Montezuma’s Castle

Back in November when Aunt Sarah was visiting, we took a trip up to Sedona and we stopped at Montezuma’s Castle on our way.  This is about an hour and 15 mins from our house and it was where we finally started to see the fall colors, since fall colors don’t exactly exist in Phoenix.  (Boo!)  I had LOTS of fun playing with my camera and taking in the beauty of this place.

We actually got to visit here for free because they had a military discount .  Apparently you can get into National Parks for free with the pass they gave us if you’re military, but state parks aren’t usually free.

Montezuma’s Castle was built and used by the Sinagua people around 700AD.  It’s 5 stories high and took 5 centuries for them to complete.  It was mainly used from 1100-1425 AD and it was discovered in the 1860’s.  It is one of the best preserved cliff dwellings in North America.  It contains about 20 rooms and used to house about 50 people.  There is evidence that an even larger dwelling existed nearby, but it is gone now.  They don’t know why the people that lived here abandoned this area, but they carved these dwellings in the limestone and it was very hard for enemies to invade.

The fall colors were amazing and made it really feel like it was finally fall.  It was a bit cooler up there also, so that was nice too.  I could have spent hours there taking pictures of random things.  I especially like to take macro (close-up) photos sometimes because of the bokeh it creates, but I don’t really have a lens designed for macro use.  So I just make due with what I have and I love the way some of these turned out.

This is one of my favorite photos I took at Montezuma’s Castle.  There was this lone, perfectly shaped leaf caught in this tree.  I really like it.

This exhibit demonstrates how the dwellings look inside.  Pretty impressive!

Fall is by far my favorite time of year, and it makes me so happy that we can go an hour north and actually experience fall if we want to.  Arizona’s usually perfectly clear, blue skies combined with the cooler temps and the fall colors is my idea of heaven.  We definitely want to retire to some place that has fall!

A little funny:  we came down this hill around a curve and this view came into view.  Abbie, who was in the 3rd row of our car, piped up with, “Wow!!  That is just so damn pretty!!”  =S

Emily’s first chocolate chip cookie experience.

My mom taught Emily how to make chocolate chip cookies while she was visiting.  I grew up eating my moms cookies and I make them now myself sometimes, although they are bad for my waistline for sure…  They’re addicting and really good.  Here is Emily’s first experience with a chocolate chip cookie!

She liked them.  A lot.  Who doesn’t though?  (Actually I do know a few people who don’t.. <Ahem> – Rachel and Donna.  Wierdos. =D )  She also liked my parents Golden Retriever, Maddie, who Abbie calls “the old grey-faced dog”.  She went around saying “She’s such a good old grey-faced dog.” the entire time Maddie was here.  haha!  I want a Golden so bad!  Who wants to get me one for my birthday??  (Dad and Mom???) 

A visit from Grammy and Grampy

My parents came to visit us for a few days at the end of August.  They just left yesterday.  It’s always nice having them visit.  My mom stayed here for 9 days and my dad left for a few days to go to a conference in San Diego.

Abbie is never more than a few feet from my mom when she visits.  Abbie is absolutely crazy about my mom.  I’m not exactly sure what it is with those two, but they are very similar in their personalities and my mom can act a little nuts at time, and I think Abbie just relates to her really well.  My mom is also good at letting Abbie help with everything while she’s here and Abbie loves to be involved.  But when Grammy is here, Abbie wants her to do EVERYTHING for her.  Grammy takes her to school, Grammy gives her a bath, Grammy reads her books, Grammy helps her with everything.  It’s cute to see.

Last night Emily and I took the kids for a little bike ride around the neighborhood.  (Mark was at work.)  In the middle of the bike ride I heard Abbie crying so I asked her what was wrong.  She told me she was really sad that Grammy and Grampy left and that she missed them a lot.  =(  Throughout the evening, she asked me MANY times why they have to live so far away and why they had to leave and why can’t they just stay with us.  It breaks my heart to see her so sad.  We also got a pretty bad storm last night and Abbie said that she hoped that Grammy and Grampy were okay driving in the storm.  I told her that it wasn’t storming where they were and she didn’t exactly believe me, but I thought it was sweet of her to be concerned.

The other night Mark was saying goodnight to Abbie and she asked him when he was going to be a grandpa.  He told her he wouldn’t be a grandpa for a long time.  She said, “Dad, I don’t want you to be a grandpa.  I want you to be a daddy.”  He told her that he’d always be her daddy and she said that she didn’t want him to get old and be a grandpa.  She is very aware right now of getting old and dying and she seems very worried about that.  Is that normal behavior of a 4 year old?

