Summer Vacation 2007: A trip to the Fort Worth Science Museum

On our last day in Texas Robby found out about an exhibit at the science museum in Fort Worth that was all about the making of the Star Wars movies. Since Little Robby is a huge Star Wars Lego fan we knew he would think that it was totally awesome. And we were right! We also had the fun of going to the museum with Logan, Wendy, Molly, and baby Will.

Robby and Uncle Logan are standing by their mag-lev Lego cars. Some parts of the exhibit were about how some of the technology ideas used in Star Wars are actually used today. This one was all about using legos and magnets to create a car that levitated and moved by magnetism.
Aunt Wendy had to help Jenna remove her thumb so we could see her smile.

Jenna enjoyed listening to the voice talking in the audible exhibit reader. (They were for the visually impaired so that they could have a voice read the exhibit explanations.)

Many of models that we saw in the exhibit were actually used in making the films. This X-wing was one of Little Robby's favorites, especially since he has his own Legos X-wing at home.

We are standing in front of the Millenium Falcon. It was really cool seeing the details the creators put into the models. (This lego set would be the ulitmate for Little Robby, but he'll have to save up his money till he's an adult for it since a Millenium Falcon set cost $500!)

One thing I didn't realize about wookies was that they were 2 meters tall! And here's our favorite wookie, Chewbacca!

One of the later parts of the exhibit let the kids build their own robot and then give it a simple program to tell it where to go. Little Robby thought this was cool because the concept was exactly like his Lego Mindstorms set.

Jenna wanted part in the building fun too!

And lastly, we have a trip to the pretend grocery store. When we first arrived Jenna was determined to stuff her basket full of produce.

She worked hard place each produce item she found into her basket.

She was so thorough that she almost cleaned the produce shelves off single-handedly.

But, what I liked best was the item she balanced carefully on the top of all of her healthy produce! It's okay to eat some, but only after you have your vegetables!

Summer Vacation 2007: Space Center Houston (NASA)

During our stay with my parents we had a great time going to NASA's Space Center Houston. Little Robby has always been fascinated with space travel, so we have always wanted to take him here. I was glad to finally have that opportunity on this trip.

We really enjoyed seeing all of the NASA artifacts on display. Here we see Robby in front of one of the Apollo capsules. As a kid, I don't think I fully appreciated the personal risk these early astronauts took. I can't imagine being sealed in a very confined capsule and attached to enormous rockets and blasted into space. Wow! I think they had a lot of courage. I realize people still travel into space today, but I don't think I would have wanted to be one of the first.

While at the museum, Jenna found her own ways of amusing herself by swinging like a little monkey.

Okay, so he's not looking at the camera, but I wanted to post this one because I think it is really cool that he has his hand on a piece of moon rock. Where else can you actually touch the moon?!

This picture and the next one are of all of us riding on the tram to go and see the Astronaut Training Facility and the Saturn V Rocket.

Jenna really like riding the tram and kept saying, "Weeeee!"

Little Robby, Grandma, and Grandpa are standing in front of the window overlooking the Astronaut Training Facility. Behind them you can see some of the life-sized models they use to practice their missions here on earth.

We are standing in front of the Saturn V Rocket. This was the biggest rocket that NASA has used up to this date. It was used to launch the Apollo and Skylab missions. How would you like to be strapped onto the top of that thing?!

Summer Vacation 2007: Family Reunion

The first full day after we arrived at my parent's house we drove about an hour to my brother's house in the country for a family reunion. My aunt (my dad's sister), uncle, cousins, and their children came out too. I am so glad we got to share this time with everyone. Here are some highlights:

We got to meet our new nephew Hayden for the first time. Isn't he a cutie?! He is now 8 months, and he weighs a whopping 25lbs.! (Jenna, who's just over 2yrs, only weighs 23lbs.!)

My Aunt Marcel, Charlene, and my mom chat together on the porch.

