Part II- Christmas/Computer

Most of Curtis' family came to Chandler for Christmas.  His mom and his sister Audrey stayed with us for a few days.  The family is mainly Born again Christian, they invited us to go to their Christmas Service.  It ended up being on Derek's actual Birthday.  I felt bad about that, but he was a good sport.  I told the kids if they went to this then they wouldn't have to go to our church service on Christmas.  That ended up not being true, but I had good intentions. I forgot that Derek was supposed to be ordained that day, so we showed up. It was Sacrament only that day.   Once again they were good sports.
The Christian Christmas service was nice, very different.  A very loud band (I'm glad we took ear plugs) a nice message and some rockin' Christmas hymns.  I thought it was a good experience for our kids and we don't spend much time with extended family so it was good.

After the Christmas service, we drove through this neighborhood that has a street of houses with amazing Christmas lights synced up to music.  I have seen a house or two like this on YouTube, but this was an entire street of houses.  I don't know who was the electrical engineer nerds that figured it out and coordinated it, but it was spectacular.  There were a few people not too excited to go on this adventure, but once we arrived everyone was amazed.

Curtis' mom, Shauna, and his sister Audrey came out from California. Shauna's longtime partner, Yosef, passed away in October.  Audrey has had a rough year as well.  Coming to Arizona was a nice change for them.  They shared their time between our house and their sister, Alisa's house.  We had them for Christmas Eve and Christmas.  It was fun to have something (someone) new on Christmas day.

Curtis Family at Rock Point Church.  Somehow we missed the picture.

Christmas Eve opening matching Star Wars Pajamas for the boys.

Our boys with Grandma Shauna.  Getting ready to tear through the paper, a tradition started by Shauna's Mom.

Herman popped by to see Curtis, Audrey and Shauna

Christmas Morning, the fun is about to begin.

Lovely Ladies in the bath robes and Christmas Stockings.

A few months back Dax came to us and said he would like to buy Derek a really nice gaming computer for Christmas, and asked if we would go half with him.  Although he was willing to put in as much necessary to get him a decent set up.  It is a fairly large gift considering what we were giving the other kids, but it is also Derek's Birthday and we knew he would be finishing his Eagle Award about Christmas time.  We agreed.  Dax searched it out and ordered it way in advance.  He was very excited to do this for Derek.  Dax is a giver.  The box sat in Dax's room for a few weeks before Christmas.  Christmas finally came, it was one of the last gifts opened.

This picture makes me laugh, Dax looks like he is about to mug smiling Derek...

Actually, he went for the hug.

Derek's birthday gifts were a bit sparse, but we had to hold off on the computer.  He opened up the big box, saw a computer mouse, possibly the keyboard.  Not sure how far he got when Trey announced: "It's a computer"  that stole a bit of the thunder.  Derek was still very pleased.

It was a great day and we enjoyed having Shauna and Audrey.

Eagle, Teacher and a computer

December was an exciting month for Derek.  He submitted his Eagle project paperwork, had his Board of Review on the 14th and he passed.  Such an accomplishment and happy to have that done.

Derek loves the Star Wars Movies, for the past 3 years a new one came out right before Christmas.  Curtis usually takes the boys for Derek birthday.  This year Curtis told the boys he needed them to go with him to go help someone move a piano.  The boys reluctantly went, but Curtis had also pulled this move before. Telling them they had to go help someone "move" but they end up at a "movie"  As they were very close to the theatre Curtis said "Those are the Death Star apartments we need to be at"  He took them to the Alamo Theatre where they bring you a full meal as you watch the movie.  They all had a great time, but they are not falling for the let's go help someone move anymore.

Derek was actually very sick the week leading up to his birthday.  He had the flu and missed the last week of the semester at school. Finals and all, he was miserable. The Dr. told him just stay out for the week, I'll write you a note. Most of Curtis' family were coming for Christmas.  There are several Christmas birthdays on Curtis side of the family so Aunt Alisa Zoccoli planned a mini Bday party at her house.  Derek was finally feeling well enough to leave the house, but not well enough to stay for very long.  It was nice, we celebrated Birthdays for Derek (12/23), Grandma Shauna (12/24), and Raquel Suarez (12/24), Alyssa Suarez (12/20) couldn't make it. The birthday people all had some of their favorite dessert (Derek chose pumpkin pie) They played a fun game where they had a big box wrapped extremely well and tight.  Lots of wrapping paper and layers of tape.  It was difficult to unwrap but they eventually removed all the layers until the large box was eventually the size of the gift card, that it was, one of the Suarez twins won it, but the twins were in cahoots with each other to win it.  I made Derek the Han Solo Birthday cake.  He also got the mega big 1000+ page book (Oathbringer) from the series he was reading, move tickets to go see a movie with his Bro's.  I made him a sheath for his sword.  Now that he is 14 they presented him and ordained him to be a Teacher on Christmas Eve.


