Camelback Mountain

These boys were troopers

 After living in Arizona for almost 20 years we figured we should hike Camelback Mtn ... proud of my family for pushing through and making it to the top. Amazing views on a near perfect day to be up there. The last quarter mile coming down we got a bit of rain, but it was terrific. Share your favorite day hike - where do you like to go and what is the difficulty? Time to get out more!
 Life is good- From Curtis' Facebook post

Derek was a trooper, had a sore throat, and a sleepover, with minimal sleep

Amazing Views from the top, love this family.

Trey and Curtis at the Top

We saw some cool lizards on the way up, they had round,flat bodies.  Trey called them "Turtle Lizzards"  When we came home Derek slept from 2:30 p.m. until the next morning.  I told him it was like "Navy Seals Training"  They make them stay up all night and it doesn't matter if they are sick they still have to do the physical training and endure.  He was stayed home from school sick for thee days.  Oops, not get mom of the year for that move.

Easter

We had a nice Easter.  We did a ward BBQ/Easter Egg hunt last weekend, then it was Easter and General Conference this weekend.  Someone gave us a tip a few years ago that if you give your kids a LEGO set and have them put it together while General Conference is on, they will actually listen for a bit.  They got Lego Sets in their Easter Baskets.  Dax got the White house, Derek got a Ghost buster set, and Trey got a Minecraft set.  They were thrilled, and our plan worked perfectly.

After conference we went over to the Zoccoli's (Curtis Sister house),  for another egg hunt with all the cousins.  It is usually a bit crazy with all the people, but the kids had a great time.  Trey found one of the "Golden Eggs" with $10 in it.  Dax is getting a bit too old for the egg hunt, but he had a great time hiding the eggs.

Dax, Curtis and Mike Zoccoli getting ready to hide the eggs. That is a ton of eggs

Eggs were Everywhere

The hunt is on with the Cousins. Antonio &; Emilio Suarez,  Kenny & Isiah Zoccoli, Alyssa Suarez, Derek Johnson, Jacob Suarez, Gigi Suarez, Trey Johnson

$10 Golden Egg

New Car

Curtis' car was getting to the point of needing to be replaced.  The passenger door made an awful "cracking, something is stuck in the door noise every time you opened it" noise.  Things were starting to fall off, the electrical was not working so great and  every time he took it in they always told him he needed $5000 of work. He has had this car for about 10 years, it was time to move on.   Since Curtis isn't really a "car guy" he wasn't sure what he wanted.  He did narrow it down to something on the "sporty look, with lots of gadgets" side so we went looking to see what was out there.

We thought we were just looking, we came home in this

BMW 335is convertible

The kids were a bit shocked.  I wasn't thrilled about the convertible part, especially for a fair skinned, sun hater like Curtis.  It is is 2011 with extremely low miles, BMW was offering very low interest,  and with the trade in we got the payment right were I wanted it to be.  As long as we were ok on the money side, I decided I really didn't care what he drove.  Curtis would be the one driving it, and it had lots of gadgetry.  He loves it.  The kids used to think the Mini Van was cool, with the built in DVD player and it's gadgets.  They tell me it isn't the cool car anymore. Maybe they will figure out  that Mini Vans are never "cool".

Auction Block

We had a fun night last Thursday.

We started the night off by going up to an open house of Tom Hopkins in Paradise Valley.  His house is for sale, and Curtis was invited to this event.  I guess they wanted to to a special preview open house to other agents and give their opinions on how the home shows.

Tom is a bit famous for being a speaker and writing sales books.  When we were first married we went to an all day motivational Event and he was one of the Speakers, funny how Curtis ended up in Real Estate and then we ended up going through his house and meeting him. He and his wife greeted us as we walked in, they were very warm and friendly.  He gave Curtis a copy of one of his recent books.

His house was a bit garish and reminded me of a modern "Graceland"  Very Ornate, and there were pictures of Tom Hopkins and his accomplishments all over the house.  He even had a red piano that used to belong to Elton John and he had someone there playing it.  I thought it was a nice touch (piano player).

