apAdventures

Just the sound of the words ‘home improvements’ makes me cringe. I hate, hate! embarking upon projects around my house. Yes I agree, hate is a very strong word. So let me clarify by saying it just one more time: I HATE it! But try as we might to ignore the maintenance and general upgrades required of home ownership (by locking the door, getting in the van and driving off to the boulders for the weekend), things eventually pile up and are more effort to ignore than to just stop life and fix. Things like a clogged shower drain that hasn’t worked for over a year, a washing machine that floods the laundry room every time poopy diapers are being cleaned, or how about tripping circuit breakers and melting outlets anytime I run the hairdryer and forget to turn off the space heater or window AC unit…of which are being used in lieu of actual central air/heat in our home because the unit that was here when we moved in 10 years ago never really worked quite right and we shut it off permanently 5 years ago. Alas, it was time to buckle down and be responsible home owners. And perhaps Paul getting surgery on his finger and not being able to climb all summer gently persuaded us to this conclusion…perhaps. 😉

March of this year is when we officially began. We started by getting our septic tank pumped. One, it hadn’t been pumped since we moved in, so it was probably due. And two, we thought this would be a good way to rule out a backup problem linking the shower and washing machine drainage problems.

Tank pumped: check! Big hole to fill.

With verification that the tank and main line were working properly, we then moved on to the washing machine….cause well, laundry was piling up. After much probing and digging, we learned that our washing machine was connected to a grey water tank out in the backyard next to the woody where the mystery “candycane vent” is (we’d always wondered what the heck the candycane was for!). Turns out said tank was full (or the outlet clogged, if there is one) and was thus causing the backup when trying to do long loads of laundry…like the 2 hour 20 min sanitize cycle for washing poopy diapers. So we called in our trusty plumber Darrell, who totally rocks, and had him connect the washing machine to the main line headed to the septic tank, but leave the option to switch the washing machine drainage to the grey water tank in the event that someday Paul and I grab a couple of shovels and a few six-packs of beer and get motivated to dig up the grey water tank to fix the clog and/or provide drainage from the tank to our backyard trees.

Washing machine working again: check! Old line is the one that angles right, new one to the left. Switching back to the grey water tank requires just moving the washing machine hose from one tube to the other

View from the back of the laundry room where the connection of the new washing machine drain line to the main septic line is now. Another hole to fill (actual connection is under the dirt. I snapped this photo after we had started burying it)

Now that we were already writing Darrell a big fat check, we figured we might was well fatten it up some more by having him resolve the guest house shower drainage problem once and for all. The guest house shower just might be the all-time-number-one mystery to this old house (and we’ve had a hefty handful of mysteries here lemme tell ya). If you’ve stayed the night and showered here at all in the last 12 months, you know the deal. If it’s your first shower of your stay you have a good 8-10 minutes of proper drainage and then the drain starts to slowly back up. If you try to shower the next morning it backs up sooner. And on the next day’s shower, even sooner. Until it finally gets to the point that it backs up immediately and doesn’t drain at all and you need to come shower in the main house.

We had tried to snake it to no avail, the line had too many tight turns. Darrell had also tried to snake it on a previous visit, bringing along his fancy twirling power snake. Now here is where the mystery starts. On one attempt, having gotten past all the tight turns, Darrell ran out 100 feet of his snake. I’m not even kidding, 100 FEET – I stood there and watched his 100-foot reel wind down to the bare hub. And, the drain was still clogged. ??? Myself, Paul, Darrell, and many a guest house vacationer have tried to theorize every possibility as to where the shower drain could possibly head to.

So fast-forward to present day with big check in hand. We’ve all concluded that we have no choice but to abandon the mystery drain’s location and just run a new line from the bottom of the drain to the main line. Darrell uses his fancy camera and locates the main line to be running right under the laundry room floor, which is great news because it enables him tap into the bottom of the guest house shower drain from under the other side of the wall, thus avoiding jackhammering up the bathroom floor to get to the drain as well as jackhammering the patio or pulling up the courtyard bricks to get to the main line. We really lucked out here. He does the fix and the guest house shower is back up and running.

