::summer sunsets::

Out here in the desert we have some pretty spectacular sunsets. Not always is the light perfect for photos though. The other night we were eating dinner with friends and I happened to look out the window into the courtyard and saw the most superb light shining in from the sunset. I ran and got the camera and inflicted people with my photo taking for a while.

It was worth it. The light was gorgeous!



I love the sunsets and the evenings out here. They're very pleasant and often pretty spectacular.

And yes, also silly.

::a smokey sunset::

We're trying not to suffocate on the Arizona smoke out here. Seems like lately every evening a big smokey cloud rolls in and covers us so thickly that we can't even see the mountains. I sure hope they can put that fire out soon. Fires are scary and we're so vulnerable out here.
We'll just keep on praying for rain and for the fire to finish up somehow.

::festive part 2::

Here are some more festive scenes from around here--mostly from yesterday (Christmas Eve!)
Festive sunsets!
From monday:

From yesterday on the way to the methodist Christmas Eve service we attended (which was fun, by the way.)

The color of the sky was so amazing, and the clouds were really low and cool looking.


I showed Max the Santa tracker at lunch and he tracked the big man for the rest of the day. He loved it. I loved how it kept him occupied. I love how the mobile version of google maps got in on it this year--if you searched "santa" the phone would show you where he was. We saw him in Uzbekistan, Saudia Arabia, the Seychelles and Cape Verde. It led to some pretty interesting conversations about geography.

Here are the ornaments I made this year. I try to always make a Max ornament every year for the Grandmothers--and this year we got to add Sandy which made me very happy. I think it turned out cute--not anything too special, but cute!




We read this book together every Christmas Eve. It's a lovely pop-up book and kids love it. It's a tradition that I carried from my home growing up. I found this copy of the book for us at a second hand book store before amazon.com really existed--it was a triumph then! And wow, I just searched it on amazon just for fun, and they're selling used starting at $50. Crazy!
Anyway, we love it and it's fun to remember how I felt reading that same book when I was Max's age.

Boys in Santa hats are quite festive.

This one was usurped from work--the staff each had one and Max was really coveting them. One of the sweet ladies donated hers to his cause and wore it for two days straight.

Boys in Christmas sweaters are even more festive!

I waited all day to try and get a picture of them together where Sandy was awake, but he just had too sleepy of a day.
Max's sweater came from my mom and Sandy's came from Kris's mom. Thanks moms!! The boys looked so cute.

The nativity scene:

This is festive, but I'm just not sure what to say about it. Hmmmmmmm.

Luminarios/farolitos:
Lots of people have these on their houses out here--and especially businesses and big buildings. They're so fun looking and very different. This is a picture of a house on our street. I wish I would've been able to snag a picture of one of the big multi level places downtown for you. Next year.


And last, but certainly not least, my favorite festive activity for the day was Kris getting pooped on. We were trying to hurry and get ready to go to the church service and Sandy just couldn't seem to finish pooping before he got changed. Kris actually went through a couple of diapers and then finally just got a bad angle and was really in the line of fire. He shrieked (in a manly way of course) and had to go and completely change his clothes. Sandy was totally nonplussed, which cracked me up. And of course I took a picture or two even though the light was totally awful.


HAH!!

We've had a great Christmas Eve and a lovely Christmas day. The best part is spending time together as a little family as well as talking to all our loved ones. I hope everybody else had a great couple of days too.
Merry Christmas!!

::new toy::

Max was so sad when we moved from RI because we had to give our trampoline away.
It was old and kind of gross and we had to hold the safety net on with wire ties. We weren't going to pay to move that dang thing across the country.
Besides the yards out here aren't exactly made for playground equipment.

And that's the problem. The yards are just different than what we're used to. Before we moved, Max spent hours out in the yard, swinging in the hammock and playing on the deck. Out here it's more complex. Our yard is less contained and the in the afternoons the little garden area gets HOT. There's also not a lot of room for chairs or hammocks or anything. Our hammock is out there, but it's on the part of the patio that's not contained by walls, so I'm not thrilled about him being out there all alone.
So there's not a ton of motivation to play outside, which I don't like.

