Hello, Fall! It's Nice to Meet You!

The trees are starting to turn, the first snow has fallen in the high country (not here thankfully!) and pumpkin beer has hit the shelves.  It is my first official fall and so far, so good!  We don't really have fall in Arizona- it is basically when the temperature drops below 100 degrees.  Not exactly crisp.

Mom and I celebrated the season change by making a batch of sugar cookies and decorating them with Halloween stuff.  

I have a very delicate hand as you can tell.  All that stuff just makes them taste better!

I had Friday off school but I had to go to day camp.  It was a great day though because we went to a "pick your own" farm and I came home with really pretty purple corn, a tiny pumpkin and 12 onions.  Mom is trying to figure out what to do with that many onions so if anyone has any suggestions, she'd love to hear them.
Dad got home from work at a decent hour, so he and I saddled up the ol' two wheelers and rode out to get our dinner.  I rode about two miles round trip, had no crashes and got dinner back home all in one piece.  It was a good night!
Saturday was our lay around and rest day.  I did have one last tennis lesson but came home from that and just hung around the yard enjoying the beautiful weather.  Mom made pizza that night and managed to use up one of my onions on that.  1 down, 11 to go.

Sunday, we were up and at it early, early.  We spent the day at Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was pretty much amazing.  The views were everywhere and again, the weather was fantastic.  The aspens are changing too so we had that to take in too.

We went for a really nice hike and I did great even on the steep, rocky, scary parts.  Mom and dad told me that I had to pay attention during these parts and I did.  And I spent the whole time that I was paying attention telling mom and dad that I was paying attention.  (As a side note, about 3 1/2 hours into the day, dad looked at his watch and pointed out that the only time I had stopped talking was when I was stuffing my face with Pirate Booty.  I also "don't have time to eat my lunch at school" and the teacher says it is because I'm very busy talking.)  So anyway, I was paying attention and told mom and dad so and as a result, I only slipped once.  It was a minor slip though so it doesn't count.

On our way back into town, we made a quick stop at Dairy Queen and then headed home.
I played with my next door neighbors for awhile and then it is off to bed.  We love fall!
Have a great week!

We have had  a nice, quiet recovery week here.  Dad got home earlier than expected so that was great for me (and mom too).  Fall is making an appearance now and it has mom in a bit of a panic.  Currently in Colorado, we are experiencing a Tucson winter.  I am so unprepared clothing wise for this.  I see a big shopping trip in my near future.

Saturday was a catching up day with lots of errands and cleaning house.  Dad took me to tennis and then speaking of shopping, we found a official winter coat for me.  It's a way cool blue plaid with an awesome fuzzy hood.  I love it so much that I wanted to wear it out  to play that afternoon. 

Mom headed out in the evening for dinner and a movie with a friend so dad and I took a bike ride to the park and the came home for a grilled cheese dinner.  A perfect night!

Sunday ended up being a perfect day.  The weather was amazing- 75 degrees, clear blue skies.  We took full advantage of it and headed to the zoo for the day.  We had a great time!

Hope you have a fabulous week!

The Walkers Invade

It was another fun filled week here at Chez Goedel.  I was sick over the holiday weekend so we had a very low keyed Monday.  Mom has started yet another new job (hopefully this is "the one"- job hunting is hard after 10 years in one place!) and had orientation from 8-5 on Tuesday.  That is all fine and good except that means I have to get up at 5:30 AM so we can leave the house by 6:30.  It was just like old times and neither of us liked it.  Fortunately, that is over and we are back on our relaxing schedule of sleeping in and fresh muffins.

On Friday, the entire Albuquerque crew came up for a visit.  The night before they got here, mom asked me who I wanted to meet me at the bus stop.  I gave her a resounding "EVERYBODY.  AND THE TWO DOGS!!"  So that is exactly what happened.  I got off the bus to find Mr. Walker, Nana D, Auntie Erin, Uncle Adam, mom, Daisy and Halie waiting for me.  It wasn't quite as cool as I expected and I was just a bit embarrassed by the whole thing.  I am 5 going on 13 you know.  I got over it pretty quickly and was actually very excited to see everyone.  Nana D and Mr. Walker haven't seen our place since it was over run with packing paper and boxes and Uncle Adam and Aunt Erin had never been here.

We have been a bit neglectful here in blog land and have not passed on some very happy news.  Aunt Erin and Uncle Adam are going to have a baby!!  She is due December 23rd and we are so very excited to have another Walker on this planet.  It just makes it a better place, don't it?!  Dad is giving all kinds of advice on the whole Christmas baby thing, since he has first hand experience.  He doesn't really recommend it but sometimes, there isn't much you can do.