One thing was for sure, we weren't totally used to the humidity in Texas, especially after living in dry Arizona for the last three years. You can't tell completely from this picture, but Jenna's hair had a little bit of a wave in it while we were in Texas.

Jenna was really fascinated with Uncle David and Aunt Charlene's horses. She was interested in helping feed them carrots all until the horse's giant lips reached out to grab it, at which point I had to take over because she tried to jump back. I guess the horse got a little too up close and personal for Jenna.

Little Robby really enjoyed playing in Uncle David's playroom!

So did Robby! He's having flashbacks to his childhood playing Donky Kong.

We really had a great time visiting David and Charlene!

One last cute pic, Jenna and Little Robby with their cousin Hayden!

Summer Vacation 2007: The Alamo

Our second stop on our vacation was the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. By the time we arrived we had been in the car for about 5 hours, and we had only 3 hours to go till we arrived at my parent's house. Robby was really excited to see the Alamo again and to show Chap around. He could have spent a few hours there. Chap, on the other hand, had Grandma and Grandpa on his mind, and he only had interest in seeing the memorabilia and reading the explanations for about 30 minutes.

We did enjoy some time in the courtyard of the Alamo. Here Little Robby and I are near an old dried-up well.

Jenna decides that it is more fun to push the stroller herself than to ride in it! This turned out to be a bit of a problem when we were surrounded by others trying to look around the Alamo. Jenna is yet one more example of why young children can't have drivers licenses!

Awww! What a sweet family picture!

And lastly, here we are in the front of the Alamo. This was a fun stop on our road trip.

Summer Vacation 2007: Carlsbad Caverns

The first thing we did on our vacation (after getting rained out of our tent the night before - a night we will sure never forget!) was to go and see Carlsbad Caverns. Since we were behind on our planned schedule due to dealing with lack of sleep, we had to make some adjustments. When we arrived at the Caverns we discussed our options. One choice was for Little Robby and I to go on the additional tour to see the King's room (one of the most decorated rooms in the caverns) while Dad and Jenna went walked down the 1.5 mile entrance path. Little Robby nixed this idea though.

I think his lack of interest was mainly because of the extra money it would have cost to do the additional tour. To give him added responsibility on this trip we gave him charge over the family spending money. When we first told him that he was going to be in charge of the funds (for souvenirs and food on the trip) Little Robby promptly developed a budget and we found out that we each got a total of $17 of personal money to spend over the whole trip. He took his job very seriously, and on a couple of occasions Robby and I tried to bargain with him to allow us to spend the money in different ways. For the most part he didn't want to budge! I am glad though that he understands the idea of keeping to a budget. I digress though, back to the caverns...



Here you see the natural entrance to the caverns. The creatures you see flying are not bats, but swallows. Obviously, the bats don't come out until night.

We decided that since we were going to stay together the whole time that we would take the 1.5 mile walking path through the natural entrance into the caves. It descends a total of 750 ft over the entire distance, and Robby and I both got a good feel for what our Grand Canyon trip will probably bring in the Fall.

The only disadvantage we both had was that neither one of us could wear our tennis shoes because both pairs had gotten soaked the night before. I really wished I had mine because my sandals were not the best choice for steep downhill inclines.

Once we got to the bottom we wandered through the 1.25 miles of cave path to see all the amazing creations contained inside.

Little Robby really had fun because he and his science class had studied caves this last year in school, so he got to see all the things he had learned about.And finally a family picture together!

Staying Cool at the Museum

With the incredible summer heat that comes in our part of Arizona, we like to find fun places to stay cool. That is why we have a membership to the nearby science museum. It's fun, and it's air conditioned! This past week we enjoyed taking the wife and children of one of the new Ph.D. students that Robby is going to school with to the museum. They just moved in and we had a great time introducing them to the museum.

Here Jenna is practicing her balancing skills. This walkway has a bunch of rubber things sticking up, and when you walk on it you have to concentrate harder on your balance.