Guest house shower working again: check! This is where Darrell went under the laundry room/guest house wall to connect the guest house shower drain to the main line. The main line at the far bottom of the photo, near the edge of the hole, partially buried, running left-right. And low and behold, see that small pipe running perpendicular and above the main line? THAT’s the guest house shower mystery drain! It’s trajectory is headed straight for our pool! 100 feet in that direction would put it on our neighbor’s property so who the heck knows where it really goes. Still a mystery. And now an abandoned cold case since it’s no longer in use.

Next on the hit list, heat and air conditioning for our house. Although the adobe walls are stellar in regulating the temperature of the house, there are 3 months in the summer when it’s just too dang hot and we need some form of AC. And most winters there’s usually about a month, maybe 2, where we need heat….at least in the evening hours. Since we had already deemed this the summer of home improvements, we figured we might as well go ahead and get this done too.

It was no surprise when this venture opened up a whole new fresh bucket of worms. Upon removal of the old heater/AC unit and closer inspection of the ductwork, it was realized that there WAS NO ductwork from the inside of the roof to the interior registers, just a cobbed-up mess of crumbling plywood that was arranged in what was probably once supposed to be a duct-work-type-manner between the ceiling and roof. Which basically means that back when the old unit actually was working, it was heating/cooling the vacant space between the ceiling and roof (the space is vacant because there is no insulation – a whole ‘notha project for a ‘notha day….like, when we need a new roof).

So new ductwork obviously needed too. Open checkbook again and increase amount of big fat check I’m already writing to the heater/AC dudes.

Bye bye, you piece of junk

New ductwork

and new thermostat. Heater/AC: check!

During the time the heater/AC guys had the ceiling open to install the new ductwork, Paul and I thought it smart to pop our heads up in there and look around to see what the wiring was like – it’s condition, where it was routed to, and ultimately the reason why we were tripping circuit breakers. After many days of diagnostics, we learned that just about the entire house was running off of one 15amp circuit breaker. That would explain it! We also learned that the new-ish main circuit panel that the previous owner had installed was more than adequate for the house, with plenty of extra unused breakers, and that all new wiring had already been run from the panel to the tops of the interior walls. So the only old wiring that remained was in the walls themselves (“old” dating to pre-1941. We have no idea how old this house is, just that it’s as least as old as 1941 because we have a map dated 1941 that has our structure on it). So with a variety of holes now in the ceiling and an ugly channel in the wall thanks to the new heater/AC work we figured, what’s a few more? We have to patch and paint anyway?

And so,….we went for it. We replaced all the old wiring in the house. Doing this, we were not only able to better distribute the load to prevent breakers from tripping, but we were also able to move outlets to where they should be (like, down near the floor instead of in the middle of the wall!), fix outlets that the adobe had crumbled around due to years of use, add wall switches to overhead lighting that previously required one to reach up to pull a cord, or down to the floor to a thumb wheel, add some additional lighting to the dark main living room and get rid of that hideously gaudy southwest-motif over-sized ceiling fan.

And for good measure, we also replaced the kid’s room ceiling fan with a simple overhead light so they wouldn’t get their head taken off while on the top bunk.

Embarking upon re-wiring our house. Darrell our plumber has a phrase he uses often when here at our house shaking his head over something poorly built or designed: “Well, given how old this house is, it’s highly likely a bunch of cowboys built it. And cowboys are good at one thing and one thing only: being cowboys. Not building houses.” Yes, what you’re seeing in this photo is an outlet that had been installed IN THE CHIMNEY! Needless to say we abandoned and removed it, as well as moved the outlet on the main wall down near the floor where it should be.

Another outlet now properly wired and located and new wiring to wall sconce.

The other side of the wall where the channels were made to run new wire.

