Fitting for the last day of my 30 days to 30 adventure... we rode the last leg on bikes! Jason and I took an 11 mile bike ride along the Eastern Canal from US 60 to Crossroads Park. Jason is the bike rider, I'm the runner. So this was an interesting trip. I definitely slowed down his pace and at times I was dead certain I was not going to make it. But in the end, it was me who knew the back way into Crossroads Park, not him and it turned out to be a really great ride! Way to end this on a high note. Of course, my legs felt like Jello for the rest of the day and I don't even want to go near explaining what it feels like to sit down right now.
Jason and I went tubing with our friend Chris on the Salt River today. The three of us were a little more accustomed to white water so the more relaxing pace of the water was actually kind of disappointing. The last few minutes of rapids were the best! All in all, it probably would have been better if we'd known the No Glass Bottle rule and brought a 6 pack of Bud Light instead of Corona (which stayed in the car getting nice and warm, yick, while we floated for two hours on the river). It was our first time experiencing the river so we learned a lot about what we're going to do next time -- like bring bigger towels, hats, more sunblock and most importantly rope. We were also pretty enthralled by the inflatable cooler that another group was toting around. Might make a great investment for our backyard pool! (Hint hint... birthday present, anyone?).
When I originally planned this 30 day adventure, I had actually scheduled 4 separate hikes at different hikes around the Phoenix valley that I haven't actually done yet. When it came down to it, last night's was the first hike I made and it was a trail that I've done several times before. But, it's all in good measure. My friend Tobey and I climbed the hills on the Wind Caves trail at Usery Mountain. As always, our goal was to make it to the top in 45 minutes or less, but the 109 degree weather got in our way. We only made it about a mile up the trail before realizing we weren't going to make it by sundown and turned around. Oh well, there's always next week to try again, right?
For our birthday presents this year, Jason and I decided to get his and her tattoos. Neither one of us has ever gotten a tattoo before so it was a big step for both of us. I'm a strong believer in NOT getting names tattooed (bad karma, jinxing, etc..) so we decided to get a moon. Of course, we couldn't decide on a tattoo that we both wanted to get so we each started with the same moon design and went from there. Mine is on my lower back and Jason's is on his arm. We went to Black Lotus Tattooers in Gilbert. The artist is a guy named Billy. He did a great job, in my opinion, but then again, I 'm a tattoo virgin so maybe this is actually horrible (though I doubt it).
I must be the only person in my generation who has not seen the original (or even the most recent) Star Wars movies. Honestly, I can say I've never really had much of a desire to do that, but in the interest of making sure I'm not missing out on something major, Andrew and I hogged the couch last night to watch the original three movies. We made it through the first movie with no problem, but fell asleep half-way through the second one (because it was late, not because it wasn't entertaining). I can see now why people raved about these movies for generations. The cinematography was amazing for a 70s movie! The story line was good as well. I'm not big on scifi so I'm probably never going to be a gung-ho fan of this series, but I'll definitely finish watching it and will watch it again.
Hunter and I joined some friends to attend a Parent and Tot Yoga class today at the Gilbert Yoga studio. It was a fun 45 minute class focused mostly on the children (all of our kids were 3 and younger). I was really impressed with the class overall. The instructor somehow managed to slip in a lot of physical activity for the kids, while still keeping the basic yoga poses, like up dog, down dog and sun salutations. Hunter especially liked getting to pretend to be a dog and fish. He really liked acting like a surfer (using the warrior pose) -- cue the Beach Boys music! I would definitely do this class again! Too cute!
I probably have to preface this in saying that my newest hobby is beading (you can check out some of my pieces for sale here). So today we used our Culture Pass to explore the Bead Museum in Glendale. While small, the museum gave a great overview of the history of beads and how they are used in cultures all around the world. I absolutely fell in love with the gift shop! Great prices on some wonderful beads (yes, I filled a bag to take home). Afterwards, we explored the historic Catlin Court District and grabbed a 25 cent ice cream cone (I'm not kidding!) at Papa Ed's Ice Cream.
This week's 30 Day to 30 activities seem to be centered on relaxing and returning to routine. Last night I went to my monthly book club and joined the fabulous ladies of the Casual Book Club for Women to discuss the book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. As a club, we graded the book between an A and a C - some enjoying it immensely and others finding it rather blah. I really like this very diverse group of women because of our extremely different opinions and tastes in books.