Luckily we’ll see my parents in 6-7 weeks in Vegas and I know Abbie will be thrilled to see them, and then Uncle Alex and Aunt Sarah are coming in November.  Hopefully Grandma and Grandpa Browning can come out sometime to visit too.  I love that she’s so close to everyone, but I hate seeing her have a hard time with it when people leave.

October and November Abbie-isms

** Mark always says “Booshka!!” as kind of a statement when he does things.  The other day Abbie did something (I can’t remember what) and when she was done she yelled “Booshka!!” and kinda looked at Mark to see what he’d say out of the corner of her eye.  Of course he laughed.
**To my parents the day after they arrived here in Italy: “I’m awfully glad you’re here!  I really missed you!”

**Abbie was being difficult and Mark was trying to control her.  He gave her two options (“You need to go to bed or I’m going to shut your door.”) and she said, “I don’t like those options.  I want a third option.”
**We were talking about taking my parents back to the airport and Abbie asked why we were going to the airport.  My mom told her that they were going home.  Abbie said, “But this is our home.  I don’t want you to leave.  I will miss you.”  My mom about lost it.  Thankfully we’re moving MUCH closer to them in a few months.

(Photo taken by Luc Gruenther)

**Abbie’s friend Luke was over to play.  He had a small cut on his lip and Abbie asked him what happened and Luke said “I busted my lip on a chair.”  And Abbie’s response was, “Well I busted my arm!”  Haha!
**Abbie asked me when Mark was going to be home from work.  I told her that he wouldn’t be home until after she was in bed.  She replied with, “Oh.  Well that’s really disappointing.”

**I asked Abbie to give Ben his paci to him and she said, “I just don’t have time for that right now.”
**Abbie was looking at herself in the mirror and said “There’s that pretty girl!!”  Haha!!
Abbie says hilarious stuff almost daily.  I wish I could remember everything she says, but unless I put it on my blog or in my phone right away, I forget them.  I need to do a 3.5 year old update on Abbie soon.  She’s growing up way too quickly!

(Photo taken by Luc Gruenther)

August/ September 2012 Abbie-isms

**I was making milk shakes for Mark, Abbie and myself and we asked Abbie if she wanted one.  She, of course, said yes, but we said, “Oh you don’t want one?  Well I guess we’ll just have one then.”  Abbie was like, “No!  I want one!”, but we pretended she said she didn’t again, and did that back and forth teasing for about 3-4 minutes.  Finally Abbie just stopped and got a little smirk on her face and said, “You guys are just teasing me, aren’t you?” and started laughing.  Not much gets by her!

**Mark was making up a bedtime story for Abbie about David and his mom running errands.  He told her a story about everything that David and his mom did that day and after he gets done, Abbie’s only question was, “But where was David’s daddy?”  She is about 300% a daddy’s girl.
**Abbie got stung by a bee (her first sting) and was a “tad” bit hysterical about it.  She, of course, wanted to call her daddy, so we called Mark and he asked her what happened.  She replied with “I’m just freaking out right now”, which was about an understatement of the year.  She was screaming, which scared Ben, so he was screaming.  Fun times…  But she’s fine now.

**Abbie has learned the concept of husband/wife.  We had just dropped my friend, Brittney, off and her house and Abbie said, “You know what?  Brittney’s husband’s name is Dan!”  (That was correct.)  So then we went through a few more people – Jennifer’s husband is Josh, Grandma’s husband is Grandpa, my husband is daddy, etc.  I decided to test her memory and ask her who my friend Rachel’s husband is.  (She hasn’t seem them since the end of May when we were back in the States.)  Abbie thought about it for a minute and then exclaimed, “Rachel’s husband is Jay Jay Angel!!”.  (That is incorrect.  Jay Jay Angel is Rachel’s horse.  Husband.  Horse.  Almost the same thing.  I gave her half of a point.)
**Abbie doesn’t really say “self” very much.  Instead of saying, “I can do that all by my self.”, she’ll say, “I can do that all by my lone.” or “I don’t want to be by my lone.”  Kind of makes me smile every time.

**Abbie pronounces school as Skew-El.  She’s always talking about going to skew-el.  Pretty funny.
**Mark and I were in the kitchen and I gave him a hug and said, “I love you.”  Abbie was in the other room, not in eye sight, but as soon as I said that, she piped in with “I love you too, Daddy.”

June and July 2012 Abbie-isms

**Abbie likes to be in charge of everything and everyone.  I often tell her, “You just worry about yourself.”  One time she replied, “No, I’m gonna worry about Benj.”

