The Queen and Her Castle: January 2008

BIG SNOW- Jan. 17, 2008

Happy Birthday to Owen. The day after his 9th birthday we had a nice snow storm of 6 inches and the boys all had an early release day from school and a late start to their Friday the next morning. Plenty of snow for a real snowman this time. (Although, our camera is wigging out and the best picture had some kind of error and I couldn't load it up. figures, my luck.)

All the neighborhood children were in our front lawn! What a blast. I offered hot cocoa and pretzels and they stayed out playing for a total of 3 hours!

Even Greg had to stop shoveling and enjoy the snow. He had to show the kids how to put a snowman together. Plus, they needed his muscles to carry the heavy ball.

(You don't see me in pictures because Im taking them all, but I did get out for a little while. I didn't have boots for this storm - just got some today- so Greg and I shared his pair of boots.)

traditions

Awesome weather means get outside and play!! So we often visited parks and school playgrounds. An Arizona tradition!

(I loved having fresh citrus and greens to eat straight from my parents and siblings back yards, too!!)

Opening presents with the Fuller Family, tradition! Thank you grandma and papa Fuller.

Below: The Fuller Family Grandchildren, minus one more that was born on Jan. 12th, 2008. Meili will be featured in next years photo. (No, it is not the name of our adopted daughter- although I wish I could say she is ours, but my sister- Susan- had their fourth and final child, their third daughter and she has yes, a very Asian name.) 14 total

A delicious tradition my sisters have that we delighted sharing with was dipping graham crackers and fruit in chocolate!!!

Arizona, who needs a white Christmas?!!

We really had a wonderful time in Arizona. Almost every day was clear blue skies and 60 degrees. We did have a couple days in the low 50's hight 40's and a day of rain, but hey- even better- it is winter, right?

We enjoyed being with our family and doing outdoor activities that we couldn't enjoy in the summer. Hiking being the number one activity we loved outdoors. We took a Bethlehem walk on a pretty easy trail along South Mountain and then later met up with Greg's brother, Neal, to walk and climb around Papago Park in Scottsdale. Here are pics from the Papago hike.

Stairway to heaven.

Noah followed Gray off on a kind of dangerous edge and was too scared to return. I was petrified to get him and Greg, I guess was too. Luckily, another more experienced hiker was ready to help us out and Noah was saved. (He really wasn't in a life or death situation, but he could have gotten scratched up pretty bad.)