Desert Botanical Gardens and Chihuly

On Jason and Janae's last night in town, mom made arrangements for us all to go see the Luminaries at the Desert Botanical Gardens.  There was an exhibit there during the holidays of Chihuly glass art pieces, and they were spread all throughout the place.  It was beautiful!  My mom and I had been to the Chihuly exhibit once before, when Ava was first born, but it was pretty cool to see it all lit up.  Here is a collage of a few of the pictures.  

There were various performers spread throughout the garden, and Ava stopped at this one and went right to the front row.  She would have stayed here quite awhile if I hadn't gone up to get her. 

 We didn't get a family picture of everyone (Dave and Ava went to get the car), but here are my parents, Jasonae, and Tyler.

Here is a link to all of the pictures from the Botanical Gardens.  It was a nice way to end our family Christmas festivities.  It was so nice having Jason and Janae here this year, and even better to have my whole family together again for the holidays.  Thanks, mom, for taking us all to see the Chihuly and the DBG!

Butterfly Wonderland

A cool new place opened up in Scottsdale awhile back, and I've been meaning to check it out.  Not wanting to go in the summer, I thought it would be a good activity for when Grandma was here.  We ended up going pretty late in the afternoon one day last week.  Dave was working, so Grandma and I took the kids to see the butterflies. It was pretty busy, and we had to wait in line for about 20 minutes before we could get in.  We first watched a cool 3D video about the life and migration of the Monarch butterfly, and the kids really enjoyed that.  Then we walked into a room with a bunch of different cocoons, some that were just opening up, and some brand new butterflies hanging around.

                               

Next, we went into this giant arboretum area that was full of beautiful butterflies!  

 I tried to get a good picture of one of these big blue ones, but every time they landed, they closed their wings.  They were my favorites....

 This little guy hitched a ride on my mom's shirt for a long time!

 And this big guy hung out on Tyler for way longer than he liked.  At first Tyler didn't mind, but after a minute of the butterfly being there, and even coming back after flying away once, Tyler got a little upset.  It made him hate Butterfly Wonderland.  He didn't like the thought of another butterfly landing on him, so he was shooing them away and trying to dodge them.  He wasn't too happy....

 Smiling now, but not for long....

 Ava enjoyed it the whole time. She was very interested in seeing them up close, and was just waiting to have one land on her.

 Grandma and Ava tried to get one to land on her finger....

 Finally!  She finally had one land in her hair...

Here is a link to the rest of the pictures I took at Butterfly Wonderland.  It was cool to see, but I will say I thought it was a little overpriced.  One time was probably enough....

Mesa Temple lights

On Christmas night, we took a trip up to downtown Mesa to see the lights at the Mesa Temple.  The Temple grounds and the building itself are beautiful, and they deck the entire place out with Christmas lights and open the grounds to the public.  Jason and Jane, my mom, and my family all spent while there to close out our Christmas festivities. It was a lovely way to end the night. It was hard to get good photos, but here is what we came up with on our phones. 

 The kids had had a big day, and they didn't last too long looking at the lights. I think Ava spent the entire time on Dave's shoulders.  She was a trooper though!

If you ever find yourself in Mesa around the holidays, you should definitely make a stop at the Temple to see the beautiful lights.

Christmas Day with the Horihans

I don't have too many pictures from our Christmas day festivities with Dave's family.  Now that the kids are all getting older, they all keep busy together and we really don't see them much.  I'd have to go chasing them down to take their picture.  After we ate a nice meal, the kids scattered--some to the park, some downstairs to play with new toys. Most of the boys went out back to play catch, except for Tyler, who was working on his new Lego set.  I say it every year, but it's still crazy to me to be playing outside in short sleeves on Christmas day.  

Doesn't Dave look like the Pied Piper in this picture?  They were all headed over to a big hill to try some desert sledding.  You all probably remember the first time I introduced you to this concept.  I have some pretty hilarious pictures of Tyler in a bike helmet, sitting on a block of ice.  We tried this another Christmas day a few years ago too.

The littlest girls got to go first, but it was pretty anticlimactic.  The sled--a special sled designed for sledding on grass--has ice blocks on the bottom, but they didn't melt like they were supposed to, so they didn't slide.

The result was that Dave had to pull them down the hill instead.  Still fun for the kids, not so fun for Dave.

