When I last posted, John and I were still in Tucson. Mom left for San Antonio, leaving Dad and me in charge. Naturally, we decided to visit a hole in the ground.
I hadn't remembered that the caverns had only been discovered in the 70s, and only opened to the public in the 90s. We weren't allowed to take in phones, so no pictures of what's inside. John alternated between being excited and scared of the dark. I think it was a good time, although to this day the darkness of the cave comes up in John's barely awake nightmares.
Out in Benson, near the Kartchner Caverns park, there is a really nice hot dog restaurant called Wild Dogs. I actually opted for a brisket sandwich, which was pretty darn good. And their onion rings are the best I've had anywhere. The owner is real nice.
Dad took us out to a monument that commemorated the only "battle" that the Mormon Battalion was a part of, which was against a bunch of wild bulls.
John insisted that we go and walk the dogs after we returned. Being Tucson, it was like 105°F, so we only did a short scamper.
We made an excursion to the "Mini Time Machine Museum" in Tucson. I think John was both a little young and perhaps the wrong gender/interest set to really get into what they had there. First, of course, we had to distract the dogs.
The museum basically consisted of hundreds of miniature houses, towns, figures, machinery, and room interiors. A lot of it was really impressive, but couldn't really keep the attention of a 4 year old boy. We spent most of the time chasing him around.
Always willing to swim, at least.
No visit to Tucson is complete without a trip to the Sonoran Desert Museum.
New this time was an expanded cafeteria and children's play place. John kind of went wild there for an hour. We knew it was time to get him out of there by his meltdown at the exit.
After that, it was time to head to the Amtrak station. It was another restless night, as John kept fidgeting and whimpering about his legs hurting (I think he was having growing pains).
I made the mistake of checking bags to Union Station. They take forever to get them out, unlike at other Amtrak stations, where they bring your bags out within minutes of stopping.
So, instead of getting a ride from Alison, we got to come home by the Gold Line. I had considered coming in to work that day, but I felt terrible. I took John to his preschool, came home, showered, and slept until 1 PM.
John has a habit of crawling on my back...like, always. Even at the Taco Man.
John barely ate anything, but he liked the dog at Firehouse subs. This was a day of moving tons of teacher junk at Alison's school, who is changing rooms for the next school year. I got to drive a golf cart for the first time ever, which was fun. I almost ran me and Chelsea into a wall when the brakes didn't quite kick in as strongly as I was hoping.
An afternoon at the "yellow park" (Ole Hammer).
An afternoon at "I lost Snow Tiger in the tree" park. I had a Nerf football. It took about 15 tosses before I could get enough displacement on the toy to dislodge it.
Also, our air conditioning had, for all intents and purposes, failed. It no longer cooled on account of low R-22 lost to unknown leaks, and the evaporator coils leaked water furiously. It simply no longer cooled. Prognosis for repair was unclear and expensive, so we started pricing out replacements. A/C replacement is expensive, on the order of multiple thousands USD. We got it done just in time for a major heat wave. So much for saving money this summer.
Mom and Dad came to visit us for the 4th of July. John likes posing for photographs.
Our plan was to go out to San Luis Obispo County, where we had an Airbnb for a couple of nights. We stopped to eat at a beach side restaurant on the way.
The house is a geodesic dome. It doesn't lend itself very well to conventional layouts, but the owner made it work. It was on a hill, with view to the ocean.
On the 4th of July, it was kind of cold near Pismo Beach. That's something I hadn't ever experienced before, but it was kind of neat.
Trying to get Tommy to drink water after eating a quart of sand.
We huddled together in front of the outdoor fireplace to watch fireworks from the hillside as night fell. It was a pretty good view to a lot, albeit not the "main event" firework display at Pismo Beach, which we had heard was a nightmare to drive to/from.
Of course, no 4th is complete without ID4.
Stopping near Santa Barbara on our way back to LA.
Outside of the Filipino restaurant LASA. Real good food--fish, pork belly, eggplant, and these cheese-filled dumplings that tasted like beignets. It's located in Chinatown, not far from the theater where we caught a performance of The Humans.
Mom and Dad left after our dome days to go to Uncle K.B.'s Air Force retirement in Seattle. They came back for an evening before heading back to Tucson.
Alison was also on a campaign to upgrade our back patio. This is the result.
Tommy after eating a chocolate bar.
Another trip to Houston in late July. John, in a rare moment of sweet release, napped on the way to Grandma Debby's house. Tommy was not great on the flight. The 1-2 year old stretch is real bad for travel.
Because Tommy turned 1 year old!
We played with water balloons, and it was incredibly hot. I was sweating just sitting outside in the shade. That's Houston.
Lots of swimming with cousins.
The Children's Museum of The Woodlands got an upgrade. John was very focused on his driving.
"I'm a dragon! Rawwwwr!"
We got a chance to go back to the temple where we were married. I look like I'm 10 years older in this picture.
Family gatherings involve a lot of phone usage in the room.
Cousin Elizabeth had a birthday party as well. Cowboy themed.
Tommy's babysitter, Carolina, threw a little birthday part for him after we returned.
And we had another party our pool, combined with our Fetzer-Smith friends' daughter's one year birthday.
John wanted this picture at the "yellow park" before we ran home to use the bathroom.
Tommy made a similar pose at home.
And that's the end of the game. Summer is near a close. Alison is running off to Denver to prepare herself for the new school year. We're going to be in for a wild ride. John has one more year of preschool before he's eligible for kindergarten, and Tommy has another year before he's eligible for preschool. Whee!
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