Cool Morning Walk In The Desert

Because the temperatures had gone down quite a bit from the last couple of days, especially yesterday when it really dropped and my head was about to explode all day, we were finally able to go for a walk again. With temperatures over 95F/35C it's not enjoyable for anyone, but today we "only" had about 83F/28C and it was a cool breeze that felt wonderful. To be able to enjoy the breeze to max, I walked a different route today in the outskirts of the area where we live. Normally, I only walk around the streets in the neighborhood, but I wanted to walk where it was more open and windy.

I didn't have the camera with me, but took following pictures with my iPhone, and even if it was so bright outside and you couldn't really see when you took the pictures, they came out alright. It gives you a good idea of how it looks here where we live and on the other side of the road it's only desert, shrubs and in the far back the mountains. There are no green fields here on this side. Normally, the sky is totally clear and there is hardly ever any clouds. Today it was different due to the rain that had fallen I guess, and there were a lot of clouds and they threw big shadows over the desert and the mountains.

There are a few trails out there, but I'm not sure if I would "dare" to walk there with the stroller. First of all it's only sand and pretty hard to walk, if the wind picks up you get sand blowing in your eyes and everywhere, not nice for the kids or myself, but the biggest reason for me not crossing the street and head out on one of these so called trails is because I'm so scared that there will be lots of snakes, scorpions and other creatures that I don't ever want to meet. I wouldn't walk there alone with the kids, that would be very irresponsible. What if I would get bitten by a snake? Nope, if with company maybe.

I've never seen a person walk out there either, only a lot of 4-wheelers and motorbikes that you see out there, especially during the weekends.  

The clouds throwing big shadows over the mountains

 Housing area to the right, desert to the left and mountains straight ahead

 Looking back..

 

Isabella and Benjamin enjoyed the ride, they liked the breeze even if it got a little too windy. But with the screens down and sunglasses on, they were protected from wind and blowing sand and dust. Here I just pulled the screens back to take a picture. Isabella pulled her sunglasses back up in her hair, just like her mommy does...

She fell asleep on the way home. She woke up around 5.30am and didn't go back to sleep, so she was very tired around 11am. She slept for about 30 minutes in the stroller but that was all, didn't want to go back to sleep after I took them in. Benjamin slept until 7am and didn't nap in the stroller and slept for 2 hours when we got home.

Thinking that the road would lead us around the housing area and take me back in further on, I did get surprised when walking along all of a sudden the road was gone. We had walked to the end of the road - end of civilization? After this there is nothing but wilderness...

 The end of the road...and side walk.

Waiting For Daddy

This morning, the kids were excited to be up and ready to welcome daddy home and sing happy birthday for him. It was a cool breeze this morning and it had actually rained a little during the later part of the night, so it was still a little bit damp outside. It wasn't a fresh smell of rain, it smells burnt here when it's been raining. It's so dry everywhere, and the dust and sand smells burnt when it gets wet, still I opened up everywhere to get some cool air in the house.

The kids were waiting, and waiting but daddy didn't come. Normally he's home no later than 7am, but today, typically, it was already almost 8am when he finally got home. Cassie had to leave by the school bus at 7.45am, so she missed him coming home, but the little ones kept going back to the door to check. It was a big emergency at work just before 6am when his shift normally ends, and therefore a lot of stuff to take care of and finishing up for him.

He went to bed pretty fast and me and the little ones went on with our day. We'll celebrate him properly on Saturday with a nice dinner and cake when we can all be together. Cassie did get to give him a birthday hug though when she came home around 4pm, as he went in to work a little bit later than usual to be able to see her.

Happy Birthday My Love!

 Happy Birthday Alskling! I love you more than words can say!

Pool & After School Picnic

Guess who had a great spot in the sun while the kids shared the shade?

After their nap this afternoon, I went outside to fill up the pool and get organized with towels and toys. The water warmed up fast and the kids were happy to be able to play in the water again.

I had to move the umbrellas as the sun now had gone around and was now throwing the shade from the umbrellas on the opposite side.

When Cassie came home from school around 4pm, she stayed with them outside for a few minutes and I could prepare some snacks to eat outside. Watermelon and honey combs crackers and lots of drinks. Isabella ate the watermelon good, tried the green part first, but with a reminder she knew that she only was supposed to eat the red. Ben tried the melon, but even if he had a few bites, he went back snacking on his crackers before they wanted to go back into the pool again.

