Our Family of Four

With the arrival of George Laszlo Phillips on November 12th, that makes our family a party of four. We are lucky that baby Laszlo has been such an angel and Paul has graciously taken to big brotherhood with minimal acting out. Paul is always concerned about where the baby is, what he's doing, and likes to hold the baby on his lap. Laszlo likes to eat, occasionally open his eyes, and poop in his sleep.

7 lbs 4 oz, 19.5 in, born at 8:55 A.M. 11/12/16

If I look pale in this photo, it is probably because my body was in shock. If you are into harrowing birth stories, give me a ring and I will tell you all about it (but probably a slightly toned down version where I in no way sobbed like a toddler or panicked or anything totally un-macho) I will spare the rest of you and let you go on enjoying your pristine visions of the miracle of life.

This guy is just relieved he didn't have to play doctor
in the front seat of our Prius.

I am not shocked by how tiny my baby is, I am shocked by how big my 3 year old is. I swear he was smaller last week! He suddenly looks bigger and older and in all things more grown up than he did 6 days ago.

We are extremely glad to have only had to spend one night in the hospital this time around. It meant only one night of nurse-interrupted sleep, less hospital food, and we were able to spend Paul's birthday at home. We played with his gifts, ate cupcakes, and now Paul thinks there is a never ending supply of presents coming his way. With his birthday so near Christmas he isn't wrong.

We really love our little Laszlo! It seems that the dearest desire of his heart is to be held as much as possible, which we are happy to oblige.

Halloween 2016

I love Halloween and I am thrilled that Paul has picked up on spirit of the holiday. I can't count the number of times we watched "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" this month, and he loves "The Nightmare Before Christmas." Paul was super excited about getting pumpkins and painting them:

For those of you who have never lived through a hot Halloween, you need to understand that if we carve a pumpkin on October 31st, it is molding by November 1st. They just don't last here in 80-90 degree weather. That is why this year we decided to try painting them instead. Then we can have them for a couple weeks instead of a couple hours. It was a definite success!

I took Paul to a few houses trick-or-treating. he actually wanted to go back home after about 10 houses, which was the right amount of walking for this waddling mama.
Here is our annual family group costume photo: Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and Christopher Robin:

The gray blob is a stuffed animal Eeyore, by the way.

And, for those of you who love adorable things, I let the camera roll and accidentally caught this:

I think Paul is a musician at heart because he knows that once you get to "G" it is time to start over again with "A".

Autumn Update

Of all the things pregnancy could rob me of the energy for, I wouldn't think typing up a blog would be one of them. But here is my long delayed and exceedingly lazy post of various activities we've been up to this fall.

To be clear, Fall in Arizona is basically Summer everywhere else. Seasons here go as following: January-March are Spring, April-May are Summer, June-August are Hell, September-November is Summer again, December is Fall.

For Labor Day we opted to head into the mountains and go on a little hike. Once we got up to 8,000 ft it was in the low 70's and very pleasant.

Paul pretty much wanted to stop on every log or stump take a picture. At least he was willing to smile!

Paul took one look at the chair lift running and desperately wanted to go on the "big swings." We decided to get tickets as long as Paul agreed to sit very still and let Daddy hold onto him.

We also found a spot on the little creek where Paul could wade in and get his feet freezing and wet.

Paul walked about 2 miles on his own, I've been trying to build up his stamina so far that is as much walking as his little legs can handle.

This month Grandma Karen came for a visit. We took her to Buckalew Farms to pick pumpkins and sweat our way through a few fun activities:

Rubber Ducky racing...

Petting and feeding farm animals.

Corn Maze

Paul went down this little zip line with Daddy's help.

Paul is so excited to have pumpkins.

 Taking Grandma to the airport was not Paul's favorite part of the visit, we took some of the sting off by taking him the Rainforest Cafe.

We got to sit by the Elephants, Paul's favorite!

The Ten Facebook Commandments

I. Thou shalt not start arguments with total strangers on a friend's post or link.

II. Thou shalt not compare your wardrobe, house, meal, or children to someone elses highly edited and filtered profile pic.

