Making It...Without Grass

Summer here in Ajo, Arizona (land of pokiness and browness) is different than Utah we found out very quickly. Once it heats up, it stays that way with no relief, even at night. Everything here wants to poke you (cactus', scorpions, rocks) or eat you (snakes, bugs, the weather), there is no grass, and the power goes out randomly. The record so far: 19 hours. But even with all of that we are making it through our first summer in 110+ degree weather.

I really dreaded the summer coming because I knew the kids would be stuck in the house all day and I was preparing ahead of time for the whining and complaining and bauling, but its actually been good in some ways. Anna and Jake have learned to play more together without fighting as much and they been VERY creative in their play. Lizzie's legs have completely healed from all the scratches and cuts they endured from our cement stairs outside; she learned to climb just as it was getting hot. Ice cream and otter pops are becoming almost daily afternoon snacks (more for my sake than the kids) and we'll use any excuse to go swimming (you're cold? lets go swimming...you're hot? lets go swimming...you're bored...lets go swimming...what? you're hungry?...lets go swimming!)

The kids finished up t-ball and they started swimming lessons, which has been great, not so much for me and Lizzie who sit there dripping with sweat while watching them in the pool. So we've stayed busy, but I miss grass. I miss the big oak trees and the colorful flowers, and the grass. If I could have grass without having a water bill of $1000, I would do it. So I eat my ice cream, followed by an otter pop and dream of grass.

I thought these were too cute to not share...

4th of July

We had a great Independence Day and need to share some pictures...
Ajo has a parade, if you can call it that (about 6 blocks, 10 entries and 20 minutes), but we did go see it since we could walk about 30 feet from our house and have first row seats. Here are the kids with our neighbor Larry.

First up, the flag and honor guard...I thought it was awesome because it consisted of National Park Service, Border Patrol, Pima County Sheriff, and BLM. The one holding the American flag is the Chief Ranger at the monument where Cody works.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument fire engine...woohoo, go Park Service!!! (side note: my awesome park ranger husband would have been in the fire truck, but he had to work, darn it)

And another fire engine, this one from Ajo Fire Dept.

And, wait, ANOTHER one from Ajo Fire Dept.

And that pretty much did it for the parade, not kidding...
Annalyn looked at me and said, "What? Thats it?!?! Where's the rest of it?" I gave her fair warning this parade was NOT like the one in Spanish Fork on Pioneer Day, but disappointment still happened.
After the parade we headed down the main part of town where they had booths and games for the kids. My favorite was this one...
Toilet Paper Toss!!! (sigh, only in Ajo)


Then we stopped by the face painting booth, and Jake's only lasted until we got home, by then he had unknowingly rubbed it off.

So by this time its about 10 am, 100 degrees and 65% humidity because of all the wonderful rain we had the night before, so we head home and did a little patriotic painting...

Then after lunch, we're bored waiting for dad to get home so we make cupcakes, can't go wrong with that! Thank you Martha Stewart for the decorating idea.

It was all I could do to keep Jake from eating all the raspberries before they were used on the cupcakes.

And of course, it was all I could do to keep Anna from eating all of the marshmellows before they were used on the cupcakes.

Finished product, not too bad with two kids who couldn't keep their fingers in control.

Love these kiddos, they made it fun today even though we couldn't spend it with our families in Utah, but it was fun to be somewhere new.

Happy 4th everyone! Hope it was great for you!