Re: trip to Tucson

We had a great time visiting Nana and Papi..and other family in Tucson. Here are the 2 wonderful grandchildren with their wonderful grandparents!

Nana had a full schedule for us with lots of kid-centered activities. On our first full day, we headed to the world-famous desert museum. Dahrius was entranced with the rattlers, and many of them were very active. We also saw a snoozing mountain lion, bighorn sheep, an ocelot, lots of great cacti, a kestral, and a Chihuahuan Raven.

Dahrius' little cousin Miki lent her tricycle, and Dahrius pedaled all over downtown, to parks, to the children's museum, and to the nearby bike shop for a tune up (below).

Ranier found toy-heaven when the flight attendant gave us a bag of pretzels or some other junky item. It is really card to replicate the sound of a crinkly plastic bag, and Ranier was finally allowed to put the coveted item in his mouth (too big to choke on)

A little floor play at the Hall house. All the boys seem to be content!

We went one day to Mary Clare and Andy's (and great-grandpa and Sara and Gabe and Mikis') place and they had a cool day-of-the-dead alter. Yummy chocolate and peanut butter skulls!

We also went on a lovely hike around the neighborhood. It was a hot NOv. day, but we all enjoyed ourselves. Mikis and Dahrius really hit it off!

Here's a group shot of the hikers. Dahrius had an extra-fun time with Uncle Aaron playing hide & seek and generally being silly. When D was a little tyke, he called him "Uncle Urnt"...which somehow evolved on this trip to "Uncle Certainly."
Grandma and baby.
Grandpa and baby.
Not so sure if Ranier likes peas...

We had a nice walk with old family friends, Christina's baby, Munai, is just weeks younger than Ranier.

The grandma's and their babies (Jenny and Anne-Marie)


Dahrius wall hiking at the nearby playground.

Halloween!!!

Halloween was finally here after watching and counting off days on the calendar. Dahrius was very excited to put on his lion costume and have an excuse to play dress-up. WE had big events planned for the day. First was the Halloween parade at school where all the children wore their costumes and then they sang songs with Madeline, their music teacher. And of course later there was trick-or-treating!

Here are the kids walking out of the classroom for the parade. You can spot the little lion!



Dahrius soon tired of wearing his hood, so he sat for songs without it. You can see he also smudged his lion nose and whiskers by now.

Here are some of his classmates and one of his teachers, Nancy behind him. She is dressed as autumn or a tree or something.


Here is Julian, Jessica's little 3-month old in his Pooh costume. I had planned to also dress up Ranier as a bear, but he was too tired and cranky when time came for trick-or-treating. INstead, I put him to bed and answered the door for kids while Maman took Dahrius out trick-or-treating.

Here he is all ready to go--next to our jack-o-lantern.

Maman with our little lion. Dahrius asked me if I was going to dress up for Halloween, and I said that adults don't typically dress up, though they can. I said that maybe next year I would dress up, and he replied, "Well, you better ask Nana to get you a costume." Nana seems to be the official supplier of Halloween costumes.

More photos of the AZ trip coming soon....