Jason and Janae were there to watch this whole activity, and I'm sure they were amused at these desert kids trying to experience some aspect of traditional winter.  Sledding is fun, yes, but there's something to be said about the blue skies, sunshine, and short sleeves that go along with our desert version of it. 

Are these two cute or what?  They don't see each other as much anymore, so they are always so excited when they do.

When we got back from "sledding" it was time for the kids to open presents.  They each drew names (Ava had Lacy, Tyler had Matt), and also got a couple presents from Grandma and Grandpa.  It's always pure chaos when these kids open presents, so we had to do the photo before they started.  It's a smaller group than usual this year, as the Schomakers were in California with Tim's family.

Gotta throw in the customary "silly faces" picture!

Tyler got a cool art studio from Aidan.....

Ava was pretty excited about her new Barbie car from Grandma and Grandpa...

Ok, this is pretty funny.  Do you see what this gift is?  Yes, it's a working combustion engine (which said ages 13+ on the box).  I don't think I ever wrote about it on here--I totally meant to--but Tyler has been talking for awhile about wanting to build a car.  He can't be convinced that it's unrealistic for a 7 year old with $18 to build his own car, but we finally made a deal with him that when he was 16 he could do it (and of course, I'm hoping he'll forget about it by then).  For now, he could start working on the plans for his car.  The other thing about it is that he insists that his car has a combustion engine--no electric cars for him!  He's had several conversations with Grandpa Ed (the mechanic) about how a combustion engine works, so he apparently feels qualified to design one himself.  Well, somewhere along the line, Grandpa found this "build your own combustion engine" kit and thought it would make a perfect gift for Tyler.  He and Dave have spent quite a bit of time working on it, and it's been a great learning experience for Tyler.  One of these days I'll share his journal (where he's been drawing his plans for his car) and the book he's been typing entitled "How to Make a Car."  It's quite impressive....as is most of what Tyler does!

We managed to get in a family picture at the end of our day with Dave's family.

We usually stay longer into the evening, but we made some plans to spend the evening with my family.  We headed over to my parents condo to have pizza with my family, and then we headed to downtown Mesa to see the lights at the Mormon Temple (I'll post some pictures of that later).  Once we got home, we had another Christmas first--we went swimming!  We have certainly been taking advantage of the pool (and more importantly for the grown ups, the hot tub) since they've been here.  It was a fun-filled day spent with all of our wonderful family.  I have never been able to spend Christmas with both families in one day, so this year was pretty special.  The kids had a great day, loved their presents, and made memories.  I'm always a bit relieved when the hustle and bussle of the holidays is over, but I do love seeing the excitement and joy that it brings to our kids.  For us, that's what it's all about.  Thanks to everyone who helped make it special for them again this year!

Here is a link to all of the photos from Christmas Day....

Christmas Day morning

The kids slept in until about 7:30 on Christmas morning.  How many kids do that?  We're pretty lucky. My family was planning to come over around 8 so we let the kids check out what they got in their stockings while we waited.  With stockings this big, they end up getting quite a few things in them.  

When Ava got to this wrapped present, she said "I know what this is, a bike helmet!"  We tried to convince her that it was a half a bowling ball, or a turtle, but there was no fooling her!

The kids both got some great new books from us and from Jason and Janae.  It's great that we have kids who enjoy books so much.  Ava and I have read "The Day the Crayons Quit" about 4 times already.

The gift Tyler got as his "want" gift was a remote control helicopter. He got one for Christmas last year too, but it was a bit more fragile and also didn't work outside.  This one should be able to withstand the wear and tear from a 7 year old.

Ava got a giant stuffed beanie baby ball thing--and she was super excited about it.

The grand finale was the new bikes the kids got from Grandma and Grandpa.  We opened all the gifts (and Ava kept asking for more), and went outside to play with Tyler's helicopter.  While we were out there, Dave snuck the new bikes inside, so the kids were surprised to see another gift under the tree.

So exciting to get new bikes!

Jason and Janae enjoyed being able to be outside on Christmas morning....

Don't you just love the puppy slippers?

Tyler's loving his new bike!

After the presents were opened and the mimosas were drunk (fresh squeezed OJ from our trees!), it was time to get ready to head over to the Horihan Christmas celebration. More to come, so stay tuned!