Oh my, what have we gotten ourselves into. At this point there are also holes in the ceilings and channels in the walls of the bathroom, kitchen and our bedroom too that I neglected to take photos of. The house is a MESS!

And finally, since we had already bitten off more than we could chew we decided to stuff just one more tasty morsel in. The dining room ceiling. We have despised the dining room ceiling since we bought the place. For one, whomever had put it up failed to properly measure and/or cut the vigas and boards because nothing fit. There were gaps around the entire perimeter of the ceiling. Second, the vigas must have been tacked up with kindergarten paste because they were falling down and ready to kill someone. And third, the light fixture was just a lamp hung from one of said tacked-on vigas with a long eye-sore of a cord that ran across the ceiling, down the wall and plugged into an outlet – it would be nice to have a proper light with a switch on the wall. So we tore the whole thing down and re-built it.

Oh wait, there’s one more thing! We’ve always wanted proper pool patio tunes. While doing the dining room we also teetered for a day on whether or not to run speaker wires through the ceiling, since we were going to have the whole thing torn apart. In the end we opted for purchasing a Bose Sound Touch. No wires and we could just manually move the ‘box’ from inside to out. We installed an outlet up high just outside the dining room door and will build a small permanent shelf to put the box on. This was an easy and cheap solution.

Tearing down the dining room ceiling

Re-wiring and adding a wall-switch

Dining room ceiling wired. Now putting it back up.

Vigas cut to proper length

No gaps!

All patched up and ready to go. This wall also had an outlet smack dab in the middle of it that we removed.

Patchwork done, now time to re-paint….EVERYTHING! When re-painting the hallway where the new heater/AC ductwork was installed, we accidentally grabbed the wrong ‘white’ from the paint shed. We decided we liked this off-white better anyway and left it. What we didn’t realize was that the entire main living room area and dining room and all the ceilings were also the same white that had been used in the hallway. So in the end we really did have to re-paint EVERYTHING!

And now for the “after” photos! With everything re-plumbed, re-wired, repaired, patched, painted and put back together, in the coolness of our air-conditioning and rockin’ out with our new sweet-sounding stereo, here’s what it looks like!!!

DONE!

The dining room: new wiring, new ceiling, new light with wall-switch, re-located outlets.

The living room: new wiring, installed eyeball lights, new ceiling fan with wall-switch, re-located outlets

The hallway: legit sheetmetal AC/heater ductwork above ceiling

Kid’s room: new bunkbeds, new ceiling light

Aaaahhh, a finished house.

Now let’s get back to life!

posted by arr

The boys pick an armenian cucumber and dad makes gazpacho for dinner!

posted by arr

No need for a narrative on this subject. The pics say it all:

posted by arr

Wow, I’m really slacking with the webposts! We’re in a bit of a slump around here I suppose. Perhaps it’s the heat, or Paul’s slow yet steady finger recovery (he did ended up getting surgery and it went well – I’ll leave all the details for him to summarize some other time), or the fact that we’ve decided to stay local this summer versus our usual Flagstaff weekend climbing trips and roadtrip back east, or maybe it’s our embarkment upon these home improvement projects. Whatever it is, it has me unmotivated to write. It’s not like we haven’t been doing anything. We’ve just been doing different stuff…Tucson stuff…the kind of stuff I’ve always imagined most people doing that aren’t busy spending their weekends hangin’ around a bunch of rocks.

The garden:
We’ve been spending all kinds of time in our garden. Harvesting, planting, harvesting, snacking, harvesting, weeding, keeping the compost moist and turned, staking tomatoes, squash, tomatillos, peppers, yelling at the gophers that keep eating all the wildflowers that we had growing on the outer perimeter and stuffing rocks in their holes to make them mad, watering, watering each other, and harvesting some more. Our garden is AWESOME. I am amazed at how much food we’re getting out of it and absolutely loving the year-round growing season we have here in Arizona. We put it in last Sept and have already had 3 plantings!…with another around the corner with the monsoons that are about to start up. The kids are so into it too. Every time we need to leave the house, Silas says “Mama, before we get in the van, let’s go take a peek at the garden!”….lowering his voice with a mischievous excitement. We go over to it and just stand there and admire it. It’s quite funny actually, if anyone were to see us doing it. We have a true love for the thing.

