Never heard of Benson? Us either...not until we opened our Christmas gift from Dan's parents. One night's stay in Benson, AZ plus tickets to tour Kartchner Caverns! The entire MacKinlay side of the family, the locals that is, met in Benson on a Friday evening, had breakfast the next morning, then caravaned to the Caverns for our nearly exclusive tour. (With 17 of us, we made up most of the tour group!)
Since we couldn't take pictures in the caves, this is the best we could get from the museum/Discovery Center.
I was a little nervous to take Maddy, with her bedtime off, difficulties sleeping in the same room as us, and our tour time falling right at her nap time, I expected the worst. We weren't allowed to take ANYTHING into the caves, except for a front baby carrier, which we brought but I ended up holding her most of the time. She did great inside! Only a few squawks that I thought might bring down some of the delicate "soda straw" formations. One thing we discovered though, for future road trip endeavors- she doesn't sleep long in the car anymore. I guess now that she's older, the car will put her to sleep, but it won't keep her asleep, no matter how tired I think she is. But we survived without too much screaming chaos and it turned out to be a really great time! Thanks Kent and Debbie for an exciting trip!
One Sunday morning last month we spotted an article about the Phoenix Zoolights. You could get in for free with a food donation and see all the lights! Not our typical Sunday-type activity but we never went during December, and you can't pass up a free event! So we went. It was crazy busy, but Maddy just LOVED the choreographed tree section, we stayed for 2 "shows." Her eyes were so wide open the whole time and she got so excited. It made all the people dodging worth it! They even had a few animals awake on display. Sorry for the lousy picture...our camera lost its juice before we could take another.
As one of my Christmas gifts, Dan got tickets for us to see The Lion King. I had heard wonderful things about it and I was excited. Dan doesn't really get excited for these things and didn't have high expectations. But when we left, even just in the opening scene, we were BLOWN AWAY! The set, the costumes, the dancers, the voices were all unbelievable! I would have loved to see the creative path that led to the costume creation. The actors couldn't have done a more realistic job at turning themselves into whatever animal they were portraying. In fact, it was sometimes difficult to even see where the actor was in the costume and it was easy to forget there was even a person inside.
I kept getting chills throughout the show, and Dan even admitted to some chills of his own. ;o) I can't rave about it enough and if you have the opportunity, don't hesitate, GO SEE IT!!
I obviously wasn't able to take pictures myself, these are just some I found in a google search, but they don't even do it justice. They had elephants and the elephant graveyard set, and about a dozen other animals. Timon and Pumba (and Zazu) were of course the comic relief and they didn't disappoint!
Thank you sweetie! I had a wonderful time!
*Some of the fun things we did, or have pictures of, to end our 2008 include...
*Trimming the tree and the house with holiday decorations to get into the spirit of the season! Maddy really liked the lights and the glass balls on the tree that she could see herself in. However, she didn't like when Mommy accidentally dropped a heavy ornament on her head...I'm sure she's forgotten that by now right?
*A visit to see Santa so we could catch the classic "baby crying on Santa's lap picture" It was so sad to see her face just melt into a frown and the tears start flowing! I had to rescue her quickly so we only got the one picture.
*A walk around the temple grounds to see the lights is an annual tradition.
*Christmas morning it was just the 3 of us at home. Maddy enjoyed the sea of paper, but I think she was mostly concerned about getting breakfast. Then my brother and his wife came to have a late breakfast with us. That evening we also got a visit from Dan's parents and we exchanged gifts (more details to come on that). Now it's the middle of January and just last week I finally finished my Christmas shopping! We are having Christmas with the Rogers side of the family in February when my mom returns from Chicago. She has been there since the middle of December spending time with my sister, her husband, and this little guy. So having never spent a Christmas without my family, for me it's only halfway over and we get to prolong the festivities which will be fun!
*And finally, our trip to the snow. This actually happened the first of this month. We drove to Pinetop and got to introduce Madelyn to the wonder that is snow. It was clear and sunny the 2 days we were there, but the morning we drove home it had snowed all through the night and was not stopping so the drive was terrifying and treacherous...next time we must take a 4-wheel drive. Growing up in Texas, I never really thought much about Arizona. All anyone ever thinks of is brown dry desert. But I think this is a very unique place to live, within a couple hours you can be surrounded by pine trees and snow, or see the beautiful red rock of Sedona, water ski on a lake, and we always have spectacular sunsets. The only thing missing is a beach, but drive a few more hours and you'll find that too! Sure there are a handful of months where your oven seems to emit less heat than the outdoors do, but the winter season makes it all worth it! Right??
It’s that time of year when actual letters are sent (or blogs)
To update our loved ones on how the year went
This year was full of changes both exciting and fun
We welcomed our new baby girl, just to name one
With a bun in the oven our traveling diminished
But we fit in one trip before our “couplehood” was finished
In February we took a trip and flew to New Mexico
We saw Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and some fresh falling snow
Soon April was here and we could hardly wait
Madelyn Jayne arrived on the ninth, her actual due date!
So much joy and love has come with our sweet little Maddy
We can hardly believe we are now Mommy and Daddy
In August we decided to pack up some things
After booking a plane ticket to Colorado Springs
This time the travelers were just Mommy and Maddy
Boy was Mommy nervous for baby’s first plane ride without Daddy!