How's this for an icebreaker question: Sooo.... what social network convinced you to come out here tonight? That was the question of the night at the AZIMA (Arizona Interactive Marketing Association) event in Tempe. For me, it was Facebook. For the man sitting next to me, LinkedIn. The topic of the evening was how to effectively engage others in social networking and true to the point the speaker (Kristen from Facebook) was, well, engaging. Some interesting tidbits... 73% of all internet users are on social networks. And watch out kids, 47% of all moms are on Facebook (and they spend an average of 8 hours a week on the site!). The presentation delved into many of the tools and programs Facebook offers to businesses and brands to raise awareness including ads and fan pages. It also allowed for Q&A., but there were many who were already experts in the house because while the event was going on, some of the lucky ones who actually had cell phone service went mobile, chatting away on Twitter.
After a busy weekend, we took it easy today with plans to eat up some yummy frozen yogurt with our friends in the Arizona Mountain Mamas group. I had originally thought we'd go to our favorite local yogurt haunt Ocean Blue Frozen Yogurt. But at some point between the time I planned the meeting and this morning, the store changed its hours and wasn't open early enough. So, we went and enjoyed a yummy ice cream treat at Dairy Queen at Superstition Springs Mall instead. Sometimes you just need to relax!
Like most families this year, our vacation budget was pretty much killed by the rec
ession, so we decided instead to take our first family camping trip. Oddly enough, we've had most of the gear sitting in our garage for years and once we got all the dust and grime off, it was decent enough condition. We left yesterday at lunch time (I had to work in the morning), then headed north of Payson, AZ to the Ponderosa Campground which was supposedly very kid-friendly (and we agree!). It was only one night of camping, but we jammed in as much fun as we could, including a walk, a hike, fishing and even a trip to town. I built my very own solo campfire (many thanks to Dad and Mark for years of expert coaching!), then we roasted marshmellows and told "scary stories". I've learned my 6 year old has a penchance for scary stories that involve someone's "brains getting eaten". Yum-o! Anyway, we packed up and headed for home after lunch today and we are pretty exhausted, but we all keep asking ourselves why we hadn't done this earlier. There are a bunch of pictures of this trip posted to my Facebook page (anyone can see them, even if you don't have a Facebook account).
I haven't been on a roller coaster since the New York New York coaster in Vegas about seven or eight years ago. So I think I'm long overdue. Tonight's 30 in 30 adventure took Jason and I to Castles 'N Coasters in Peoria. It was a fun date night for the two of us (something we haven't had much opportunity to do in a while). We only went on the roller coaster once (darn that motion sickness crap) and then played a fierce game of mini-golf where I blew Jason out of the water. But he still loves me! I think :)
Thanks to the Phoenix Culture Pass the family and I explored the Phoenix Art Museum today. I can't BELIEVE what people are passing as art these days! Really, a piece of gold painted wood? Wow! Anyway, the boys were a little rowdy so we didn't get to see everything as in-depth as I would have liked, but I was suprisingly drawn to the Native American art section. There were some very beautiful pieces highlighted. Andrew was also enthralled with a couple of the more "robotic" pieces and came home vowing to make something similar. He and Dad have since then constructed an "Iron Man" costume out of moving boxes. Not bad!
No, you're not missing anything. Day 13 of my 30 Days to 30 was a bomb. I woke up with some sort of tummy bug and then we spent the evening in the ER with Hunter getting stitches on his foot (he had a run-in with the garage door, ugh!).
Monday night's 30 Days to 30 adventure took me across town to a Crochet 101 class at JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts. 
Sticking to our unintentional outdoorsy/nature theme this weekend, Andrew and I got up super early this morning to head out for a guided bird walk through the Riperian Preserve in Gilbert. There were a couple of other kids from a Boy Scout group on the tour so it was fun, even though Andrew didn't make it for the entire walk. We saw a whole bunch of cool, colorful birds. Our guide, Kathe, was extremely knowledgeable and spent much of the tour talking about about how the preserves work, where the animals come from and how its ecosystem survives in its urban setting. All in all, we saw about 30 different species of birds on the walk. However, note to self: next time bring binoculars!
Since me and Hunter weren't feeling all that great today, our plans to take a family hike at Usery Mountain this evening were changed to enjoying a fun impromptu nature walk at Red Mountain Park in Mesa instead. Hey, most of parenting is flexibility, right? The park has a .8 mile loop (we did it twice) that goes through a park area and then around a little lake and nature area. Typical of boys, Hunter and Andrew decided to seek out every creature living and at last tally we had found: rabbits, ducks, spiders, dragonflies, lizards (even a really big one that Daddy identified as Bearded Dragon lizard), ants of all sizes and a handful of other animals and bugs that are beyond my species identification skills. All in all, it was a fun night out with the family :) 