A Birthday Surprise

At 1:00 PM on my birthday the Dr walked in my kitchen with a dozen beautiful pink roses in his arms and his signature smile on his face.  I thought he was just home for lunch, but oh no, he was home for the day!

He whisked me away on a surprise adventure.  As we drove across the desert towards Vegas,  I thought maybe he had gotten tickets to one of the shows.

But when we pulled up to the Boulder City, NV airport, I knew we weren't going to a show.   I saw a lot of vans advertising sky diving in the parking lot.  I told the Dr I was NOT skydiving!

Turns out he had booked a helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon.  I thought for sure I wouldn't live to turn a year older.  Turns out, I made it out alive, and the ride was beautiful from the air.

I have flown over the Grand Canyon several times.  When the Dr was my handsome finance, some 15 years ago,  I would watch the morning sun come up over the canyon about every two weeks, on an early morning SWA flight.  We were engaged for 6 months and living in different cities.  I commuted to Phoenix to see him as often as I could.

Being so low in a helicopter was a totally different experience. 

Here is the Pat Tillman memorial bypass bridge by the Hoover dam.   The Pilot talked a lot about how Lake Mead is 150 feet low!

This is where the Colorado River empties into Lake Mead. 

That is very worrisome to me.  A large portion of the lake is dried up.  It's as low as when they first started filling it in the 1930's.  (via the Pilot)

 The Grand Canyon was as majestic as ever.  Riding in our helicopter  with us was a dad and his teenage daughter. They had come all the way from Iceland to see the Canyon.  They were sweltering in the desert heat, but loved the canyon.  Made me think about how fortunate I am to love so close.  

We flew down in the Canyon for a little bit.  Where the Canyon is owned by the Havasupai Native American Tribe, Choppers are allowed to enter.  The rest is federally regulated and not allowed.

My hope and wish was to get this beautiful Lion fountain delivered to my front porch from Lomelli"s Yard and Garden Statue shop located on the famous Route 66. 

And sure enough, it showed up!!!

It was a happy, fun day.  I love the Dr more each year, and my kids just add to my delight and joy.  Here's to another year in sunny AZ!

Just a Random Post

Thumper

This is a post I started about 3 weeks ago and never finished.  So now I will finish it.   

When I was young, around Gracie's age, I had the most delightful Easter.  My Mother became a Grandmother 3 months after I was born, so I was raised with my Mom always being "Grammy."  (And my Dad being, "Grampy.") Because of this, the holidays were larger then life.  They were beautifully decorated and planned for.  The house would be full of fun and bustle, as my sisters and their families participated in all the festivities with us. Easter on this particular year, was a large egg hunt inside and outside.  We lived on an isolated 7 acre plot of land in Santa Clara, Utah.  This plot of land was a dream land.  It was on the edge of a hill that overlooked the Santa Clara valley and the gorgeous red mountains of now Tuachann were our backdrop.  It was picturesque and perfect in many ways. 

Long story short,  on this particular Easter, my Mom came and found us (3 girls still living at home), and acting surprised,  wanted to show us what the easter bunny had left us in a box outside by our garage. We went with her, and to our joy, there were 3 baby bunnies in that box!!!  Well, I have been wanting to recreate that Easter for my girls.  But I have one huge dilemma.  The Dr, and my girls are very allergic to rabbits!!! And of course Gracie is in love with rabbits and wants baby  mini loped eared rabbit as much as I do.  

Well, on a Wednesday night, 3 weeks ago, I was driving home from the church with Jace, as I am now his Webelos Den leader and we had just finished an activity, and I saw this tiny rabbit hopping in the ditch on the side of the road, I immediately stopped the car and got out.  I didn't think it would let me touch it, but it did!  It was not scared of me.  I took it home for my Gracie and Kersti to hold and love.   I immediately began researching how to raise a wild cottontail.  But the information I found was not too promising.  The baby had a full belly and seemed very happy and healthy. It would not eat while we had it.  We tried everything.  I even tried to give it a bottle with kitten milk.  So we kept it until the following evening and put it back in the bushes by the ditch we found it in.  Hopefully it is living a happy and healthy life as a wild desert cottontail. 

