Newsboys Concert!

Last year, we had rotten luck with trick-or-treaters, so this year we went to a Newsboys concert with our friend Beth instead!

Lazing about before the concert. AKA, the last time we would be sitting for 4 more hours.


Beth and I trying to get our ears to adjust to the volume. We were very, very, very close to the stage, which makes a great view, but an extremely loud experience.

Daniel was trying to get a picture of Beth rocking out to the music, but lots of movement=fuzzy pictures.


Bread of Stone came on first. We'd never heard of them before, but we really liked their music!


Then it was Me in Motion. They were pretty good, too.


Seventh Day Slumber is absolutely incredible!! They sang "I Can Only Imagine" like I've never heard before. The whole crowd had their hands lifted. Amazing experience.

Finally, the Newsboys came on! The lead singer is from DC Talk, another favorite band. He has an incredible voice.

I loved the screens they had behind the band. It just enhanced the overall experience.



Daniel took this. Best picture of the night.



Daniel got a picture with the lead singer of Seventh Day Slumber. He loves them and this guy is awesome. He has an incredible testimony, has an amazing voice, and is really nice!

And if you want a taste of the experience, we took a few short video clips of the performances. You should watch. They're so good!

Whose Woods These Are...

I apologize for my blogging absence! Life got crazy at our house with changes at work, church retreats, essays, math tests, workshops, road trips, and much more, but I'm going to try to catch up (because there's a lot to catch up on!). Sometimes, I decide just to skip posts if I procrastinate, but this was a really fun day, so I'm going to take you back a few weeks!

We'd been meaning to go hiking since our move, but we finally made it happen! Daniel had taken Karen up to Mount Lemmon briefly during her stay in August and he'd been itching to take me on a hike up there, so we stocked up on hiking supplies and were on our way.

My guy, all ready to lead the way!

We were feeling pretty good in the beginning! You know...before the hike began.

The map made the trail look so short and simple, but believe me, it was not.

Pretty, eh?

Daniel hates it when I get close to the edge of rocks, so I made him take the picture for me. :)
He has such a commanding, conquering presence about him. I like it!
You can't see it very well, but the entire trail was right on a ledge. Falling would not have been good. Thank goodness I'm not as clumsy as I used to be!

After 2ish hours of hiking straight ups and downs, I rested. Daniel decided to walk to the top of the hill and he was quite happy about it. See him?


Gotta love nature! Sometimes it's hard to find much color in Tucson, but when you do, it's like finding a pleasant, unexpected surprise.

Becoming one with nature?... I got gross stuff stuck in my hair from that.


And then sleeping. It was really, really hot that day, even on top of the mountain. There wasn't much shade on the hike, so where we found it, we took advantage of it!


Dad, this picture is for you. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it was a massive tree! And, of course, seeing a tree chopped down made us think of you!


It only seemed fitting that since we were resting on the top of a hill, we should open our Bible up to Psalm 121:1-2, "I lift up my eyes to the hills-where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth."


Rest time!

This is our absolute favorite spot from the hike. A shaded spot looking out over a vast spread of Arizona with my favorite guy; does it get any better?


I love how our personalities shine through our stuff. Daniel's gruff military backpack and my new pink, girly one. Love it! :)
After 5ish hours of hiking, sweating, shooing flies, and running out of water, we conquered the hike. Go us!

Happy Birthday to Cam...

Last week, we got to go out and celebrate Cameron's birthday! We went to a little western place called Trail Dust Town that is absolutely adorable.


Gotta love Arizona sunsets and large cowboy statues. It reminds me of when I was little and thought Billy the Kid was coolest guy in the world. My cowboy boots and cap gun were my favorite toys. Ah...the good ol' days.


Me, as a cowboy. Yup.


And my pretty li'l husband. It takes skill to look handsome in a frilly dress and parasol.


We got to see a stunt show! It was a little cheesy, but a ton of fun! The audience actually participated, which was a nice addition. The crowd was supposed to yell, "He's got the money!" at one point. The was one little boy that not only yelled it at that point, but he continued to yell it for the remainder of the show. He was cute.


This is a pink tie. Misha didn't want to actually walk over to look at it on the wall, so my kind husband took a picture for her. Isn't he sweet?


The tie on the wall is all a part of this restaurant's decor. See, when you walk into Pinnacle Peak, ties are illegal. If you are wearing a tie, you are a law breaker and a deputy/cowboy man will come over to your table and cut it off. He will then staple it to the wall of the restaurant.

It just so happened that the birthday boy was wearing a tie, so the cowboy came to talk to us. Before moving on to Cam, he accused me of stealing a camera. This is him in the middle of his accusation. Psh...break the law? Me? *she says angelically*


He quickly moved onto the real law breaker. This was a very authentic scenario, so of course he had to use his genuine cowboy Fiskars to get the job done. As you can tell, the birthday boy is clearly miserable.


