I’ve said it so many times, I’ve tired of hearing myself say it. But nothing makes me happier than being with my family out in the desert. It feels like home, moreso than any of the other places we’ve lived since we’ve been married.
This past Saturday, we went to a geocaching event, and after a big breakfast at Denny’s, got to explore a new part of Camp Verde.
Came across these guys a couple of miles into the winding mountain road:
This one wasn’t sure he wanted us to get out to look for the nearby cache:
The horses were more friendly.
In fact, they wanted to get in the car and come home with us.
No geocaching trip is complete without at least a couple of scrapes or scratches:
But it’s all worth it. Really, how can you not love this?
Well I’m going home, Back to the place where I belong, And where your love has always been enough for me. I’m not running from. No, I think you got me all wrong. I don’t regret this life I chose for me. But these places and these faces are getting old, So I’m going home. ~Daughtry
Christmas has come and gone, like it always does, in a flash of food, fun, and new toys. Christmas Eve was wonderful, and I truly think that Christmas morning was the best we’ve ever had.
There’s a scene in an episode of Friends that I love. The gang is sitting in Monica’s apartment, about to watch the video that will tell them who made a pass at whom the night that Ross and Rachel were working on Monica’s wedding invitations and ultimately conceived Emma. They were not going to watch it, and Rachel almost destroyed the tape, but in the end they decided to view it together to settle the question. Joey was so excited that they were going to watch it that he turned to Chandler, in his pure, completely childlike, Joey fashion, and simply said “I’m so happy!”
I felt like Joey on Christmas morning. Just… HAPPY. Something about experiencing the magic and excitement of Christmas through the eyes of the four children that I so deeply, deeply love. Watching Spencer shoot all his Nerf guns, seeing Tegan making tea in her new kitchen, playing Life with Paxton and Toss-Across with Everett. Hearing people chatting and laughing and just generally enjoying the day.
The house was full on Christmas day… even Julie and Getty came over with their tiny 8 week old Genevieve to visit for awhile. Mom and Dad were here, Sandi and Mitch and the kids, Barbara and Skip. It was big, noisy, and peaceful.
The day after Christmas we relaxed at home, venturing out only to buy the completion of one of Paxton’s presents – a beautiful, candy-cane baby corn snake. Yesterday was just the opposite: We left at seven in the morning to head down to Tucson. We went on a tour of the Biosphere (amazing!), went out for lunch, toured the Titan Missile facility, did a couple of caches, stopped at Denny’s for dinner, and finally arrived back home at 9:30. It was a fun day, and a full day.
This morning, we rest again. The kids have been happily playing, I’ve made a second pot of coffee, and the house is quiet. We’re recouping, relaxing, and breathing.
I feel like we’ve been running a marathon the past few days. A fun marathon, but a marathon nonetheless. In 48 hours, we drove 375 miles, played in the snow, took a train ride to the North Pole to see Santa, spent the night at my parents’, logged 14 geocache finds, went to a Christmas party, and watched a 45 minute Christmas light display. Even today, a day that was supposed to be devoted to decompressing, was largely spent out and about – running errands, getting last minute Christmas things, and picking up the new phones that turned out to be Mike and I’s Christmas presents to each other.
On Friday afternoon, we headed up to Williams to take the kids on the Polar Express. I was beyond thrilled that we’d been able to keep it secret since booking the tickets a month ago, and the boys’ reaction did not disappoint! They were so excited for not only the train ride, but also just to see, play in, and experience the snow. We got to drive through a small squall on the way there, they saw a snow plow in action, and they collectively threw about 38265 snow balls.
The train ride itself was fun too, although the trip would have been worth it just to see how happy the kids were to see the snow! Everett and Tegan especially loved seeing the buildings all lit up at the North Pole, and were happy to give Santa a high five when he boarded the train. We all enjoyed the soft cookies and hot chocolate, and the kids were singing carols with the best of them on the way back to the station. I could not have asked for a nicer night.
Here are a few pictures, and I’ve posted more on Facebook.
After the train ride, we spent the night at Mom and Dad’s, thankful to have a midway point at which to crash instead of driving the three hours home. On Saturday we spent most of the day geocaching in another beautiful mountainous area of the state. We got up close and personal with cows (and their poop), cacti, an awesome assortment of rocks, and curious highway patrol who watched from across the street as we found our final cache on a Stop sign.
Saturday night we stopped at a Christmas party hosted by my parent’s minister and his wife, and enjoyed some more good food, hot cider, and visiting before we left for our last adventure – a 45 minute Christmas light display in Cornville. It was an amazing combination of lights set to music, and even in the cold (and at times, wet) night, the 45 minutes passed by in what felt like half that time. This is just a small clip of his display from 2007, although he has upgraded in many ways since then. It took approximately 8 to 10 hours of programming for each MINUTE of music. Awesome.
We got home at 10:30 last night, exhausted but happy and ready for bed. Now that our recent stretch of being go, go, go is momentarily over, this introvert is looking forward to what I hope will be a calm and peaceful 12 days until Christmas. No big plans beyond cookie making and hot chocolate sipping, resting and enjoying the remainder of the season.
On Saturday morning, we had 93 geocache finds to our credit. By the end of the day, we had over a hundred, and had logged the experience of exploring a nearly mile-long, pitch black, underground cave, created more than half a million years ago from flowing lava.
We had wanted to go to the lava tube ever since we heard about it, and thought it was a fitting way to to celebrate our 100th find. The cave was in the middle of the woods, just a short little walk from where we parked.
One minute we were in the woods, and the next we were at what looked like a big rock foundation.
The cave was cool, damp, and dark. We could smell it before we even entered… a sort of earthy, dirty smell that I actually didn’t find at all unpleasant. The climb down was slow going while carrying a 25 pound toddler, but once it leveled off I was able to wear her (and she even walked herself in some of the less rocky areas)
The darkness and stillness of the cave was not like anything I’d ever experienced. Complete and total silence that you could feel in your soul, and taste in your stomach. There were a lot of people sharing the tunnel with us that day, but when we were alone on a bend we’d shut off our headlights for a second to appreciate the blackness. I didn’t know how the kids would like that, but they kept asking for more! It took us around an hour to make it to the end, where a few members of our party explored some of the tiny crevices…
We took our time heading back, and stopped to appreciate the swirls and splashdowns created by the lava so long ago.
We were tired and sore from the trek (Hello thigh muscles, nice to feel you!!) but we all agreed it was well worth it, and is a trip we’re looking forward to repeating in the future.
And because life is about stopping to smell the roses, or in our case, stopping to spot the wildlife, I’d be remiss not to mention that we were lucky enough to see a bobcat in the wild on the way there. We pulled over, but not in time to get a picture. We did however, snap some pictures of the bulls we passed on the way out. 🙂
I'm Jen... the shy, lost girl from the east coast who married at nineteen and eventually found herself - four kids later - in the middle of the desert. I like chocolate. You can read more about me here.
A ridiculous amount of coffee is consumed in the process of writing these blog posts. If you enjoy my work, I'd be extremely grateful if you added some fuel to keep me going!