III. Thou shalt not attack a friend's political, social, or religious beliefs on their own wall or post, for behold, it is the height of rudeness.

IV. Thou shalt respect the privacy of your friends and family members in only sharing about them that which seemeth good in their eyes.

V. Thou shalt honor thy mother, father, husband, wife, and children by not speaking about them disrespectfully on this public platform that your family reunions may be long and not filled with hurtful arguments.

VI. Thou shalt stop insisting that I don't believe in God, respect the troops, or love my mother if I don't share that post. Yes I do. Let's just move on.

VII. Thou shalt not armchair parent, quarterback, or otherwise pass judgment from a place of comfort decisions others have made in a place of stress.

VIII. Thou shalt not post an excess of photos or status updates each and every day.

IX. Thou shalt not friend that middle aged divorcee from Oklahoma whom you don't know and with whom you have no mutual friends.

X. Thou shalt not let something as stupid as facebook be a tool for destroying any of the important relationships in your life.

AMEN.

Arizona: Pros and Cons

I've now lived in this state for 3 years. As I've only previously lived in one other state (Utah) I guess I don't have much to compare it to, but I've come up with a list of pros and cons for you in the event you were considering moving here.

Pro: January
While the rest of the world is putting away their Christmas decorations and thinking, "man, I freaking hate snow, slush, and ice and coldness in general. When is Spring?" Arizonians are walking around in the sunshine and 60 degree weather thinking, "Ah, winter. Isn't winter just the best? If only I didn't have to shovel my driveway...Oh, wait. I DON'T!" Then we laugh maniacally and go have a picnic at the park.
White Christmas's are lovely and I miss them and other seasonal changes, but not in January. I never will miss Logan, UT in January.

Con: July
No barefoot summers for us, unless you are really into 3rd degree burns on the bottom of your feet. Walks and hikes are more or less out of the question and the car is nearly as bad as no amount of air conditioning seems to be able to diminish the heat radiating off the dashboard. You can go swimming...but even the pool water feels a little too warm. Monsoon rains provide the only relief and they just don't come often enough to keep temperatures out of the triple digits. When they do come, they bring humidity so, no, it's not a dry heat. All you can do is huddle in your freezer and dream of the weather cooling down at the end of summer (which is in October.)

January 2015, just for reference. Note the shorts.

Pro: Fewer allergens
I've heard that Utah is home to most of the plants that people are allergic to. If that is true, then it might explain why I can't go visit my old stomping grounds without generous doses of medication to keep the itchy, drippy, sniffy, coughies at bay. Living in Arizona, I frequently go days between needing any medication and my symptoms are more mild irritations than debilitating illnesses.

Con: No grass, few trees
When we found a park near us that actually had nice, green grass we were so excited. It is not the norm. At all. The kind of grass you generally get here is greenish weeds that grow on dirt as hard as concrete. Not really the kind of ground you want for, well, anything. You don't roll in the grass, I'd hate to play football--American or otherwise--on that kind of rock solid turf. And the kind of big leafy trees that provide great shade and shed leaves in the winter are quite rare here. Most of the trees that grow here are small, kind of spindly, and have itty bitty leaves that provide little shade. I mean, it's enough that people park under them at parking lots before they'd park close to the door, but they just aren't the same. Certainly not tree house caliber.

Pro: Cactus
Cacti is pretty cool. It makes for a unique landscape, their blossoms are quite pretty, and I now know several different kinds of cactus plus random trivia about the life and growth of cactus. Ask me about Saguaro sometime. I am a treasure trove of botanical knowledge.

Con: Cactus
Have you ever gotten stuck by a cactus spine? It freaking HURTS and they are hard to get out. Paul knows better than to go around touching them, but they are so common you really can get speared on accident because a little cholla branch fell off and blew away...right into your foot (true story.)

Cholla with pink flower in foreground,
Prickly pear in background.