Curtis &;Tom Hopkins

 

 We went through every nook and cranny of the house and there was money toilet seat. It was interesting to see.  The neighborhood was in Paradise Valley and a bit Hodge Podge.  Tom Hopkins had a very nice newer home, next to an ordinary older home and the area was very desert-y. His Back yard was beautiful, the house was interesting.

Money John

After Tom Hopkins we went to a Charity Auction, and Curtis was auctioned off  at this Real Estate Event.  He wasn't excited about doing this (merely just because he had to mingle with other Real Estate Agents).  The charity was CARE it helps to kids who very sick.

Curtis was nervous about getting bid on, and didn't trust that the guest list of bidders were willing to bid on any of the "products".  We were told that Curtis would be bid on at the end of the first round.  Turns out he went on stage and he was the first one up for bid. The Realtors up for bid, were sold as mentors/coaches for someone else in the business.  I told Curtis I would bid on him for sure, just so he didn't need to get a complex of nobody wanting/bidding on him.  The bidding started at $300,  I started to get my Auction Paddle out, and boom other people were already bidding on him.  I knew he was a hot ticket.  He went for $1100 and was happy the night went well.  One of the other guys getting auctioned off was a HOT HEAD.  We were talking to him before the event and I was annoyed with him, I was done listening to his Hot air so I walked away.  When he got up to the Auction Block he started spewing off about how great he was and he even through in the guy running the auction as a two for one.  Who ever won him would also get Mr. Auctioneer as a mentor.  I'm not sure the Auctioneer was aware of this before hand, but he went along with it.  Anyway Mr. Hot Air went on and on about how great he was and because of that the bids should start at $2500.  So Mr. Auctioneer started out at $2500.....Crickets... no takers..... he lowered it a bit, and still no takers.  So then he really lowered it and started out the $300 price like everyone else.  I think for the Two for one deal he ended up about $800.  Far from his $2500 starting bid.

As a Thank You gift for participating they gave us a bottle of some Expensive Champagne, and champagne glasses from Tiffany's.  I think everyone was excited about the gift except us. Although very nice, just not something we would use/want.

 We had a fun night together.

Running out of gas

We had a busy day.  I started tennis lessons with my friend Karyn, then run kids around and take Trey to his tennis lessons.  I noticed as I was going to my tennis class, my gas was low.  "I thought I will refill on my way back from tennis class.".....well I forgot.  I went to pick Dax up from school and I was about a block from his school on the way home and the engine died while we were at a stop light.  Oh no, fear and panic, right in the middle of traffic on Alma School and Chandler Blvd.  I realized I had probably run out of gas.  Something I thought I would never do because I always try to refill before I get to that point. I was kind of hoping it was something else, just so I couldn't be at blame.  Dax reminded me that the radio still went on and other things seemed to work, so it probably was the gas as he was annoyed as hit my hazard lights and we waved cars around us.
  I realized the only way out of this  situation was to push.  So I told tax we were going to push from the from of the car, just standing out side out with out front doors open.  I didn't want him in the back where I couldn't see him.  Fortunately very nice people came to out help.  One car was passing and they said they were going to park then come help. They did come to help and they were wearing the same uniform as Dax.  What could be worse than being in High School and your mom runs out of gas right by the school and everyone sees you and they have to come help.  They were very nice kids.

In a side note: Dax was recently diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome, meaning he doesn't pick up on Social ques, fortunately because of this I don't think he realized how humiliating this situation would be running out of gas right next to your High School, with class mates coming to your Mom's rescue.

The nice people pushed us around the corner and we pulled into the bank parking lot.  We thanked them graciously then Dax and I crossed Chandler Blvd to where there was a gas station directly across the street.  We bought a gas can, and a bag of Shark candy ( I felt I had to satisfy Dax for putting up with this unpleasant situation)  filled the can  with one gallon of gas. For $21.76 that was the most expensive gallon of gas I ever purchased.  We crossed back over Chandler Blvd, then filled the car up.  It was a little awkward filling the car from a gas can.  There were all these safety nozzles and closures so you didn't light your self on fire. In the process of figuring out this gas can (who knew they were so complicated) I still spilled a bit of gas on the ground and I was starting to smell like a mechanic in my brand new white T-shirt.  Now for the Moment of Truth.  The car starts we drive home and totally refilled at the gas station right near our house.  Dax was pretty frustrated with me over this situation.  I told him it could have been worse.  If we were going to run out of gas I'm glad it was within 100 ft of a gas station, and nice people came to help push us out of traffic.

