Hand Foot and Mouth Disease

 It all started with a trip to Phoenix.  After another cancelled eye appointment, we decided to still head down to Phoenix and see Julie, who was in town from Fairbanks for a conference and hang out with Carol and Ellie for a few days.  We had a great time- we got a tour of the nice parts of downtown

we fed ducks and koi at the Japanese gardens

and had plenty of park time.

We also ate lots of sushi and frozen yogurt (the only things that sounded good in the heat), saw a dog show, swam in the pools, visited the Asian market and went on walks.  On the last night, Carol and Ellie came with us to dinner and Ellie ended up passing out on Carol's lap for the entire meal and started running a fever.  We saw them briefly the next morning and Ellie was still not doing very good.  After spending so much time with them (and sharing food and drink), we were just waiting until whatever bug it was hit us. 
The day we got home, we found out she was diagnosed with strep and had to go on antibiotics.  Two days later, Ada started getting a fever so we took her into the doctor and told her what was going on.  Even though her strep test was negative, she had all of the symptoms and had been around someone with strep, so the doctor prescribed antibiotics.  The next day, we noticed her rash was changing to more blister-like sores, so we took her in again.  This time (after finding out Ellie's diagnosis was based on her symptoms, not a strep test) the doctor was convinced she had Hand Foot and Mouth disease- a relatively common childhood illness, but something I had never heard of until then.  Apparently, I never had it as a child, because that night, I went to bed with a sore throat and woke up feeling worse than I had in years.  It started with a fever and body aches and has now turned into a really sore throat and painful blisters all over my hands. 
It's amazing how much more you learn about conditions and illnesses when you have a child.  In the past two years, I almost feel like I went back to school for epidemiology! 
Anyway, we are all doing better here, but hopefully you won't be seeing us for a couple of weeks- we could be contagious for a while. 

"Spring Break" pt. 2

The next weekend, we headed up to Escalante to do some work on the house (Ada and I pulled weeds)

and to see people we have been missing.

April happened to be in town from Yosemite and Ada made a new best friend.

She was SO happy when April came down to Flagstaff for a few days to hang out on her way through town.  We went out to Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monuments, which were great.

When April left, Ada was pretty disappointed to not find someone sleeping on our couch, but the next day, the Hansen family showed up!

Ada is a little younger than two of her cousins, enough that she would get overwhelmed pretty quickly.  But not this time.  She's finally catching up and able to actually interact and have fun with them.  It's been great to watch.
And then there's Grandpa!

And Grandma came prepared with everything to have an Easter egg hunt

 make an Easter cake

and feed us all an Easter dinner!
Another great weekend!

Spring Break!

Ok, spring break was a few weeks ago now, but it feels like it lasted until just recently with visits from family and friends and a trip up to Escalante.  Here's what we've been doing:
For the official spring break, we headed down towards Phoenix and instead of going to Ada's opthalmologist appointment (they cancelled ON OUR WAY DOWN- who does that??), we decided to see a new town in Arizona- Fountain Hills.  You can probably tell why it's named that.  We first discovered this fountain last time we were camping and we saw it in the distance and thought there was a water main break or something.

Then, we went back to our new favorite campground near Phoenix and let Ada loose with her new sand pail and tools while we set up camp for the night. 

Bryan made dinner

and Ada "watered" all of the surrounding shrubs and trees.

The next day we took a short hike and saw some desert flowers,

 

caught a glimpse of a lake,

and ended somewhat disastrously with Ada now being terrified of any kind of shrub or tree touching her while in the backpack carrier.

The rest of the trip was spent hanging out with the Higbee and Trowbridge families and sightseeing around Phoenix.

We got to ride a train (Ada has been kind of obsessed with trains lately, and everyone was willing to indulge her)

We visited the Mystery Castle (this photo does not do it's eccentricity justice)

and found an overlook of the entire city of Phoenix. 

At the end of the week, we had to rush out of Phoenix to make it home before...

 it snowed 2 feet!  And promptly melted 2 days later.

Dance dance dance

I've been trying to put this video together for a while.  It shows one of our favorite things that Ada does- and we have no idea where she got it from.  Definitely NOT from her parents.  I only started experimenting with iMovie, so the editing is not that great- Dad and Carol, maybe I need to learn some tricks from you- but it was fun to work on.

Catch Up

 There are no good excuses for not posting to the blog, so we'll just get on with it.  Ada is becoming a little talker.  She learns new words every day and always surprises us with what she's picked up on just by listening.  To our ears, she is sometimes even speaking sentences, although I think we are the only ones who understand.  It is so amazing to watch her grow! 
Speaking of growing, we gave Ada her first official haircut about a month ago.   

It was pretty exciting because it seemed like she would never have enough to cut, but it's finally getting longer!  We can even put it in pigtails now!

Her body's growing, too- 31 1/2 inches!

She's a champion sleeper now, even asking to go to bed if she's really tired.  Sometimes she doesn't even make it to her bed.

 Because it's been pretty cold here, we've been trying to entertain ourselves in different ways.  We took a day vacation to explore new surroundings.

We took a trip to Tucson to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa and see the Tucson Gem, Mineral and Fossil show.

We also took a trip to Phoenix to see Carol and Ellie.

This was Ada's first experience with the water fountains.  She was soaked and freezing (it was the coldest day in Phoenix in a while) but she screamed when I took her away. 

The gymnastics gym in town offers play time for young kids every week.  This is Ada's new favorite activity.  She spends the entire 1 1/2 hours squealing and running around trying everything she can.  They have all the equipment (except a couple of larger trampolines) available to the kids- including the foam pit!

It's fun watching her get so excited about it, and it's even more fun when she is so exhausted from it that she takes a good long nap.

Then there's park time

and bath time.  And that's how we've been keeping busy!

Mini Vacation

 It was sad leaving family up in Utah, but part of the reason we wanted to get back was to take a little trip south.  In Ada's 19 months, she has only been camping once, so we thought it was about time to let her get re-acquainted with it all.  We decided on Lost Dutchman State Park, just far enough outside of Phoenix.  We drove down small highways and turned onto a dirt road at Roosevelt Dam. 

I am tempted to do this drive every time we have to go down to Phoenix- even if it more than doubles the amount of time it takes.  It was gorgeous!

  Ada "helped" set up camp

then we settled in just in time to see the sunset

 and the moonrise.

We ate around the campfire

and Ada loved the tent.

We went on hikes

and enjoyed more sunsets.  

Bryan has started school for the semester, but we're ready to go again as soon as possible.