It was a vicious scene and so hard to watch. I'm sad to report that the tie didn't make it. It just couldn't escape the wrath of the cowboy.


Though it did try to make it's way over to Warren's shirt. That move was short-lived.


Next, it moved to Deanna's head. Through the entire tie-snipping ceremony, Cam blamed his law breaking on his mother, so the cowboy had to make things fair by showing everyone that D was involved in the illegal incident.


And when you have a tie wrapped around your head, you have no choice but to become a ninja with shifty eyes.


When the cowboy finally left, the birthday boy got ice cream. Again, you can see how distraught he is over the loss of his tie.


We're all hoping he wished for another tie when he blew out his candle. Somehow, Daniel managed to capture him in mid-blow.


And Cam thought it was necessary to document the ice cream remains.


And also how sad he was that our waitress couldn't get the staple gun to work to attach his tie to the pillar next to our table.


So, being the awesome dad that he is, Warren stepped up to the plate. He showed that staple gun who was boss...so much so that it cowered in fear and refused to work.


Our lovely waitress.


Cam and his staple-less tie that is strategically being held up by his fingers.


This is Cam outside of the restaurant, swinging like a monkey boy with the leftovers of his severed tie.


This little town has some really cute stuff. Here is Daniel the salesman in the Chinese Quarter. Maybe we should be considering an alternate career path...


And Meesh was showing us her dance. I should have taken a video. I'm sorry you missed it. It was pretty entertaining.


Cam's about to blow up the place and Misha's peacefully tending the donkey. How fitting. ;)


They have a really fun shop with a lot of different joke stuff, old fashioned candy, and a ton of other things. Meesh is terrified of the snake crawling up her neck.


We were wandering the streets when Daniel found a bath tub, so he had to stop and bathe. Nobody was even around to collect the 15 cents, but I guess that's fair since there was no cold water.


Me and the husband. See how much he loves it when I takes pictures of him?


How often does a whole family get stuffed into a phone booth? They're the best. :)

You Know I Care If...

I say it with food. :) I haven't had as much time to play with food since I went back to work, but I've been able to come up with a few things.

This one is bbq pork and baked beans, chicken nuggets, and ketchup and bbq sauce.


This the leftover baked beans with tater tots and cheese (no, our house was not the healthiest on those days!).


This one looks a little strange, but the hearts are pork loin with bbq sauce and the flowers are garlic mashed potatoes with ketchup and spicy mustard. The grass/stems/leaves are, of course, peas.


I don't know how much these actually mean to my darling husband, but I have fun making them and I grew up in a household where food showed a lot of love. That's the reason my mom worked so hard at baking us custom cakes every year on our birthdays and making us special meals all the time. I always loved when she would make something just for me, so I thought my husband deserved to feel the same way. So, just like my mama, I'm just spreading the love - one meal at a time. :)

Are you ready for some football?

I wasn't. But, we went anyways to our first U of A game!


I don't have any U of A stuff yet, so I wore one of Daniel's old t-shirts to the game. I thought it was pretty funny, because both shirts were cracked and quite worn, but apparently that's the "look" these days. People pay good money for their clothes to look worn! :)


The clouds were absolutely beautiful that night. We had plenty of time to admire them, seeing as we got to the game hours early.


Crazily enough, we got to meet up with our friends Adrienne and Sydney at the game! We didn't know they'd be there until a few hours beforehand and it turned out that their tickets were just a few rows in front of us! Out of over 50,000 seats in that stadium, we ended up sitting 25 feet away from the only people that we knew there. I thought that was pretty awesome.


Those clouds you just saw? They brought us rain and it felt amazing.


I have to admit, it was a pretty nice view from the stadium.


Ahh...the eye I love so much. Well, that could be misleading. I love both of his eyes equally, but the other one was not captured in this particular photograph.


We happened to be sitting in the section next to the away fans, so the away team came over and danced for them. It seemed like some sort of tribal thing. They may not be the team we were there to support, but it was mighty entertaining.


See the sea of red across from us? It was pretty crazy!


There was a break from the rain for a while, but just when things were starting to heat up again, it came back. The lady in front of us didn't enjoy it as much as I did.


The explosive team entrance was quite spectacular. I was impressed. That doesn't usually take much, but when football is involved, you're starting at rock bottom to begin with.


You can't see it all, but it says, "W-I-L-D-C-A-T-S." Not to be confused with the opposing team's mascot, the lumberjack. Nope. I definitely did not confuse those two when I was bombarded with various chants. They could never sound anything alike.


You can't see it very well, but if you look closely at the screen, you'll see that the game was captioned. Now, that's something I got excited about! Go U of A for providing equal access!


This little guy sat on the other side of Daniel. Isn't he just adorable?

