trainers as they neared the cages, despite the fact that Siegfried and Roy were completely surrounded by other people.  The animals would all get up and come to the area of the cage their trainers were standing by and seemed to be waiting for instruction.  It was quite a phenomenon.  After Siegfried and Roy moved away from the cage, the animals would all go back to sitting still just as they had before.

Watching the dolphins

On our way out we watched the dolphins swimming around.  We went below deck to see them underwater.  I've never seen dolphins before so I think I was just as amazed as the kids.

Finally it was time to go to dinner and our show.  We went across the street to the Venetian and had dinner at the restaurant connected to the Cheesecake Factory, which happened to be next door to the Phantom theater.  Dinner was good.  But who really remembers that when you have Phantom to look forward to?

We walked into the theater and were immediately awed.  The theater was custom built for the show and cost $40 million.  And you can tell.  It's been running at the Venetian for six years, but will finally close on September 2.  We HAD to go now so we didn't miss our opportunity to see it.  And it was absolutely worth it.

The view from our seats

Our seats were in the mezzanine (balcony area) and were definitely the "affordable" seats.  But our view was just as amazing as it could've been anywhere else in the theater.  We didn't realize it until later, but we had the best view of the chandelier, which in this production is as much a live character as any of the people singing and dancing on stage.

As the lights finally dimmed, I watched Matt out of the corner of my eye.  He sat between Josh and me because he was worried the play would be as scary as the movie.  But his eyes grew WIDE as he saw the actors come alive onstage and as the chandelier began its surge to life (I can't explain this to you without taking away some of the magic of it, so you'll just have to go with it and see the production yourself) Matt grabbed the sides of his chair as he nearly jumped out of it, mouth agape, and eyes about to pop.  I couldn't help but be moved by his reaction.  He was loving the magic of theatre, something I love so very much.  My eyes filled with tears and probably didn't stop filling until half an hour after the show ended.  The girls sat on the other side of Josh and he said their reactions were just about the same.

The show itself was incredible.  There wasn't a weak link in the performance.  The acting and singing was amazing.  The casting had been spot on.  There was more scenery in this production than I remember seeing in San Francisco in 1995.  But the curtain-sweeping scene changes still flowed beautifully from one scene to the next.  The special effects wowed the audience.  And that darn Phantom just showed up all over the place.  He's at the bottom of the stairs, then suddenly back at the top.  He's above the rooftop.  He's hanging from the chandelier!

The music was absolutely brilliant.

There is really only one word that can describe the show and the reactions of my children to it: Magical.

Afterward we asked the kids about their favorite parts.

Emma: She couldn't pin down one favorite moment.  In fact she told me, "I can't even name my favorite 1000 parts!"

Abby: "The whole thing!"

Matt:

• When Phantom hung from the chandelier
• When Phantom went from the bottom of the stairs and in a poof of smoke appeared at the top of the stairs
• When Phantom appeared in the mirror and took Christine to the dungeon
• When Phantom disappeared at the end
• (Can you guess Matt's favorite character?)

All in all, it was a quick trip, it cost us a bit of our state tax refund, and we were a bit late getting home (I was about 20 minutes late for the Cub Scout meeting being held at our house).  But it was definitely time and money well spent.  

A memory we will always remember.

The Great Outdoors

We officially kicked off our summer this week.  The kids got out of school last week and Josh had the end of this week off from work, so we took advantage of the situation and hit the road.

Our family hasn't been camping in a while.  And we've never been out with just our little family.  But, our family loves ADVENTURE!!  So we took off and searched for our haven away from home.

We stayed in our brand new three room tent.  Josh and I slept in the middle room.  Josh bought an air mattress for the father/son campout last month.  And I love that he did.  For the first time, my back didn't want to kill me after a night in the woods.  Hooray!

Matt and Millie shared one of the side rooms and Emma and Abby took the other side room.  It was a great tent.  

This picture was originally centered, but I was trying to get Millie in the pictures and she was trying to run away so the camera followed her.

Josh had called ahead to the rangers' station to find out if there was a fire ban.  He was told that the fires had to stay within the rims provided for the fires, so we got the fire a-flamin'.

We also set up a few outdoor games for the kids to play.  I can't remember what this one is called.  Josh called it golf.  I called it The Game. 

We also played lots of card games.  Our current favorite is Skip-Bo.  We also played Mancala (the game with the marbles).  Even the kids got into that one. 

We decided to go hiking and found this cute little stream.

Emma

Abby

Matt

Millie

We also found a big rock, perfect for sitting.

Then we found the real waterfall.  180 feet high. 

Josh has told me before that girls baffle him.  That was kind of obvious when we got married (I love you, dear).  But until a year or so ago, I didn't realize that his befuddlement includes our own daughters.  Josh has three brothers and one sister.  She's ten years younger than him and so he never really interacted with her.  So our daughters are a bit of an enigma. 

