Soccer practice

Lego Day weekend

Our long weekend was fun and productive. We grilled, swam, rearranged furniture, and took a lot of naps. Weeks ago, the boys dubbed the holiday "Lego Day," and they (along with Libby) had Lego contests and games all day. 

New furniture layout (please excuse the messy art table and the lopsided clock):

Much more open. Scott joked that I should start a design business where I decorate a home and then redecorate it months later so that it looks far better in contrast. Brilliant.

Back to school, round 2

Elizabeth: pre-k, Ms. Lisa & Ms. Carlie

A morning storm

Our summer storms always seem to hit at night. So when rain came pouring down last Thursday morning, we had to drop everything and play outside.

Libby topped off her splashy morning with a cup of cocoa and-- naturally-- umbrella-patterned pjs.

Travis, on swimming

"When I swim really well, I feel like I'm the champion of the whole world."

Critters

The wildlife that surrounds us has been one of the neatest elements of living here. Every day, we see jackrabbits, quail families, lizards, birds of prey, and all kinds of insects... along with the occasional coyote or snake.

Most of these animals scurry away quickly, but we sometimes manage to snap a few pictures first.

This guy hung out on our porch a couple of weeks ago (for scale, that's my hand): 

When we learned we were moving to Arizona, people warned us about the scorpions. And we figured we'd see a lot of them since our house backs up to the desert. Thankfully, we haven't. Ben and I spotted a tailless whip scorpion on a walk when we first got here, and Scott has killed a few common scorpions that he found in the yard. Not a big deal. Then, we found him in our living room:

 No bueno. Scott put him in this jar to show the kids why scorpions are dangerous. Then they promptly grew attached, named him "Pinchey," and asked to release him in the desert. We don't need him procreating anywhere near us, so we settled on letting him "swim in the sewer."  Even though we scour the property, we haven't found any more since then. Phew.

The summer monsoons bring out all kinds of critters we don't normally see here. Cicadas chirp in trees before storms hit (kind of a nice warning). Larger reptiles warm themselves on sidewalks and roads once the rain gets close. If it rains hard enough, like it did yesterday, frogs emerge.

Their croaks are weird, though. I honestly thought I heard someone yelling last night until I stepped outside and got closer.

 This desert sure breeds some hearty and strange animals.

Nature walk at FINS