Boomer was very happy to have us home from Disney Land. :)
He loves to tell us how much he loves us!
Sometimes, when James is away, Boomer will watch over his work area. (I think he just wants to learn how to push the buttons...)
We were invited to go camping the second to last weekend in May but unfortunately, I work all day on Fridays now so we couldn't make it. We decided to camp in our own back yard instead. We set up the tent, had hamburgers and s'mores, and enjoyed a cool evening outside. It did get quite chilly too. We allowed Boomer to camp with us, he had his own bed in the tent, but during the middle of the night he snuck in beside me to get warm. I woke up to him a couple of times with his little wet nose in my neck. :)
Another fun thing we did was visit the Biosphere 2 here in Tucson. It was an experimental facility where 8 scientists were locked inside and were told to live off what they could grow. There were different environments inside as well, such as a Rain Forest, Desert and Ocean. The facility has since had some difficult times and is now open to the public for tours and studies for the University of Arizona. It was very interesting to visit and I think it's amazing what we humans can do with science, but it'll never match what creations Heavenly Father has made.
This was the Rain Forest. When the scientists lived in the Biosphere2 there were actually animals that lived inside the facility with them. The Rain Forest housed some monkeys, a variety of bugs/insects and birds.
The next two pictures are of the Ocean. They had a reef built from live specimens found in the Gulf of Mexico. The beach sand that was on the shore they shipped in from the Bahamas (or Bermuda? I can't remember). The Ocean was a tricky environment. They had a wave machine that would make waves, but because there was no natural movement (Ocean currents and tides), the reef eventually died. Also a bummer, the wave machine eroded all that nice Bahama beach sand! When we went down below to view the ocean it was filthy filthy water. There were a few fishes swimming around and there are pictures below of them, but otherwise, the Ocean was a bit of a disappointment.
This was the Desert. It's a different kind of desert than AZ's deserts. This was a humid desert, like you'd find in a place like Madagascar. It was called a Fog Desert. It was really hot in there. I felt the beads of sweat form on my brow and move their way down my back. I was happy to be out of there. I get that enough outside the Biosphere2!
In the Desert Basement we were able to see a lot of the hardware that made the Bisophere2 run. There were tons of pipes, electrical units and all kinds of gadgets below. The scientists, when they lived there, there was one person in charge of overseeing the hardware. If anything broke, they would make a call to a facility just outside and the part would be made for them to replace the broken part. Pretty neat but that's a huge responsibility for one person.
This was my favorite part of the whole place. This was the tunnel that led to one of the "Lungs." The Lungs allowed for the expansion of warm air and helped maintain the pressure in the different environments. I found it fun to walk down the tunnel. It was like a secret passage way or something!
Here's our tour guide telling us how the Lungs work (there are two, a North and a South, we were allowed to visit the South). The Lungs were made of rubber and would move up and down to allow for the expansion. The windows of the Biosphere2 would have exploded had these two Lungs not been built. This was especially true for the Desert environment were it was always kept very warm/hot. While we were in there we got to see it move. It was a slight movement when you think of how big this thing was, but it was really neat. Looking at the picture, the Lung is the round part in the ceiling. The poles that come off of it don't touch the ground. They were probably 10 feet off when we first got in there, and they lowered probably 2 feet? I can't remember...Very cool nonetheless.
The tour ended after seeing the Lungs and we were allowed to roam around the grounds. The first place we went was to view the Ocean from below. Like I said, the water was green and filthy filthy. But it was neat to see the fishes swimming around. This little guy was a fast swimmer! I had to use the motion setting on my camera to catch him. This was the best picture I got.
There were some fun underwater scenes built as well and we had fun playing around them. This picture was a favorite because even though it's poor in quality, it does make him look like he's underwater :)
On our way leaving we decided to look at the "Scenic View." That is Oro Valley, AZ you're looking at. Mt. Lemmon is in the background.