This trip gave Josh the chance to bond a little more with Emma.  She wanted to build a fairy house for fairies living in the woods.  So, she and Josh found the materials in the trees near our campsite and built this really cool fairy house.

This fairy house is made completely from sticks, ferns, and leaves.  Everything a fairy would want her home built out of.

Millie loved being outside.  She grabbed handfuls of dirt and placed (read: threw) it anywhere she thought dirt needed to be.  She ran in circles and sang at the top of her lungs.  We had a butterfly that kept fluttering through out camp.  It was a big orange one and everyone loved it.  Millie would chase it and yell, "I ya you, bu'erf'y!"  That translates to: I love you, butterfly.  However, when Millie got tired, she hit a wall.  Hard.  I think her wailing alone kept any wild animal at least a mile away.  At one point, I was going to clean her face (the girl was a constant dirt pile) and she looked at me coming at her with the wipe and yelled NO! and tried to run into the woods.  She seriously took off to the trees.  Hello?  Not even Bambi would let her hang out with that messy face.

One-shoed-Millie playing in the dirt.

Fun candids:

One thing Josh and I loved doing was creating a new and exciting menu.  We were only gone for two nights, but we didn't want to just roast hot dogs both nights.  Although we roasted weenies the first night, we also made campfire nachos.  The second night we made calzones.  Yeah.  We went camping where there wasn't even a porta-potty and still had freshly made calzones for dinner.  Call us the coolest parents ever.

Now that we've been out once this summer, we'll happily go again.  We've got all the supplies we need.  We know a decent place to go (although we wouldn't mind checking out a few different places).  And everyone had fun. 

Not a bad way to spend a weekend.

Absurd Adventure

During my Theatre and English education endeavors, I spent several semesters covering the genre and ideal of "absurdity."  My favorite real life experience happened when Abby was about a year old.  (I think I've told this story before, but please indulge me.)  She was laying on the floor in front of me and I was changing her diaper.  Emma was marching in a circle around me chanting, "Marching, marching, marching, marching...."  Josh had previously turned up the TV since Emma was noisily marching and Abby was fussing about needing a bum change.  But then he decided to tell me something so he began yelling above the noise.

So, here I am, sitting in the middle of the floor, having this out of body experience.  Abby's squirming and crying.  Emma's marching and chanting.  Josh is nearly yelling a story at me.  The TV is blaring. 

It was absurdity at its finest.

Such is life.  At least, my life.  I am surrounded by absurdity.

Our vacation began today.  Our itinerary for these first few days has included: babysitting, end of the quarter conferences, buying out the local pharmacy to get rid of this stupid cold, and preparing to enroll our son in first grade again. 

Absurdity.

However, I am very happy to report that the tub we expected to arrive next week came today.  It's so good to know that we can begin work on the bathroom right away.  But Josh made the good point of, "Now we have to work on it."  Yep.  Can't procrastinate and use the absence of the tub as an excuse. 

And so we begin this absurd adventure.  Tomorrow is cleaning/packing day for the kids.  Josh and I will begin some of our other work as well.  And we'll send the kids to my parents on Saturday.  (I think I might actually miss them, which really, really surprises me.)

Adventure!

Even if it is absurd.

Anniversary Adventure

Last night we took the kids to see the view from South Mountain.  South Mountain sits south of Phoenix and from the summit you can see most of the Valley of the Sun.  It's quite phenomenal.

Behind the kids is the east side of the city of Phoenix.  I didn't appreciate it when we lived here so many years ago, but there is a certain beauty to the desert.  It's different than the mountains I love, but it has its own sense of enchantment.

The progression of the sun setting over the west end of Phoenix:

We wound our way to another lookout site and found the East Valley, where we live.  From what we can tell, the line of lights on the left is US Hwy 60.  Somewhere along the horizon on the right is where we live. 

Do you see us?



I think I'm starting to get used to this place.  Brown still is not my favorite color, but it's tolerable.  I even unpacked the four big boxes of junk in our bedroom yesterday.  I think that's my mind's way of acknowledging our year mark in Arizona.  That's right.  Our Year Mark. 

One year ago today I packed up my four children, all of our possessions, and along with my dad, began the journey to bring us from Montana to Arizona. 

A year!  I'm still wrapping my head around that.

San Diego 2010

There is no Bloggest Loser this week because I had an inkling that we were going to be out of town.

And we were.

Monday morning we left to go to San Diego to visit Josh's grandparents.

He hasn't seen them since he was about 16 and his grandfather is in very poor health. We knew we had to make the trip before school started and not wait until it was convenient. We had a bit of time and low funds, but we still had a wonderful trip.

