Great British weather.

Nigel and I just spent a very short, frantic week in UK (courtesy of the fantastic babysitting grandparents). We were mainly based in Sheffield but did drive up to Anne and Angus in Guisborough, and got dragged up a hill....



The view from the top was great, but the wind was the sort that made your ears hurt!!



We climbed down and had English bacon and black pudding on a bun with a pint of beer- and suddenly the pain disappeared!
We rather enjoyed the grey and drizzly weather, and a bizarre highlight was having a hot bath listening to the wind howling outside and the rain lashing against the window !!

Thanksgiving

We have just had a fabulous few days away over Thanksgiving with Paddy and Mary.
We went down to the South East corner of the state- to Sierra Vista. The landscape was absolutely stunning, and on Thanksgiving Day we took a hike round the Chiricahua (cheery cow er!!) National Park, where we walked between huge rock formations in a large canyon. Very energetic and lovely, and a change from stuffing our faces on pie!!
In the evening we found a restaurant which was open and had a great time at the table giving thanks for each person. The kids came up with some really creative things!!

Tombstone

The next day we got up before dawn and waited for tickets for the Kartchner Caverns (well, to be fair it was Nigel and Paddy who did the deed!!). And they were phenomenal caves (but unable to take photos so you will have to believe me!)
In the afternoon we drove over to Tombstone which is an authentic Western town where Wyatt Earp had his famous 27seconds of excitement in the OK Corral! We also got to see a hanging!!

Garden Canyon

And then on to another canyon for another walk!!
A fabulous array of Autumn leaves (don't see many among the cacti........)

Gorgeous

Nigel had fun taking new portraits of the kids......

Booooorrrrring......

Daniel is doing a meteorological report for a school project and needs to check the weather at the same time each morning, write a sentence about it, and draw a picture to depict the daily activity and changes.
It reads like this:

1.Today feels hot already.
2.Today there are no clouds and the sky is blue.
3.Today there is no wind and no clouds.
4.Today it is hot..........

We have to do 20 days of this- I am sure the teacher will die of boredom reading them all.
Today was actually 91F/ 32C !!
The weather channel comments that it is unseasonably hot.
My comment is that I am bored of the weather project, and bored of the incessant heat!!
C'mon, this is supposed to be Autumn now, surely.......

More costumes

Daniel wanted to be a policeman, and went onto the streets complete with whistle, walkie talkie, notepad and gun, and proceeded to direct traffic, and children alike...



And Emily made quite a pretty pirate



until the make-up was applied!!

Halloween

As I am on a roll with photos of Tara.......here is another of her as an old lady!




Nigel got up to his face painting tricks again, and the kids went trick or treating last night....
Halloween here is sooooo different to in the UK. It is more like a carnival. The atmosphere is amazing as everyone brings deckchairs out onto their driveways, groups of neighbours congregate around braziers drinking wine, and eating together. The kids all dress up- (but very few masks or macabre outfits), and head off round the neighbourhood with some of the adults, leaving others behind to hand out candy and toys to the hoardes of children passing by. A lot of the houses are decorated on the outside, which adds to the fun- orange and black fairy lights, pumpkins, cobwebs, bats etc, and we even found some grottos to peer into (strobe lights and skeletons!). Some of our neighbours covered a trailer with hay bales, fairy lights, and balloons, and the whole cul de sac piled on board and rode round the estate throwing candy at the strolling kids!
We saw butterflies, Spiderman, princesses, fish, pirates, Minnie Mouse, and even Spongebob!! It was great fun for our children, and they loved the whole thing.



Emily's school trip last week was to a pumpkin patch, where she got to choose one to bring home and carve- it had pride of place outside last night, with a huge toothy grin! I like the idea here of Halloween being like a harvest festival, full of rejoicing and laughter (not an egg or bag of flour in sight!), and leading into Thanksgiving at the end of the month.
It is perplexing, having come here with 'well-founded' negative views of Halloween, and from a church which provided an alternative to the macabre darkness, to see such incredible community building in one evening, and confusing for us all to see an inflatable Winnie the Pooh vampire outside the church coffee shop!!

The ever changing hair.....

