My Birthday in Pictures

Yesterday, my friends set up an entire day of fun to celebrate my 40th birthday. It was outstanding. We ran at the park then had coffee at Starbucks. We broke for showers and met again for a deliciously fresh and healthy lunch at Pita Jungle. We stayed there for three hours visiting, and it was lovely. Then we met again for dinner on the charming patio of an authentic Mexican restaurant in downtown Chandler. If that wasn't enough, Aimee set up a donation button on the Evite for friends to donate to Feed My Starving Children in lieu of gifts, and friends generously donated. But I still received gift cards, jewelry, and four "40" balloons--one for each decade. This whole day was the most thoughtful birthday gift ever, and I'm grateful for each and every one of my good friends. They really are the best, and I'm lucky to have them and their support.

If yesterday was all about friendship, today was all about family. Brian took the kids and me on a drive to the Tonto Cliff Dwellings near Roosevelt Lake. It's National Park Week and all the parks are offering free admission. I originally considered a Grand Canyon trip, but that's too far for one day, so I looked around for national monuments instead of parks. I found Tonto and decided to give it a try. We weren't fortunate enough to get on the upper cliff dwellings guided hike, but the lower cliff dwellings did just fine. Plus it gave us a few more hours to explore the surrounding area.

Matthew always looks pained. This was five minutes into the 15-minute hike. I swear! It was a steep 350-foot elevation gain, though. He cracks us up.

Checking out the cliff dwellings cheered him up fast, though.

We drove over to Roosevelt Dam. "Dam!"

Apparently, North America's largest steel arch bridge is there.

We had a lakeside picnic.

It looks like they're dancing, but they are really fighting. Naturally.

Here's the other side of the dam and the start of Apache Lake.

We decided to come home via the Apache Trail, a very scenic byway. Only about half of it is paved, and we started on the unpaved part.

It really was scenic because today was so clear.

The drive was a bit hairy in places. It's an old roadway and not wide at all. Some parts are one lane and the corners can be blind. We had only one close call with a (too large to be there--in my opinion) camper, but thankfully we were both going slowly enough to stop and move to the side safely.

Fish Creek Hill is known to be a wonky pass.

But it was beautiful!

It was a lovely day with the family.

Impressive!

Elizabeth had her second track meet today. She ran the 800 meters again, and this time she came in 5th out of 15. They don't earn ribbons like in elementary school, but the first two athletes from each school earn points for their team. The winner of her race was from ACP, three others finished, and then came Elizabeth. So her time counted! We didn't think that would ever happen this year, but she ran a good race and her coach is very good at teaching strategy.

Elizabeth started off towards the back of the pack and gradually made her way to the middle during her first lap. At the start of the second, she began passing girls and by the time she was rounding the last turn I was wondering if she was going to come in fourth or third. She really worked hard and I was impressed. She finished in 3:12!

She's the seventh runner from both sides. 

purple shirt between the two other purple shirts

middle purple

approaching the end of her first lap (of two)

starting to get after it

pulling away and flying!

5!

That's My Girl

Elizabeth had a big week!

First, she received a letter in the mail from her school inviting her to be in the National Junior Honor Society. It's the same as the high school National Honor Society except it's for junior high kids. According to the letter, "This is a great honor and we hope that you view it as such." We all do, and we get to celebrate with her at the induction ceremony on April 28th. I'm looking forward to it!

Second, she is going to have a potential new student shadow her next Tuesday. A current sixth grader will spend the day with her to see what a day in the life of an ACP student is like. Elizabeth was a shadow last year and is excited to get to pay it forward by welcoming her. I hope she doesn't scare her away.

Lastly, and probably most exciting, was Elizabeth's first track meet on Wednesday. None of us knew what to expect, but it was much more official than I had imagined it to be. And some of those kids are so big! She's tall but looks like a baby compared to some of those mini-adults. That part was strange. Also, out of the three schools participating, I didn't think the ACP kids would do well. After all, nerds aren't known for their athletic prowess. In hindsight, I don't know why I thought that. Most of these kids are driven, and what they might not have in natural athletic talent, they make up for in good, old effort. Plus, they probably understand the science behind fueling for performance better than anyone and have been eating to win for five days. Ha!

