Sedona, lovely Sedona

What a full day of activities. Chris golfed 18 holes, then we headed to Jerome and then finally Sedona. I had never been to Sedona and it had been a few decades for Chris, so it was fun little afternoon trip! The drive goes from brown mountains to suddenly earthy reds, easy to know once you've arrived. We drove through town until we reached the main district and got out to get some lunch and to walk around. It's a pretty artsy town, so lots of jewelry, paintings and sculptures. The sun was high and it was toasty outside. We at lunch at a cowboy restaurant, very interesting items on the menu...lots of snake.

After we ate, we started to walk around and Syd quickly ran over to play in the misters outside the restaurant.

Resting after eating our huge hamburgers and planning our strategy for hitting the shops

It wouldn't be a normal day if something didn't happen to make Syd pout and refuse to move. Careful Syd, payback isn't fun....I'm so sorry Mom and Dad for doing this to you!

Stopping at an adorable shop that Nonnie would just LOVE! Lots of fun dips and sauces, and an entire garden full of wind chimes and bird houses. Loved that shop.

Syd was absolutely mesmerized with these little rainbow pinwheels. She had to stop and blow each one every time we walked past.

Stopping for smooches

They had a small area roped off and were doing some re-enactments. Telling the stories of how life was when Sedona was first settled.

A family came out and was approached by two cowboys. They began shooting at the husband to get a few laughs. The daughter came around the corner with a huge whip and scared them off. Kids learned to master the whip when they were young, and the talent would come in very hand with horses or cocky cowboys.

One last stop before we get back on the road.

Syd insisted on taking my picture. Frightening to let her use my canon, but she didn't do too shabby!

Passing Through Jerome

Jerome is probably one of my favorite little towns to visit. It's nestled on Cleopatra hill at 5200 feet and basically consists of three curvy streets. Once known as the wickedest town in the west, Jerome was a copper mining camp, growing from a settlement of tents to a roaring mining community. Four disastrous fires destroyed large sections of the town during its early history. Jerome sits above what was the largest copper mine in Arizona and produced an astonishing 3 million pounds of copper per month. Men and women from all over the world made their way to Arizona to find work and maybe a new way of life. Today the mines are silent, and Jerome has become the largest ghost town in America. Jerome is a big tourist destination and a thriving art community. From abandoned old buildings, to old burlesque houses the character in this house is inspiring and beyond creative. It just makes my heart feel happy, as Syd likes to say.

Lots of old buildings, steep streets and interesting people. We went into this great toy shop and the manager was awesome. He let Syd fling monkey's across the room, he performed magic tricks for her and then he loaded up our bag with some smoke as we left. So cool, we walked and it continued steaming for a few minutes. Very cool experience.

Leah, our favorite photographer, told us that we had to hit the candy shop while we were there, so we went on a hunt for it down the winding streets. Found a fun fountain that spit water out of a clown face. Syd and Chris watching the fountain.

Passing the House of Joy, located in the center of Hull Avenue the one-time "legal" red-light-district in the 1920's. The building first opened as a brothel and then as a restaurant. It now is a "Brothel Botique"

We found Rickeldoris Candy & Popcorn Company! YEAY!

Like a kid in a candy shop

Decisions, decisions...

I love abandoned old buildings and reading the history on them. I'll spare you my story telling and just show you the photos. :)

Overlooking the remains of the Bartlett Hotel

Next trip to Jerome, we're hitting the Jerome Grand Hotel. originally opened as the United Verde Hospital in 1927. It was constructed by the United Verde Copper Company to treat injured and sick miners. As the copper deposits played out, the local population dwindled and the hospital was closed down in 1950. The building had always had a reputation for being haunted as ghostly sounds of coughing, moaning and labored breathing could be heard throughout the wards. In addition, a man named Claude Harvey was killed when he was caught underneath the hospital elevator in 1935. Since that time, lights have been seen in the shaft and during a period when the building was vacant, the elevator could be heard slowly traveling up and down... even though it had been parked at the top of the shaft and no power was connected to it. Mmmhmmm Ghost Hunters, Evans style.

Chris and his baby girl hit the greens

We headed up to Prescott this weekend and Syd was VERY excited to bring her clubs so that she could golf with her Dad. As soon as we got up there, I changed her into some warmer clothes, it was a bit chilly up there. My parent's house is right on the 4th tee, so, Syd and Chris are actually able to get through about five holes or so before it gets to the point where they can't see anymore and they turn around to come home. She just loves every second of being out there with him, watching him hit, getting to hit the ball herself and then putting.

Last time we were up in Prescott, Chris found a pink golf ball and Syd hasn't let it out of her sight since. She was so excited to bring it with her to hit on the course.

Grabbing their Drivers to hit off the 4th tee box.

Always have to warm up and stretch out before you start swinging the club!

I mean, seriously, how cute is this!

Chris reminding her how to hit a ball off of the tee.

WACK! She smacked it good!!