To Be continued......

Disneyland-2

We love Disneyland.  It is pretty spectacular as Christmastime with all the lights and decorations.  We really wanted to go one more time as a family, since Dax will be graduating and moving on to other adventures soon.  We try to be strategic about Disney.  We want to enjoy it without the crowds and lines, which means we usually have to miss school.  Fall break is usually a great time to go, but we couldn't fit it in this year.  The best we could come up with was to take the kids out of school for a few days.  There was a slight problem.  Derek has been very sick this year with sinus infections and other obnoxious ailments.  By the beginning of December Derek had already missed about 12 days.  The school district doesn't like kids to miss more than 10 days the entire year.  We were beyond maxed.  Derek himself said, "I don't want to go, I have already missed school, and I get behind and my grades suffer.  I don't want to miss more school, and then I get in trouble when my grades are bad."  I was proud of him for being so responsible, I didn't like the idea of him missing even more school unnecessary.  I had plenty to do to get ready for Christmas, I was already planning to go to Utah the following week. so I was ok hanging with Derek.

Curtis, Dax, and Trey took the minivan and headed to Disneyland.  Derek and I had a great time at home together.  My favorite Derek moment was when he went out for a bike ride.  He came while I was out running errands. I received a text that he was home and he had gotten us a treat"it's a surprise".  When I came home that kid went to Fry's (grocery store) bought 2  pumpkin pies and a box of Ding Dongs.  I thought it was very thoughtful, but also a lot of treat for just us two.  We had a good time eating that for a few days.

Disneyland was great as usual.  During the ride "Star Tours" Trey was picked as the "Rebel Spy"  meaning they picked someone out of the crowd and flashed a picture of them on the screen and called them the Rebel Spy.  Trey loved that.  Of course when the ride ends they dump you off in the gift shop.  Trey convinced Curtis to buy him the T-shirt that says "I'm the Rebel Spy"  genius on the part of Disney.  Over the past few months, Disney shut down the Tower of Terror and converted it to Guardian of the Galaxy ride.  It just opened back up again. Trey loved it, Guardian of the Galaxy was his favorite ride.  Everyone agreed Tower of Terror was good, Guardian of the Galaxy was great.
As always, it was a magical time.  I just wish Disney would quit raising their prices.  I'm glad I stayed home with Derek, it was a nice one on one time with him, and he got sick the following week and missed even more school.

Another year wiser

Happy Birthday, Trey.  That sweet boy is a nine-year-old.  He seemed to be interested in Dr. Who lately.  I saw these Dr. Who silicone molds on Amazon.  I thought it would make a cute cake.  Trey liked it, I don't know that he loved it.   I put a candy Tartus on the cake and made it look like it broke through (time traveled)  I thought it turned out pretty cute.  Especially since I have zero knowledge on Dr. Who.

Trey got  the Skylanders video game and  "easy button for his birthday.
His favorite teacher, Mrs. Snow has one and uses it during math class.  It is hilarious.  He was happy to get it and it says "that was easy" in several different languages as well as English.

Two days later we did it again for my birthday.  Although very uneventful this year.  We were busy with kids and life.  I had a cub meeting with Trey.  I loved being him.

Halloween 2017

Another Halloween.  A few months back Trey wanted to make some armor out of a cardbord box.  He worked on it pretty deligently for a few days after school.  Piece by piece he came up with the entire set.  Then he decided he wanted to wear it for Halloween.  I thought it was a great idea and the easiest costume for me.  Derek and Trey have gotten in this sparring swords.  They were both saving up their money to each buy one.  We decided since both of their birthdays are coming up, we bought them for them to use for Halloween.    

Trey in his armor with his sword.

+

Derek dressed as Waldo.  This is a classic, it went over well.                                                         

Derek as Waldo

Dax is dressed as Ginosaji, based on some YouTube video where some guy uses a spoon as a murder weapon.

The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon.  

We, the uncool parents, had never heard anything about this, and didn't know if anyone would know what Dax was dressed as.  We were wrong.

Dax with his weapon of choice...the spoon.

