Emmett's New School

Emmett is attending the Tucson Country Day School for pre-kindergarten. He still misses his Four Freedoms Florida school (and his mom's miss the wonderful teachers there) but we are all getting comfortable with the new school. This is a picture from his first performance and lunch party at the school. In the performance, the younger kids were helped by 4th graders. This is Emmett with his 4th grader, neither one of them looks overly thrilled. The performance was cute, relatively managed chaos!

Emmett perked up when it was time to check out the buffet line :) Harrison really wants to go to school too, but with his "bubby". So we'll see how he feels when he turns 3 next Spring.

El Tour De Tucson

My brother rode in the El Tour De Tucson this year. It is a 109 mile bike race that has been in Tucson since as far as I can remember. We are all very proud of his commitment and his top 50% finish out of over 10,000 riders! The boys were excited to see him at a corner stop in the race. We waited very early in the morning in some chilly weather. Can you tell they think their Uncle Marcus is very cool?

Our hawk!

This hawk lives in a tree somewhere near our front yard. He sits on this fence almost everyday. I think it's a Coopers Hawk, very impressive!

Emmett started soccer

This is a picture from his first practice. He's playing on a non-competitive team of under 6 year olds, called the "Wild Things". It is really cute and he is enjoying it so far. We do a lot of practicing in the back yard. One of his classmates is on the team and they are little buddies.

Dining in!

A few pics of the boys in the dining room. You can see the north side yard out the window. We plan to remove the charlie bars and update the window some day.

Gardening in the Desert

A few glimpses into Kirsten's successful efforts to garden in the harsh conditions of the Sonoran desert. We have lots of ambition to transform our yards, but the front porch is a great place to start.

Maxie has joined our family!

Meet our new puppy, Maxie. We rescued her from a not so great first 9 months of her life. She is settling in wonderfully with Ruby and the boys. We love you Maxie, thank you for coming to our family!

I Love Lucy!

My brother and his wife had their first child yesterday, Lucy Valentine! Isn't she sweet, our little niece :)

Lollipops rock!

The boys on the fireplace in the front living room. We painted the fireplace the terra cotta color to bring out the beauty in the handpainted mexican tile. I think it looks really nice and will look better when we make a few more improvements in that space (not to mention add some furniture!)

Ostrich Farm

Kirsten and the boys came up to Phoenix to meet me at the EEBA conference. The hotel was wonderful and we had a great escape, even if a little too short. On the way home from Phoenix, they stopped at the local Ostrich Farm in Picacho Peak. Very unique tourist stop on Interstate 10.

Marketing with Papa

Emmett's school had a festival today that included a "marketplace" for families involved with the school. My dad hosted a pretty good table for his home inspection business and was proud to have his grandsons in company shirts. Pretty good marketing campaign, huh?

Agua Caliente park

Kirsten loves to take the boys to Agua Caliente (hot water) park just a few miles from our house. See, there is a little bit of water in Tucson ;) The boys love it!

Kirsten and I had our commitment ceremony on this very shore in April 2000. I think those are the same ducks our lab, Jasman, was chasing during the vows!

Colossal Cave

Kirsten took Emmett to Colossal Cave yesterday. A very cool place that he fully enjoyed exploring. They were lucky to be one of only two parties in their tour and got a lot of one on one attention form the tour guide. Emmett continues to say he wants to be a scientist when he grows up and he handled this tour in a very scientific manner. He even chose to wear his "desert" t-shirt with a snake and a lizard :)

In the new Tucson house

Here's a pic of the boys in the family room of our new house. This house is 1000 square feet larger than our Florida house, so this room is 100% empty for now. The boys are loving having such a free space inside!

Nature Photography and Highway Driving

Go hand in hand for Kirsten! I can't believe she took this picture while driving from Florida to Arizona. Pretty good, although perhaps a bit dangerous...

Bye Aunt Joo-Joo :(

Saying good-bye to friends and family was the hardest part of leaving Florida :( We hope to see you all again very soon!

We moved to Tucson!

Well after much discussion and agonizing over many things, we decided to pursue a new chapter of our lives in Tucson, AZ. Aside from the fact that we made a move to a DESERT in the most intense heat of the summer, the move went as smoothly as a cross-country move with two small children can go!

The house we moved to has a huge pool that the kids love, we are close to Grandma and Papa and are enjoying their frequent visits and general assistance.

Kirsten will continue to stay home with the boys and now has the unenviable task of interviewing and finding a pre-K program for Emmett and a speech therapist for Harrison, while helping the kids adjust to a new life in a new place. Vanessa starts her new job on Monday (no rest for the weary traveler!) and is excited and nervous. This job is in a new industry, energy efficiency. She is opening the State of Arizona for a non-profit based in Massachusetts, and will be the AZ Program Director. The website is www.csgrp.com if you want to learn more.

Pictures of the new house to be added when we find the camera ;)

Staying with Granny

For our last week in Florida, we stayed a few days with Granny Susan in Punta Gorda. Although it was an emotional visit, during a very stressful time, Granny found lots of fun moments with us. We are looking forward to visiting her wonderful Florida house next summer!

Birthdays are awesome!

Our last birthday party at Pump It Up! in Fort Myers, FL... totally fun! The poor birthday girl, Jenna, was sick and we felt bad for her but still managed to have a good time. Happy Birthday Jenna, I hope your next parties are illness free and lots of fun for you too :)

Our yard is so fun

For an escape from all of the packing. we took the boys outside for some good old fashioned fun. It was raining when we set up the tarp on the front yard hill, but the rain abated so we got the trusty hose out. Throw in a little dish soap and you have an instant slip and slide!