We didn't stay until the end and I was okay with that. There were definitely enjoyable parts of the night, but I just can't get myself to pay attention to football. I'd rather people watch or play Sudoku on my phone. I do, however, love spending time with my dear husband, so we'll consider the night a success!

Catnip Bubbles

You know, the small things in life can make such a difference if you can just get yourself to see them. Take catnip bubbles, for example.


Really, it's just floating orbs of flavored soap...


Until they capture your attention. Then they become delightful, aromatic, appealing, little spheres of excitement.


There's adventure in the unexpected bounces and the strange draw of these sparkling wonders, never knowing how long they'll stay stationary or when one will explode at the touch of your nose in surprising, moist, goodness.


Even if it ends unpleasantly with liquid stingily shooting up nasal orifices...


There's something about those bubbles that just can't be ignored.


The strangeness, the unexpected, and the unknown don't seem to be issues when there's a possibility that whatever those globoid entities are, there could be something wonderfully and miraculously hidden in them, just waiting to be discovered.


So, instead of dismissing them as something that just cannot or should not be understood, they are sensuously studied...and in the process, enjoyed immensely.

Biosphere 2

When Karen and my parents were here visiting, we went to the Biosphere 2! According to Wikipedia, "Biosphere 2is a 3.15-acre (12,700 m²) structure originally built to be a man-made, materially-closed ecological system in Oracle, Arizona (USA) by Space Biosphere Ventures, a joint venture whose principal officers were John P. Allen, inventor and Executive Director, and Margret Augustine, CEO. Constructed between 1987 and 1991, it was used to explore the complex web of interactions within life systems in a structure that included five areas based on natural biomes and an agricultural area and human living/working space to study the interactions between humans, farming and technology with the rest of nature. It also explored the possible use of closed biospheres in space colonization, and allowed the study and manipulation of a biosphere without harming Earth's. The name comes from Earth’s biosphere, Biosphere 1, Earth's life system and the only biosphere currently known."


Pretty awesome structure, huh?


Ahh...the Elephant Tree. This is the large, pesky plant that has been impossible to get rid of in our Colorado mobile home's yard. Well, not this particular one, but...you know what I mean.


Our tour guide in the "desert." Her name was "Kat." That's about all I can remember about her, but she was quite knowledgeable.



Daniel walking down into the "cave." It's definitely a lot cooler down there, but you're also surrounded by ugly pipes and all of the behind the scenes stuff it takes to make the Biosphere so lovely.


The "beach." I was disappointed that they didn't have the wave generator turned on, but I guess it's cool enough "as is."


This is the rainforest part of the Biosphere. It was absolutely breath-taking. They have mist raining down and huge trees all around, so you just can't help but feel like nature is giving you a big hug.


Notice everyone happily taking in the beautiful atmosphere around them....and my husband glaring at the innocent woman trying to capture the scene. Caught in the act.


My, what a handsome face he has. I could look at this face for the rest of my life...and I'm surely planning on doing just that.


I didn't even see these until I leaned up against this wall and saw one right next to my head. They were little itty bitty tiny things. I'd call him Squishy, but...I'd venture to guess he's not.


A misted leaf on the guard rails of the "rainforest."


My wonderful parents....I love them. And they look quite angelic in this picture.


This is what happens when you try to stop as quickly as you can to take a picture without getting left behind the group. Blur.


"Tunnel - Low Access" = "Daniel - DUCK!"


This is the "lung" of the Biosphere. This is one of my favorite parts of the whole thing. See the black on the ceiling? It's flexible enough to expand and lift the ceiling and fall enough so that those beams touch the ground. Our tour guide opened a door to show us how quickly the ceiling dropped and it was pretty darn amazing.


This picture really doesn't have much significance, but the man in it makes my world go round.


I love this picture. This is the outside of one of the "lungs," but I think it makes my dad look like the king of the world. He'd be good at that job.


It's Nemo! Or at least I decided he was. I love water.


"Fish are friends. Not food." (Wow...this place really makes me want to quote Finding Nemo) Gotta love shark models hanging above your head.


If I wasn't freaked out by touching weird stuff underwater, I'd want to live there. Look at this cool stuff! And the way it sways back and forth with the water flow is just hypnotic.


Family picture! Some of the best people on the planet.


We don't take normal pictures often. I've come to terms with it. Pictures like these show our personalities more and I'd say we are quite unique. :)


He likes to explore. Apparently on this expedition, he found trash.


Who wouldn't want to hug this everyday?


This is what Daniel's chin feels like when he hasn't shaved for a few days. It's a good thing he loves me. :)


This tarantula was just hanging out next to the stairs. My mom got this close to take the picture. Gross. Or brave. However you want to look at it. I have chosen to go with "gross."


See the resemblance? Daniel...the last dinosaur...


There was this huge conference-type room that had some stuff set-up, so we all sat down in our rows while Daniel taught us about maps. "This green stuff is next to this red stuff, because...you know...they look good together." :)