Pro: Low cost of living
Compared to basically everywhere, Arizona has cheap housing, reasonably cheap food, cheaper gas. All these things make it hard to think about moving. Know that if I wanted to buy a house like mine but in Utah, I would spend twice as much. Gas is consistently 20 cents cheaper per gallon here. Not only that, living in Utah with a more expensive home would likely also mean a pay cut for Lee. Lower cost of living and higher income make this pro a major pro.

Con: There is a reason for that
It is cheap to live on land that nobody wants. The heat, the pests, the general isolation, and the lack of anything nice about the city of Tucson means that, yeah, you can afford to live here. That is just because most people don't want to. If you live far enough out of town to avoid the ugly, trashiness of Tucson and live in a nice area you also have to drive 30 minutes to go to a movie, 45 minutes to get to a hospital, an hour to get to the best sushi restaurant in town.

Pro: Lots of wildlife
Living in Southern Arizona I have come across wild animals on hikes, in my neighborhood, even my backyard. Off the top of my head I can remember meeting Coyotes, Javalinas, dozens of Roadrunners, a Great Horned Owl, various Hawks, Falcons, and Vultures, hundreds of lizards, a Gila Monster, Cotton tail rabbits...the list goes on. It makes my morning walks--when they're in season--far more interesting than a typical walk around the block.

Gila Woodpecker at Saguaro National Park

Con: It isn't all good wildlife
People routinely get rattlesnakes on their property here. There are something like 27 species of rattlesnake that live here, not to mention tarantulas, scorpions, black widows, termites, and cockroaches. We have yet to have any rattlers in our yard, though we've had a snake, and I've not found a single scorpion...knock on wood. I hear with termites, however, it's not a question of if but when you will get them in your home.

So there you have it! A break down on Arizona living. These are of course based on my own biases, tastes, and experiences, I'll leave it to you to judge for yourself whether Arizona is a great place to live or a Hellhole. Unless you are talking about July. Take it from me, Arizona in July is basically Hell's Dutch Oven.

Spring Adventures

This post represents 3 months worth of little adventures and excursions. We have been busy this Spring but we tried to fit in a lot of outdoor fun while the weather was good. We went to ye Olde Renaissance Festivale with Katie and Kasey Webster which ended up being a fun way to spend a day:

Paul was allowed one ride. he loved it!

 I got a couple pictures when the Johnston's came for Spring break. We visited the Air and Space Museum:

The prettiest time of year in the Sonoran Desert is March and April. Here are a few photos to prove it:

Alas, right after all the cactus blooms come out it becomes unbearably hot. Now we are sticking o swimming and indoor activities. I guess I owe everyone a cute picture of Paul too...

I'm Batman.

Travel Essentials

These are the travel make-or-breaks. The quality of my trip largely depends on these things and they are all within my control. If you are at all curious to find out what I think makes a trip great, then read on...

Choose Your Traveling Companions with Care:

A good companion can save a bad vacation, and bad companion can ruin a well planned vacation. If you have a well planned vacation and a good travel buddy, the results will be the best time of your life! In my experience, the more people you travel with, the more stressful it will be. It totally feels like herding cats to me. Not only is it harder to move a large group around, it is more stressful if something goes wrong. Then I screwed up every body's trip, not just mine. Really consider how many people you feel comfortable traveling with--I think my limit is 4--and only travel with people who will either A) Happily go along with the itinerary you've laid out or B) Happily let you go along with the itinerary they've laid out. That's not to say that more than one person can't plan a trip, just choose to travel and plan with people who will accept and enjoy the same kind of vacation you would.

If you don't choose your companions with care, you could spend your trip to Savai'i stopping at every LDS Stake Center--there are a LOT of them and they all look the same!--instead of swimming with freaking SEA TURTLES.

Lee is an excellent travel companion, I must be too as he never complains.

Tour Bus or Independent Travel?:

To each his own and all that, but me? I am all about independent travel. I find traveling tour group style to be a little frustrating, more expensive, and less hands on. Tour groups can't stay at little B&B's because there isn't enough room, there is less room for spontaneity, and depending on the tour group you might end up wasting your free time because the group itinerary is unclear.

