during our time in mesa, we were able to hit up two different national monuments, both about an hour or so away, and both dedicated to preserving the history of native people who inhabited the area long before we did. first up, casa grande. the big house. the kids insisted on doing as much of […]
isaac
desert botanical garden.(spoiler: it’s mostly cactuses).
for our first grand adventure in the state of arizona, we chose the desert botanical garden in phoenix. the lidkids actually voted for it, out of all the options presented to them. we definitely like cactuses in this family. on the stroll in, i took this shot, to showcase our first usage of the trio […]
grandlidbom san diego christmas. last day.
for the last (full) day of the grandlidbom san diego christmas extravaganza, the world famous san diego zoo was on tap. before we even entered the gates, we happened upon our first “animal”… there were hundreds of bees buzzing around a (rather peculiar) plant. i don’t know if this pic is from my phone or […]
san diego christmas day.
(with grandlidboms!)
after three days of activities and being on the gogogo, we really slowed down for christmas eve. there were a couple of shopping trips. and some cooking. and mostly just hanging out. derek brought my little walmart christmas tree over to the hotel, so it would feel more christmassy because i was mildly depressed about […]
grandlidbom san diego christmas, days 2 & 3.
after our action packed first day with the grandlidboms, the lidkids spent the night with them, and since we didn’t have anything planned until lunchtime on day two, our morning at the camper was lazy and glorious. i savored a delicious cup of coffee outside by the lake, with no bickering, whining or cartoon sounds […]
grandlidbom san diego christmas, day 1.
finally. the day was here. the grandlidboms arrived in san diego. we woke up, ate a quick breakfast, and then headed out the door to meet them at the birch aquarium. we had our happy greetings and then started exploring… while the whole place was pretty educational, the first bit that we walked around in […]
2017. one second everyday.
with the exception of a handful of days, i managed to remember to capture a one second video clip from each day in the last year. here, i present them to you, mashed up, for a review of our 2017 travels and adventures…
san diego, pre-grandlidbom christmas visit.
after our little stay in menifee, we moved on to san diego, where we would be meeting derek’s parents for an epic christmas extravaganza. but, first, we had a few days to settle in before they would arrive. once we were all set up and good to go at our site, we headed off to […]
menifee, california.
well. so. we had to cut our time in joshua tree a little short. we ran into a bit of trouble with our battery being able to hold enough charge, given the allotted charging time. since we didn’t want to have to leave every few days to go charge up offsite, we decided to head […]
gingerbread village, est. 2017.
our annual gingerbread decorating, coincided with hazel’s birthday, at her request. for the second year on the road, we picked up a set of four mini gingerbread houses, due to space considerations, and much to the dismay of the lidkids. and then, we loaded up arthur christmas and not a charlie brown christmas, much to […]