Images from Christmas Past

Here are some pics that didn't make the cut from last years Christmas/New Years trip to AZ.  So here we are again right now on another sunny Christmas morning.  Lots of new pics coming but here are a few to tide you, our gentle readers, over until I can download the new ones.  Merry Christmas y'all!

 

On our super hike in Sedona last year!

 Mmmmm, a tongue tattoo.

 Kian skiin' in Flagstaff Christmas 2011.

 Dirt!  Mud minus the moisture.

 Layers of Sedona.

 Someone scored something.

Funtastics

We spent two nights at Tucsons premiere kiddy land center called Funtastics and the highlight was the unlimited two hour bracelet and the unlimited horsepower of the go-carts.

 

 But the Kiddy Cars were fun too and Kian's very first driving experience. It was fun watching him take off for the very first time... wondering how he even learned to steer, gas and brake all at the same time. There is no doubt that humans have evolved to drive.

  Here he is, above, working his competition up high and then...

 ... closing the door on her when she tries to come inside on him. 

 Choochoo roller coaster!

 3-days to Christmas and Pappy has another breakdown and gets Kian 

a remote controlled hydroplane for the pool. 

 We Mustache YOU a question: why make US look so silly? 

Way too much silliness for young and older.

Cigars, cigarette boats, too many dinners out, several great bike rides (booyah!), scooters and runs, shopping, football, and lots lots more!  So far!

Our Merrizona Christmas Trip

We set off for Arizona at a relatively leisurely time in the morning.  I've been having o' dark thirty starts all cyclocross season long so this was a nice change of pace, but whenever you've got a toddler in tow nothing is for sure so we had to plan accordingly and get an early start even though we had a late morning flight. Bummer, neutralized.  Our two week trips starts off with a week in sunny, warm Tucson to celebrate Christmas with the Reid's and then midway through our trip we move north to Flagstaff to celebrate New Years with the Francis'. 

 Our first brush with Santa at Seatac Airport.

 Didn't take long to get above the muck.

 And just a bit longer to get beyond the muck. Spoiler alert: that there is the Grand Canyon.

  

 Practicing for the big day: 5-days to Xmas and Kian is already opening presents.

5 days ago I couldn't have told you the name of the little red bird that Kian is packing around in most of these pictures but everywhere we go people give him the thumbs up, and now that I know of Angry Bird I'm seeing it everywhere.  Yeah, he had his Grandpa isolated in the mall and suckered him into buying that for him.  We should have known that Pappy wasn't strong enough yet to resist Kiki's charms.

No Turkey, Lots of Gobble

We had a great 4-day retreat out to the cabin over Turkey day but it was a very non-traditional Thanksgiving affair.  Just us turkeys.

Our friends Dan & Val were on their way out for the weekend on Wednesday evening and their car broke down in route, so they had to bail, but it didn't keep us from heading out to make it happen.  We stopped at the pass for a few hours of playtime-- K and I, that is, while A studied -- then we headed into the Leavenworth for a nice dinner somewhere.  Surprised that the town wasn't abuzz but we did have options and settled on the most traditional of the bunch and it was a great place for a Thanksgiving away from home.

The weather was perfect: either full-on snowing of it was a perfect blue sky!  Cold but not too cold, nice and crisp.  So nice to have an extended stay at the cabin and I look forward to a couple 3+ day visits this winter.