Traveling with a performance group or service organization can give you cultural experiences you wouldn't get any other way, they can add meaning and value to your travels. I enjoyed my trips with groups, but I prefer to be the master of my own itinerary.

My Mom at a great hotel that is too small for a tour group.

Research, Research, Research:

If you show up at the Louvre on a Tuesday, you'll be disappointed to learn that it is closed. If you have your heart set on seeing Hamilton on Broadway, don't expect same day discount tickets. You won't know what you need to know before you start researching, so get researching!

Make sure you find out when things you want to do are open, when sights are the most crowded, what little hidden gems you can find at your destination. What you don't know can, and certainly will, hurt you.

There are lots of travel writers, guidebooks, Internet forums, and TV programs that will help you prepare for your trip. A lot of them are free! I will absolutely be buying a guidebook for our next Europe trip as I found our Paris guidebook to be invaluable. I listened to podcasts, read tons of blogs, and I asked questions on a travel forum and got good responses within minutes. I followed the advice of the other posters to stay in a hotel that was more central to the touristy stuff we would be doing and I am so glad I did. I wouldn't have realized how far away we were staying until it was too late to find a new place to stay. Good preparation can make a vacation, no preparation will break it.

Make sure you've learned about the history and culture you will be immersing yourself in. Visiting a historic sight without understanding it's story, it's value, is a really good way to be bored on your trip. The more you know, the more fun you will have!

Go Google Mona Lisa images right now so you can understand how few people this is.

Seriously, knowing how to avoid crowds on your trip is a major stress reducer!

Enjoy all the parts of your vacation:

There are three parts to every vacation, at least according to that guy on youtube. The first part is the anticipation and planning stage. Looking forward to your trip and preparing for it is part of your vacation. The more you do in this stage, the better the rest of your trip will be.

The second part of your vacation is the actual vacation. This is usually the shortest of the three parts. The third part is looking back on your vacation and enjoying the memories. In order to get the most out of both the second and third phase requires and balance between making memories and recording memories. Take photos. Take lots of photos. If you see something photo worthy, get several shots so you can make sure at least one turns out really well. most cameras have settings for night time, flash, back lighting, and auto mode. Try taking the picture with a few different modes on and see which one turns out the best. If you are a pro, then have fun capturing great images in a new place.

Have a variety of pictures! Some with people, some without, some at odd angles, some with nice smiles, some with silly faces and poses, these photos will probably come to define a lot of the memories you keep of your travels.

You don't have to take pictures and make movies of every single thing you see. Will you or anyone else really care what your lunch looked like? When you get your camera out snap lots of pictures, but don't always have your camera out. Take time to enjoy the moment first, then take a couple pictures, but make sure you really do both. If you've planned well, focused on enjoying the moment, and taken some quality photos, you are all set to enjoy your vacation for the rest of your life. To round off that third phase, write down some of the funny or poignant experiences and stories from your trip, good and bad, so you can remember them long term.

Don't Skip Meals:

You may be thinking what I was thinking, "I'm a big kid. I can handle going a few hours without eating." Yes, you can. But should you? Are you really happy when you're hungry? You may be able to go without eating from 8 AM till 2 PM at home or in the office, but now you are traveling. That may mean you are walking, biking, or hiking a lot more than on your typical day. Walking around Paris, we were averaging 8 miles a day, London we averaged 6 miles a day. That's a few hundred calories extra we were burning.

I found a direct correlation between how much I enjoyed what I was seeing and how long it had been since my last meal or snack. Any time I realized I was being snippy, that was a sign that it's lunch time and we'd better take a break. And if you've done some food related research ahead of time, then you might already know about a kebab stand or café nearby that has good prices and good reviews. Then you don't have to wander aimlessly hoping it will start raining hamburgers or you will magically find a non-tourist trap restaurant next to the Eiffel Tower (not a thing.)

