AndersonPlanet

Well, Christmas was great. The boys all liked their pjs they got on Christmas Eve. Elijah got Jedi Knight, Maxwell got Paul Frank, and Xander got Darth Vader. Elijah and Xander both got inline skates and Maxwell got a camera. Maxwell was disappointed about the skates but he has been enjoying the camera. His old camera died and he loves to take pictures and he has roller skates. Jared had to buy himself used inline skates which were only $10 but seriously I should have made him wrap them and put them under the tree. Last night Xander, Elijah, and Jared spent hours skating up and down the street. Xander and Elijah are getting really good.

Last week we went to Skateland. Maxwell and I improved our roller skate skills and the rest improved their inline skate skills. The boys had to do a lot of yard work to earn the special $2 entrance fee for free skate. We all had fun and enjoyed skating to the music.

Over the break, with Jared and the boys home, I didn't get much household managing done. Jared feels like he has to go somewhere or he doesn't feel like he got a break from work. I feel like I have to get a break from doing anything in order to feel like I got a break from work. We are opposites that way and it usually means Jared gets a break and I spend the week when everyone is finally back to the routine catching up for it.

This is what happens when you let your boys plan trips using an awesome book called Weird Arizona:

On 12-26, we went and saw Carefree Sundial and sculpture garden, Copenhaver Castle(from the outside), Mystery Castle (from the outside), and ate at Villalpando's (nothing new, but we were too late for me to make dinner soon enough for the boys' hunger. This same day we also saw a new development sign for houses "starting in the low 1,000,000,000s" and another new development sign for houses "starting in the low 100s." The low 1,000,000,000s made us laugh. I think you have a problem when you have to advertise to people who have that kind of money.

Carefree's "Famous Sundial" is quite large and accurate. It was something to see. We also enjoyed the tourist shops although Jared enjoys them more when he has money to spend. Xander wanted to buy a $100 turquoise turtle. Jared wanted to buy $30 in wood carved figurines. Elijah wanted to buy everything. I wanted to buy some vases, but held off since we are moving at the end of this month and we are being careful with our money. We are moving for sure since we gave notice and don't plan on rescinding it no matter what happens with the house. Maybe we will be knocking on one of your doorsteps on February 1st.

Copenhaver Castle is beautiful with beautiful Phoenix views. Maybe if the Chandler house doesn't work out we will buy that one. If you want to see the Chandler house pix email me and I will email you the link. Mystery Castle was weird and I didn't want to spend the money for the tour but the story of Mystery Castle is sad and sweet.

On 12-27, we went to Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Tombstone, and Diamondback Bicycle-Pedestrian Bridge in Tucson.

Casa Grande Ruins was way more than both Montezuma's Castle and Tuzigoot. It is more of the mysterious Hohokum ruins. We were sad we didn't have more time to spend there. We thought it would be a lot less than it was.

Tombstone, AZ is hailed as "The Town Too Tough to Die". We watched a few gunfights. Maxwell tried to bury himself in my jacket during those. We went to a few of the "museums" and Boot Hill Graveyard. We talked about the Earp brothers and the Wild West. We went on a Stagecoach ride through town. We saw snow. It's a pretty fun place.

After Tombstone we drove to Tucson. We had to walk across Snake Bridge to fill one of the boys' requests. We stayed at Hotel Arizona at a huge discount and got a room on the top (12th) floor. We ate at Bianchi's Pizza for dinner. We ordered one 24 inch pizza and still had lots of leftovers after we ate it for breakfast. The boys spent hours looking out the window and really enjoyed the novelty of sleeping in a hotel. I didn't get much sleep due to my hotel phobias. Don't worry Dad - I always do a thorough check for bedbugs before anybody else touches anything. When we got cold in the middle of the night Jared tried to get me to let us use the comforter. I would rather freeze to death than use one of those nasty unwashed things.

On 12-28 we were planning on going to Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch. After Google took us the totally wrong way we ended up using the restrooms at Eloy, AZ's public library and headed for Yuma, AZ rather than backtrack.

I will continue the catch up another day.