I picked out a cute outfit for baby Sophia and I made her a bear that I named "Goodnight Bear".  Hopefully, she'll love it as much as I do.  It was a little hard for me to give away but I managed.

After some gift opening, we left dad behind (so he could enjoy some peace and quiet) and we all went to the park for a bit to enjoy the beautiful evening.

On Saturday morning, Uncle Adam, Aunt Erin, mom, the dogs and I went for a short hike up to Highlands Ranch Point to check out the great view of the front range.  We headed back down in time to get cleaned up and head out to the baseball game.  We got to ride the light rail down which was the best part for me.  It was a beautiful day but blazing hot in the sunshine.  We kept sneaking up a row into the shade every time the sun got to us until we eventually ran out of rows.  That is when we packed it in and headed home.  It was a great day though- full of popcorn, hotdogs, pretzels, cheesesteaks, barbeque sandwiches, beer and orange soda.  All in all a good day!

 
(This is one of the more flattering pictures of us.  Aunt Erin is so embarrassed by us that she is hiding!)

Everyone left Sunday morning including dad who was heading out for yet another business trip.  It was a very quiet Sunday for me and mom.  I got to watch a whole bunch of TV because she just didn't feel like moving off the couch.  I love it when she gets like that!
We are back at it this week.  Dad comes home Tuesday night and that is his last trip for a long time, thankfully!

Have a great week!

Catching Up

Forgive me blog readers for it has been 2 weeks since my last post.  I won't let that happen again!  I (we) were just tired last weekend and couldn't be my usual witty self.  What is the point in blogging if you can't be witty?

We had a pretty busy weekend last weekend.  As you may or may not know, the US Pro Cycling Tour of Colorado was going on.  All of the big names in cycling were here including the top 3 finishers from the Tour de France.  It was kind of a big deal for the state.  Dad had two of his cycling friends from Tucson fly up for the weekend so they could spend hours and hours driving the mountain roads of Colorado to watch minutes and minutes of professional cycling.  Mom and I hung out at home but I hear that it was pretty cool.  The scenery was amazing, the crowds were awesome and the racing was really, really good.  

Mom and I spent the weekend grocery shopping, going to tennis lessons and doing a little swimming- so our weekend was almost as exciting.

School continues to be very fun for me.  I'm loving learning and am loving making tons of new friends.  Mom walks me to my class every morning and it takes forever (big surprise) because I have to track down each and every one of my friends to say hello.  I'm running for student council president next month, so this is all part of my campaign strategy.  The bumper stickers come out next week.

Our weekdays are pretty low keyed and we seem to have gotten into a routine.  Mom has enough time to bake me hot muffins in the morning for breakfast, we do a little homework and head off to school/work around 9.  Much, much more relaxing than our mornings in Tucson of up at 5:30 and out the door by 6:20AM.

We had a good weekend this weekend.  Mom's birthday was Friday and as usual, she played it up for all it was worth.  Every time I started with a little attitude, she would pull out the "It's my birthday in 7 days- be nice." card.  The worst part is it worked and I was awesomely nice.  I secretly left her notes in her lunch box, wrote her happy birthday signs and gave her tons of hugs and attention.  She said that was the best present ever.  Dad got her a bike trainer and I think she loves that almost as much.  She sent dad down to the basement to get it set up for her as soon as she opened it.  Now mom and dad can work out together on those cold winter mornings- that is dad's dream come true!

Mom had the day off work (not that she has much work to do these days), so she went shopping and spent some birthday money.  We took her out for dinner and then a trip to Target.  It was a good night!

On Saturday, we got a small taste of things to come weather wise.  A cold front moved through and dropped our temperatures from 90 to 70 in one day.  Mom has dug out her sweat pants and slippers already and dad has pulled out his "winter" riding gear from Tucson.  It is really beautiful and refreshing though.  For now.

I came down with my first cold of the season.  It isn't too bad but, like mom and her birthdays, I'm milking it for all it's worth.

We did get out of the house on Sunday and drove down to Colorado Springs to go the Garden of the Gods.  Much like Disneyland at Thanksgiving, we knew it had to be a good idea because the place was absolutely packed.  The park was pretty spectacular if you could get past the barking dogs, crying babies, yelling people and car engines.  I really liked it- nice easy hiking with lots of places to stop and rest.

This is Pike's Peak.  We didn't hike up there but I bet it was a lot less crowded!

We came home and I spent the afternoon on the couch watching a Scooby Doo marathon.  Dad is busy with his fantasy football draft and mom is reading so it is a nice relaxing day.
Hope everyone enjoys their short week and we'll see you next week- I promise!