Eagle Scout Project

Derek has worked hard, earned his required 21 merit badges + a few extra, gone on 20 + nights of camp outs and now for the Eagle Scout Project.  He been thinking about this project for several months but we just couldn't find the right project.  We didn't want to do a landscaping/tree planting activity for a few reasons.  The main being every other boy in his troop has done that type of activity this year.  Curtis' back really can't handle a back breaking labor insentive activity like that.  We don't have trucks and equipment to orchestrate this activity.  We would have to rely on a lot of other people for trucks etc. Derek wanted to do an activity that did something to really benefit someone in need rather than just beautify the area.

He looked through the "Just Serve" website and found The Aris Foundation, which worked with homeless people and was requesting socks for the homeless.  This was a project that really struck home with Derek.  Last Christmas we made homeless kits where we had water, toothbrush/toothpaste, hand sanitizer, blankets and a few snacks.  For a few nights we drove around looking for homeless people to help.  It took us a while to find any, but when we did they all asked if we had any socks.  We soon realized socks were very much needed by the homeless. A few months later we read an article that said socks were the most requested item, but the least donated to homeless shelters.  This seemed to be the perfect project for Derek.  Especially since socks are such a coveted/prized item by Curtis.  He is constantly buying new socks, and is always excited to get new ones.

Derek got everything approved and he set a goal to collect 1000 pairs of socks.  When he first met with Catherine from the Aris Foundation and he told her his goal, she was impressed, but said she would be thrilled with 50 socks.  Derek set up collection boxes at Bogle Jr High (they even set it up as a contest between teams to encourage participation). Revelation Real Estate, and the church.  He made short videos, posters, flyers, and announcements. He even wrote to stores like Sam's Club and Target to ask for donations. Then he waited, and waited for about a month. Slowly the socks started coming in. 

When it was all over Derek had collected 1051 pairs of socks (130 pairs were donted by Curtis alone)

Delivery Day:
Last week Derek contacted Catherine from the Aris foundation and set up a delivery time, he told her the collection was over and he wanted to deliver them, he didn't tell her how many he collected.

Catherine opening up a box of socks.

This is Catherine, being overjoyed to hear that Derek collected over 1000 pairs of socks.  She was so excited, everytime one of her kids walked in the room, she told them.  The best way I can describe Catherine's excitiment is you would have thought she won the lottery getting all these socks delivered.  She kept saying "over 1000 socks"  originally when we met with her she said she would be thrilled wiht 50 and she meant it. Catherine was so happy and so genuinely gracious to receive these socks to be able to pass them out to her homeless friends.

She sent us pictures a few days later of Derek's socks helping the homeless.  It felt so good to make a difference.

The Last first day of School

Senioritis...

Today was Dax's last "first day of school".  He was so excited, he said he was as excited to be a senior today as he was back when he started kindergarten.  During the summer his senior class voted on shirts that all the seniors would get.  It has their last name on the back.  When I initially saw a picture of these shirts I thought they were crazy to pick these because they look very hot. Now that it has arrived and I have seen it, it is a lightweight although long sleeve.  I think it will be ok. Dax is excited to have it.
Leading up to this day, the seniors are pretty much in charge of making smooth transitions for the rest of the school.  They had a few rehearsals of the little skit they did "Oh the places you'll go" then they did small presentations in the classrooms to get the kids acquainted with everything.  Dax did a great job (the teachers told him) he didn't need any guidance or corrections from the teachers, which it sounded like a lot of the seniors did. He had a great day.

Dax in his Senior Shirt

Derek was off to Bogle for 8th grade.  All went well.

Trey was back to Hancock for 3rd grade.  He has two teachers "team teaching" Mrs. Bovard and Mrs. McCall.  It sounded like both teachers wanted to spend more time with their families so they hooked up with a part-time teaching gig.  I'm not fond of this setup.  I never know who is in the classroom which day, communication is a pain.  The kids seem to do ok with it.  The parents don't.  When Trey came home I asked him how his first day went and if he liked his teachers.  He liked them ok, not so sure about Mrs. McCall because she refers to the kids as "sis" and "brother" for example "Hey Sis where is your homework",  "What's up brother"

It rained the first day of school.  I don't remember this happening before.

Trey at his desk, a few familiar kids from previous years in his class.

My three sons.  First day of school 7/24/17

Dax's Big day

July 13th 2017

The time has come... We all felt that Dax was ready to take his drivers/road test to get his drivers license.  He really wanted to get it done before his 17th Birthday next week.

I recently met a new friend who used to work at the DMV, the location where Dax took one of his permit tests and where we planned to go for the road test.  She gave me a few tips to pass on to Dax.  Make sure you look over your sholder (check your blind spot) before you change lanes. Absolute complete stop, she even gave me the route and what they look for on that specific route/road test.