Monday night we saw Gramma and Grampa Essary.

We stayed at a hotel between their house and the beach.

The next morning was overcast and cool, but we decided that we HAD to see the ocean while we were there. We didn't change into our swimsuits since it was so chilly, but all four children ended up wet from their shoulders down.

We had some lunch and the sun came out, so we decided to go back to the beach. This time we wore our suits and did some major shell collecting. It was a good day.

It was a very fun, although fast, trip. I can't wait to do it again. Next time we'll have some more ideas of where to go and what to do.

The kids' first time in the ocean.

Going to a Ghost Town

Josh and I have been wanting to explore a bit of the new world around us. My BIL Jabon told us about a ghost town he heard about that's only about half an hour from our house. So we loaded everyone up and went to check it out.



We went up to Superior, AZ, to the remains of Pinal City, AZ. Pinal City was a silver mining town from 1871 to 1894. Even though the town shut down 116 years ago, you'd think there'd be more left of it, but all we could find were some ruins of a few foundations.



This is what the town looked like around 1880.





The kids had fun posing for pictures near the geocache site.

Josh wanted some peace and quiet and took off on his own little hike. The yellow behind him is Matt and the rest of the kids coming to be by him. Peace and quiet? Come on, Dad. Really?

There were also some really cool mule train wagon tracks.

If you look in the picture below, you can see some round dents between the wagon ruts. Those are the imprints from the mules set into the sandstone.

The kids are showing how deep the ruts really go. Ducks in a row.

The wagons full of the silver ore made a round trip everyday from the mine to the mill. The wagons would be bound together and led by about 20 mules.

One story goes that the mule skinners that ran the trains didn't get paid much. As the mules stubbornly trekked down the trail they would throw bits of ore at them. Then, friends of the skinners would gather up the ore and cash it in and share the profits with the skinners. That's one way to beat the system.

We also checked out the town of Superior while we were out there. Abby and Matt found this tree and decided to ride it like a pony. Unfortunately for them, we didn't stay out for too much longer. It was in the high 90s at 9am and we didn't want to get stuck out there when the real heat struck us.

Tombstone or Bust!

Yesterday Josh and I took the kids out for an adventure. We called it:

ADVENTURE!!!!

I know. Such a creative name. Really, anyone else may look at our adventure and think that it was just a bunch of unpreparedness. Well, so what if it was? We had fun, so that's all that matters.

I told the kids that we were going to go on a field trip. The girls got all excited and asked where we were going. I told them Tombstone. They started screaming and clapping and jumping up and down. Finally, after a good 60 seconds of celebration, they calmed down and asked me what Tombstone is. They're so weird.

I explained it's an Old West town and had some museums in it. They were excited (again) to go.

First, we left very late in the day. I don't know if my children have told you lately, but I'm pretty mean and made them do all their chores before we could leave.

Then, we grabbed the atlas and took off. We couldn't remember how far away Tombstone is since the last time we went there we had no children. But we knew it would be a couple hours.

Three hours later, we arrived in town. We went over to the O.K. Corral to check it out.

Unfortunately, we got there 15 minutes after it closed. And 15 minutes after most of the shops in town closed.

But there were a couple of shops open. We had promised the kids they could buy whatever they wanted as long as they didn't go over their $10 max. So we now have a few new horses and cap guns laying around our house.

Josh and I thought it was kind of funny that the movie stills we saw were mostly from the Kurt Russell Tombstone instead of the Kevin Costner Wyatt Earp. Even the town of Tombstone thinks Kevin Costner sucks. Ha ha ha ha!!!!!!

We saw a buggy driving down the streets of Tombstone, but we missed the shoot out in the streets.

We completed our adventure by taking the backroads home. It shaved about thirty minutes off our drive, even in the dark. It was a bit after midnight when we got home, but it was fun.

ADVENTURE!!!!

We now have a much better idea of how to do a good visit to Tombstone. The only thing really worth seeing in town is the O.K. Corral and it's accompanying museum. So, next time we'll plan it a little better. We will drive the backway to Tombstone and visit some really cool caverns in one of the towns nearby. Then we'll go to Tombstone for lunch, visit the O.K. Corral and watch the 2pm shoot out in the streets.

So, some may consider our six hours in the car for an hour look around Tombstone a waste of time, but we had lots of fun together. And that's never a waste.

I do think we need to go get the BlueRay copy of Tombstone. Who doesn't love Kurt Russell, especially as someone as cool as Wyatt Earp? He's awesome. Sam Elliot and Bill Paxton are wonderful as the other two Earp brothers, although Sam Elliot is my favorite of the two. And, of course, my loyalty to Joshua has numbed my affinity for Val Kilmer, but I still think he's great. Plus, he's got some of the best lines.

I'm your Huckleberry.