The train is delayed

Thanks to heavy SNOW in northern Arizona, our trip to the North Pole on the Polar Express will have to wait.  We had a major storm go through the state on Wednesday and Thursday, and the area we were headed (Williams, AZ) got several inches of snow and high wind.  Down here in the Valley, we had heavy rain and cold (high 20s overnight) temperatures. The highways we needed to get there were closed most of Thursday.  Our train tickets were for Thursday night, so there wasn’t much chance of us getting there.  Even if we could, we didn’t really want to take the chance.  There was still openings on the trains next Friday and Saturday, but they were going quick so rather than chance it, we rescheduled for the 7th.  We won’t all be able to go together anymore (all of the grandkids), but it’s the best we could do.  The 7th worked for us, but the 8th worked for Kathy and Jen.  Kathy will use Tina’s tickets next season because they couldn’t be refunded, only rescheduled.  It actually works out pretty well for us because we were planning to be up in Prescott on Saturday the 8th for Joyce’s memorial service.  This way, we’ll go up on Friday for the train ride, stay overnight in Williams as planned, and then head to Prescott on Saturday.  It saves us a trip up north, and it was actually cheaper!  It’s too bad all of the kids won’t get to experience it together as planed, but at least we will still get to ride the Polar Express.  Tyler was bummed, but he got over it pretty quickly.  The same probably wouldn’t be said if it were cancelled all together.  Dave said he’s never had winter weather effect his plans so much as it has in the past month!

Name this picture

I feel like this picture needs a creative caption.  Any ideas?  I have no idea what Ava was pointing at over there, but she seems very insistent that we all look. 

Oh, and take a look at our eyebrows.  Ava and I have the exact same eyebrows!  Click on the picture to enlarge if you need to.  Funny stuff!

Christmas Day and Arizona sledding

We had a very nice Christmas with Dave’s family here in sunny, warm Arizona.  Dave’s sister Tina, who lives in Germany with her family, is in town and was here for Christmas. This means that all 9 of the cousins were together for Christmas this year.  That  always makes for a wild, exciting time.  We went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house Christmas morning so the kids could open their presents from their grandparents. 

Matt (one of the cousins from Germany) is showing Aunt Kathy and Lacy his new iPod touch that he got for Christmas.  I’m sure that made the long flight from Germany much more tolerable.  These boys are becoming very experienced travelers!

Ava got this nice wooden cradle from Grandma for her babies.

Tyler got this cool glow-in-the-dark art set from Sydney and Braden. 

Dave’s cousin, Kenny, plays college baseball in Texas and was pitching to the boys in the backyard.  I think he was pretty impressed with Tyler’s mad skills!  He can really hit that baseball!

After baseball in the backyard, we headed out the back gate to the park for a little soccer.  Anyone else playing soccer in short sleeves on Christmas day?  To be fair, these girls in shorts and tank tops were from Washington, so it seemed pretty warm to them. 

Is this a handsome dude, or what?  Merry Christmas, buddy.

Time for some Arizona sledding!  Claire got this cool sled to use on the big hills in the park behind their house.  You can’t see in any of the pictures, but it has a shelf on the bottom where you can slide in blocks of ice.  The ice makes you slide down the grass faster. You may remember that I mentioned this strange form of sledding last year in this post.  Here are Tyler and Aiden giving it a try.

The cardboard box was not quite as effective, but Ty and Gavin still gave it a shot.

Tina thinks she will get teased pretty severely from her friends in Germany for sledding down grass…and enjoying it!  Ava even gave it a try, but as you’ll see in the video below, her enjoyment didn’t last long…

           

Here are Sydney and Tyler getting ready for one last run down the hill. 

 

This is pretty funny….

Wipe out!

So, as you can see, our Arizona Christmas day was filled with outdoor fun.  We had a great time with family and enjoyed being outside with the kids.  It’s great to have Tina and her family here for a couple of weeks.  We all miss having them around, and look forward to August 2012 when they move back to the States.  Hopefully we will have a chance to visit them in Germany before then.

I hope you all had a safe and lovely Christmas with your families.  It’s always a bit sad for me to be away from my own ND family on holidays like this, but I am so grateful for my wonderful in-laws and the family I have here.  I thought about my Aunt Joyce so much on Christmas day, and am so very sad that she is not here with us.  Some of my fondest memories are from spending Christmas enjoying a delicious meal prepared by Joyce.  Her house was always so beautiful, festive and warm.  It just screamed Christmas.  The meals I had around that table were some of the best of my life, and  I am so grateful for the memories.

Thank you all for helping to make this a wonderful Christmas for our family. The kids had a great time! Happy New Year to you all! 

Christmas morning

What did Santa find when he came to our house?  Take a look…

All of the reports from Percy, the usually good behavior, and the reminders that Christmas was coming must have paid off because this is what the kids saw when they got up on Christmas morning.  Tyler asked Santa for a “bike with a horn that sounded like a train.”  This proved to be a bit difficult to find, so Santa had to settle for a bike bell.  Ava didn’t ask Santa for anything in particular considering she had this reaction on his lap.  Santa was very resourceful however.  He found a baby doll still in the box from Ava’s first birthday (thanks Becky!), and decided it would be a good time for her to get this particular gift again.  Hey, she wasn’t interested in babies then, but she is now, so don’t judge!

She didn’t know that it was a gift she received before.  She ran right up to it and said “babee!” and got mad that she couldn’t get it out of the box immediately.  She was trying to hug her new baby, box and all!  It was so sweet to see her reaction.  Thanks Becky Santa!