We went in for the road test, there were lots of teenagers that day.  My friend told me she liked to test teenagers the best.  They were always excited, and on their best behavior.  She didn't like testing older people, and she said foreigners were the worst.  They would drive out of the parking lot and start driving on the wrong side of the road.  Anyway lots of teenagers there.  They were all coming back with smiles and signaling thumbs up to their parents.  I was sitting next to a few of the parents waiting for our kids to return.  We all decided that we were more nervous than our kids were.  I didn't see where Dax ended up in the waiting area, I didn't even see him leave to take the test.  I just looked at the window and saw that our car was gone. Then I got really nervous.  I overheard a few of the other kids talking to their parents about the road test.  They said they drove mostly through residential neighborhoods.
A few minutes later Dax came back flashed me a smile and a thumbs up. I was so happy for him.  This was such a long road for him.  He had to take the permit test 4 times, we even renewed his permit once because it expires after 12 months. We didn't feel he had enough practice hours to let him loose at that time. We even spent some time in the private thrid party testing area practicing 3 point turns.  Now the time was right. He said the road test was fairly easy, he drove through neighborhoods as well (not the route my friend told me) and the person administering the test was nice.  YEA YEA YEA driving is more freedom.  So happy to have this done.

17th Birthday

LEGO Batman dive in.

Someone brought these huge Peacock and Flamingo floats.  The kids loved throwing each other off.

Dax is 17.  I know I say this every year but I can't believe it. He is about to start his Senior year. WHAAAT?
We did the dive in movie again.  I don't know that he enjoyed as much this year as last.  The first year we showed Jaws and I thought it was a bit of a disaster with the rain, and low turn out.

The second year we showed Jurassic World, and that was great.  Good turn out, perfect weather lots of fun for everyone.

Third year we showed Lego Batman.  I think Dax was annoyed because I don't think we gave the kids enough time to play and interact before the movie started and there was a lot of chatter, pool dunking etc during the movie.  It is hard to time this right because we have to wait for it to get dark enough for the movie, yet early enough to show up with some day light to get food and get settled etc.  Also finish the party before it is too late. This year we failed to time it right.  I think all the kids had a great time, Dax was mostly annoyed. He was also mad that I invited "extra" people that he didn't even know.  Not really true.  I invted all the youth in the ward (same as last year)  One family has a non memeber foreign exchange student that we don't know because she doesn't come to church, but we know her host family.  They asked if  she could come, of course I said yes.  That annoyed Dax.

It was still a fun night, I told him likely the last time we would do that for his birthday since he is growing up and getting ready to leave home.

Independence Day

We wanted to do something different for the 4th of July this year.

We usually stay home for the 4th,  One year we went to San Diego for the 4th.  It was fun, but we realized a good percentage of  Phoenix goes to San Diego for the 4th.  It was so crowded, long waits everywhere and we saw many familiar faces.  That seemed to be the norm for other areas close to Phoenix, but cooler than Phoenix.  I didn't want to deal with the crowds, so we always stayed home. I do like that it is quiet (pretty much a ghost town here),  and we can see the fireworks from practically our front yard, but I was tired of my kids not knowing what a fun holiday it is.  It is too hot to do anything besides stay inside, watch the Nathan's Hotdog eating contest and play video games.  My kids were never too excited about watching fireworks either. I wanted them to know that Fourth of July is a fun Holiday.  We didn't want to take a big trip far away (trying to stay away from all the places Phoenix flocks to ), so we settled on Prescott, about a 2 hr drive north and about 20 degrees cooler.

The kids got out of the car and they said "this feels good, we're not burning up"  Still 95 degrees but cool to us.  The nights were perfect. Not crowded at all.

We watched the John Adams movie and got our 4th of July history fix.
We went to the Prescott Rodeo, the "Worlds Oldest Rodeo"  Dax and Derek liked it, Trey kept saying "what's the point".  I told him the calf roping etc is what real cowboys have to do all the time, they just turned it into a contest.  He seemed ok with it then.   The bucking bronco and bull riding were out favorite events.  The announcer kept saying "those cowboys are tough" as they would get thrown off and nearly trampled by the 1500 lb angry bull.  I kept thinking they may be tough but they're pretty stupid to mess with that angry animal throwing them around like rag doll.

Ice cream at the Rodeo

Flag shirts



The kids swam in the hotel pool and had a great time with the other kids staying at the hotel.  They didn't want to get out and go to fireworks.  They finally got out, but still not interested in Fireworks.  Curtis and I left them and drove to a hill and watched the fireworks ourselves.  It was great.

