One Second Everyday-February

I didn't have too many blog posts for February, and if you're reading this now (June 2 is when I'm actually posting it), you probably understand why there are so few. Clearly it's beginning to prove challenging for me to keep this blog up to date. I'm so glad when I have it to look back on, but it sure is tough to try to catch up when I'm 3 months behind. For now, enjoy a look at our February, one second at a time. 

Decisions decisions

We are leaving in a couple weeks for a family vacation to Club Med Ixtapa in Mexico. It'll be our first "big" family vacation, and the kids' first time at an all inclusive resort. We're starting to gather up some clothes for the trip. Family shopping trips are not really something we do very often, and when we do, it's not typically the most enjoyable experience. Tyler hates it, and although Ava is a pleasant enough shopping companion, she is SO picky and stubborn. If she doesn't like something, there is no convincing her that it is a good choice. Either the fit is wrong, the style is wrong, or nothing is wrong other than that she doesn't like it. She needed a pair of flip flops for the trip, and Ross actually had a huge selection. She has very large feet for a 9 year old, and can often shop in the women's section for shoes. Look at this huge pile of flip flops she tried on--and still didn't like any of them! I think Dave was ready to walk out of the store, but he patiently helped her find new options and try them all on. Finally I found a pair that matched one of the pairs she had, and she decided they would work. We'd have matching flip flops for our trip, and that seemed to help her decide. It won't be long that she wants to wear the same thing as me, so for now, it was a solution. In case you're wondering, she decided on the black sandals with the white straps in the middle of this picture. The teenage years might be rough.....

Crazy winter weather!

We've had some wild weather lately. It's been a very wet, rainy winter for us. It seems like we've had more cold days than usual. When we get a big rain, this is what the center circle of my campus looks like. There is a system underground that is designed to collect the rain that pours off the building, and more effectively absorb it into the ground. There are usually 2 small ponds in this area, but after a big rain, it's all one big one. 

Here you can see the two ponds, although they're much larger than usual.

The other thing that's happened is that because of the precipitation and cold, it's led to snow on the mountains all around us! It's always so crazy to see snow on the Superstitions, and even more unusual when it's on the closer mountains, like Usery.

You can just see parts of the snow topped Superstition Mountains past our campus. It was beautiful! I have a friend who went hiking up at Peralta Trail after the snow, and it was 6 or more inches deep in some places!

Here you see Four Peaks off in the distance, and it's completely covered in snow.

This was still a few days after the initial storm, so the snow stuck around for awhile. Usually, on the rare occasion that it snows, it's gone the same day. Not this time!

We have "weather" so rarely around here that it's pretty exciting when something like this happens. It's been an interesting winter for sure!

2 weeks from today

Just two weeks from today, we'll be adding another pose to our collection! Club Med Ixtapa...here we come!

Sick kids!

It's that time of year. Flu season. Strep throat season. And, we seem to have caught them both. Tyler was first, and Ava followed shortly after. We finally took him in to Urgent Care assuming he had strep throat, which is his usual affliction whenever he gets sick. Ava wasn't feeling well either, but her symptoms didn't seem as bad as Tyler's so we didn't take her in. Turns out, he had Influenza A, and not strep. That was a bit of a surprise, as he did have a flu shot this year. Dave was going to softball, so I met him at Urgent Care to pick Tyler up after their visit, but I left Ava at home. When I got to the clinic, they asked if Ava was with me because they were going to check her too, assuming she had what her brother had. By the time I was able to go home and get her, that particular clinic was closed, so I took her to another Urgent Care. They checked her temperature when she got in and it was 104! I didn't realize it was that high, so felt horrible that we hadn't brought her in sooner. Poor baby looked miserable. The PA that saw her said he would assume it was flu since her brother had it, and her throat didn't look bad, but that he'd swab her for strep anyway. Ava's diagnosis....strep! What the heck?!

After several trips to various Walgreens pharmacies, I had a Tami-flu prescription and some antibiotics. Tyler was at the tail end of his sickness, and I had heard that Tami-flu sometimes made them feel worse, so we didn't have him take it. We finally sent Ava back to school after she'd been on antibiotics for 24 hours (and seemed to be feeling better), but after that one day, she came home miserable again. She missed 4 out of 5 days of school that week. If I were to guess, I'd say that she caught the flu while she was recovering from the strep throat. I guess the good thing is that they were both sick at the same time, and that they're sick now instead of in a couple weeks when we're going on our big Spring Break vacation. It's no fun seeing these two so sick. 

Ashley's marathon

I know I've wrote about her before, buy my friend Ashley is amazing! She ran her first full marathon today. Technically, she has ran a full marathon before because she has done a full triathlon, which includes a marathon at the end. But, this race was "just" the marathon. Nadia and I surprised her by showing up to cheer her along. I think we first saw her around mile # 8, and then saw her several more times throughout the race. She didn't know we were coming, so she was definitely surprised to see us. I made a sign that said "Sure, you can run, but can you Fly? Ashley can!" It said something on the other side too, but I don't remember what it was. 

At one of the places we saw her, we helped her unload some of her unneeded gear, like gloves and snacks. It was pretty cool when she started, but ended up being an absolutely perfect day. This is a great marathon to run (all things considered) because it's a less popular race and has the most beautiful scenery. It starts in Gold Canyon, and all the views are of the Superstition Mountains. 

They didn't have too many roads blocked off for this race, which made it easy for us to follow her around. That's not always the case when races are in more populated areas. There were a few times when we could drive right alongside her! We even cranked up the stereo at one point and played this song as loud as my stereo would go. She had a huge smile on her face, and if it took her mind off the discomfort of running for hours, I'm happy. Here she is towards the end somewhere around mile 22, if I remember correctly. She still looked like she was going strong! 

