Girls Paint Night Out

Alisha says: For Christmas Christine and I got tickets for all the girls in the family for a paint night. We all had a great time being artistic. The painting that the teacher was teaching had a tree in it but a few of us (Me, Christine and Lindsay) decided that we wanted to paint saguaros instead. I love how each persons painting turned out a little different and unique to their own style. 

The painting crew: Donna, Venice, Anne, Christine, Alisha, Lindsay, Allie and Rachel. (Anne and Allie switched paintings)

The Box Fort

Dave says: We had a bunch of empty boxes left over from the holidays so I decided it was time to make Skye a box fort. Kids often like the box better than the gift inside so I figured why not just make the boxes part of the fun. It has a tall tower in the back, a long tunnel, and two box houses. Some silver sliced bubble wrap made a great door. We decorated with a few stickers and taped in pictures. In a more recent update, I added a string of multi-colored lights. Currently the long tunnel is her favorite. She likes it if you crawl in first and I barely fit which keeps things exciting. 

Rocky Point

Dave says: Over winter break it was once again time for a trip down to Rocky Point. We were there a year ago when Skye was just a few weeks old but this time she was big enough to do more things. We did the usual things like swimming in the heated pool (Skye's favorite) and walking on the beach. We went down to the old port and walked around. Skye got a cute little Mexican dress and a maraca. We also tried a new beach a ways out of town and found a new market street that we hadn't been to before with a great restaurant. Christine and Parker joined us at the Sonoran Sky although unfortunately Christine was sick for a lot of the trip. Overall, it was a fun little getaway to relax on the beach.

Christmas is More Fun With Kids

Alisha says: Even though Skye is still a bit young to fully appreciate Christmas she was still a lot of fun this year. We had a very enjoyable Christmas Eve dinner at the Welsh's complete with a family Christmas song jam session with everyone who has any bit of musical talent. The rest of us enjoyed listening or chasing the kids around.

Christmas morning after snuggles in bed we opened our gifts. Skye was treated to a few toys, clothes and some books. She also thoroughly enjoyed the wrapping paper. We then made our way over to the Leavitt's for brunch and more presents. Skye enjoyed playing in the presents under the tree and with the ornaments on the tree (I was bad and didn't put up our big tree this year). It was fun exchanging gifts with Dave's family and watching the Leavitt kids open their gifts. Skye got spoiled with more gifts from the grandparents and great grandparents.

Family jam session

Christmas morning smiles!

Opening gifts

She played and played with the presents and tree ornaments in this very spot for a long time

Seattle Visitors

Dave says: Our friends Chris and Sarah came down from Seattle for a bit of winter adventure in Arizona. Right before their trip, a big storm dropped the temperatures and so we spent the first day in Phoenix doing a little hike and a mtb ride. 

On Day 2, we headed north to Sedona after brunch in Scottsdale. There was time for a trip to the cathedral overlook and a short hike around Bell Rock before dinner once we finally arrived. We took them on the Devil's Bridge hike the next morning which was a lot of fun. In the afternoon, we walked around Sedona's art center and admired all the Christmas displays and $30,000 bronze sculptures of animals. It's nice to travel with other couples with a little one who are used to all that this entails.

Day 4 took us up to the Grand Canyon where we hiked down the Kaibab trail for two miles to Cedar Point. When the sun was out it was warm and pleasant. When the sun went behind the clouds and the wind blew, it felt like winter. Skye did well on all her adventuring although she didn't want to wear her gloves but also didn't like having cold hands. Only two miles of uphill on the way out of the canyon still felt like a pretty good workout to me. After a late lunch and a short rim walk, the rain started coming down right as it was time to head home. It rained all night and pretty hard during the drive home the next day so I guess our timing worked out pretty well for the trip. 

Sedona MTB

Dave says: We left Skye with Grandma for her first overnighter and went on a quick trip up to Sedona. Our afternoon ride from Oak Creek took us around Slim Shady and HT to the Hogs, Broken Arrow, and Little Horse. It's always enjoyable to sit on the big rock at Chicken Point, take in the view, and talk about the white line on the cliff and the crazy people who ride it on YouTube.

The next morning we went out to the west side. Before jumping on the bikes, we decided to take a short hike to Devil's Bridge. I drove the Subaru in part way but the road got a little gnarly and so we walked for a bit to the trailhead. It's a pretty great little hike with an arch you can walk out on that looks a bit scary in pictures but isn't too bad in person. 

It was a great day for riding the west side and we finally have a good loop figured out. We added in the Mescal trail (which for some reason we had never done) and it was some pretty great slickrock at the base of some cool formations. After a tasty lunch it was time for our getaway to come to an end and we drove home and found Skye and Grandma doing great. With this trip only 2 hours away, it's hard not to want to come to Sedona on a regular basis.

Updates and Ramblings

Alisha says: We are now thick into the holiday season and we've just been busy with regular life. Skye is now 13 months old and although I don't know how long I will continue to do monthly updates here is what she has been up to. She is a super fast crawler and cruiser but not too interested in walking. She also scoots/bounces along on her knees as a mode of transportation. Now that it is colder and stays dark longer in the mornings we have a morning routine where she wakes up around 6 (usually a little earlier but I try to make her stay in her bed until around 6) then I get her a bottle and bring her into our bed where we snuggle for at least 30 minutes before she begins to be more active and starts crawling around and climbing up on the wire headboard. I sure do love those morning snuggles, they are the best! She is getting a little more independent and wanting to feed herself a little more, she loves grapes, cheese and oranges.We also have to keep and eye on her as she loves to play with the fireplace and climb on the boxes that are keeping her away from the TV. She likes to read books and is getting good at pulling the flaps open in the pop up peak-a-boo books.

 This is what she does while I try to cook dinner, holds onto my leg begging to get picked up or plays in the pantry.

We took a day trip to Tucson. Doug and Roberta watched Skye while Dave and I went for a road ride and then we all went for a walk at Sabino Canyon.