Grand Falls...to the soundtrack of The Gourds

I apologize to all you hardcore followers for not posting in a while! We have been very busy lately and I'm been slightly distracted. I promise I'll get back to our normal schedule soon!



In the meantime, listen to some great Gourd music as you cruise through these awesome pics of our trip to Grand Falls on the Navajo Reservation last weekend. I'll randomly place some more videos throughout this post since this CD was the one we listened to our whole drive in and out. Enjoy!!!

The drive out of Flag was beautiful with the snow on the Peaks and the sun shining. It only took about 45 minutes to get to the Falls. The most time consuming part was maneuvering the dirt road and guessing which way to go at the fork due to the lack of road signs on the reservation.





{Drive out to the res...check out the gorgeous peaks!}






I'm assuming this car was a landmarker..."Take a left a mile after the junker in the middle of the field..."




{Lovely dirt roads on the res (rough roads) with scenic views}

The Peaks is a dormant volcano in Flag and many years ago...I don't know exactly when...it erupted and spewed lava over the land. The black rock we have left (in many places) is left over, cooled lava. Out at the Falls, there was black sand covering the land on the north side of the falls and sandstone covering the south side. Apparently, the lava stopped at the canyon to the falls, creating the black sand and leaving piles of lava rock in its wake. Kinda neat...

We only know this info, not because we are The Smart Family, heehee, but because we actually ran into a friend of ours that happens to be a geologist while we were picnicking at the Falls...I know...only in Flag do you run into friends 45 minutes outside of town! ;)



{Pile of lava rocks}

The Grand Falls only runs like this in the Spring due to the snow melt run off from New Mexico. The water was gushing at high speeds and falling into the canyon that then carries it off to the Colorado River. Pretty amazing sight!!






{The Grand Falls}



We decided to hike down into the canyon where the water was flowing into. It was a risky adventure as we had to carry a 2 year old, Jay was wearing his Keen's (not exactly hiking boots) and we had two adventurous "I can do it!" kiddos leading the way. There was one point that I actually stopped and said, "No, no more...we are going to fall to our death!!" Yes, it was a 2 foot path descending into this canyon and the other side was a drop-off onto sharp, pointy rocks and from there, a fast flowing river that would surely pull us under before anyone even knew you fell!! I had just gotten over my near death experience...I didn't think I could do it again!! But...I did and I'm glad I did...can you believe it?!!? Stunning!!
















Can you see the two people at the top?









{In the Falls Canyon...up close and personal}

We weren't too far down, it wasn't the Grand Canyon, mind you. But it was an amazing sight to look up and see these little people staring down at us! I loved the shadows the walls created as the kids ran close to the walls (Zeek is actually peeing...boys).





{Canyon Walls}

QJ may have had to be carried down but by golly...he was determined to crawl his way out!! At one point, the same point I stopped early and said, "No Way!", he actually started laughing hysterically as I was trembling. I was in shock...the boy that's scared of Jay's "BIG TRUCK" wasn't scared of a 50 foot drop off?!! Go figure...











{Hiking back to the car}




This song is in honor of QJ for smacking Tika with his sippy cup!! (In case you can't hear the lyric its..."You boys need a spankin'...)

After finally making it back to the car, we loaded up and headed home. I would say within...30 seconds, QJ and Tika were sound asleep and within...5 seconds, Zeek had his PSP blaring in his ears and his thumbs attacking the controls...I guess you can lead the boy to nature... I don't think I was even buckled yet?!?







{The drive home...we were dirty and tired!!}




{Great song!!}

BTW- for all you hardcore Gourd fans that live in NoAZ, they are coming in April to The Orpheum!!! See you there! :)



{Can't introduce The Gourds without playing their best one...}

Sedona - Jerome Trip

We are so lucky living in Northern Arizona...we get to see some of the most beautiful country in the world. Here are some great pics of Sedona and Jerome from our day trip to Jerome yesterday.



{Jerome}



{Sedona}



{Sedona}

QJ Collage

 

I love.love.love Picasa!! This is too fun...how did I fully live before without knowing this?? It's on...collages rule!!

Enjoy!

Zeek Soccer Collage

 

I love how this one turned out, too! The center one of Zeek is also my favorite one of him.

Check back soon to see one of QJ! (He's too young for soccer so his will be him at his silliest!) :)

Tika Soccer Collage

Ok, it is now March and I have had these photos on my laptop since...July?! I haven't done anything with them {didn't know what, yet, to do with them}...until now!