Later that evening we turned all the screens off and we read scriptures for a bit.  Then we talked and laughed about the days adventures.  It was fun talking and laughing together without some type of electronic devise intruding.  We talked about how Curtis had run out of gas once as well.  This prompted Trey to track this (a boy after my own heart, something I totally would have done as a kid)  Trey created the "out of gas chart"  so far the score is tied.  Dad 1, Mom 1.  I hope this tally does not get any higher.


Back to reading scriptures.  We try to read just a little each night.  Don't want to overwhelm the kids.  Trey had a small nick on his leg.  As we in the middle of reading our two pages Trey insisted he needed a band-aid for this small nick on his leg.  We just wanted to get through these two pages and actually finish something without being interrupted.  Curtis told Trey he didn't need a band aid and to just finish reading.  Trey really DID NOT need a band aid or anything for this miniscule wound.  Trey started crying and getting upset and he wails "do you want me to die"?  No we don't want you to die, but we do want to finish reading.  We finished, he got a band-aid nobody died.  THE END.

Spring Break

Hooray-We're on Spring Break.
The fun started on Wednesday, March 4th when Derek went with the rest of the 5th grades up to Science Camp near Prescott.  They spend three days at camp Sky Y. We helped him carry his pack/pillow etc to school on Wednesday morning, then he came home a bit dirty on Friday.  He did at least shower once (I was happy with that)  Derek had a great time, something that surprised me was he said the food was great and he came home loving scrambled eggs.  Derek would never eat eggs in the past.  I've never heard of a kid enjoying camp food.  I'm glad he had a good experience.

We didn't have any plans to go on a trip anywhere.  We just decided to enjoy our time home and explore some things in our area.
 Our first adventure was to the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch about an hour South (almost Tucson) at Picacho Peak.  I had heard about this place a few years ago, and it has even been featured on the Travel the Channel.   I have wanted to bring the kids for a while.  It was a fun day.  The weather was perfect and we all had a great time.

They have us put pieces of oranges on the ends of poles and the Ostrich's bit them off

Very Agressive Beady eyed Ostrich

Riding on the Monster Truck.  They gave us a tour of the ranch

Dax feeding Lorikeets

Feeding these Lorikeets was my favorite part.  They gave us these little cups of nectar.  They told us to walk in the Lorikeet area, hold your arm straight out, don't remove the lid.  Immediately these "rainbow things" (Trey's term) started landing on us.  They take the lid off with their beaks and they start eating.  They were very friendly and so cool.  We even bought more nectar and went back for seconds they were so much fun.

Goat Penthouse-Trey's Favorite

Conveyor Belt feeding

This Goat Penthouse was Trey's favorite.  They said these goats love to be up high, and the goats race in the morning to get their spot in the Penthouse, so I guess this is their favorite too.  You could feed these goats from these conveyor belts.  you put the food in these cups then rotate the wheel to get it up to the goats.  Trey had so much fun doing this one.

Dax and the friendly goat.

 This goat looks so friendly.  Moments before this picture the goat hopped up onto the green trash can to the left and took a baby wipe from the holder on  top and started eating it.  You can see the wipe on the ground.

Derek and an Ostrich Egg

Our guide of the Monster truck passed around this Ostrich egg, they are enormous with thick shells.  She said one Ostrich egg is equal to 24 chicken eggs.  She stood on this egg and it didn't even crack.