Home improvements:
Back in April we got a heater/air-conditioner installed and as of this month we flicked it on and started using it. What a treat! Before that we had some plumbing fixed in the guest house. Now our guests can use the shower…another treat! Next on the list is electrical work. We’re getting rid of all the old wiring and adding/moving plugs, light fixtures, switches, etc. We’ve finished our bedroom, the kid’s room and 2 walls in the living room. Paul’s finger surgery slowed us down a tad but we’ll be back in action on it come this weekend. The home improvement list is long so I’m not even going to get into what the next project will be once the electrical is complete. We may just call it done and go climbing!

City life:
We’ve been exploring downtown Tucson a lot this summer. The kids and I got a membership to the Children’s Museum and have already spent a nice handful of days there. We’re regulars now (and members!) of our local food coop, The Food Conspiracy. We’re still familiar faces at the Tucson CSA…I think they all secretly get a kick out of watching my children run around like wild banshies. And we’ve even taken the kids and braved some not-as-kid-friendly new restaurants downtown with small tables, no high chairs, fancy cocktails and delicate centerpieces that beg to be grabbed by small hands. At our last dining experience Paul and I finally toasted to our long-awaited return to the relaxed restaurant scene, where we were actually able to be holding a real-life adult conversation as our children entertained themselves. We thought the day would never come. 😉

The big-boy transition:
This summer we hope to accomplish 3 major milestones with Ivan, similar to what we did with Silas right before Ivan was born. #1, say bye-bye to the crib. #2, say bye-bye to the pacifier. #3, say bye-bye to the diapers. Two weeks ago we got rid of the crib. We also got rid of Silas’ toddler bed and put bunkbeds up in their room. HUGE success cause well, bunkbeds are just cool like that. Incredibly, Ivan stays put. If he does climb out it’s only 3-4 times right after we say goodnight. The best part is every morning when he comes out of the room with the biggest proudest smile on his face…as if to say, look at me! I’m such a big boy I can just wake up and climb out of bed and say good morning ALL BY MY SELF! So cute. Last week we got rid of Ivan’s pacifier, “the binkie.” This one pretty much happened on it’s own. We lost it AND the back-up bink. Surprisingly, Ivan went right to sleep without it. So when I found them both a couple days later I kept the news to myself and quietly put them in the trash. Victory on #2. So now we’re faced with the big #3. Silas was just waaaay too easily potty-trained. What are the chances that Ivan could also be easy? Slim to none I’m thinkin.’

And finally, home life:
During the week while Paul is at work, if the kids and I are not attending one of the countless children’s summer events going on around us (storytimes, craft hours, gymnastics, gym-climbing outings, harmonica lessons, museum activities…you get the picture.) you can pretty much count on finding us either in the pool or hunkered down in the coolness of our air-conditioned adobe. Both boys absolutely adore their books and we spend many hours reading. Silas is really into doing craft projects (my patience wears thin very quickly with this though because Ivan is bent on destroying, not creating. I’m working on it!). The legos are getting plenty of love (when they’re not being fought over). Ivan is a certified kitchen-helper, whether you want him there or not. And finally, we have a delightful variety of make-believe animal friends that live with us, or visit us, or call us on our cell phones…or when our cell phones are dead and need charged, send us smoke signals….except when the friends are on the other side of the earth because they migrated there to get away from the heat of Hueco Tanks…and they’re too far for smoke signals…and then it’s my job to figure out how we can communicate with them because mama bird just had a new baby bird and we need to know if they’re doing ok!!! Indeed, the home life can be pretty exciting too. 🙂

Garden life. I can’t go out and pick anything without Ivan at my heals

Biggie ONIONS!

