Westward, Ho! The Sequel

We’ve been on the road again. We left Minnesota on July 3^rd and headed to Arizona via South Dakota, Colorado, and Utah. The girls did a great job on this first part of our trip. They spent most of the time in the car coloring, singing, and listening to books on cd. They also were both quite impressed with the trains and wind mills we saw, and loved to watch the storm clouds gathering on the horizon, travel though mountain tunnels, and find boats on the rivers we passed. We all were especially impressed with the scenery we passed in Arches National Monument in Utah.

Our first stop was in South Dakota to celebrate the Fourth of July with my sister and her family. As usual, we very much enjoyed our time playing and visiting with everyone there. Annie was thrilled with the fireworks again, though this year they were a bit much for Siri. When a firework would go off, she would cover her eyes, and say “I want to go inside, I want to go inside.”

Siri tries out cousin Elliott's bike

Kate and Annie letting their nails dry

Kate and Siri

Siri bracing herself for another firework 

Silly cousins

Our next stop was in Colorado, just outside of Denver to visit one of my closest friends from growing up, Kim, and her family. The kids hadn’t seen each other since our stop there last summer, but quickly warmed up to each other and had fun swimming and playing together. As with last year, we found the visit way too short, but we were delighted to spend a little time with them.

Emma, Siri, and Annie doing a puppet show

Emma and Annie en route to the pool

The girls playing dress-up:
a hula princess, a fairy princess, and a kitty cat

Next, we met my parents at our family’s cabin in Northern Arizona. We hadn’t been there since Annie was four months old, so it was wonderful to be back. The monsoon brought wonderful afternoon rains that we watched from the porch, and I enjoyed having Eric, Annie, and Siri spend time at a place that I have so many wonderful memories of. Annie’s favorite thing there seemed to be climbing rocks—big and little. Siri continually asked to go to the creek to throw rocks in. We hiked in the Prescott National Forest, where Siri thought it was great fun to pretend to sit on cactus just like “Pat” in Hop on Pop, and got a little too close for my comfort while waiting for us to say “No, Siri, No, Don’t sit on that!” Annie, Eric, and my parents spent an afternoon in town, exploring the courthouse and listening to a street musician-playing banjo.

For you cousins, out there, this is perched on the ledge of Rock Auditorium, we told the girls they had to wait until they were a bit older to go the next level.

Tossing rocks in the creek

Exploring by the wood pile--and finding impressive blue beetles.

Hiking in the  National Forest with two sleepy girls

Climbing Rocks

Outside the Prescott Courthouse

After a lovely weekend at the cabin, we headed south to Phoenix. We got there just in time to drop Eric off at the airport, and he headed back to Minnesota for ten days where he is working—at work and scraping our garage in ridiculous humidity. That afternoon, we got to celebrate my grandmother’s 84^th birthday. It was wonderful to see family, and we were so happy that our timing worked out to be there for her birthday. The girls especially enjoyed that cousins Anna and Natalie were also in town, so they got to play with them! 

For the past week, a good portion of our time has been spent in the pool. It’s amazing to think how much the girls have improved in the last week. They both are loving to be underwater, and are working on a number of skills. Both love jumping in, and getting “mermaid” rides underwater. Both are swimming to the steps, and Annie is now able to get to the side and up on her own. We’re working on strokes and techniques, but we’ve really had fun watching them come this far.

We've visited the Heard Museum where the girls especially enjoyed storytime and watching Native Americans, particularly a three year girl, dance.

Gramm, Jack, and Uncle Wayne joined us for dinner and the girls were delighted to have Grammy read them a story.

We look forward to a little under a week more here to swim, play, and visit. And, then we will pack up our car and head to Door County, Wisconsin for a weekend with friends before wrapping up our summer vacation.

Annie loved preschool this past year, so I thought it spoke well of our summer this far, when her reply to my question about whether or not she missed preschool was, with a big grin on her face, “No, because I am having so much fun on my summer trip!”