My annual "Patriotic pedicure"

Tucson

We didn't have any big plans for a summer vacation.  We usually don't.  Dax and Derek each went to their own camp, Trey took a few summertime classes to keep him busy.  The Tucson Temple was doing their open house. Since it is so close we decided to go down to the open house, stay a few days and have fun in Tucson, although no escape from the heat.  Last time we went to Tucson we stayed at a resort with a fun water park.  I took my time making the reservation (who really goes to Tucson this time of year) apparently people do, because all the water park resorts were booked.  We ended up staying at a Vacation Rental very close to the temple.  It was a great house with a pool.  The home was built in the 50's, had a vintage feel, it was on a large lot in a very quiet neighborhood. We loved it.  I think Tucson gets a bad rap.  It is very brown and desert-y but to me it doesn't look that much different than Scottsdale.  I don't love the brown desert look, we always have a great time there.

Tucson Temple- very different look with the dome, I like it because it's different

The temple was nice, much smaller than we expected. They did a great job of getting the people in and keeping everyone comfortable in the heat.  Curtis and I took a nice long walk from our rental up to the Temple one morning.

Sunrise from inside our vacation rental.

 The Earthquake

When Curtis and I were kids, there was this ice cream chain called "Swensen's" There was this sundae on the menu called "The Earthquake"  it had 8 scoops of ice cream in it, and all the sundae fixings. I never knew anybody that actually ate one, just everyone talked about it.   Curtis' birthday was a few weeks back and he was wanting to go to an ice cream place and get a great sundae.  We couldn't find one.  The ice cream place near us got shut down by the health department, everything else seems to be frozen yogurt. Nothing extraordinary.  We said how we wished "Swensen's" was still around.  While in Tucson we found this ice cream place on Google called Sullivan's, it had great reviews and was very close to where we were staying.  We show up and Curtis and I both agree that it kind of had the look at feel of a "Swensen's"  we look at the menu and they had something called the "Super Bowl" with 8 scoops of ice cream.  Turns out this place used to be a Swensen's, ownership changed, corporation broke up, copyright etc.  They location stayed just changed their name and the names of the menu items.  We finally found the long lost "Earthquake" and it was good.  Fun to share with the entire family.

Derek and Trey chowed to the last bite,pretty much licked the bowl everyone else tapped out.

We took a little day trip down to Tombstone.  We thought the kids would enjoy it there and see a bit of AZ history. It is an interesting little town. It was quite rough in its day.  Lots of shootings, hangings, and prostitution. There was one intersection where 19 people were killed in one year.  The deadliest in the country.  Very much the "Wild West".

Our boys with some Tombstone Characters, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday etc.  I think there was a gunfight re-enactment every 15 min someplace in that town.

Actual location of the shootout at the OK Corral, which didn't actually take place at the OK Corral

Inside the Bird Cage Theatre, a happening place back in the day.  Several bullet holes throughout due to gun fights. "Take it outside boys"

Biosphere 2, because the Earth is the original Biosphere

On our way home we stopped at Biosphere 2.  This was a science experiment built in the late 1980's for $150 million. It was supposed to be an indoor re-creation of the earth with  6 different climates (biomes/ ecosystems). They had 8 scientists that were sealed inside for two years from 1991-1993 to see how they could survive on their own from the outside world.  It was interesting to see how they re-created the rainforest, ocean, fog desert etc.  They explained how they had to recreate the atmospheric pressure using an artificial "lung" etc.  In the beginning, they didn't have the atmospheric pressure right because of how it was built (lots of concrete curing etc.) the people and plants were not getting enough oxygen.  They were getting sick, and the food was minimal.  They had to figure out the problem and make adjustments.  It sounded like the first year the people were constantly hungry.  I was surprised how technical the entire thing was and that the living quarters were a very nice apartment with all the amenities. They had TV's, phones, appliances etc. I thought they were totally cut off from the outside world, not so much.  I think I expected it to be a giant greenhouse and the people would be living like Tarzan.  Not at all.

I remember when this was being built and my Chemistry teacher making fun of it.  It was kind of a big deal back in the day, they made a movie "Biodome" (it should have been called Bio-dumb, it was such a stupid flop).  Jokes were made on TV shows etc.  It was interesting to see, but as we were going through this I kept thinking what a waste.  They were trying so hard to re-create something that has already been done, we already have an Earth with plenty of food and oxygen and it works perfectly for humans to live on and it's FREE.

artificial ocean

inside the rain forest

overlooking the ocean.