Can you find Meanie in this picture?  Hint-- Jace

This is a picture of my kiddos getting ready for summer at Belair---our desert oasis!  I love it here!  This is all the patio furniture that needed to be sprayed off and dusted.  I think they had a very fun time  doing their "chores"!

These pics are self explanatory.  Even though we spent $413,000 on Ryan's education, we still have to take our kids to the dentist!!!  But luckily it is trade work, and no cost to us!!

So they get spoiled at Cerbat Dental, and we love Brandy--the hygienist!

The kids all had perfect teeth.  That's thanks to the Dr.  He is always getting in there and checking teeth and brushing techniques etc.  I am so uninvolved. When he goes out of town he has to remind me --to remind them-- to brush their teeth!  There may have been a few times in the past where he was gone for a few days on a business trip and we may--or may not --have remembered to brush even once!!

She doesn't get nervous to clean Ryan's teeth. Ryan is so king and easy going,  I would be surprised if he made anyone nervous!!

And this is the end of a random post!!  But we just got home last night from a celebration trip to Mexico.   So I will work on that post and hopefully get it up soon.

Christmas 2016

Kjersti was our little angel again this year!  She is wearing the Merriweather costume (blue fairy in Sleeping Beauty) my mom made me for Halloween when I was in first grade.

This year marked our second Christmas at Belair.  It was wonderful.  It was just ourselves this year, as we had no extended family visit.

On Christmas eve we had our traditional family devotional.  It is so wonderful.  I love to see my Children grow in their understanding of what Christmas is truly about. 

Gracie was Mary again this year.  She has always been our Mary.  She awakened our tortoise Meanie from her slumber to play the role of Baby Jesus. Meanie was not one bit thrilled! The Dr. concluded that it was the ugliest Baby Jesus we've had yet! But I conclude it is one of the most loved!

Here is our Joseph!  This is the only picture I have of him.  I'm not sure what he was doing!

After the kids were nestled all snug in their beds, that Jolly St. Nick came to our house!!

 And boy was it fun!!

Our kids must have been good this year, because they got what they had hoped for.  Gracie wanted the American Girl Doll--Grace Thomas--and there she was on Christmas Morning!!!

I got the American Girl Doll Kitchen!!!  It is so adorable! The orange mixer even works!!

Gracie wasn't one bit sad that Santa decided to bring the kitchen to her Mom!  After all, I'm pretty good at sharing!

This little girl had wanted Bitty Baby ever since we visited the American Girl Doll store in L.A.   Never take your kids to the actual store. It gets to be an expensive outing we have learned! But don't they look cute together in their matching dresses?!

 The "Buddy Boy," as the Dr. likes to call him, wanted a little Robot named Cozmo--and sure enough those Elves figured out how to make him one!

We had church at 1:00PM.  It was nice to enjoy the morning before rushing off.  The Hualapai Mountains-about 30 minutes from our house -got some snow for Christmas!!  Gracie was thrilled!  She misses the Iowa snow. Crazy girl! She is not related to me.  She is her father's daughter.

She talked us in to driving up after our church meeting was over!

You can't just play in the snow, you've got to dig in and experience it!  It must taste as good as it looks!  Of course Kjersti follows Gracie around like a little puppy dog.  Which Gracie quite likes! So if Taegie (Kersti's pronunciation of Gracie) tastes the snow--

so does the little puppy!

Where was the "Buddy Boy" in all of this?  He took his time and sauntered out of the truck, then he  picked up some snow. 

What did I do?   I texted my bestie Jennny Ramsey in Indiana some pics of the snow--because it's a rarity in AZ. 

 What was the Dr. doing?  He was capturing the moment of course-

until the "Buddy Boy"  attacked him with the snow!!!

A look at 2016

This past year, 2016, was full of many blessings, unexpected losses, and opportunities to make lasting family memories.