We went in to the ranch and with our admission they gave us two cups of food to feed all the animals (Ostrich, deer, donkey, goats, ducks, and prarie dogs).  We went to the Ostrich area after the Lorikeets.  The Ostrich's are very aggressive greedy gobblers.  The ostrichs don't have teeth, but they about bite your hand off with their beaks trying to get at the food.  They get fed all day long by the visitors, but they act like they haven't eaten in days.  Soon after I started feeding them, one grabbed both cups of food from me, pulled it away and dumped it on their side of the fence.  Oh well, there went all my food.  Trey was so sweet, he said "mom I felt bad for you when that Ostrich took all your food"

Our little field trip was ironically the same time of the Annual Ostrich Festival in Chandler.  I told the kids we were having our own Ostrich Festival because the one in Chandler has just turned into a big carnival with a few ostriches off to the side.  We had a great day, enjoyed our lunch from Dairy Queen, spent some time outdoors and learned a few things, then headed home.  I hope to return again sometime.  There was an accident on the freeway which really slowed us down going home.  We got off the freeway and took the back roads.  Just another little memory to add to our Ostrich Adventure.

One of the days during spring break we got some rain so Trey and I had a great time putting a 100 piece Spiderman puzzle together.  He said let's do it in under and hour, and we did.We had a fun time doing the puzzle together.

Trey went to Hamilton Pool with his friend Soren and had such a great time.  A few days later Soren's family was going some where for his older Brother and Sister to do a tri-athalon.  It was not going to be ideal conditions for Soren so his mom asked if Soren could spend the day with us instead.  We went to Hamilton Pool again and Derek also brought his friend David.  The kids had a great time.  Trey met a new friend and loaned her his goggles, he kept asking her for them back and she kept telling him she still wanted to use them.  Trey was nice and let her use them, but then it was time to go we couldn't find her, or the goggles.  Trey was  mad.    I told him he just learned a tough lesson and you shouldn't loan things to people you don't really know.  He was pretty upset, then on the way out I told him to check "lost and found"  What do you know??? the goggles were there.  Trey was so happy, he loved those goggles.  Curtis' comment  "that girl has good parents"  I agree.

We got in the car to drive home and there was a bee buzzing around.  Then the darn thing stung me in my arm.  I was so mad at the bee, I was just driving along and it stung me.   I'm glad it died after that.  Better me than one of the kids. 

Derek went on a tour of the fire station with his scout troup.  His leader, Mike Cannon, is awesome and he always takes pictures of the boys and sends them out to the parents.

"I don't like people with Curly hair"

So I was having a conversation with Trey about school and stuff.  He doesn't love kindergarten like I thought he would.  He does really well in school, (the best report card I've ever seen from one of kids even if it is just Kindergarten, still the winner) He has made lot's of friends.  He really liked his teacher Mrs. Ellinwood.  School is just too long for him and I tell him to enjoy it because it doesn't get any easier from here.
Mrs. Ellinwood grew up here in Chandler, and I believe her mom was also a school teacher, and her mom would occasionally come in to help in the classroom.

Trey has had a long term substitute since mid February when Mrs. Ellinwood went on maternity leave after her baby girl was born around the 14th.  His substitute is Mrs. Smool.  After a few weeks of Mrs. Smool I asked him how he liked her.  He says "she's ok but I don't know why Mrs. Ellinwood can't come back"  I said, she had a baby and she needs to stay home and take care of her baby.  Trey said "why can't her mom just take care of the baby"  It was so sweet and innocent. Why can't Grandma just take care of that baby so Mrs. Ellinwood can come back to work.

In another conversation about Mrs. Smool, Trey kept telling me that his teacher was going to re-arrange their seating.  When it finally happened Trey was happy with his new seat assignment, and happy he was no longer sitting by this kid Niko.  Niko has been his nemesis since the first day of school, and it's understandable. Niko is a bit of a trouble maker, I have witnessed it myself.  We were talking about Niko and Trey said "I do not like Niko, I do not like people with curly hair"  I said just because Niko has curly hair you can't say that about everyone.  He said "I don't like Rocky either (another kid with curly hair and a trouble maker) and he also has curly hair"  I guess he proved his point, two trouble makers, both curly hair.