I bought this really neat wireless picture printer (for printing pictures of course) to use for Scrapbooking. I was messing with it about, oh...5 minutes ago, getting it to print. I randomly selected this picture of Tika, the center one with her hair flying and her serious smile on her face...its one of my favorites!!! Anyway...I realized during editing it that I could make a collage with it in Picasa (love this, BTW!!). So I pulled all her soccer pictures from last season together and randomly rotated, spun, cropped, and placed them to look like this {I know, it looks like a pile of pictures but remember, I've never done this before!!}:

 

Cool, isn't it!!! I love how it turned out! The best part is that there is this little button on the bottom of the editing page that says, "Blog This!"...so...I pressed it and voila!! It posted to my blog!?!?!? WOW!! Amazing...

Amazing, beautiful, touching...

I found a new blog today. Why is that blog posting worthy, you ask?? Good question, I say ;). Well, I love these two womens style of writing. I enjoy their refreshing honesty and their way with words. I also love that one introduced me to ANOTHER, rather randomly. Ok...this could go on forever... I just really enjoyed reading them and wanted to share.

The first blog is Monica over at The Writer Chic. She is witty, creative and down to earth. She shared a great story from the Kelle Hampton blog that was amazing, beautiful and touching. I truly recommend reading this {grab the tissues first}.

http://www.kellehampton.com/2010/01/nella-cordelia-birth-story.html

Favorite song of the week: Fallin' and Flyin'

If you can't tell, I'm slightly obsessed with Crazy Heart! Great movie, actors and music! Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday: Silly Boy

Yukon Update 2...

Its so much fun watching the process of the Yukon repair. I received more pictures yesterday and today showing my poor car in disarray!! Enjoy...







Can't wait to get it back shiny and 'new' on Friday?!

Hard to imagine...

that it can snow 6-12 inches and be sunny and warm ALL in the same state!!!

This weekend was great! It was warm on Saturday (perfect for soccer watching) and rained Sunday (fun for soccer playing). Both were enjoyable. We had a great time watching Zeek's games, they of course played hard, scored many but won none!



We had a nice relaxing time over at the Sinkwitz's where we BBQ'd, made some cards, and made more cards...(Thanks Heather!) :)

Tika enjoyed making flowers out of paper (which she hung in her room) and QJ finally warmed up to the dogs which makes my life easier! Zeek unwound by playing video games with the boys and Jay caught up with Chris watching Dexter...(have you ever seen that show!?!?! GREAT!!).

Anyway, we came home in horrible conditions, it was snowing up here and the highway was bad. We counted 9 cars off the road, in the median or on the side. I felt sick and couldn't wait to get home, OUT of the car and OFF the highway!! Thankfully, Jay drove very slow and we made it home safe and sound.

We came from this:



Came home to this:



Can you believe its only a 2 hour distance?! Laughable really.

Favorite Song of the Week: This too Shall Pass

freaking amazing!! I can't get over this video and song!! Perfect lyrics right now for me and the video is just absolutely AMAZING!!

Check it out...(its even better on a bigger screen at youtube since it allows you to see more of the video)

TGIF...

Its Friday, again (funny how that keeps happening) and I'm so happy its here! I'm looking forward to a nice warm weekend in Phoenix watching Zeek's soccer games and hanging out with good friends. I can't wait to relax with a cocktail (or 2), enjoy some good food, good company and have tons of fun making projects planned by Heather!!

As you know, this week has been very hard for me. I experienced something very traumatic and I am having a hard time recovering from it. I hate that I am expected to just get up, dust off and move on. How easy...share your secret if you have one...

MONDAY:

Monday began as normal, I thought since I was 'fine' I could work my usual 10.5 hour day and manage. I didn't take into account the 12 children that were going to make my mental noise unbearable, an emergency chiropractic appointment that took over an hour, another hour spent on the phone with the insurance company trying to get a rental car nor the random bouts of tearfulness and space staring I experienced. I luckily came to my senses Monday afternoon and called all my daycare parents and regretfully apologized but I couldn't work on Tuesday. I needed a 'mental health day' to recoup and organize myself. I am fortunate in that they all understood and even asked if one day was enough! My car was towed over to the auto repair shop and my rental car was picked up Monday night. QJ screamed from the inside of the house as they were loading my car on the flatbed, "My car...my car!! No car!" I think he's as attached to it as I am. He must recognize that it is now our best friend since it helped save my life! Unfortunately, he's freaked out of the Dodge Ram rental, "No truck...no truck...scared truck! Want car...where car?" Very funny boy...

