The Day it Snowed in Tucson

Snow is one of those events that happen so infrequently here in the sunny Southwest that it is always memorable. Everyone takes photos of their houses, neighborhoods, yards, the mountains, covered in the fleeting dusting, which is usually gone within a couple of hours. But this February, the snow actually stuck overnight! 

Here is our two cents, photographed by J while I was at work.

BB trekked out to play in the snowfall

He climbed atop the play structure and triumphantly shouted, "I'm the King of the snow ship!"

Somehow the lettuce survived the freeze!

Somehow the lettuce survived the freeze!

 

 Read how God spoke through this particular Tucson snowfall here.

Sprouts 2013: Lettuce Turnip the Beet

Lettuce!

I also have some dill, red chard, kale, parsley, and I think maybe carrots? growing. I planted my winter garden a little late and my main objective was to grow lettuce. This is my first harvest! I clipped this last week, and already the lettuce grew back in!  I am looking forward to planting my spring garden, but I want wait until the lettuce stops producing.

Lately

Lately...

....J and I went on a Valentine's date (we saw Argo, which, pre-Oscars, J said was argo-ably the best movie of the year)

...we had a sleepover with E and Z - this was only the beginning...

(My favorite part of our 24 hours together was when E told me my toilet was too dirty to go potty in - bahaha. If a three-year-old thinks your toilet is too dirty, you KNOW it's time to clean the bathroom!)

...we celebrated a fun friend's birthday by taking a 30 passenger bus down to Sonoita for a day of local wine tasting.

 

(These last two silly pics are us celebrating that, while some people were already napping on the bus, we persevered through the final wine tasting on our itinerary.)

...we turned the sand and water table into a rock table using fish tank rocks - equally as fun and SO MUCH CLEANER. The only downside is that SS has thrown zillions of those tiny pebbles into our grass, which means mowing the lawn will be...an adventure.

...I kidnapped my nieces one morning

(I am still trying to figure out how to edit this photo - any Photoshop editing suggestions welcome!)

...we went up to Phoenix for BFF A's Sprinkle to celebrate their newest little man due in April...

I had fun crafting up some nursery art (you can see it on the table)

Is there a better gift than husband-wife matching pajama pants for the birth of your child? I think not.

4 bugs in the tub (action photo)

4 bugs in the tub

...and on Sunday we brunched at St. Francis, a hipster Phoenix restaurant that serves Cartel coffee (a rapidly growing coffee phenomenon owned by college friends of ours!)

I drank a whole cup of coffee by myself, and I was wired the rest of the day! (Which was the intention, since we went to Ikea on the way home - I needed Ikeanergy!)

 

Live music!

SS was overjoyed at a cup sliding game while we waited for our food

The beautiful Mama, my BFF A

 

...we hit up Ikea on the way home, and the boys had fun in the children's area.

I love how expressive BB always is.

 

SS had fun too

Just some snapshots of our life lately.

Only In Tucson

Here in Tucson, only in Tucson, do students get an extra two days off of school for Rodeo Break. Yup, as in the real rodeo with bull-riding and barrel-racing and a parade...or so I'm told. I haven't actually been. Which I imagine is the case for most other people on "rodeo break" nowadays. (In the olden days, the kids needed the days off school to work or compete in the rodeo.)

BUT Rodeo Break is an excellent excuse to dress your little boys up as cowboys, so when I realized that the Friday I had promised BB I would take him to the Children's Museum was the Friday of Rodeo Break, and I absolutely couldn't change the day because BB had been asking to go for weeks and I had been egging on his anticipation, I realized that even if the Children's Museum is a total mad house, I could play dress up and everything would be okay.

I get frequent requests for pictures of the boys together, so I thought I would show you what generally happens when I try to get a nice picture of both boys happy and smiling, especially if they are adorably dressed.

Inevitably one melts down. BB is pretty well camera-trained these days, but SS does not like being confined by his brother or something (and by confined I mean any contact when the camera is pointed in their general direction).

Those are BB's old (too big) boots that SS is wearing. He did not want to stand in them. Or wear them.

The best I got before I gave up on SS wearing cowboy boots.

And off we went to the Children's Museum, which turned out not to be too crowded after all, yippee!

I told him to stop his feet

Which lead to a happy dance. My joyful boy.

Inside, SS was enamored with this light-up wheel in the ElectriCity area:

 

 

In the fire truck

This is such a "Brothers" picture to me - BB using the play tweezers on SS's hair while SS innocently plays with his own toy

We ate lunch in the Children's Museum courtyard, which had a garden and a shady area of picnic tables, including a child-sized picnic table!

Me and my boys

(You know I have my cowboy boots on over my red tights)

Carefree

Tree-climbing on our lunch break

I love this shot because BB the cowboy is riding this tree like a horse

And then SS crawled right under to be his horsie. I seriously didn't pose them, this just happened organically. I die for this picture.

Giddy up.