Channeling My Inner Interior Decorator

We've had a real issue trying to get our Great Room decorated the way we'd like it to be. I purchased a canvas from our recent photo shoot with Lead Simmers of Syd and wanted to put it on the wall over our piano, but it just looked so blank. So, I came up with this idea to use some moulding and frame it out with darker paint. Sounded like a super easy project, yet turned out to be a little more math than we expected, but the end result is loverly.

Here's the wall "Before"

Papa had to come over and check out our progress. We decided to put him to work while he was there :) We had the wall painted, trim cut, trim painted and were ready to start putting it all together.

And here's the finished product. We're pretty happy with it. Yeay!

Slap Happy

If this doesn't make you chuckle, nothing will...

Swimming and Eating with Friends

We had our friends Ada, Shane and Kylie over to swim, drink and eat. Was so much fun and the girls got along so well, it was adorable. We swam and drank, then came inside and made some mexican food. Ada took over in the kitchen after we ate and did some major work on all the dishes I heart you Ada :) Sydney kept saying "I'm so glad Kylie came to my house" it was adorable. Ada brought some cotton candy for the girls afterwards....we'll just say that they liked it....a lot!

Sugar rush!

Fourth of July in Prescott

Ok, I have a lot of Prescott posts lately, but it's been about 110 here, so can you blame us for running up to Prescott any chance we can get? It's in the high 80's or so during the day and down in the 50's at night, so it's such a nice break away from the heat! We went up to Prescott for the Fourth to join my parents and Gigi who were up there....and finally brought up their golf cart. Woohoo!!! It didn't take long for us to break it in up there. In fact, we parked the car, brought bags in and Sydney and Chris took off in the cart to golf a few holes. She was his great little helper, holding his club covers, pin and helping to point out the balls.

Loading up the cart with his clubs. She's soooo excited

Papa took her for a spin while Chris changed into his golf shoes

Our little peanut on the 4th of July!

They had a huge craft show downtown, so we headed down there to check it out. Somehow we just ended up buying Syd a bunch of jewelry and things she didn't need (but insisted she did).

Syd with her new flower clip that matched her outfit and a bag of popcorn (her favorite).

The fireworks were set off right behind my parents house. It was perfect, we were able to just sit out on the back patio and watch them all shoot off. Lala, Syd and Gigi.

Nothing like an unexpected close-up....sorry Gigi (I think she might be giving me the stink eye)

Ok, so a bar came loose from the bottom of this chair and I was convinced Chris was going to fall right on his hiney. I took this pic to use it as the "Before" and was prepared to quickly snap another as he hit the ground....sadly he wised up and flipped the chair around before I could get my kicks.

At least in this picture you can see how bent the chair got under his legs. I'm telling ya, it would've been REALLY funny.

Here's the thing about my Dad, he falls asleep ALL the time. Watching movies, the news, sitting outside. After he's eaten dinner, he should not operate heavy machinery. So we're in the backyard watching fireworks....and look at him getting ready to just give in to the urge to shut his eyes. It's painful to watch.

No less than three minutes later he was out like a light!

The next day Chris and I woke up early and hopped in the golf cart to play 18 holes together while the crew back home watched Syd. It's fun because one of the courses goes right past their house. So as I hit my ball on the third hole I heard "Go Erin!" and saw my dad and Syd standing by the hole. So cute! Although I did hit the ball right into the water, it was a beautiful shot. We drove Syd to the 4th tees and kept playing.

Dominic's Birthday Party

Anyone who knows Sydney and has spoken to her about school knows all about Dominic. He's this adorable little boy at Syd's school that she has a crush on. Over the weekends we'd hear all about how she missed him and during the week she'd blush when talking about him. She's THREE! One day while Chris was traveling, I took her to school and we walked into the room together. I called out "Who's Dominic?" and right at my feet I hear "I'm Dominic" I look down and there's this adorable little Italian boy in a jersey with a football under his arm. And so it begins. The other day we received an invitation to Dominic's birthday party and the look on her face was as though it was Christmas morning. "Dominic wants MEEE to come to his HOUSE?!?" We had to do a countdown the week of the party. The morning of, she insisted on going to the store with me to pick out his gifts and then when we got home she helped me wrap them in the bag. She told me that she just had to wear her Christmas dress to the party. I explained to her that it was a pool party and that silk with velvet trim dresses, well they just don't mix with that kind of party. I lost the battle of pushing the cotton dress on her and we settled on her Easter dress. We'll just say there was LOTS of excited screams on the way to the party.

Sydney playing it cool after her first swim.

Syd and the Birthday Boy, Dominic....both being extremely shy with each other still

Getting ready to go swimming again...and the ice breaking. I actually asked them to stand closer to each other in this picture and Chris quickly said "They're fine where they are" haha

They were so cute in the pool. At one point they were having fun fighting over the water gun and rubbed noses with each other. It was just the cutest thing ever. She'd drill him in the side of the head with the water gun, he'd laugh hysterically and then kick really fast and soak her completely.

How cute is this. A stolen moment after they got out of the pool before Dominic blew out his candles

Blowing out his candles (Sydney practiced singing the song to him the day before the party)

One cute picture before we left. I got her to put her Easter dress back on :) Love the blue teeth from the birthday cake.