Tara and Emily dressed up for 70's day!
The school has a great spirit, and each week there is some sort of theme- odd socks, back to front day, crazy hair day etc. The class with the most participants wins points towards a smoothie party. And the individuals within the class can get their own points too- by collecting character cards (given by the teacher to anyone exhibiting one of the 7 traits). The individuals with the most points get to go to an ice cream social with the principal!! (who is such a cool guy- a motivating factor!)




Tara loved having her hair braided in Mexico, and kept them in for as long as possible. Last time we went she only had the top done, and had been longing for the full head for a while. It was a real battle to get her to let me remove them...



However, when we took them out, she was absolutely thrilled with the amazingly glamorous result- and is now begging me to take braiding lessons , so she can look like this more than once a year!!

Coming of age.....

Emily has finally reached the age where Nigel can impart his glorious knowledge to her, and walk her through the fine details of his legendary Saturday breakfast!!
He is training them thoroughly, in the hope that one day he will be treated whilst in bed!!
We even cracked open a tiny tin of Heinz beans to celebrate her new sausage sizzling skills......

Or.........Wish You Were Here?

We have just had a few days away in Mexico again- it is becoming a favourite place to go....
Aside from the fact it is a relatively cheap trip, the journey is easy, the weather perfect, and the beach wonderfully quiet, we are enjoying the familiarity that returning to the same place brings. We don't have to explore when we arrive, or wonder what we will need to take, or stress over navigating, and so we relax much more quickly each time we go.
We love the beach at sunrise, when the rockpools are visible, and when the shallow water is perfect for skimboarding, but it is also beautiful at sunset when the ocean is warm and the rippled sand is cool, and we love waking from our siesta and hitting the swim-up bar when the margaritas are half price, and sitting in our deckchairs whilst the kids bury our feet, and buying junk from the hawkers, and getting our hair braided, and having breakfast on the balcony, and sleeping with the patio door open listening to the ocean.......... OK, we love it all!!
Well, there is one thing we don't like.........coming home..!!

'Wish you were here?'

Well, you will have to use your imagination, as this pic of our friends was the only photo allowed before the camera got confiscated!!!
Pink Floyd was the very first band I saw in concert(almost 30 years ago!!), and their music was a big part of my teen years, so I jumped at the chance to see Roger Waters (the voice...) at the Cricket Pavillion. The setting is absolutely amazing- an outdoor ampitheatre with seating for 12000, and then 'lawn seating' for a further 8000. Lawn seating involves bringing a deckchair or blanket, and settling down on the grass, with a chilled beer from the 'liquid lounge', watching the sunset, and then listening to fabulous music......did I forget to say it was 25C?
The first half was all the 'oldies but goodies'- lots from Wish You Were Here, and The Wall. The second half was the entire performance of Dark Side of the Moon.
I Loved it, but I was amazed to realise how little I understood of their music at the time!!!
I knew they had a slightly political edge- but that was putting it mildly!! He had just written a new song about Tony and George(as in Blair and Bush), and there were lots of anti war images and comments. The Animals tour which I saw all those years ago had a flying pig (aww how cute.....)- this time, the pig was covered in political graffiti, with a huge 'IMPEACH BUSH NOW' all over its rear end!!
But it was rather surreal as they let it go and it floated off towards the stars, with a big 'free at last' written on its belly!!

Autumn is officially here....

Well, not in the true climatic sense, as the changes are barely perceptible there! On Saturday, it was 39C in the day, falling to 29C by 8pm. Gorgeous for sitting outside with a chilled glass of white wine , but still not cool enough for jeans or sweaters- so not really Autumn. And, definitely no colour change on the cacti!!
So, I have given in to the culture, and bought up Walmart's wonderful autumnal accessories, strewn them all around the house, and we are pretending that the season has truly changed!!

Caught in the act......!

Our 3 reprobates were caught by the paparazzi as they went to school one monsoony morning! Front page headlines of the local magazine- Mallons breaking all the rules!!
You have to read the small print to realise it was not the kids who were misbehaving, but rather an article on poor parent parking!

Rock Face

Nigel has really been enjoying his weekly climbing expedition- he gets into the lovely cool weather and gorgeous scenery up at Oak Creek Canyon, and spends some quality guy time too. However, Emily has taken to praying for him in the mornings as she is never quite sure sight what will greet her on her return from school that day!!
We have had the nasty toes, the scraped legs, the cactus in the finger, the hornet sting, and now the 'rock landing on face from 100 ft up!!!'
He watched it ricochet off several rocks on its way down- but didn't look away in time..........
And now -a scabby bruise!!