Tyler was funny when he came out to see the tree on Christmas morning.  He saw the baby doll right away (pointing it out to Ava), and all of the presents around the tree, but it was almost as though he didn’t see the bright fluorescent orange bike parked in front of the tree. I said “what did Santa bring you?”  He said “I don’t know” as he was looking all around.  Really kid?!  He finally saw his new bike, went right to the bell and said “it doesn’t have a train horn but it has a bell!”  He loved this bell.  When Dave was putting it together he said he didn’t want to put the bell on it because it was a cool bike and the bell would just “dork it out.”  Tyler doesn’t seem to mind though.  He rings it non stop!

The kids had a bunch of presents to open.  We even called Grandma and Grandpa in ND on Skype while they opened a few of them. 

             

Tyler got lots of cool presents (his first model train set, a baseball glove, a new bike, and more…) but this may prove to be the most memorable.  A few weeks ago, Jen and Kathy booked tickets for the Polar Express and asked if we wanted to join them.  Um, is there any question?!  Of course we want to go!  All 9 of the cousins will be riding the train together on Thursday night.  We are heading up to Williams, AZ (it’s the Grand Canyon Railway, like we rode last year, but during the holidays they do a Polar Express ride) on Thursday for the train ride, and then we will all stay overnight in the Depot hotel and then head home on Friday. 

When we were trying to decide how to give Tyler his ticket (Kathy printed out some fake tickets to give the kids), Dave came up with a genius plan.  On Christmas Eve, the kids opened up a present with new jammies, and Tyler got a robe.  He was so excited to have a robe!  We had to reenact scenes from the movie Polar Express over and over and over before bed.  The boy in the movie wears a robe, and it is where he finds his ticket for the train.  You probably know where I’m going with this….Dave snuck the ticket in Tyler’s robe pocket when he was sleeping.  When we had Grandma and Grandpa on Skype, Dave told him to go get his robe to show them.  When he put it on, he told him to check his pocket (like they do in the movie).  He pulled out the ticket and there you have it!  He is so excited!

What makes it even better is that all 9 of the cousins will experience this together.  It’s going to be cold up in Williams though.  There is a cold front moving through Arizona this week and the temperature in Williams the days we will be there is around 18 degrees and a chance of snow.  I guess I might have to round up some warmer clothes for the kids to wear under their pajamas (cause they wear jammies on the train!).  Who would have thought we’d have temps like that?  It makes it that much more realistic, if you ask me!  Should be a great experience.

This was a great start to our Christmas Day. 

Christmas Eve at the park

After the family left on Christmas Eve afternoon, the kids and I headed to the park to play for awhile.  This is precisely the reason why it never quite feels like Christmas to me on the years that I spend it in Arizona.  It’s just not normal to me to be able to be at the park in short sleeves on December 24.  I’m not complaining, mind you, I’m just sayin’……

Not much of a story with these pictures, other than that the kids had a good time running around in the grass while the sun was setting behind them. 

Tyler didn’t know it at the time, but this would be the last time he’s have to ride his little bike because Santa would be bringing him a bigger one this very night.

Such a happy girl!  I love her!

Trying to keep up with big brother…

The fort

We had Dave’s family over on Christmas Eve afternoon for Kathy’s birthday lunch.  While the kids were playing outside, they discovered a fun new fort in our backyard.  If you are familiar with our yard, you’ll know that we have a humongous grapefruit tree and the branches hang all the way down to the ground.  Underneath, however, there is a huge open space—large enough to stand in.  This creates the perfect place for the kids to hide out.  While they were there (7 kids under the age of 6), they made it quite the little home for themselves, even including a potted plant that they made them selves with a pot, sand, and bougainvillea branches.  I didn’t get any pictures while the kids were here, but I snuck in there after they had left to see what they had been up to….

They had placed one of these boards up in the tree, and apparently Sydney climbed up the “ladder” and sat on the board in the tree.  Leave it to Sydney to come up with that one….

Ava is sitting by the nice plant the kids potted themselves.  They even had a bowl of grapefruit hanging from the tree using one of those plastic hanging planters.

And here are all of the kids singing Happy Birthday to Aunt Kathy…

Afterwards, the kids and I went to the park and played for awhile…not something most can do on Christmas Eve, but we sure love that we can!  More to come…

Merry Christmas from the Horihans!

Classic Santa visit

If this isn’t just about perfect, I’m not sure what is.  I had a feeling Ava might react this way….and I’m sort of glad she did.  It makes for a much more amusing photo!

For a history of our mall Santa visits through the years, check out this post from last year. 

Tyler told Santa exactly what he wanted this year…a bike with a horn that sounds like a train.  Do you think he’s been a good enough boy to get something that special from Santa?  We’ll find out!

Wordless Wednesday

Tyler’s idea of a cool backyard….

Last night, we went to Tyler’s dream backyard.  There are several homes in the Valley that have “Garden” train layouts in their backyards.  For the 4 weekend days before Christmas, many of these homes are open to the public.  We met a friend of mine, Kaytie, who has a train-loving 3 year old son, and her family there last night.  This is one of the largest garden layouts in the country with almost 4,000 square feet of track.  It is unbelievable.  See for yourself.

Here are the kids, Maddy, Ty, John, and Ava waiting in line to get it. I’m so glad we went early because it was packed! 

He has an entire garage filled with train cars…shelves and shelves of trains.

If you didn’t know it, you might think this was a picture taken outside, with the train rolling across the mountainous countryside. 

You wouldn’t know it from this picture, but Ava did not enjoy this outing very much.  There were way too many people there for her to get down and walk, or to push the stroller around.  She got mighty tired of being held.

Afterwards, we went out to dinner, then drove around to look at Christmas lights, and then Tyler decorated his Gingerbread house.  It was a fun night!

Here is a link to a You Tube video about the owner of this amazing backyard, Dennis Sirrine (owner of Rancho de Tia Roas Mexican Restaurant in Mesa).