You'll be so hungry you could eat a pig!

Take a Break for a Couple Hours Every Day:

Paul usually naps for a couple hours between 1 and 4 PM, So family trips kind of require us to use that time as quiet rest time. What I didn't realize was that time was just as important for me as it is for my 2 year old. Think about it, when you go to Disneyland what time do you start to feel burned out? Just after lunch? You just want to crawl inside Goofy's house and take a nap.

Well, do it! Maybe not in Goofy's house, but head back to your hotel if you can, or sit down somewhere comfortable for a while. Maybe you travel to lounge and relax but I don't, in general, travel that way. I travel so that by the time my trip is over I am so exhausted that I am ready to get back to my usual routine. I find that taking a break sometime during the afternoon to recharge the ole batteries helps me enjoy my evenings more. My sister told me that taking afternoon breaks when her kids started to get grouchy-- and Disneyland gets the biggest crowds--helped keep everyone in good spirits. I found the same worked for me in Paris. We'd head back to our hotel to kick off our shoes, send an e-mail home and rest before dinner.

If you aren't a baby, then you might need to nap at your hotel, not the street.

Bring Only the Best, Most Comfortable Shoes:

This is an obvious tip, but an important one nonetheless. It's not like I don't know this, but I have consistently screwed this one up. I keep bringing the superfluous extra pair of shoes. I always tell myself, "If your feet start getting tired from wearing the same shoes everyday, you'll be glad you brought a back up pair." I did this in Orlando last year, I brought my never-gives-me-blisters-perfect-for-warm-weather athletic shoes, and an extra pair of tennis shoes, just in case. My feet were starting to feel tired midweek, so I switched shoes. I only did wear the back up pair once and I just spent the whole day wishing I'd just worn the other shoes. The soles just weren't thick enough for real comfort and the arch support was lacking. My feet got more tired more quickly, and I wore my better shoes every day after that. I never did get any blisters.

In Paris, I brought a back up pair of tennis shoes that, I'll admit, I knew weren't great. I figured they'd be okay for a couple miles. Six miles later I am limping and I have blisters the size of my pinkie toes on my pinkie toes. Blisters that puffed up despite my generous layers of mole skin. I threw the offending shoes away that night and I will always remember the very painful lesson they taught me. Never again.

Yes, a good pair of shoes can take you anywhere.

Take Jet Lag into Consideration Where Applicable:

I sometimes hear the advice that you should do the things you want to do most right away, in case something goes wrong (sickness, strikes, closures, inclement weather) so you can make sure you have done what matters most to you. I agree with this, except when you are going to do some drastic time zone changes.

The battle against jet lag is real. Trying to stay away late enough so that you are on a normal schedule is a serious challenge and sight seeing--outdoors, in the sunshine, not in overly warm museums--is a good way to combat the exhaustion. I have spent my jet lagged hours in some cool places, but they were not nearly as cool as they would have been if I had been fully alert and rested. I have some good memories from those days, good travel experiences, but they are all a little hazy, a little tainted by exhaustion. Try your best to stay awake and have fun, but know your limits. Don't try to dive into the deep end on 0 hours of sleep. Test the waters, eat, drink, and sleep well, then you can really dive in when you are ready.

Enjoy the Memories, Good and Bad:

Bad vacations often make the best stories. Having things go wrong just adds a little spice to your travel, though a little goes a long way. You will always love telling people about the place you stayed where you had to take icy cold showers (done that) or the water didn't work so your showered in the rain (Lee's done that.)

It's fun to talk about the meal of a seafood pasta that scared you to death because all the seafood still had it's shells, antenna, and faces. And let's not forget the hostel bathrooms that smelled like Sasquatch died in there but not before taking off his moldy hiking boots and wrecking the toilet (this one is almost too recent to be funny.) Sometimes the things that go wrong are the most entertaining parts of your trip, so enjoy the ups and downs. Write the good and bad down in a journal or a blog or photo album, and tell your travel stories to all your disinterested friends and family for years to come.