Beautiful kohlrabi

Compost love

The garden has become a sort of sanctuary for me – it can cheer or calm any nutty of a day

Finally! The garlic is ready for harvest! Now where in the heck can I find a cool dark place to hang it to dry around here?! This is the desert!

Go ahead, stand there and admire me

Check out our basil!

The start of our summer home improvements – a big crane in the driveway

New heater/AC unit. The kids were speechless

Wonder where this old wiring goes? Into the chimney of course! As our plumber always says, the cowboys that built this place were good at hustlin’ cattle, not running plumbing or electrical

A trip down to The Children’s Museum

This place rocks. Enough said

On one of our adventurous adult-restaurant nights, the kids were so well behaved that we decided to take it up a notch and go mini golfing with them afterwards…WELL past bedtime. Oh..my..word..this was a blast. Pre-kids I remember going mini golfing and looking on with dread at all the parents with their children running wild, swinging clubs, throwing balls and not at all actually trying to get the ball in the hole. Well, we were those parents now and it was honestly, no-kidding, the most fun I’ve ever had playing mini-golf. Silas was actually very interested in getting the ball in the hole using any tactic possible including hitting our’s out of the way, and Ivan just ran around with a golf ball in one hand and a club in the other just lovin’ life with a big ‘ol smile on his face. I actually found myself now looking on at young couples without kids, stopping at those little mini-tables to fill out their scorecards and thinking to myself, man…I remember those days. BORING.

A trip to our local fire station. Wow, if I knew we’d get this kind of special treatment I would have knocked on their door a long time ago!

Craft hour at Agua Caliente Park…aka “the duck park” according to Silas. This day we learned about desert food chains!!!

One last hurrah for the crib

Sound asleep in his new big-boy bunkbed

Binki free!

A secret craft project for mama’s day

Silas, Dad and Ivan put it in their bedroom to dry. I was clearly not allowed to enter

Silas, pooh and black bear having a tea party. I like how he made booster seats for them with books and a hardhat

Ivan crashes during storytime with Dad. Silas is giving him “pets”

Summer fun is better with a buddy

posted by arr

Mint is essentially an invasive species in my garden. I transplanted it from mine and Silas’ little herb container garden we had last summer into the big garden, and now this spring/summer it’s popping up everywhere. Everywhere! So to eradicate it, we eat it. Cause no morsel of food ever goes to waste in this household. This morning I had the brilliant idea of putting it into our daily smoothie. It was DELICIOUS!!! I’ll admit I feel like a complete idiot for not thinking of this sooner. I’m sure everyone in the entire universe has been putting mint in their smoothies all along, cause it’s just that good. If I’m wrong well, below is the recipe. And now I’m ecstatic to experiment with other herbs I have growing in the garden!! Strawberry Cilantro Smoothie anyone?!

Blackberry Mint Smoothie

Makes 3 servings (one mama-sized pint glass and two slightly smaller kid’s-sized glasses)

Ingredients

1 bunch kale
1 hearty handful fresh mint
10 oz frozen blackberries
1 frozen banana
4 dates
3 tbsp chia or flax seeds
1 cup almond milk (or ~3 tbsp almond meal plus 1 cup water)

Blend all ingredients in a Vitamix or blender until smooth. Enjoy!

posted by arr

Radishes!!!!!

Everything else we planted seems to be doing very well. The lettuce is about ready. The kale is now looking like kale. The garlic is shooting up all tall and pointy (sorry, my eloquence for describing garden vegetables and plants is failing me terribly right now). And the beans and peas are growing nicely. Last night Paul had to fend off some javelinas that were trying to get into our compost bin. The thought never occurred to us that perhaps our ‘bunny fence’ around the vegetables ought to be a little more robust and maybe labeled as a ‘javelina fence.’ And I think something (big) is sleeping on our leftover straw bale. We’ve had a neighborhood bobcat hanging around this summer. I think we may have given him/her a warm winter bed. Anyway, fingers crossed that the desert wildlife stays out of our homegrown goodness!!!

