Two Guys

Wesley has recently discovered that numbers are for counting things. He loves counting cars we pass. Although...if there are more than 4 of anything he just keeps on going up to 10 and calls it good.

But my favorite, favorite thing of all is that he has figured out that Stan and I are TWO people. He calls us "two guys." As in, "Hey--two guys, let's play cars." Or, "Two guys--look at this!" I love it. It makes me happy every single time I hear him say it.

Sierra Vista

It's hard to imagine that it is winter anywhere. The leaves on our tree are still green. It's still too hot in the afternoon to go for a walk. I am willing to bet that most of you are having a hard time imagining what it's like here. We took some pictures last week so you can get an idea of where we live.

Most homes don't have grass. They aren't a lot of two-story homes. And even though I didn't take a picture of it, most neighborhoods have these things that look like silos. Except they are more round than they are tall. And they are wells.

There are quite a few "hacienda" style homes here. Usually they aren't as clean looking as this one though. That style seems to be found in more of the older homes in the area.

Wesley doesn't enjoy looking at the houses and neighborhoods as much as we do. So we let him bring along some quality literature on our walks.

This is the middle of town. I'm not kidding. We walked from our house to Safeway. You can kind of see the power lines behind Stan. That's our neighborhood. The city is laid out so that there is a giant swatch of desert running through the middle of it. We live South of the desert swatch and the grocery store, the library, and most stores are North of it. Fort Huachuca is to the West of town. More desert lies to the East of town. We have an extra bedroom if anyone wants to come for a visit!

Huachuca Mountains

We went for a bit of a hike. Well, a walk really. The mountain trails are a little different here.

Wesley loved it the same though.

The vegetation is a little unexpected. I mean, I know we live in a desert. Its just weird to be walking through the mountains and to see cactus. And, what you can't see in this picture are the turkeys. Wild turkeys just running around. Wesley LOVED it.

The Halloween Post

Let's be honest. I'm just not catching up on all the fun times and new experiences. So I'm moving on. I know, its tragic. You'll never see the picture of Wesley setting up his office in the garage and telling the moving men where to put the lawnmower (in the living room.) Or the pictures of him jumping on our couches because he was so excited to see them again. But you will get to see his Halloween pictures way before Thanksgiving. Pros and Cons, right?

We weren't sure that we were going to get him to wear any of the costumes actually. So we opened the box of costumes and let him try on any of them that appealed to him. The first one he wanted to try on was the dinosaur costume. Notice his little jammy-footed feet sticking out the bottom. Yeah, he wasn't even dressed for the day and he already had a costume on. What a good start! (They are actually dinosaur jammies.)

We showed him how to trick-or-treat so that he could get excited for later.

It took us a long time to get him out of the dinosaur costume. We thought he was just going to wear it all day. Here he is helping Stan hang a picture on the wall. It seems very "Where the Wild Things Are" to me.

After lunch he decided he would try on some other costumes. I am so glad that we already have a box of costumes for him to try on!

This was given to Stan for Wesley while he was still in Iraq. And this was the very first time that Wesley willingly tried it on.

He loved his Safari costume as well. He was riding around the jungle looking for eagles and lions. And then he figured out if he drops the hat over his back it looks kind of like a backpack. He was in love. We wondered which costume he would ultimately choose.

Before we could go trick-or-treating we had to have dinner. Stan and I talked a lot about what a "Traditional" Halloween meal consisted of. In the end, we had chili and fry bread. Now I'm curious though -- What do you all have for your Halloween dinner?

In the end, he went as a dinosaur. A happy, happy dinosaur. Raar!

A WARNING --- to all considering a military move

When they say that you need to watch them pack your things, you need to follow that advice. I would go further and say -- HOVER. Be in the same room with them at all times. At first we thought it was kind of funny that they packed things they weren't supposed to -- like a plastic bag of homemade cookies. As it turned out, they did a really brainless job of packing. If it was in the kitchen, it got wrapped in gobs of paper -- like Wesley's plastic cups. Some things were deliberately ruined just so they would fit into a box. Like this:

The funny part about them ruining the wrapping paper is that this is heavy duty paper; one of them is brand new, and the other one is nearly so. They must have put a lot of effort into folding them in half. Probably more effort that it would have taken to walk into another room for a bigger box.


Like I said, there was some random packing. We would open a box full of paper bundles and start unwrapping them. There was no way to tell what was inside each bundle until the last second. Maybe it was a handful of spare change, or some of Wesley's cars. Stan and I decided to see who could find the most random bundle. This is my entry.

And this is Stan's entry. I think we both win.

I'm definitely not saying to never let the army move you. It was great that we didn't have to load everything into a truck and drive it across the country and unload everything. It wasn't so great finding things poorly packed, but that can be easily remedied. Next time, I will have someone watch Wesley, and I will stand next to them as they pull 2 drawers out of 2 separate dressers and dump them haphazardly into the same box. At least then I can be prepared for what I will find on the other end. :)

Some things from Utah

We had such a fun time in Utah. So even though we now live in Arizona, and I'm sure you are anxiously awaiting pictures from here, you will have to wait.

Wesley loved this basketball hoop. He found the little basketball that he could actually pick up and throw and spent hours with it. His favorite part is that when you turn it on, it makes a sound when you make a basket.

