All Things Spiny

We went on a wonderful hike this past weekend in South Mountain Park, near our house. I don't even want to talk about the last time we were out on a hike, it was so good to finally be out again. I was inspired on our way back down the mountain by all the wonderful spines we were passing on the different cacti. I'm always intrigued by how different they all are but have never taken pictures of them. So this was my attempt. They are gorgeous. There IS color in the desert, just much more subtle than many places. Take a lookskie for yourself.Looking up at the wonderful saguaro

I didn't capture this as good as it was that day - the tips of these spines are golden yellow are were glowing in the sun.
OUCH! These guys are huge!

I couldn't get over just how red these spines were so I had to isolate the red and make everything else black and white. Below you'll see it with the green cactus, it was the perfect Christmas cactus.

Holiday Cheer

I love this time of year. I love listening to Christmas songs, decorating the house and tree, and baking sweets for loved ones. I also really like traditions. Gabe and I have both carried our own family traditions into each others lives and will continue to practice them. I also like the idea of starting new family traditions that we can do as our own family. Here are some that we've started:

• Bake sugar cookies and custom design one of your own
• Buy a new ornament for our tree picked out together - maybe this will be changed to make our own family christmas ornament
• Name our christmas tree - last year it was fred the douglas fir, this year we have scarlet
• Added this year -- tour our neighborhood holiday lights on our bikes - super fun!
• have a gingerbread house build off

That's all I can think of so far. What are your family traditions, new or old?
because i teach preschool we have these AWESOME neon food colors, however also because i teach preschool, our "normal" colors are at school...Our stockings from both sides of the family -- wheeler side are the large ones, wards side are the smaller ones in the middle. Gabe's grandma has the Wheeler ones made, my aunt made my little one and I made gabe's little one. so fun!Scarlet

Wheeler Adventures

gabe and i are very fortunate. We are able to be with family on both holidays this year - Thanksgiving AND Christmas! This is the first time ever since we've been living in Arizona. Kathy and Jim flew down for Thanksgiving this year and we had quite the adventures!

They flew in on Thanksgiving day and we just hung around and cooked some good food. Gabe was learning how to carve the turkey and Kathy made our gravy for us, as I'm not the best gravy maker yet.

On black friday we slept in (awww so good) and then decided that we could try going to a couple of stores for some good deals. Our first destination: Kohls. We lasted approximately 3 minutes inside that store upon seeing the line that we couldn't find the end of after walking for that amount of time. Thankfully we were all on the same page and turned around quickly.

We had a lot of good food while they were here: My Big Fat Greek Restaurant, Pei Wei, Ra Sushi, Oregano's, Gardunos, and I still think I'm missing some. Gabe was able to take a good amount of time off but I had kids all week so was unable to take much time off during their stay.

On Saturday we went to the Grand Canyon in one day and looking back wished we would have stayed over night for a few reasons. Nonetheless, we had an amazing visit to this beautiful land. Gabe and I had never been there during the day so it was a new adventure for us as well. It is expansive and captivating. I could have watched that landscape for days - given there weren't hundreds of people around. It was definitely chilly there and we were hoping to stay for sunset. We did stay for a good amount of dusk but decided to head back before the sun was completely down. Plus you couldn't really stand and just enjoy it all because if you were there long enough (10 seconds) without taking a picture of your friends/family or being in a picture, you were soon a photographer for someone else. It was a fun day in Northern Arizona.

It was amazing to see the colors of the canyon change with the setting sun.

We went to Los noches de Luminarias at the Garden which was quite spectacular this year. We have a grand installation by Chihuly there right now through May of next year. Chihuly is a glass blower and is known around the world for his glass sculptures. I hadn't seen the pieces during the night prior to this I was pleasantly surprised and delighted. It looked amazing at night. I love to walk the trails and listen to music, so Lumi is the best of this because you do both. You can see more pictures of the sculptures that are at the garden by visiting the the Garden's website. It was fun to take family to Lumi too, I've always wanted to but never been able. Jim, Kathy, and Gabe came and met me for lunch one day as well so they were able to see where I work which was fun.

The Coyotes hockey game was another highlight. They played the Kings and won in an exciting last period. The whole week was fun and enjoyable. It was wonderful to spend time with Jim and Kathy, we had a great visit.

Officially Chilly

Yup its a fact, its officially a bit chilly here in AZ. Today we had to turn our heat on for the first time this season. I hope you all are doing well in your "chilly" areas. I could actually go for a little snow now...

Happy Thanksgiving

How was your turkey day? We had a wonderful turkey day and our first one with family since we've been in Arizona. Gabe's parents are down for a week and arrived yesterday. It is fun having them here and they were a GREAT help in cooking the meal. It was very tasty and gabe and i both got some needed tutorials. We have a fun week planned and hope to be going to the grand canyon tomorrow as none of us have seen it before. Gabe and I have drove through the Grand Canyon twice, both in the middle of the night, so we are excited to see it in the day. I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

free is always fun

On Tuesday some friends had a clothes/book swap. You brought whatever clothes you didn't want, need, fit, or just tired of; along with books. There was a huge pile of clothes and many many books to choose from. It was such a fun girls night, I loved it. Plus getting new clothes and books for free! Recycling is great, set one of these up for you and your friends. We decided to do something like this monthly now.

Then gabe and i went to Trader Joe's on Wednesday evening to try one last spot for pie pumpkins that nobody has anymore. While they too didn't have pie pumpkins, they were giving out a free pie for every customer. We got a cranberry walnut tart, which is delicious, because we made a pumpkin pie for dinner.

Too stressed to know how to relax?

Sometimes it stinks having someone know you so well because they know all of your little quirks and faults too. Last night gabe showed me how much of a blessing it really is to have someone know you better than yourself.

I've been really stressed out at work lately with some new projects on my plate and the only other position in children's programs being vacant for a few months now, both causing long days at work. At dinner last night I must have had a glazed over look on my face because gabe kept asking me what I was thinking about or what was wrong. Nothing was wrong I said, but I recognize that I'm pretty stressed out and I wasn't sure what to do to relax.

Gabe gave me a back rub and prepared a bubble bath for me. My muscles relaxed and I entered that mental state of mind where you are aware of everything going on around you and you hear all the sounds but its like you are asleep. It was wonderful, he knew exaclty what I needed when I didn't even have then energy to try and think about it myself. I really love being married to gabe...