In any case, Elizabeth's 800 meter race (twice around the track) didn't happen until 90 minutes into the meet. In the meantime, Matthew and I watched as ACP kids consistently came in #1 and #2 in nearly every event from hurdles to long jump. Hurdles. Can we talk about hurdles for a moment? Now, I've never watched a hurdles race other than the Olympics, so when you see average kids doing it you wonder who thought that was a good idea. It was downright frightening. During the short races, I realized that some of those kids can really sprint! I was getting a little nervous for Elizabeth because I know she is not fast. She jogs, not runs. So as the longer races began, I was worried that her fear of coming in last might become a reality. At one point, I even feared she might be lapped on the track. Besides elementary running club races--which are really not competitive (or at least they shouldn't be)--I've never watched my child compete in an athletic event. The emotions were a bit startling. I might have been as anxious as she when she was walking around with her friends trying to stay loose. She's on the far right with the white t-shirt under her jersey.

Anyway, after what felt like forever, they finally called her race to the start line. I was relieved the field of runners was so large.

Here she is on the outside nearing the completion of her first lap.

She managed to pass a few runners right here.

Now she's nearing the end of her second lap and end of the race. She follows her coach's directions and picks it up at the end.

Senora Loff is one of Elizabeth's favorite teachers.

I think Senora Loff likes Elizabeth, too. 

I don't know who that girl is, but she cheered very enthusiastically for her team and that was very enjoyable to watch. Loved it!

In the end, Elizabeth finished in the middle. That was her goal, and she met it. She wasn't last and was never in danger of being lapped, but she did cough quite a bit afterwards. I know she gave it her all, and she was proud of herself. I was, too. The best part is she had fun with her friends and is already looking forward to next week's meet. Go Elizabeth!

More Confirmations Made

Over the weekend, I finalized our six-month-out camping trip in Zion National Park. We have a place to stay there in October for a few nights, and then we'll head up to the first-come/first-served campgrounds in Bryce Canyon. Hopefully we'll be lucky there and snag a good site. If not, well we'll figure out something. It's six months from now. That's too far away for even me to worry about quite yet.

Today and tonight, I worked out some plans with a friend to camp with their family in a few weeks. We are spending three nights at Chiricahua National Monument. What? You never heard of it? Well, it's just the best place you've never heard of because it looks like this:  

It's like a mini Bryce Canyon. Maybe. I don't know, but I do know that I've wanted to see it for awhile, and I figure we should see it before experiencing Bryce. So we are going, and I'm excited. Very excited!

For that weekend, we are going back to our camping roots and sleeping in our tent. It will be fun. I'm looking forward to sleeping outside again. Truth be told, I don't sleep all that well in the Airstream yet. It makes a lot of sounds. The furnace, the hot water heater, the fan that cools down the electrical system when we are plugged in...they all make noise and it can be unnerving. So being outside will be a nice change, as long as the weather cooperates. I might complain about having to fish around in coolers, though, because having a refrigerator is admittedly a very nice luxury when camping. So is a sink. But we will manage. 

So here's to more trips!

How Not to Cook Bacon

You can cook bacon in the microwave. You can cook it in the oven. I, unfortunately, once listened to my food science guru and cooked it in my waffle iron. That was a disaster. Bacon gets pretty messy and can be scary when you cook it on the stove, but it's certainly not as scary as cooking it with...a machine gun.

WTF? Please watch Ted Cruz proudly cook bacon with his assault rifle. (If you're forced, as I was, to watch an NRA ad before this video plays, I'm sorry. But feel free to laugh and roll your eyes at that, too.)



He's clearly amused, and I'm nothing but disgusted. And that menacing look and laugh at the end clinches the fact that he should not be the leader of the free world.

I've never shot a gun in my life and have no plans to, however even I know he's not practicing safe gun-handling. At 0:35, Ted Cruz clearly picks up the gun with his finger on the trigger. I know from giving my Be SMART presentations--a conversation about kids, guns, and safety--that the National Shooting Sports Foundation recommends that you never put your finger on the trigger until you are absolutely ready to fire.

Everyone's up in arms (pun intended) about Trump, but this guy's almost as bad. Ick.

Stay Classy

Matthew's school's fun run went off as planned on Thursday.  Just in case you were wondering, the Cardinals cheerleaders--all two of them--showed up wearing something similar to what I wear to Starbucks every Saturday morning. In black yoga capri pants and zip-up jackets, one might mistake them for really young moms if they hadn't been holding shiny pom poms.

I'm sure our PTO president was disappointed as she made it perfectly clear when I brought it up at the meeting that she wanted the entire squad there wearing next to nothing. I'm grateful the Cardinals organization has far more class than she.