This is also where we met up with our friend Alex, who had run the half marathon that day, and he ran with her for a little while. 

The next spot we saw her was when she was running across the finish line, and she was all smiles! Since I've done some running (not much these days, unfortunately), I can appreciate how big of a deal this accomplishment is. I can't imagine running this far. 

Ashley had a big cheering section there to see her cross the finish line. She's such a huge supporter of other runners. I know I'm not alone when I say that I'd never had become a runner if not for Ashley. Congrats on this huge accomplishment Ashley!

My layout is back!

Out of all the trapeze tricks I have learned over the years, this one has given me the most trouble. It's just a really tough trick to get right, and there are so many minor movements that can cause it to be wrong. I have spent the majority of the coaching weeks with Brian over the last year and a half working on this one trick. He gets me to where I'm doing it right again, and then sometime after he leaves I "break" it. I have said many times when he comes back "I broke my layout again," and he has to help fix it again. It's such a core trick though, so I think it's important that I keep working it until it's consistent, and ideally continuing to get better. It's a stepping stone to bigger tricks, so it's important that I'm doing it right. I shelved it for awhile again because I kept closing my shoulders, which caused me to hit the top of my feet on the bar--which HURTS! So, as a result, I developed a bad habit of bending my knees as I'm coming around to avoid hitting the bar. Well, after some more weeks of training with Brian and catching with Efe, it's finally back! Today was the first time I've caught and returned my layout in awhile. I really feel like I can catch and return about anything with Efe, so he's always a great confidence booster for me. I fly so great to him! Here is an exciting layout round trip on a beautiful winter morning! Thanks guys!

Shooting star

Nothing too exciting happening here, but it's fun for me to look back on these videos later on when my flying has hopefully improved. This was a pretty clean shooting star catch and return with Efe. Catching with him totally boosts my confidence level, and I feel like I can catch any trick. I actually missed the shooting star right before this one and went to the net, so it always feels good to have a good catch after a miss. The return was nice and clean too! 

Valentine's Day at RM

Student Life and our Student Government hosted a fun little Valentine's Day party on campus today. We had doughnuts, hot chocolate, Valentine's card, a photo spot and more. It was a super fun day! 

Ariana is our Student Government officer for my campus. She's in her second year in the position, and her last semester before graduating from MCC. She's been such a great asset to our campus, and one of my favorite students ever! I'm going to miss her sweet smile and her infectious laugh when she moves on next year.

Here is Luis, Ariana, and Racella. Cella will be taking over for Ariana next year, and Luis has been one of the most dedicated and reliable student workers I have ever had. I can't quite imagine my office without him, but he too will be graduating in May. 

Later in the day, Kylee, Gabby and I realized we were all rocking the denim jackets on this Valentine's Day. What a fun crew I have this year! 

Then and now

Tyler is going to be mad at me for posting this. He barely let me take the picture--but you know I can't pass this up. I'm sure I've told this story before, but in summary, we met these two families when we first moved into our neighborhood in 2007. They had kids the same age as Tyler, and now they're almost teenagers! Camyrn and Tyler are in the same school (although we no longer live in the same neighborhood), but they don't see Simon much, even though he's only a few blocks away. When Camryn was over the other day and the kids went to the park, I texted Simon's mom and suggested he meet up with them. Now neither Tyler nor Simon are very good or comfortable with hanging out with kids they don't know, so this ended up being super awkward...especially when I showed up and demanded they all take a picture together. I could feel their anguish overflowing. But, too bad! I'm getting this picture, dang it! Ha! Sorry kids...

Here they are when they first met, and then about 2 years later when they all had new baby siblings.

And, here we are in 2019, almost 12 years later (and they're standing in the same order!). Seriously, they're all SO embarrassed right now. #sorrynotsorry

Prison Escape video shoot

Tyler is always coming up with ideas for different videos to shoot, and sometimes we actually manage to make them happen. Whether they make it to film production, is a different story, but half the battle is getting all the actors together for the shoot. This particular idea wasn't so much a video, but more of a recording of the kids playing a game. Tyler's idea was a prison escape game where there are prisoners and guards, and the prisoners are trying to get the keys away from the guards (who have nerf guns) to open a gate. Dave and I were recruited to do the filming. Dave had Tyler's video camera, and I had my Canon. I killed time between rounds shooting pictures of the kids. Don't ask me to explain what is happening in any of these photos. I didn't know then, so I certainly don't know nearly 4 months later when I'm actually writing this. Sometimes it's easier to just not ask questions. Ok, Tyler, whatever you need...just tell me what to shoot. 

The players in this game included Camryn and Payton from school, Matt, Lacy, Tyler and Ava. The players with the orange were one team, the blue was the other team. 

 Ah, our two daughters (our biological daughter and our weekend daughter), they are so sweet.

At one point, Camryn fell and twisted her knee. She was in quite a bit of pain for awhile, but Dave wrapped it up for her and she was able to go on with the game. 

I think there was some serious planning happening here. 

Can't forget to have the Go-Pro cameras on the Nerf guns. 

This is the face we make when we are playing cameraman for Tyler's ideas. This, my friends, is the face of a very patient dad. 

Hi pretty girl! What a difference it makes to take a photo with a "real" camera instead of a cellphone for a change. I say it all the time, but I should really try to remember to take out my good camera once in awhile.

The other thing Tyler wanted to do was to get a shot of his whole team for the banner on his You Tube channel. He took this photo, erased the background and added some cool special effects. You can see the final results by visiting his channel here. 

Never a dull moment around here in the life of a future filmmaker's parents.