Growing up!

Tara was 11 on Saturday, and had 8 friends for a sleepover party.
Swimming, ice cream cake, bashing the pinata (a Mexican tradition, the pinata is filled with candy and bashed repeatedly by blindfolded guests until the candy falls out and is gathered into goody bags!) movies etc etc.
Last year she was so timid, and she amazed us over this weekend. She is getting a great circle of friends, and is now pleading to go to Washington DC next year on a school trip. "But of course, I will need my own cell phone and camera......."

Welcome back!

It is great having the gorgeous Paddy and Mary back with us.
They spent the summer in the UK, and then cruised back to New York on the Queen Mary 2. And, supposedly, are now here until May !
It is good to be reunited with grandparents, friends, and babysitters......hee hee...!

Flagstaff

Flagstaff is a university town, north of us by about 2 hours, and is one of those places which gets better every time you visit. On friday evenings throughout the summer they have been showing family movies in the town square, so we decided to go up for a visit. We found a fabulous brewery for food, were entertained by belly dancers and snake charmers(!), wandered round quaint shops (Christmas has arrived already there....), and then took our deckchairs to the square. We only made it to the interval though, as we froze to death!! It was great to be in fleeces and jeans, but we still could have done with jackets or blankets!!
Then a fun night all piled in one room in a hotel, and the next day headed up to Mount Humphrey (where we ski in the winter) for a little hike around our favourite nursery slopes. Sadly the chair lift was not operating because of storms, but it was wonderful to be cold for a few hours.....
Then, back to the heat again!!!

Instant pedicure

In Nigel's free time he has rediscovered the joy of rock climbing. I have decided he is a 'social sportsman'- in that he is able to do most sports, but is motivated by doing them with friends.
He has discovered a wacky friend, Don, (who last year took him cliff diving into a local lake, waterskiing, and jetskiing.....)and they have been going climbing every friday for the past 5 weeks. But every week he comes back with a new horror story- they have met bats, been stung by hornets, found hidden cacti on ledges, and generally he comes back looking totally beaten up- cuts and grazes everywhere.....
The pedicure came from falling off a rock, swinging back into it and stubbing his toes at high speed.......
I need to show him how to get a 'real' pedicure- way less stressful!!

sunset boulevard

The weather has been sublime recently- we are still officially in monsoon season, and the evenings are cooler and stormy, giving way to some incredible sunsets. Nigel gets very excited by them and is always loading us up in the car and driving off to find the best viewing spot. We now have a new favourite on an estate near us, and even a little hill to climb for full panoramic vision!

Footloose and fancy free.

Nigel's job came to an end in May, and his studies do not start again until the end of September, so he is enjoying an amazingly long summer (and reminiscing on university days....). And, whilst we have done some fabulous stuff with the kids, we are loving them being back at school, as we are able to go out for coffee, lazy lunches, and matinees at the cinema.....

Woo hoo

12 weeks are over......
Today was the first day of school!!
Everyone had a great time, and no trauma - yippee
Let's hope the enthusiasm remains for the rest of the week at least!!

Sea World

Well, of course we couldn't go to San Diego without a visit to Sea World!!
Fantastic !! We saw polar bears, penguins, walrus, and lots of shows. It seemed that the sole intention of the rides and the shows was to totally soak us!! The dolphins and whales splashed mercilessly, and the log flume ride had a waterfall overhead, thus ensuring a drenching en route! It was a fantastic ride -part roller coaster, and part log flume, with an elevator ride taking us back to the top for another drench! But,as it was a baking hot day we quite enjoyed it all......

We drove back through Dateland, and decided to try a 'world famous' date milkshake. And, then of course, it was only a small step to trying the cactus one too.......

San Diego

We had the opportunity for a last minute break in San Diego over the weekend as some friends invited us over to stay with them in their RV(cosy!). Bart is in the air force and has access to the military bases, so we had prime sites right on the beach (where we chilled with margaritas while the children made candles in the sand) and then the following night we were in a marina (sea kayaking in the day, and fish and chips on the pier at night..)
It was a great 'extra holiday' before the kids go back to school.