Katie was gone for a few days visiting Emily in Virginia. While she was gone, Wesley became very attached to her things and referred to them all as "The Katie....(insert item name)." Like, "The Katie car" or "The Katie glasses."

He loves hats. And balls. Neither Stan and I know where he found this hat. He went looking for his shoes and came up with this fun surprise.

ARIS-ONA

Remember that one time that Stan and Wesley and I drove straight South for nearly 14 hours? Apparently that is still in the United States. Barely. In other news...we found somewhere to live!

We spent a day driving around and looking at houses. We all loved this one. I absolutely love the layout inside. Stan loves how close it is to the mountains and to post. And Wesley--

He loves the backyard. He cried when we had to leave after looking at it the first time. And we've pretty much gotten the same reaction every time since. He absolutely loves the tall, overgrown grass. He throws his toys into it and then runs around trying to find them. I love that he is happy.

He loves his bedroom too. Within 5 minutes of being in the house after leasing it, he knew exactly which room was his. And he willingly took a nap in there the first time we tried it. I am SO GLAD that this turned into a fun adventure for him. So far he's done really really well at adjusting to everything. He has only been upset with one thing so far.

Randomly, he can't get over the fact that we don't have a table in the house yet. I mean, it really bugs him. We ate at the hotel for a few days and then just made him his own little table and chair out of boxes. Its so funny. We should get all of our belongings on Tuesday and hopefully we can settle in for a fun Arizona winter!


PS: We can actually SEE Mexico from out house!

This little boy

Wesley just discovered Stan's ipod. We were waiting in the car for Stan, and well...Wesley gets tired of waiting quickly. I showed him a video of he and Stan and Wesley watched it over and over and giggled as if Stan was actually in the car tickling him for real. I adore him. And Stan.

Before leaving Colorado, we had a cook-out. We let Wesley "roast" his own hot dog. We had to be very careful to not let him drag it in the dirt before getting it close to the fire. Then he waved it around for a minute and pronounced it cooked. And he's wearing Stan's hat. For no reason other than he wanted to wear it.

Wesley loves umbrellas. He is absolutely enchanted with them. He was so excited when my mom let him take this one on a walk to the store. And so angry when we tried to fold it down to go through the doors at the store.

Moving On

So...we did it. We moved. Just like that. Okay, it wasn't exactly that quick, but it seemed like it. It was especially nice to not be the one putting everything in boxes and in a moving truck and driving hours across highways to somewhere where we don't know where it is.

Wesley wasn't real excited about the prospect though. The first day that they started packing things up, he was a little weirded out. By the time everything we own was in boxes, he was completely lost. We kept explaining to him that everything was going to Arizona. It wasn't until he burst into tears in the empty living room and shouted "Wesley go Aris-Ona!" that we realized we hadn't explained things clearly. He thought these people were just going to take everything he loved and he would never see it again. After that, he had a new chant. "Wesley go Aris-Ona, but first Utah." He said it often, over and over again.

He soon found a silver lining. EVERYTHING was a new track for his race cars.

We took out mattresses out to the garage and put them in boxes the last morning before the truck got there. By the time we had gotten it in the box and turned around, Wesley was coming out the door with one of these bed supports. He is such a helpful little boy! I don't know how he managed to get it out of the bed frame, past all the boxes and around the furniture in the living room...but he is one determined little boy. He then spent the next 20 minutes playing "hurdles" with the other supports.

Wesley hated this truck. He hated that everything from his house disappeared in here. After a while, I just took him out to run some errands. We came back to a very empty house. How sad.

We all slept in Wesley's room that night. We woke up super early and left for Utah. Wesley went around to every room and the backyard saying, "Bye room...bye downstairs...bye backyard...bye house."

Wesley's backyard activities

Wesley loves our backyard. He loves that he can just open the door and play outside. We recently picked up a basketball hoop for him.

Don't worry, since this picture was taken, we have gotten him an actual basketball. But he still loves this one my mom made. I mean-- it has a moon and stars on it! Can a real basketball compete with that? I don't think so.

And the little health and fitness fan that he is, he knows he needs to stay hydrated. Especially in these hot summer months. And with the high altitude and all...he can't take any chances.

He loves making baskets. We just don't have the heart to raise the hoop any higher.

Don't worry, Wesley realizes this life is not all fun and games. Or maybe he realizes that it really is all fun. Even working. He loves "helping" Stan mow the lawn. And the last time he realized how very similar his tool bench is to the lawn mower. So he dragged it all the way up the stairs and outside to help Stan mow the lawn.


After struggling for a few minutes trying to push his unwieldy plastic "lawn mower", he figured out it was much easier to just pull it. He followed Stan around the whole yard getting the grass that Stan "missed".

And of course -- Wesley loves his garden. We haven't looked in on our carrots for a few weeks, and when we finally did, they were literally popping up out of the ground.

They are his favorite vegetable from our garden. He loves picking the zucchini, but when it comes to the carrots, he runs to the house so we can wash it before he eats it. He loves carrying it around the house with the top still on and trying to gnaw a bite off. Although...as you can see...this one is actually way too big for his little mouth. I hope we find another place with a backyard that Wesley can love.