TUESDAY:

I took all day Tuesday to catch up on sleep since my nights had been full of thinking and analyzing...I was exhausted (and very, very sore)! Thanks to Jay who took QJ on errands and Riann for picking my kids up from school, I hardly got out of bed!

WEDNESDAY:

Wednesday was a normal day back at work, less tearful but another chiropractic appointment to go through. I finally sucked it up and went and got a massage that night and couldn't believe how much better it made me feel. I was surprised to discover that the pain in my body hit me the hardest 2-3 days AFTER the actual accident! My arms felt as if I had carried my car through the accident instead of actually driving in it. After my massage, I was finally able to get a good nights rest for Thursday. It felt great!

THURSDAY:

Thursday I hardly left my house...it was a good thing. I woke up feeling 'normal' if you could call it that. My mind was a lot less foggy...very aware yet very ready to move on, it gets easier...right?!?

FRIDAY:

Zooming in to today...I feel good. I had another chiro appointment this morning (3 a week for a month will get me back to normal...so they say) and I actually faced my fear and drove the route past the accident. I had avoided the freeway all week although it would have gotten me where I needed to go much faster than it actually took. I was scared...my palms were sweaty, my breathing was rapid, my heart was racing, I was anxious and scared! I HATE THAT!! I like to be in control...I like feeling safe (go figure), I like thinking everything is OK. It was most difficult seeing the skid marks going OFF the road. It also unnerved me to see the 3 foot around cement pole in the middle of the median that was in my path...how did I miss that? It shook me up all over again how lucky I was.

I have to admit, I learned a lot about myself (and others) this week. I don't need to be strong all the time. I can admit when I am upset or need help. I don't need to feed into others ideas of where I should be mentally/emotionally or physically. I am where I am...take it or leave it. It can only get better from here, please understand that.

I discovered what a true friend is, who I can count on and who I can't. I'm amazed, STILL, at others reactions (or lack there of) to what happened...I guess I need to remind myself that what I went through is still IN MY MIND as awful, others are not expected to understand that, it didn't happen to them. I am thankful for the few friends and family who were able to at least "imagine" for my sake what it MAY have felt like and reached out with kind words. It meant more than I can explain.

I discovered a renewed sense of passion for Jay who has been nothing but sensitive/understanding/loving/compassionate/helpful to me, my emotions, my lack of energy, my distractedness, and/or my spewing of repetitive expression. He gives me a hug when he knows I'm upset (the gnawing of my inside lip gives me away every time) and even helped me out of bed the first couple days when I felt like a 90 year old woman all stiff and hurting.

{No, this is not all about Britt day/week, it just feels very therapeutic to put these thoughts into words}

On a side note, the kids and Jay are doing great! Jay is finally getting busier as each week progresses. (Finally is the operative word here...the winter has been a slow one in the hVac business) He is enjoying his new skis (Grizzlies???) and thinks he's better (thanks to the skis of course) than he was even in high school on the ski team! {Smile} Zeek got a 10/10 on his spelling test yesterday (par for the course for that smart boy) and Tika is quite excited since finding out her teacher is expecting her third child this fall (she gets to be a big helper which she of course excels at). QJ is...well...2. He told me the other night that he threw away his bugger...in his mouth. {Yum...}

Happy Friday, have a great weekend!!

::{**Thanks for listening**}::

I love...

my Vita Mix blender! It allows me to make green smoothies every morning for my breakfast and usually a veggie 'juice' every afternoon. Having it makes blending sooo much easier. For those of you have never had a green smoothie for breakfast...TRY IT!! It's really really good...



Here you go: take a handful of spinach, a cup of frozen blueberries and 1-2 large bananas with 1 cup of vanilla soy milk and blend in your blender until smooth. It helps to drink it with a straw and it tastes great!!! (Keep in mind, you benefit from 3 servings of fruit and vegetables and only 240 calories!!)



To make a veggie 'juice', blend some carrots, a red pepper, some spinach, celery, green apple, grapes, orange, and whatever frozen fruit you have on hand with 1-2 cups of water. Blend until smooth and voila!! Yum Yum and you have AGAIN met your vegetable/fruit intake for the day without even trying!!



Not only do I make delicious smoothies and juices but I have also made tasty soups, dips and spreads. Even ice cream!!

Have I said it...I love this blender...