pumpkin guys

For FHE last week we made Pumpkin Guys with Aunt Geneva and Uncle John. Oh, she loves it. She likes to play them like they're Mr. Potato Head, which is probably going to completely destroy them with all the holes she pokes, but hey, you're only three on Halloween once.

no braids!

After more than three months, we finally took her braids out.

It took TWO DAYS.


Her hair has grown a lot in the last few months and is really healthy. We're putting new braids in next week, but we thought we'd give her a few days with the gorgeous curls before we tied it up again.

pumpkin day 2009

Pumpkin Day is mommy's favorite holiday. Last year we didn't get a pumpkin day with dadda, what with the move and the hot and the poor planning. This year our October is filling up fast, so we had an early pumpkin day.

Grandma and Grampop save us the travel and Arizona sections from their newspaper each week, and last weekend they spotlighted two pumpkin festivals in Chino Valley, AZ -- up in the mountains-ish, away from the heat. So we decided that we would take a little weekend trip and head up to one of those and then camp up north where it's nice and cool.

We went to Freeman Farms this year, and it was lovely. (Though nothing can live up to Westmoreland Berry, our traditional family pumpkin day location back in Virginia, this was definitely fun.) the weather was perfect, there were lots of diversions, and we all had a great time.

Some highlights, and lots of photos:
* that baby was terrified of the petting zoo. for the first time in her life -- she's always loved them before. she thought the goats were after her. (well, they kind of were.)

* the cute little train ride around the farm* daddy taking her out in a canoe

* a beautiful little pony with braids in his hair, just like hers
* she loved being the "leader" in the corn maze

* a hayride around the farm. she spent the whole ride telling the tractor driver/farmer to "giddy up."
* another try in the petting zoo. still no luck.

* pumpkins!

after-pumpkins camping

So after Pumpkin Day we decided to head on north a bit and go camping up near Flagstaff. Dadda had chosen the perfect camping spot high up on the mountain -- and everyone else thought it was perfect too, so it was full. It was beautiful. Just take a look at this picture of someone else's family in front of the fall colors that I snapped out the window as we drove around and around searching for an empty campsite:And what about these trees?It was spectacular. Unfortunately we had no luck and it really was full.

A little dejected, we headed back down the mountain and across the highway to Sunset Crater (they of the inferiority complex: the sign at the entrance reads "THIS IS NOT METEOR CRATER") and found what turned out to be a really super campground. In the lava fields, of all things -- which was nice because there was just no dirt! Lots of little rocks, and if you dropped your hot dog, it barely got dirty at all!

We loved the campground and the hosts were delightful, there were nice neighbors who mostly left us alone (like Dadda likes it), and that baby got to learn all about the volcano and lava and how it's "not going to blow."

Well, the volcano didn't blow, but the wind did. About midnight a ferocious wind kicked up and woke us all up. Mooks went back to sleep a couple times -- until 4 am, when a giant gust pushed the whole wall of the tent down on top of her and stressed her out a little. Lying next to her I watched her face go from "what's this??" to "where am i?" to "oh, there's mom; it's okay." After that one she asked to read some stories, which we did, and then she watched a dvd while mom and dad drifted in and out of a light snooze until it was light enough to break camp.

We got out of there as fast as we could and went to Sedona for breakfast.

(See those clouds? Those are covering the first campsite we chose. We're actually probably lucky we didn't get in there.)
See you next time, Flagstaff!

mojo fhe

We started out at the temple and ended up at Mojo. Since we didn't get to see the movie we wanted (seriously, you have to reserve the temple on Monday nights?) and the temple grounds were closed (thanks for doing your research, mom), I think Mojo was the bigger hit.

She got one ounce of yogurt and about forty ounces of "sprinklers."
That's a green one on her chin.

tell me the stories of Jesus, part i

This is her favorite story.
She asks to hear it every night.

(yes, that's her bearing testimony of going to bed.
we usually tell this story in the rocking chair right before bed,
so there's obviously some association going on there.)

holding umbrellas...

...is a fun "activity" when you're three years old.

happy anniversary, grands!

My grandparents celebrated their 62nd anniversary on September 19. They got the whole family together for dinner at Outback last night to celebrate. We had a great time.

The great-grandkids:


The rest of the fam:



Emma's favorites (after the cousins, of course) were "Bob's friends" -- Uncle Bob's wife and one of his daughters. ("Hey, aren't you Bob's friend?" "Look, there's Bob's friend!") She doesn't get the relationships I guess, but she knows they're friends. :)

Thanks for a wonderful evening, Grands!
We appreciate your loving example to our whole family.

transracial walmart

So while Aunt Joanie was here, we made a quick trip to what has become known in our family as Transracial Walmart. (In case your family doesn't look like ours, transracial adoption is when parents of one race adopt a child who is of another race.) While there we saw no less than three white moms with black adopted children in about 20 minutes. And pretty much every time I go to that particular Walmart, I see at least one transracial family. (Hence Transracial Walmart.) It's kind of awesome.

So we stopped and chatted with one of the moms there who also had a three-year-old daughter -- absolutely adorable, sweet little girl. We exchanged information so we could set up a playdate, and she told me about... wait for it... Arizona Transracial Adoptive Families Playgroup. If you have talked to me about adoption or race or whatever since we moved here, you know this is an answer to my prayers.

They happened to be having a playdate at Jump and Shout (fun!) the following Monday, so we went. It was awesome. Here's the crew (you try to get this many kids to all look at the camera at once) :

(The little dude in the orange shorts next to Emma just came home from Ethiopia. That kid is hilarious.)

We had a great time and met some wonderful families. I still want some black grownups in her life, but at least black friends is a good start.

aunt joanie

Aunt Joanie came to visit! She wanted to come to the first Arizona Fall Frenzy, so she hopped on a plane and came down from Utah for the weekend. That baby had a great time playing with Aunt Joanie and loved showing her all around.

Saturday morning they went to the ruins at Casa Grande

and Saturday night Dada put her to work handing out State Presses in return for awesome seats to the football game.

They made it all the way to halftime before Joanie declared herself tuckered out and wanted to come home.

Oh, and after the game they brought me some MoJo. Holy YUM. If you're ever on Mill, go there. Or if there's one by your house. It was good, and it came home in an entirely too-cute bag.