We now live in this beautiful home that we have named "Belair." I found this home on Zillow when we were still living in Iowa.  I remember being very anxious that it would sell before we could get to Arizona to see it. Even though a few months passed, it was still available after graduation and our trek west!  When Ryan and I and our realtor pulled into the driveway, my heart dropped in my chest,  I knew this was the home where we were going to raise our family.

After walking through it, I was as smitten with this house as I was with the Dr when he asked me to marry him. It had 100 year old cypress front doors which were imported from a castle in Italy, the 10 foot ceilings had gorgeous crown molding,  there were hard wood floors throughout, a custom gourmet kitchen, imported travertine tile flooring, exquisite landscaping, etc., etc.

We immediately made an offer- which was accepted.  But Wells Fargo, who had written us 2 previous mortgages, laughed at us and said "NO!" we will not give you a loan.  You are newly self-employed. We won't talk to you about a home mortgage for 2 years.  I was DEVASTATED.  I went to every bank.  Everyones answer was the same--NO.  They didn't care that Ryan was FINALLY a surgeon and that we had impeccable credit and a decent down payment.  After the crash of 2008 all the rules had changed. They wanted 2 years of W-2's at his new job.   So I cried my tears, and signed a lease to rent a home.

Time passed, as it always does.  Ryan got called to serve in the Bishopric for our church in Bullhead City-35 miles away from my "Belair."The practice we bought had its main office in Bullhead City, and its satellite office in Kingman.  I fell in love with Bullhead.  Its heavy heat was addicting. It had picturesque mountain views and the beautiful Colorado River running through it.  The temperature soared to easily 111-115 degrees everyday in July.  We lived in the pool at our Condo complex. We also met wonderful people that will be life long friends. This reminded me that the Lord always has a purpose for our lives.

I knew that He directed me to find the practice that Ryan bought.  As scary as it was to make the leap and buy a practice right out of school, it has been such a blessing to our family.  We have loved sailing our own ship. The staff that was already established in the practice has been superb, etc.  I felt confused as to why I felt so strongly about buying THE HOUSE and nothing had worked out. After living almost a year in Bullhead,   I discovered a loan program for physicians that would give a Dr a home loan with only 12 months of earnings.  I knew this was my ticket to get Belair.  It had not sold, and by late August the man who owned the home decided to take it off the market until spring.   I wrote him a letter and told him we had every interest in the home.   He was happy to hear that he still had a buyer for his home.  I did all the necessary preparations and the home became ours that coming summer.

After moving in--a little over a year ago now, we realized that a house is not a home without pets.  Our children, especially Gracie, have been begging for a little dog for years now.  For those of you that know us well, know that the Dr and his whole side of the family are very allergic to any animal with fur.  And it's not the sniffle kind of allergies, it's the asthma type, where their lungs get tight when they are around furry animals and they can't breathe and it's super scary.

So what type of pet would be perfect for Belair?  I knew just the one!!

Meet Apricot, our 60 lb. African Sulcata.  He will be fully grown when he reaches 100+ lbs!

This is Moe.   He is our 18 lb native desert tortoise.  We adopted him last year from the state of AZ.  We actually have adopted 4!

This is Peaches and Cotton-  Gracie and Kersti's baby Sulcatas. We got these in Phoenix a few months ago.

Behold the "tortoise stack".  Here are 5 of our 7 tortoises.

This is one of our most beloved tortoises--Mr. White.  He is Jaces little desert tortoise.  He is a year old.

This is our family dog -Meanie. We named her/him Meanie because she always bobs her head at the other tortoises.  This is how they fight. And a 5 lb tortoise bobbing its head can be QUITE intimidating!!!! We won't know for a few more years if this tortoise is male or female.  We are hoping female.   

Meanie

Meanie

Meanie

Left to right--Meanie, Moe, Apricot.  They follow each other around the yard from biggest to smallest!

Do you know what is sooooo great about tortoise pets?  They don't make noise, they eat our lawn, they have slow metabolisms so they only poop about 3X per week, and from October to March they hibernate--so just when you get tired of tending the pets--you get a vacation until Spring!

We are so in love with our tortoises--well the Dr is neutral.  He would be just fine without them--but the rest of us are hooked. We are just one big happy family!!