So I thought maybe we could get a tramp again. A smaller one. One that would fit right in our useless gravel patch.
And I found it.
The other day when we got home from work/school/whatever, there was a big package waiting for us by the door. Max was psyched to see that the box said TRAMPOLINE on it!
Kris said he'd set it up right away.
When we started working on it the sun was up and the evening breezes were starting to blow. It was really nice outside.


(see the flower petals on Sultan's back? I love it when he goes out and rubs around the bushes. He comes in looking like he's been at a wedding or something, all covered with purple petals.)

For some strange reason Max had already gotten dressed in his PJs. This is honestly so weird and never ever happens without us bugging him a bunch. But that day, somehow he was on top of things.

He was just SO excited about the trampoline!!

And we worked on it and worked on it. Max played around and Sultan ate apples.


Isn't it tiny? It's probably half the size and half the height of our old one. It kind of looks like an overgrown exercise trampoline. I think it's cute.
Setting it up took way longer than it seemed like it should. And the sun was going down.


The sunset over the mountains never fails to disappoint.
And Kris finally finished up the last bit of the safety net set up in the dark.

And the little guy finally got to jump. He waited so long and so semi-patiently! We let him jump for about 5 minutes and then shuttled him off to bed.


It was a nice night. And Max was way excited to get up and jump on his trampoline the next morning. I'm hoping it'll inspire a lot more outside time this fall!
Thanks for spending the evening with us.

::last night::

::more skies::

Here are some fun sky photos I took after a rainstorm the other night. The sky looks different like every 10 minutes out here!
From the dining room french doors, looking out over the garden.

Looking down the turny dirt driveway.

No, it's not a volcano--just clouds over the garage!


Some pink sky over the neighbors house. We just found out he's a blind sculptor. Max loves to go and visit them on his bike.

And to end it all, another crazy sunset.

This place is beautiful!

::and here we are::

This isn't going to be a play-by-play of the day, just a quick overview of what happened and some (hopefully) fun pictures.
Thursday morning we met the landlord bright and early at the new house so we could get ready for the moving truck to show up at 8AM.
It was sunny and then it was cloudy. It kind of switched off every 10 minutes or so.
Max was in heaven exploring the surroundings.
Almost the very first thing that happened was that we found an awesome stinkbug on the door--can you see it?


More Max exploring pictures--well I was trying to capture him exploring, but I just kept ended up getting him making weird expressions. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to follow him around while he explores. He's been doing it every extra second.


Here are a couple of pictures of the house--from one vantage point anyway. The clouds blow my mind against the blue sky.


You can see the gate into our little garden in this picture. We like the garden and I'm sure I'll have some pictures of it to post soon.

The car is the landlord's. I mostly took this photo for the sky--it was just so beautiful!

Then the movers showed up. And the driver was all stressed out by the surroundings, of course. We have a longish windy dirt driveway, and there was no way the truck was coming up there.

He tried driving the truck over the "wild country" and pulling up to the back door, but he felt all bad about running over cacti, so he went back to the bottom of the windy drive.

The poor movers had to bring everything up the drive, what a ton of work.
The driver thought they'd be done by noon, but it took until 4PM. 8 full hours of unloading. I didn't even have to carry any boxes and by the end of it all I was totally exhausted. I thought my feet might fall off. I'm just totally worn out from this whole adventure (ordeal, whatever you want to call it.)
I was so glad when they finally got it all in and left so I could lie down on the couch.

It was really nice though, that the moving guys checked with us as they brought in each item and put it exactly where we wanted it. So we haven't had to do much box shifting around which really helps.

We're enjoying the house so far. It's nice and the air is so clean and clear up here. It's quiet and beautiful.

At Max's bedtime there was a big huge thunderstorm. It smelled heavenly.
And then it went away. I could see it on the horizon when I looked out our french doors, streaming rain out on some other part of the desert.
Isn't it a lovely view?