Okay, Jenna has reached the cheezy grin stage. If you say, smile for the camera this is quite often what you get!
Jenna made friends with this beach ball. She did not want to part with it when it was time to go. In fact she tried to throw a nice tantrum, but it didn't work since I just simply picked her up and went on my way. Once she found something just as cool in the next room, the ball was long forgotten.
Well, I only have one picture of Little Robby because after this he tried to play "keep away from the camera." Here he is trying to get me with the blowing hose.
Pull hard Jenna! This is one of those chairs that you can lift by pulling on the rope and pulley system. Jenna has a few years before she will be able to make it budge. Once more, cheezy grin that says, "I had fun at the museum, Mom!"

A Canning Adventure

Yesterday Little Robby and I embarked upon an adventure together. We had gotten to the point that we had more tomatoes and cucumbers from our garden than we could eat before they spoiled. As a family we decided that it would be good to make something that we could use for a long time, so we decided to make salsa and pickles. I bought a variety of peppers and an onion, and Little Robby and I learned all about canning.

When we got started, I read the recipes and thought that I would be able to make and jar the salsa and pickles in about 3 hours. 7 hours and three trips to Walmart later, I was the proud creator of 7 pints of salsa, 10 pints of refrigerator pickle, and one nightmare of a kitchen mess. The stuff I made turned out pretty good (although I don't expect any blue ribbons for my efforts).

Here is my diligent chopper boy. We were really glad to use our electric chopper (that collects dust most days in my cabinent). Robby did a great job preparing most of the veggies for the salsa.
Here is our simmering pot of salsa. I used a hot water bath canner to seal the jars of salsa. I had never done that before and I have to say I was grateful that I was able to chit chat with one sweet grandma while shopping on the canning isle at Wal-mart who gave me a couple tips that came in very handy. (One was not to use iodized salt because it will cause the pickles to change color - I was thankful she said that because we probably would have thought I had ruined them. Instead I went and bought a new container of non-iodized salt.) I was also equally grateful that I was able to get a hold of an experienced food storage person in our ward. She saved me from putting my jars directly in the boiling water (they might have busted.) I guess I never picked up on the fact that the jars go in the water first and then you set the pot to boil in the 3 the canning classes I have attended. Luckily for her advice I didn't loose all my hard work!

And here you see some of the results of our efforts.

An evening hike

Robby has been working hard on getting ready for his dissertation proposal, and he decided he needed a little break with the family. He thought it would be fun for us to go and hike a local mountain. He looked the area up online, and there were a few hikes to choose from. He liked the sound of the Summit Trail Hike. It was about 1.2 miles long which didn't sound to bad to him.

So all four of us set off at about 6:15p to hike half way on one of the trails and return by sundown 7:34p.

Jenna thought the first part of the hike was great, and wanted to "do-it herself."
Little Robby wanted to set a faster pace which left me in the middle.
Here we are stopping for a breather.

Here we all are together at the top of our hike. The trail ascended another 3/4 mile, but we decided that Dad and Little Robby could come back another time to hike to the summit. The rest of the trail was definitely not for a two year-old. Jenna will have to wait till she's a lot older!

Here's Jenna going back down the mountain with Mom. She would have climbed to the top of the mountain by herself if we had let her!

Karate Mama!

For the past year, I have been observering Little Robby's karate classes from time to time, and as I sat there I thought, "You know, I should do this too!" And so I did, I started karate. Little Robby loves the fact that I am in his class, and he is a higher belt than me, which means I have to show respect to him.

So now I have to share some pics and a video with you...

Here we have Little Robby showing us how to break the board with your foot.
Next, I try... You'll have to watch the video below to find out if I succeeded in breaking the board, too.
Here we are after my first class. Little Robby got his new purple belt, and Mom started as a white belt. I got my uniform at the next class.

Here I am White Belt Mama!
Now you can see how I did my first day!