Our Adventures in Phoenix (including Laura's wedding!)

We had a blast in Phoenix for our cousin Laura's wedding.  Not only was it sunny and warm, but we got to spend time with family.

Our first day we visited the tourist trap of Goldfield.  It's a former goldmine next to several active mines.  We took a train ride and learned about the missing Dutchman mine and the desert.  In the slideshow, you'll see Tim and Steve holding a scorpion as part of the reptile room.

The next day was our favorite adventure - tubing on the Salt River.  Who knew there was so much water in the dessert!  We floated for almost 2 hours in the late morning (it reached 101 that day), checked out the amazing desert views, watched birds (blue herons, red winged black birds, and desert cardinals), and shot a few (small) rapids.  On our short walk from the bus drop off to the river, Tim saw a scorpion which he thought was pretty cool.  That afternoon, we had the wedding rehearsal.  Sidra and Auntie and Uncle arrived just in time for her part as a flower girl.

Saturday was spent lazing by the pool with Aunt Heather and the Grandparents Bullock.  It was great to swim and be mellow after several late nights.  At the wedding, the boys attended to the guest book, handed out programs and at the end of the service excused the rows.  They did an excellent job and looked very snazzy.  Sidra looked adorable and was a fabulous flower girl.  It was a touching ceremony - very poignant for all involved.

Sunday was some more family time with the newlywed brunch attended by family and long time friends from St. Louis and was a mellow way to spend time with cousin Amy and her husband Todd, Uncle Charles and the newlyweds!  That evening we went to a family bbq.  It was a pleasant evening and a great chance to chat with Laura, Brock, Amy, Todd and Uncle Charles (and for the boys to do their favorite activity - swim!).  The boys had a lot of fun playing with the kids from Brock's family (all from Eugene!).

In between those two things the boys and I spent the afternoon at the Natural History Museum with Sidra and Auntie (Steve was at the hotel elevating his ankle and writing).  What a great little museum - we panned for gold, checked out the dinosaurs, watched a simulated flash flood and experimented with several green screens. 

Alas, we are back to the cool, cloudy weather and the reality of two and a half weeks left of school.  It's much more fun to play in the pool all day, even if it means wearing loads of sunscreen.  Below is a slideshow of our adventures (except for the tubing).  Facebook folks - you'll have to go to our blog to view the pictures.

 -Holly

Finally, Some Sun!

 This week we got to experience late August weather (for Oregon) here in Phoenix.  Holly's youngest cousin got married (the boys were ushers) and we had a wonderful time exploring the valley and spending time with the Kruse family.

And of course there was the weather.  Hot and sunny (101 on Thursday) we LOVED it.  After a rainy fall, winter and spring in Oregon - this was wonderful.  Later in the week we'll post some more pictures, for now, here are some of the hill/mountain/rocks that surround Phoenix.

Reading at the Blackbird Wineshop on June 1st

 I (Steve not Holly) will be reading a short selection from my novel at the Blackbird Wine and Atomic Cheese Shop, June 1st at 7pm.  This was organized by Stevan Allred and Joanna Rose, who run a weekly critique group, the Pinewood Table.

I worked with them through the first draft of my novel and they asked me to read along with four other writers they've mentored.  The BWAC Shop is at 4323 NE Fremont (map) and the reading is for 21 and over.


If you can make it, I'd love to have you join me.

-Steve

Sellwood Marching Band in St. Johns' Parade!

Last Saturday Joe's band marched in the St. Johns' parade (this a neighborhood in the northernmost part of Portland).  What a fun parade to watch - floats, bands, princesses, horses (and their boisterous pooper scoopers), neighborhood kids, politicians (including the mayor and Rep. Blumenauer).  The crowd watching was almost better.

You'll notice the red ribbon on the Sellwood banner - the marching band tied for 2nd!  This was quite exciting for the group (they'd not placed in this parade before, so Mr. Arrayan, the band teacher, was very proud). 


Tim and I trekked up to watch (making sure to go over the Fremont and St. Johns' bridges - now Tim's officially been over every bridge in Portland).  Here's a picture of Tim rolling his eyes at me taking a picture of us as we were waiting for the parade to start.  Silly kid.


-Holly

Art Night at Lewis!

The first Thursday in May is Art Night at Lewis Elementary.  It's an amazing experience - beautiful artwork all over the walls, kids talking about how they created different types of art (nothing like having a kindergartener explain Pointillism!), and the school's different music groups performing. 

Both sets of grandparents were able to join us and Docent Tim was happy to share about his classes' artwork.  We also enjoyed listening to several of the kids in Steve's class talk about the art they'd created.


The evening ended with Tim performing in the school's percussion group, the Boomin' Beats.

-Holly

Softball Field - 1, Steve - 0

Steve and I played in our first softball game today (we're playing on one of our church's teams, the Metadores de Dragones).  I played last year and am excited to have Steve play, too.  The boys are our most excellent bat boys.  Steve made some awesome plays from short stop, some of them to me at first.  Our team won - YIPEEE!  After loosing most of our games last year, this was pretty exciting!

Steve didn't get to finish the game. On a run to second (thanks to an overthrow), his calf muscle decided it was done.  He hit the dirt, got up, tried again and didn't make it.  He decided it wasn't worth crawling that last 20 feet.  After we knew it wasn't too serious, the other team (the Bottom Dwellers) gently tagged him out and we helped him from the field.  The cuts are clean and he's icing and stretching his calf (poor guy).  We'll see how he feels tomorrow.  I may be a chauffer for a bit!


-Holly