Snow on Mt. Lemmon

We were going to camp up on Mt. Lemmon this last weekend but the weather had some other ideas for us.
We set up tents in the afternoon (Wendy and I) and let the boys play on the mountain. It was so much fun for them to just be boys and play with the dirt, rocks, sticks, pine cones, etc. That night at the church cabin there was a BBQ activity so we were there for that and had planned on just staying over night and coming home on Saturday morning.

Someone else took this pic of Aaron and I at the indoor BBQ

Brady and Tolson helping put away tables after the BBQ

The wind and weather was SO BAD that we also had to move our little camping party into the loft at the lodge because the low was supposed to be 32 that night! It was still pretty cold in the lodge and I think I slept a total of 5 minutes the entire night! I don't do well on air mattresses and especially being cold the whole night and listening to the wind howl.
So we woke up the next morning to several inches of snow on the ground and it was still falling. The caretakers of the campgrounds were anxious for us to get out of there because they wanted to get out and down the mountain before getting stuck up there for Easter weekend.
So we made our way down the mountain. The really bad parts of driving were on the dirt road leading back to the campgrounds off the main road.

Here are some pictures I took from the car.

Driving on the main road right after we got onto Catalina Hwy.

The snow was blowing UP at us! You're supposed to be able to see all the smaller mountains in front of the big one and kind of down into Tucson from here. Not that day!

Farther down the mountain you can see where the clouds break and the sun is shining. You can't really tell from this picture but you can see Tucson down there too.

It was so weird to have snow here in AZ but it definitely didn't feel like AZ up on the mountain!!!

PS We had a great Easter with some friends and their kids. My camera wasn't working to take pictures though so no pictures of our egg hunt and the kids eating their dinner at the kids table! I'm actually able to be the parent at the adult table now!! Am I that old????

The results are IN

And it's 4 more years for my Dad!

Congratulations to my Dad on winning his election yesterday! He was running for re-election of his City Council seat in Bloomington, IL. He had 2 other guys running against him, while all of the other Alderman up for re-election were running unopposed.

My Dad totally smoked the competition with 57% of the vote!

He's been in office 4 years after winning against a guy who had been in office for 15 years! The people wanted a change and my Dad has given it to them and obviously performed well enough that they wanted to keep him around!

Here's the article in the local paper.

I'm proud of my Dad and of course my Mom who was his campaign manager/secretary/grunt laborer/campaign historian/phone bank caller/spread sheet maker/#1 fan..........the list goes on and on!

My Dad with my cute niece Ava at the victory party last night.

Congratulations!!!!!!!!

Titanic

I think I have always been fascinated with the story of the Titanic.
Is it weird that I am fascinated by a story where over a thousand people die?

I remember as a kid reading a National Geographic magazine (my grandma always got us subscriptions to it) about how they had found the wreckage and were beginning to take things and preserve them. I couldn't believe these things could still survive under water for 75 years!

So onto the reason for this post.......................

On Saturdays while Aaron is working on his Master's class, Brady and I try to find things to do away from the house to give him a little quiet time. I saw on TV the other day there is this traveling museum of Titanic artifacts and I thought that might be kind of interesting to see.

So Brady and I headed across town to the Tucson Mall (I wanted to go to the mall anyway as well so it worked out!). The exhibit was in two big trailers hooked together and the line was huge to get in because it was free! They said it would be about and hour and a half so I thought, Brady has snacks, he had a little nap on the way over and there's lots of kids in line in this parking lot he can play with. So we waited..........for 3 hours! He was actually really good and really dirty by the time we made it through the line because he was playing in this dirt pile for awhile (you'll see his dirty shoes in a picture farther down below).

But it was kind of neat the way they did it. They give you a boarding pass with a real passenger's name, what class they were traveling on the ship, their story and who they were traveling with. At the end of the exhibit you can look on the Memorial Wall with all the passengers listed, what class they were in and if they were rescued off the Titanic or if they died.

Our boarding passes-the lady I had survived with her daughter, but her husband did not make it. Brady's guy and his brother did not survive but his wife did.

They also give you a free photo in front of a backdrop of the Grand Staircase on the Titanic.

The whole time we were in line, he kept saying "Big Boat" because that's what was on the side of the exhibit so he kept thinking we were going on a boat. He was also excited because we were under a "tent" (covered awning) for our picture. And then he thought when we went in the exhibit we were actually in a boat. Oh well, I wasn't going to tell him otherwise and ruin his fun!

The exhibit was really neat, and unfortunately you couldn't take any pictures because of the lighting and they just didn't want you to! They had about 50 artifacts (which is only a small number compared to what they have recovered), and this is the first time they have sent artifacts on display on their own outside of regular museum exhibits so that's kind of cool. And they started their tour here in Tucson!

But the most ironic thing that they had was a printed and filled out paper receipt for insurance on their luggage filled out before they set sail! This wasn't discovered until 1987 so I'm sure that lady never got her money back! But the ink survived under water all those years! Crazy!!

Click HERE to see if the exhibit is coming to an area near you!

Here is Brady riding on the motorcycle ride at the mall. Sorry, kind of blurry I guess. He didn't want to get off!

We had a fun day away from home and it was too bad Daddy couldn't be there with us!

GOAL!

Grandma Gray sent a couple Easter goodies for Brady and this soccer goal set was one of them. Brady immediately loved it and he was a natural at kicking. Aaron said "Goal!" after he kickd it in and he started saying it over and over.

Thanks Grandma-he LOVES it!

Notice he is kicking with his left foot!