James and I decided to be spontaneous one night and send out an invite to about 45 people to come to our house for Memorial Day. All responded they would come! So we had a HUGE party at our house. It was so FUN! About 20 of that population was under the age of 6. Five were under the age of 1 :) The kids were kinda crazy, but what kids aren't? We had a family bring over their bean bag chairs and those were one of the biggest hits for them. They had so much fun with them. James was also a big hit...
While the boys wrestled with "Uncle James"...
The girls watched Tangled on the little TV we had set up in our formal.
The party was a huge hit and we had so much fun with everyone that came. The final big hit of the evening? Otter Pops! The kid's eyes got so big! I gave them all 1 at first and literally two seconds later, all 20 kids were asking for more! So funny. We finally had everyone gone by 9pm. We laid on the floor and sighed - we DID it! We survived. And so did the house! Nothing was a mess! We were so happy to have friends come over and enjoy the time with us. Maybe we'll do it again! Maybe...
So, I wanted to plan a fun date for James and I. I remembered while we were engaged we went with our friends Erika and Sterling Fenwick, to Color Me Mine. It's a paint-your-own-ceramics store. It was a lot of fun. A little while ago I decided to see if there was one near us. And viola! There was! So I looked online for any specials and there was one where if you came in your PJ's to the store you'd get a 2 for 1 on the studio fee. (It's usually $9 per person so $9 for two is just fine with me!). So I told him that we were going to go on a date but it'd be a surprise, and he had to wear his PJ's. I had him stumped up until we walked into the store. It was so funny! We were the only ones in our PJ's too (and the store is located in the mall so we got some funny looks but oh well! We had fun!). We decided to make matching plates to go with the soup mugs we made when we went with the Fenwicks.
James started off well. He painted the bottom of his plate blue. But when he turned it over, I swear, he stared at that plate for a good 20 minutes and hemhawed about what to paint on the top. I've never seen my husband in such a state! It was actually quite humorous to watch. :) He finally decided to go with stripes that were of similar colors to his mug.
I finished my plate and a second piece by the time James finished his plate :) My plate is bright green on the top and black on the bottom like my mug. The second piece I did was a plaque that reads "Tucson Halls" and has a cactus silhouette with a sunset behind it. There was a model like it that said "Welcome" and that's where I got my inspiration.
Here's the before:
And here's the After! Didn't they turn out wonderfully!
Sew, my Grandma Z project has been a slow go. I finally got my behind in gear and spent three days with my mom sewing my quilt. We finished the top! So now we just have to get the batting and the backing and quilt it together and then bind it. My mom is the best! She was very patient with me when I wasn't patient with myself (like when am I ever patient with myself!) and she helped me a lot. I was really glad to spend the time with her. We even got pedicures together too!
Since I want to keep the quilt a surprise for the Hall Girl Party, I'll share a sneak peak here on the blog. I'm soooo excited for how it turned out!
Another project I've been meaning to do for a while and finally finished was my Family Proclamation Frame. I had to go to Costco to get a matching frame - that's what took me so long, I don't have a Costco membership. But it matches the one Debra (mom-in-law) made for me with The Living Christ. I bought small pictures of temples and picked out the ones James and I've visited together. Unfortunately they didn't have all 12 we've done together but they had some we've visited on our own so I used a few of those too. It turned out superb! It now hangs in my formal room on one side of our Christ picture and the Living Christ hangs on the other.
In case there are curious people wondering, the temples we've been to together are: Seattle, Redlands and Newport Beach, CA, San Diego, Logan, Bountiful, Jordan River, Draper, Provo, Mesa, Gila Valley, AZ, and Orlando, FL. I have been to: Oklahoma City, Nauvoo, Manti, Salt Lake City and Atlanta. James has been to: Sacramento, Idaho Falls, Rexburg, Ogden, Salt Lake City, Mt. Timpenogus, Manti, Denver, Manhattan, Washington D.C., Bogota, Columbia, and Caracas, Venezuela. (There are two we've been to that are the same but we don't count it as "together" because we didn't go together.)
Congratulations Readers. You reached the end. Thanks for staying and enjoying the blog :)