Madelyn did really well and our trip was so fun
But coming home to Dan was a joyful reunion
Next came our first family road trip over Labor Day
We decided to drive to San Diego for a nice getaway
We brought swimsuits, sunglasses, and our sunscreen lotion
So Maddy could see her first view of the ocean
With so much to be grateful for as this year comes to an end
We look forward to more memories, and well wishes we send
We hope you are healthy and doing just fine
Merry Christmas to all and a Happy 2009!
Love, Dan, Kristen & Madelyn
My sister was 27 weeks pregnant...yesterday. Today she is the shocked, tired, recovering, worried mother of baby boy Sprik (I won't share his name so the new parents can be the first to announce it to the web world...)
Last Saturday (the 6th) she went to the hospital after spotting and later began contracting and dilating. After several ups and downs in the hospital, Saturday the 13th she was finally released to go home on pretty strict bed rest. Thankful to have my mom with her (she flew to Chicago last Thursday) and to be back in her own home, things were looking up. However, last night my dad told me that Aimee was having a c-section within the half hour. yikes. I can't even tell you the flood of emotion I was experiencing, my family was experiencing, not to mention Aimee and Brian. Not long after, 9:43pm to be exact, Sprik Sprout was born - 2lbs 6oz.
He started breathing on his own, even let out a cry! Yay! His heartbeat is strong! Double yay! He's kicking and moving! Hip Hip Hooray! All wonderful, positive, and miraculous things.
But there is still a long road ahead of him, how long we don't know. Tuesday Doctors will assess the situation and give them a better idea. I can't even imagine how my sister must be feeling. To have waited so long to get pregnant, finally having success, and then to get your baby a lot sooner than expected, and not being able to hold him and take him home. I was able to talk with her briefly last night, despite her weak and drugged state, and she said they are feeling very lucky so far. I pray that luck continues.
I know there are many cases out there that you or someone you know has experienced that are similar to this. What can be expected in the weeks and months ahead? Tell me any information you can and also all of the positive and successful stories you know and I'd love to pass that along to my sister. If you have no experience with premature babies but want to share some words of encouragement, I'm sure that can go a long way, even if you're strangers to her. And as always, prayers never hurt.
I imagine Aimee will eventually be posting updates on her blog if you care to stay posted, or email me. Or just check out her blog from time to time, she often has great little tips and ideas.
"Word to your Mother" is hosting a superfantastic blog giveaway this month...
Check it out:
2 Christmas books, a stocking leg nightlight, AND a $25 restaurant gift card
Go enter yourself here.
I've seen this idea before - collecting a-book-a-day countdown to Christmas. I have one. If I win the giveaway, that makes three...guess what Maddy wants for Christmas?? :) Among other books that is...
If you'd like some more Christmas family tradition type ideas, check out my sister's post here. She's got some good ones I may try myself!
I'm beginning to catch more of the crafting bug...I still don't have a sewing machine yet, so right now I'm limited to gluing and painting things. Here are two project ideas I want to work on soon.
Since Maddy has a lot of hair that needs taming, I want to make some of these, they are the easiest to get into her hair in a hurry, or when having to do it repeatedly since she has learned to pull them out, and they stay in her hair pretty well. Does anyone know where I can get a bag of plain silver snap clips? Probably the 50mm size. I have looked at Target and Walmart, Sally Beauty, and Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby had like 6pk bags of them, but they were out of the 50mm size and I was hoping to get a better price for a bigger bag of them. You can click on the picture if you'd like to learn how to make them yourself!
Isn't this too cute?? My sister spotted this and I wanna make it! I'll probably do 3 in varying sizes. Again I scoured the aisles of Hobby Lobby and asked 3 employees for help and they don't sell bags of buttons in separate color/size variations, only color themes. I'm thinking Etsy might be the best place to find specific colors in bulk. I figure I'll need like 200-300 per tree? So if I do the 4 color plan as pictured I guess I'd need about 200 of each color, over estimating of course. Anyone else have ideas or know where I might find buttons? And let me know of other cute and easy craft ideas you've made or are planning to make! I'm always up for more projects! Key word is EASY!....and cute...
Typically when we go out, with or without Madelyn, it involves a trip to the grocery store. Lame...I know. But on occasion we have added a little more excitement to our outings, mostly because it has involved other people.
By other people, I mean one couple specifically. Our fabulously fun friends, Brittney and Aaron and their cutie patutie little girl, Brynlie. We know other couples, but they are the only ones who will hang out with us! Ha! No seriously, we do have more interesting dates when we go out with other people though. This picture was taken when we hit up Mesa Fro Yo for a little sugar fix and then over to MCC planetarium for a show and telescope viewing. It was fun, despite the bizarre pigeon deterrent of recorded bird noises that played randomly over the outdoor speakers.
Look closely and you'll see Maddy chugging her bottle in the stroller.
More recently was a Mystery Murder dinner party that Brittney hosted. We were each preassigned a character to dress up as, there were 4 couples, and we were given "scripts" to play the game. We had to act like our characters in various conversations and "scenes" all the while trying to figure out who murdered one of the other characters. Most of us had never played a game like that before so it took a couple of rounds to grasp the concept. It was a lot of fun! These are our mug shots.... Dan was Lloyd Lunchbox and I was Gigi Sparkle, looking guilty as ever. I don't have our character descriptions anymore, otherwise I'd post them, they were pretty funny. Thanks for the fun times B & A!