**When we were in Croatia there was a guy standing on another guy’s shoulder’s to change a light bulb.  Abbie was fascinated by it and said, “I didn’t know that big people could be on other big people’s shoulders!!  That’s amazing!!”

**Heard from Abbie, “I can talk right now because I’m just chillin’ out.”

**Mark forgot his ID one day and for the next week Abbie talked about Mark’s “iDVD”.

**Our friend’s almost three year old was here before we went on the cruise.  This was over heard between Abbie and Braden.

Braden: I’m going to Greece with my mommy and daddy!

Abbie: What?

Braden:  I’m going to Greece with my mommy and daddy!

Abbie:  Oh.  Well I’m going to bed.

**Mark told Abbie to pick up her toys and Abbie said, “That’s not my job.  That’s mommy’s job.”  (Yeah, she’s going to learn pretty quickly who’s job that really is…)

**At dinner the other day Abbie said, “Mommy, when are you going to have another baby?”  Apparently she wants a baby sister, so she says.  She also says that we go to the doctors office to get another baby.

**Shelly made Abbie a BLT when she was staying with her while we were on the cruise.  Abbie took a bite of it and said, “Shelly, you’re a good maker!”

May 2012 Abbie-isms

*I had bought a new screen protector for my iPhone and opened it and realized it was for a iTouch, not an iPhone.  I was frustrated and said “I’m a frickin idiot” under my breath.  Abbie apparently was right there, soaking it up.  Later that night she was having a hard time getting her toothpaste on her tooth brush.  Mark was right there when she said “frickin idiot!”.  Mark told her that we don’t say “frickin idiot” and Abbie immediately came running out to tell me that “we don’t say frickin idiot, mommy.  That’s not nice!”  *sighs*  Can’t get away with anything around her!

*I am constantly telling Abbie that she’s not in charge.  She seems to think she is and tries her hardest to boss everyone around.  It’s great fun.  Anyway, I made the mistake of getting her a shirt that says “Big sister in charge!”.  Abbie ALWAYS asks me what her shirts say when I put them on in the morning, so she asked and I told her.  Later that day she was being bossy and I told her she’s not in charge and she said, “I AM the charge!  My shirt says I’m the charge!!”.  (She hasn’t worn that shirt since.)

*I was trying on clothes in a dressing room and there was a big bench in it that said “Do not sit here.”  Abbie was “helping” me try clothes on and I told her what the sign said.  She told me that it was only for short people to sit on.

*Abbie made me a card for Mother’s Day and I asked her what it said.  She said, “It says “Mom, I love you and sparkles.”

*Mark was wearing a shirt that has his call sign on the back, which is “Moose”.  Abbie saw it and said, “The back of daddy’s shirt says moose!”.  (I have no clue how she knew that since it was just the word, no pictures or anything.)  I told her that was right, and then I asked her what her shirt said, since she was wearing her “Moose on the loose” shirt.  She said, “It says moose running around!”.  Haha!!

*I ordered a camera grip from my DSLR.  I was excited to get it so I opened it in the car while Abbie was in the back seat.  Abbie asked what it was and I told her and she said, “That’s just gorgeous.”  LOL!

*Abbie calls Winnie the Pooh, Pooh the Winnie Bear.  I don’t ever plan on correcting her because I think it’s adorable when she says it.  Half the time I even end up calling him "Pooh the Winnie Bear” because she says it so much.  (Same with chla-kat.  Chocolate.)

*Ben has a moose toy that has rattles in the feet, but Abbie likes to pretend they’re flashlights for some reason.  She runs around holding the moose’s foot out in front of her like a flashlight.

 

April 2012 Abbie-isms

**Abbie was being particularly annoying one night and I told her to quit bugging me because I was trying to get stuff done.  She immediately ran up to Mark, who was also working on stuff, and said, “Do you want me to bug you??”

**I had the kids with me when I was grocery shopping.  It was a really windy day and when we came out of the store the receipt blew out of one of the bags, across the parking lot.  I chased it but never caught it.  Abbie was really upset and kept saying that our “secret” blew away in the wind.  I told her it was a receipt and then she started called it a “resecret”.  She finally has it right now and calls it a receipt. 

**My parents were down visiting and they call me “bear”.  After a while of hearing this, Abbie looked at my mom and said, “She’s not a bear.  She’s mommy!”

**There was a mosquito flying around the car and Mark smashed it.  Abbie wanted to see it so Mark showed her the smashed mosquito on his hand.  Abbie’s response was, “Oh, he’s so cute!!”.

**We pulled into a Hardee’s and Abbie pointed to the sign and said, “There’s a twinkle, twinkle little star!!”