an Arizona ghost town

I'll admit it. The Goldfield Ghost Town is one gigantic tourist trap. But you know what? I like to do touristy things in my own city, at least once. It helps me get a feel for the Phoenix Arizona other people experience when they visit here. It's also fun to say you've been there, done that with major attractions near you. Or if you have FOMO issues like I do.

Tourist trap notwithstanding, I have to say we had a lot of fun at the old ghost town last weekend.

Here are a few pictures we snapped of the mining city, complete with horses, waitresses in saloon girl costumes, and of course, tours of the once-working mine. (These pictures were taken in the middle of the day, so sorry about the harsh lighting.)

Our first stop (and the only attraction we paid for) was the train ride and tour of the city. 

Can you tell Claire was excited about the train ride? She ran around the house saying "choo train! choo train!" all morning before we left.

It was kind of eerie and ghost-like, in the middle of the desert on the train, listening to the tour guide tell you that in this very spot, the miners and Apache Indians once had an extremely bloody three-day battle. 

 I can't get enough of the beautiful Superstition Mountains in the background.

After the train ride, we walked up and down the main street, looking in windows and museums and shops, and just admiring the general feel. 

They staged an old-fashioned showdown right at high noon. It would have been fun watching them all shoot blanks at each other if a certain unnamed toddler hadn't started screaming her head off at the first gunshot. As it was, I spent the whole show behind the saloon with three workers taking a smoke break, trying to get my toddler to calm down. 

Saying hi to the horses:

Sure wish I could show you a picture of all three of us (all five of us if you count my baby bump haha), but I have the worst luck asking strangers to take our picture! This weekend's attempt featured the tops of our heads and part of a building. Ha. Anyone have tips for asking strangers to take your picture??

Yee-haw for Saturday adventures, gorgeous deserts, and tourist traps that are actually really fun. :)

Hot Air Balloon Fest

The Fourth of July is one of my all-time favorite holidays. Swimming, barbecues, fireworks, and patriotic attire - what's not to like? Sam has a few days off work and we are excited to party hard. We should be packing, but we're choosing to ignore that and just play all weekend instead. ;)

My city has been totally amazing when it comes to Fourth of July festivals these past few years. This morning, we went to the hot air balloon festival. Hot air balloons are just so beautiful and inherently photographable, you know? I mean, it's no Albuquerque Balloon Festival, but it's still fun. You get to walk amongst the balloons as they inflate, and then you can watch as they compete to drop bean bags onto targets and pop helium balloons 100 feet in the air. Cool, right?

Side note: We were at the festival two hours ago, and now it's on the blog. I'm pretty sure that's the fastest blog turnaround time I've ever pulled off. Go me! It's all thanks to a baby who's taking a long morning nap right now.

Another side note: Last year on this day we had a brand new baby, and I was experiencing some crazy awful and scary epidural complications. I was in more pain than I'd ever been in in my life. We were in the emergency room and I kept yelling to Sam, "Just decapitate me! Make it stop!" (I know it sounds so dramatic, but I was serious at the time! Anything to stop hurting!) This year, I am feeling so blessed to be healthy and have a healthy and happy little one-year-old that we can take on fun adventures. Life is good.

 If you want to go to this, tomorrow is the last day! Be there right at 6:30 for the best experience (I promise it's worth the early wake-up call). See the details here.

Happy Fourth of July!

Has anyone been to the Albuquerque festival before?

It's on my bucket list to go one day.

What are your Fourth of July plans?

afternoon at the antique store

Yesterday afternoon, the kiddos and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and walked to an antique store. Of course when I say "the kiddos," I mean Claire, who is my actual kiddo, and Jason, who is technically not my kiddo, but he might as well be. Especially Claire, who thinks Jason was created for the sole purpose of playing with her all day every day. Seriously. This morning, as Claire was pulling herself up on Jason's leg during breakfast, he said, "Claire's kind of like my dog. She just follows me wherever I go." Truth! She is one attached little lady.