Cassie had the last day of AIMS today and she was really happy that it was over. She said the last Math test that they had today was very hard, but the reading test was very easy. I'm sure that she did good, as she always does her best, and that's all we want and can ask for!

Chris had training today and came home around 6pm. We had dinner and then he and Cassandra went to Walmart to pick up the birthday presents for the twins that I ordered just a few days ago. That was a fast delivery and I'm happy to have the stuff at home. One box was broken in the corner, I really hope that everything will be in the box and that nothing has fallen out. I'll check tomorrow when they are sleeping, I really hope that we don't have to return anything now!

Backyard Shade

This morning we were actually able to play outside a little bit longer than normal. When I went shopping yesterday, I finally found beach umbrellas that I've looked for and were sold out everywhere. I brought two with me home, and tried them out today.

It worked great, after just a few minutes that it took to put them up, we had two spots of shade in the backyard! Perfect for putting a blanket out with some toys and to have a late morning snack. The kids were happy too that we were able to go outside, it was warm today, but not as hot as the weekend. We are looking into buying a gazebo to put outside to gain more shade and get more space for the kids to play outside. As it's so hot here already now, we need to be able to be outside some parts of the day at least, and with a good gazebo, we can get enough shade to let them play outside more. To play outside in the burning hot sun is not possible for very long. There are many options and sizes out there, and we have to look around a bit before we decide what to buy.

Twilight Ladybug

Today I got a mystery package in the mail. The mailman came and rang the doorbell and surprisingly none of the kids woke up from their nap, amazing! I wasn't expecting anything, so I was a bit surprised, and even more after not having a clear sender. When I opened it, I realized that it was something nice after all! Thank you Huggies!!

Before we left for our Mini vacation, I put in all the codes that I had collected from our Huggies diapers and wipes. Some codes are worth 34 points, some were worth 14 points and some only 9 points. I don't know or remember where all the high codes came from as I had tossed them all in a mix in a jar..but there were a lot of stickers.

They added up to a lot of points, and I was happy to find something nice in the reward shop. When the kids were new born, they didn't even have gifts, but only cheaper memberships of Parents Magazines and such things, but nothing that you really wanted. Now they have started with better things and even if they sometimes have things that I don't want, especially when you don't have many points collected, but if you save them and keep adding like I did, you find some really nice things.

This ladybug I have seen in an advertisement and I already then thought how nice it was and I was happy to see it in the reward shop. They only had pink so whom it's for is pretty given..

Isabella will have to wait until her birthday though to get her pink Ladybug! Hopefully they also will get another in for Ben later. I didn't have the time to try it out yet, but I really hope it's as nice as I think it will be!

Float away in peaceful slumber under a beautiful star-filled sky. Twilight Ladybug^TM makes bedtime fun and helps ease children's fear of the dark by projecting a starry night sky onto bedroom ceiling and walls. Stars and Ladybug shell illuminate in three magical colors to help children sleep easier. The perfect sleep companion for children of all ages!

Missing Girl In Tucson, Arizona

 Tucson police release ID of missing girl - Tucson News Now

Every family's nightmare came true on Saturday morning for a family not far away from us, in Tucson, Arizona. Their 6 year old girl was missing from her bedroom when the parents went to wake her up. Since then a massive search is on to find the girl and some reports are saying that a window screen in the girl's bedroom had been knocked down and that might be the possible entry for an abduction/kidnapping.

Here with the high temperatures I understand that many people are sleeping with their windows open at night only having the screen up. It's terrifying to think that someone would watch for this and entry the homes this way.

It's so scary and every hour and every day that passes by, the hopes of finding her of course goes down. Also thinking of how close we are to the Mexican border, makes it even harder to find her IF he has been abducted. Nothing is clear for now, only that the girl is missing.

So many, too many children goes missing every year, and here we have a case again, this time only 4 hours away from where we live. We stayed just outside Tuscon on our way here during our move. The Saguaro National Park that we visited, is right there.

She has been missing since Saturday. Today is the forth day she is gone. The temperatures here in Arizona have been HOT the last couple of days and if they think that she has been wondering off on her own and gotten lost in the wilderness,  chances of survival in temperatures over 100F/38C are not good.

I so hope for a happy ending in this story. I always worry sick when I read and hear about these cases, there are way to many sad endings on these kind of news...Being a mother you worry even more.
To be continued..

Sprinkler Fun!