posted by arr

We planted a garden! Somewhat on a whim last Friday night Paul and I made up our minds to finally commit to an idea we’ve been tossing around for most of this year – a garden, a REAL garden with tasty yummies like carrots and kale and peas and lima beans and beets. Silas’ and my experimental herb garden this spring was a huge success…all except for the cilantro. We live in the southwest and the cilantro withers up on us?! Go figure. Anyway, aside from the cilantro we were quite pleased with the bitty thing and were anxious to go big. So go big we did and as of last night we have six 3’x3′ plots, planted, mulched and irrigated with bunny fence, gate, and even two compost pile stalls, just in time for the Tucson fall planting cycle. Soooo psyched! Now let’s just hope it grows…

We decided upon the site last Friday night, bought our seeds the next morning and got right to work. East-facing, filtered overhead sun (thanks to the mesquite tree), and easy access to our main water line. Perfect!

Water break for our tiniest helper

Bunny fence almost complete

Soil prepped and irrigation laid

Went to the feed store across the street and picked up a straw bale for mulch to retain moisture

Spreading the straw was Ivan’s favorite part

Seeds planted and herbs transplanted from the bitty herb garden. The planting, of both the seeds and the transplants, was Silas’ favorite part. He would lovingly talk to the herbs as we put them in the new plots: “Here you go boy, this is your new home. You’re really going to like it here. There you go boy, all tucked in with straw.”

Done! The compost stall was built later that night after this photo was taken. It’s now in the foreground of this photo.

My two biggest helpers…and eaters…now eagerly awaiting carrots, turnips, radishes, beets, fava beans, swiss chard, kale, hopi yellow lima beans, tarahumara peas, purple queen garlic, cimmaron romaine lettuce, arugula, buttercrunch lettuce, onions, garlic chives, parsley, dill and CILANTRO! Grow garden! Grow!

posted by arr

Although it may be a full month until the actual first day of summer, life is obviously different here in Tucson. “Summer” is in full swing. Has been. And typically around this time of year we take a break from the hardcore training and climbing roadtrips and focus more on simply enjoying our home. This year is no different than most. We’ve already embarked upon some modest home improvement projects, including mine and Silas’ very first garden, which is doing quite well I must say!! We’re spicing up the van a bit with ‘luxury’ improvements such as more storage shelves, a stow-away table or two and an outdoor-accessible shower sprayer to hose off dirty little kiddos. I’m taking a shot at teaching Silas how to swim in our pool. We’ve mastered The Paloma (juice from 1/2 a grapefruit, 1 shot reposado tequila, 1 lime wedge and ice – to be drank in fancy hand blown glasses from Mexico, preferably in your swimsuit and shades, by the pool on a hot summer’s day). Paul and I have renewed our memberships to the local climbing gym (as the backyard woody bakes in the heat) and visit it a couple times a week…just to climb, not to train. And the stroller runs with the kids are getting earlier and earlier to beat the heat. Ahhh, summer in Tucson. It grows on a person.

Our garden! Ok, well it’s only a little bitty herb garden but there is a tomato plant we got from the CSA in there as well as a jalepeno pepper we planted for dad.

Silas and Paul doing home improvements. Here Paul is doing electrical work to fix the front yard lights that stopped working sometime in winter. While we had everything dug up, we decided to add some walkway lights. Now when you all come visit us you don’t have to worry about stepping out of your car onto a rattlesnake in the pitch-dark driveway!

Silas all decked out and ready to work. For some reason he insists on the construction vest, goggles and sometimes hardhat when we go on stroller runs too. I have a theory that it’s just in case we pass by workers fixing the road, electricity, cable, etc. You never know when someone’s going to need a 3 year old’s help with construction! Smart boy.

Another home improvement. After finding a king snake in the courtyard, Paul decided we needed a new gate with narrower slots.

Being home on weekends means trips to the St. Philip’s Farmer’s Market!! Mmmmmm.