We took advantage of the beautiful afternoon to walk to an antique store we live near. I drive past that store almost every day, but I hadn't ever been inside it (actually, I've been there once, a long time ago, but I hardly remember it). I don't know what took me so long, but now that I've rediscovered this place, it will take a lot of willpower not to go back every day. Every corner is filled with all sorts of delightful, pretty things. It's the kind of store you can get lost in, and wander out hours later with your hands full of all sorts of delightful treasures. Check out their Facebook page here, and then go visit! This isn't a sponsored post. I just know you won't be disappointed :)

Gorgeous finds, right? Ah, I love it.

And then I went off tutoring, where a student asked me, "What's mating?" Haha! Never a dull moment in the teaching profession, let me tell ya!

Happy weekend!

And if antiquing is a hobby of yours, tell me your secrets!

Best places to find things?

How do you tell if something is valuable or just old?

snow day happenings

Snow! That fluffy white stuff that I love for a day or two and then passionately hate until April when it finally melts :) It didn't snow for a long time here in Provo, but when it did snow - it really snowed! 

Here are a few snowy activities we've been doing lately. It's fun when Sam has some days off work to spend with us (even though we missed Jason when he went to visit family this break).

DRAPER TREE OF LIFE

We went with our friends on the coldest day in December, so this ended up being a five-minute quick stop. It was just too cold to stay out and admire the tree! It was practically deserted though (nobody else was crazy enough to freeze their buns off outside!) so it was beautiful. 

CLAIRE MEETS THE SNOW

We put Claire in a too-big boys snowsuit for her first snow experience (you have to make do with what you have, right?). I didn't think too much of it until a neighbor asked me who the cute boy was that I was playing with in the snow. Haha! Sorry Claire! 

At first she liked the snow, and then she realized how cold it was, and then she realized she can't move her legs in that gigantic snowsuit, and it was all downhill from there. Poor girl. She has photo-crazy parents who feel the need to document everything, even when she's sitting in the snow crying :)

AQUARIUM

Sometimes, it's nice to escape the snow and go somewhere indoors and warm. I have a serious love for aquariums, but I have to admit, the new aquarium we went to didn't live up to my expectations. Maybe because it looks so cool from the outside so I expected to be totally blown away by what was inside. Maybe because the last aquarium I went to was SeaWorld, and you just can't top that. Or maybe because it was super crowded. But the shark tunnel did live up to the hype! I love shark tunnels.

A WALK IN THE SNOW

Our family walk turned out much shorter than we planned. I only took about five pictures total (and apparently they were all of trees). Note to people everywhere: babies are much more portable when being carried through the snow than when you're trying to push a stroller through the snow. Next time we'll strap her in the baby carrier and have much more success!

Next up - sledding!
Are you a snow lover or a snow hater?

And also - real life? Starts again tomorrow? What?

Escaping on a freeeeeezing day

Earlier this week, we had a fun adventure in which our heat decided to stop working, and the replacement part took a few days to arrive. As fun as it was to snuggle up under large fluffy blankets and do jumping jacks to keep ourselves from turning into epic ice statues a la Frozen, it was also really nice to have a warm house again. No more sending the baby girl to bed with three pairs of pajamas on, or turning on the oven for the sole purpose of sitting on the floor with the oven door wide open to feel the heat, which I may have done at 11:00pm one night when my bed was just too cold :)

When it's freezing outside, t's also really nice to reminisce about warmer, more adventurous days. You know, days when I still left the house ;) These pictures are from our last day in Saint George about a month ago. We did some Sunday walks in Snow Canyon National Park, and I swear it was like we were the only ones there. Just us and those gorgeous red cliffs. I've said it before and I'll say it again, but I swear I will never be able to get over the desert colors of southern Utah.

I tried to figure out the exact color of this amazing yellow, but all I could come up with was chartreuse mixed with neon yellow?? One of my artist friends, help me out here. 

this picture was originally posted when I talked about Hiking the Narrows, but this is the hike we actually took the picture on :)

Claire was such a little trooper on our trip. She'd just nap in the car whenever she could, and be awake and happy during all our hikes and adventures. 

Here's to working heat,

and gorgeous deserts,

and a three-day work week!