Sunday afternoon, Cassie's friend Aubrie called and wanted to come over. No problem, Cassie walked to pick her up three streets away, and when they came back, the went into her room for some playing and a lot of giggling. After a while they came out to join me and the little ones in the garden. As the pool was for the babies, I put on the sprinkler for them to run around in, and they had lots of fun as you can see. They were pop stars, dancers or maybe both, at least there were singing and dancing!

We are so happy that the friendship with Aubrie has continued and hopefully I will get to meet the mom soon and we can let Cassie go over there to play too sometimes. Cassie's friends are always welcome here, but it would be nice for Cassie as well to have a little break from her siblings and go to someone elses' house and play with their things. Well, Summer vacation is not far away, I hope they can stay close and have lots of fun like this all Summer long!

The photos came out pretty good with the sprinkler on I think. It almost looks like someone is throwing rice on Cassie on the pictures below! Well, the only reason i could think of that someone would throw rice on you would be when you get married. With that said I hope that it takes a very looooong time until someone throws rice on this girl!

Isabella wanted to play with the big girls too, a little bit hesitant as the water from the sprinkler of course was freezing cold, not like the pool that was more like a hot tub in the late afternoon, getting all warmed up by the sun! So cute she stood by the sideline watching and listening to the big girls.

Pool Time!

 My beautiful daughters!

The day didn't start that great. Wanted to blow up the pool with the air pump that we have - somewhere. One more thing that we haven't found after it got packed (did it get packed?) before our move. The packers even wrote "Air pump" on one  of the moving boxes, so guess if I was surprised and upset when I found that there was no pump in that box! So annoying, and blowing up a three ring baby pool by the "natural pump" instead of an electrical took a little bit longer and with more effort than I had thought this morning..

Anyway, after the late start with the pool outdoors, the water didn't have time to warm up that much, even if it wasn't freezing after just about 30 minutes, more time the kids wouldn't give it to warm up. It was so warm already at 10.30am and they wanted to play in the water. They had a great time, and after about 2 hours (and a lot of crying and resistance to get out of the water...) it was time to go inside for a quick lunch and Pediasure, and then nap time. Pushing nap time forward a little bit plus all the playing made them tired and they had a nap for about 2 hours! That hasn't happened for a while, and it was nice!! A break for mommy! I would have gone outside right away to lay in the sun, but as I had been out with them in the sun in the morning and knew that I'd go out again in the afternoon, I stayed inside to rest the skin. I like to get a tan, not to get red, and it would have been easy to burn today!

It was too hot in the middle of the day anyway to go outside, over 106F/41C today, and while the kids slept, Cassie watched a movie, and I was looking online for a gazebo to put up in the backyard to get some more shade. We have sun from when the sun goes up in the morning until it goes down around 7pm. No trees or anything in the backyard makes it very hot to be outside playing in this weather.

We do have an umbrella in the table, and to have some shade, I had to bring the big bulky table out in the yard and put the umbrella in, then move it along with the sun the whole afternoon. At least the kids were in the shade at all times in the pool. To get some light in some of the pictures, I did move the umbrella so the kids would be in the sunshine too.

They had such a great time, I don't think there is any kids that don't love water and pool time? Throw in a few cups to pour with and some other toys and the kids are occupied for hours - if you let them!

The water was still a little bit chilly in the morning before it had time to heat up from the sun.

Isabella taking a dip!

Cassie is growing up so fast - too fast!

Cups, cups give me more cups! Benjamin loves to pour!

The big sister with her younger siblings

Later in the afternoon, after Chris had gone to work (he left later today it was already over 4pm when he left) I took them outside again. Now the temperatures were higher than in the morning so sunhats, and protective shirts were a must, even with sunscreen! I do not want to burn them, but I don't want them to miss out of the fun either.

Luckily they didn't resist the extra clothes. Ben loves his new swim trunk and shirt that I got him yesterday. I also bought new pants and shirt, and also a bikini for Isabella, but they were all too big and have to be returned. Cassie's new bikini was perfect and she was very happy with it!

So cute, but too big. Not made in smaller sizes than 18 Months, and the pants didn't stay up..Have to keep looking for Isabella. They need these sun protective shirts and the one she has from last year is getting a bit too tight. I was amazed that the pants actually stayed up on Ben. There we normally have big problems as he is so thin, but size 18 months worked even in the pants this time!

Well, we went shopping for a lot of things and Karolina and Johanna, when you read this, check your Facebook mail Johanna!