A visit from Grandma and Pap Pap and a trip to the Desert Museum.

And a hike on Mt. Lemmon

We’ve had a few beautifully mild days here over the last month. The boys and I take advantage with a picnic lunch at Agua Caliente Park (aka “The Duck Park”)

Climbing in the summer for this family means either heading to the hills or heading to the gym.

Silas gaining elevation.

Being home on weekends also means spending more time at our fav Tucson hangouts. Dinner at Maynards. Nothing beats a table by the tracks with two kids that love trains.

And of course, Silas with his books. With the onset of the spring bloom we’ve begun diving into books about bees.

What’s summer without pool time?!

Like any kids I suppose, these boys would rather their lips turn purple and shiver with near-hypothermia than get out of the pool.

Our new grill!!!

…or more impressive, the box that the grill came in.

At one time this box was a fine house. Equipped with 3 windows, a door AND EVEN a chimney. However from the looks of it now it appears as though it’s been through a monsoon microburst. Do I quietly tear it down and put it in the recycle bin during naptime in hopes that they won’t notice it’s gone when they wake up? Or do I enlist their help in its disposal and risk tears?

Happy Summer, eh..errr..Spring, everyone!

posted by arr

Oh special day! It snowed!! Here!!! At our HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Tucson weathermen/women had been warning us about this winter storm since Monday. Yesterday morning warnings were flooding the tv stations announcing “90 minutes until it hits.” “60 minutes until it hits!” “30 minutes!!” The countdown was on. The skies definitely looked ominous and the surrounding mountains were already socked in. News reporters were showing live video of blizzard-like conditions at the higher elevations. Even though it was still a pleasant 50 degrees out and according to the weather predictions I still had time before the storm, I opted out of my morning run with the kids. Being out in snow with kids in a stroller is probably sacrilege in sunny Tucson and I didn’t want any beef from passerby. We instead went to the library for storytime just after the “30 minutes and it’ll be here!! Don’t travel unless you have tooooo!!!!!!” announcement on the tv. Hmm, maybe this will be exciting.

We walked out of the library and it was raining. Humph. Boooring. I buckled the kids in, pulled out of the parking lot, and wham! The rain instantly turned to snow and it was a full on blizzard just like the weather peeps predicted. We made our way home as heavy wet snow quickly piled up on the hood of the van (how fun!). When we got home we ran around a little bit in the front yard yelling “woohoo!!!” and then raced inside to watch it come down.

The kids at the front door watching it come down

Could it really be? It’s actually starting to stick!!

Time to head out kiddos and enjoy the white stuff (like I really had to twist their arms, haha)

Ivan of course was trying to eat it. His mouth was open the entire time trying to munch on snowflakes that were pelting his face

Paul came home from work early. The snow stopped, then melted, then started coming down again way harder then before. It snowed until about 10pm

And this morning we awoke to this

Our front yard

Sunrise on Mt. Lemmon

When the kids woke up I nearly force fed them their breakfasts so that we could get outside before it all melted. We were out the door by 8:15am

All Silas wanted to do was make and throw snowballs. He probably made at least 500 while we were out. 😉

and Ivan just giggled at every one. Especially at the ones that were thrown at him

Beautiful snow-covered Catalinas

By 9am most of the snow had melted off the trees. We made up for our missed run yesterday and ran our usual 4 mile loop. Lots of people were out. By the time we got back home there wasn’t too much snow left and it was getting harder and harder for Silas to find enough to make snowballs with. By 10:30 it had disappeared completely.

posted by arr

Christmas! With chilly Tucson temps and snow in the mountains, this is as Christmas-y as it gets people. So before temps move back up to the low 70’s norm, we jumped on the moment and got our tree this weekend. Silas is going nuts with it all. The first words out of his mouth this morning from his crib were “TREE!! LIGHTS!!” I love it.

Snow in the mountains

Tree in the house

Silas looking at the tree with dad and taking it all in

posted by arr