The Tallest Christmas Tree in the Nation!

This morning I took the hubby to the airport to fly to Idaho Falls to meet the youngest daughter and drive home from school with her. Allegiant Air just started flying out of Mesa Gateway Airport directly to Idaho Falls and since it is A LOT cheaper the hubby decided he would give it a try. The airline and flight were both good, according to him, but he did end up leaving 2 hours late due to the heavy fog - not in Idaho but in Mesa. Yup, we had some unusual fog this morning. Oh, and by-the-way don't always trust that map quest knows how to get you somewhere. It sent us on a non-existent road. Luckily the son-in-law had given me some basic directions that got us back on the right path.

After I returned home the youngest son decided he felt bad that he wasn't going to Idaho and wanted to go on a road trip. I am always ready to go for a drive and the grandson likes to go ( said dew, dew, dew with the head waving side to side). We finally decided on a jaunt to witness the tallest Christmas tree in the nation at the Anthem Outlet mall.

Read all about it -

The grandson was a lot more impressed by the tree than the youngest son was.

This is my view looking up from the base, probably about the top 2/3rds fit in my view finder.

Here I'm using the 6 foot 2 son as a height gauge. The toys at the base of the tree were as tall as he was.

And, here you have it - the nation's tallest fresh cut tree. All 110 feet of it.

The son was generous and decided we could visit the Nike store and the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory which were on either side of the tree. I took the grandson to Toys R Us the other day and he almost went hysterical with excitement. He jabbered non-stop about everything he saw. I was surprised that he felt the same way about the shoe store. He was thrilled with all the orange shoe box stacks, the little sample shoes attached to the rack with stretchy cords and the floor mirrors that he could see himself in. It was SO exciting!

Today I am thankful that

my son actually wanted to do something with his mom for a change.

the grandson likes to nap in his car seat.

Cafe Rhumba was kind of on the way home from the mall. I love their tropical chicken salad. Yum! Yum!

Chinese Cultural Center

Today I went on a field trip with the oldest daughter's Second Grade class to the Chinese Cultural Center in Phoenix. It was a warm day and it was a sit and wait, listen and don't touch kind of field trip which was hard for the kids. We toured a Chinese Garden and an Oriental Grocery Store. We did learn some interesting tidbits about Chinese culture and we were treated to Chinese food at the end, which was very good.

The children were asked to "dress nicely" for this field trip. It was interesting to see the different interpretations of what "nicely" meant.


We learned that different things are carved on the roofs of the buildings to protect them. Here is a dragon that protects from evil spirits.

These are sea creatures that protect the buildings from fire.

These statues represent the things that we need in life. One has water and the other is holding a flower to represent beauty. There were other ones but I don't remember how many, perhaps 10. Some of the other needs were food, music, and education.

The circular doorway behind the statues is to walk through. The Chinese try to avoid sharp edges because they represent knives or death. I think it is called a moon gate maybe.

This pond was full of lots and lots of fish, great big ones and little, teeny tiny ones.

More statues. I think the first one represents an emperor and I'm not sure what the other ones represent.



The Chinese make their bridges crooked so that if an evil spirit is chasing you he will get confused and loose his way.


The gardens were very beautiful but the Second Graders and I would have enjoyed having some time to explore them a little more.

Here we are sitting outside the grocery store waiting for time for our tour. The books made good fans since it was very warm.

They also made good shields so we couldn't be seen when we got our pictures taken.


A few of us actually read them.

And finally we got to line up and go inside where it was air conditioned.

The most exciting part of the grocery store was the fresh fish swimming in tanks. There was quite the variety, but the smell was a little strong for some of us, especially the pregnant teacher. We also got to see 1,000 year old eggs and a large variety of beer in the cooler we waited in line for our food next too. We got our food from a food court in the grocery store. It was very interesting trying to help the students select fried rice or noodles and 2 entrees from a selection of items they couldn't recognize and that all looked a little strange. Most of the kids stuck with a type of chicken (like orange chicken without the sauce) and egg rolls. A few chose duck and really liked it. I wasn't that brave and stuck with my old favorite Sweet and Sour Pork and some green beans.

It is always fun to get out of the classroom and do something different, but I wouldn't say this was my favorite field trip of all time. I think I would like to go back sometime with the hubby and just check out some of the stores and visit the garden at a more leisurely pace. Oh, and buy a couple of those 1,000 year old eggs perhaps.

Transit Tourists

Today our family took advantage of the free light rail during it's first week of operation and headed downtown for a trip to the Heard Museum and lunch at the Spaghetti Factory.

This was a field trip that we had planned to take "sometime" way back in August when we celebrated my birthday and I was glad that it worked out that we could all fit it into our schedules.

The hubby was accommodating enough to even take the day off of work for the outing. Actually he had a day of annual leave he had to use or lose before the end of the year, so it worked out well.

As it turned out we weren't the only family that had the same idea of how to spend part of our holiday break. We had lots of company on the trains and at the restaurant.

These pictures don't make it look nearly as crowded as it was . When it was the most squishy I couldn't lift my arms to take any pictures. Just think friendly and then add about 25 more people.

We visited the museum first. The Heard museum focuses on Native American history, culture and art. We watched some Hopi dancing and viewed lots of exhibits. The youngest daughter and the roommate had lots of fun making all of the craft projects. I felt it was appropriate to snap a photo of the family in front of this exhibit.

My favorite exhibit was about the history of Indian Boarding schools.

It was sad to read some of the quotes and hear some of the memories of the students and parents. Many of the children in the photos were so small and looked so lost. It's interesting how the white man felt it was his responsibility to civilize the savage red man, mainly because it was more cost effective to educate them than to kill them.

We thought this poster encouraging the Indian boys to develop their "manly aggressions" was a little ironic. I wonder if some of today's professional athletes realize they are striving to be "controlled and civilized"?

The hubby's two older sisters were required to attend boarding school but only for high school and I think boarding schools had changed a lot by then. They actually had positive experiences there.

We ended up having to wait quite a while to be seated at the Spaghetti Factory but I believe it was worth it. Other members of the family might not agree.

I thoroughly enjoyed our day even though I was afraid for a few minutes that I might be thrown from a moving train when the woman standing next to me realized that I was a "transit tourist" and not using the light rail "for the purpose for which it was intended." I don't know. I think if the Metro offers free rides for a week they pretty much expect people to just ride the light rail for entertainment and a new experience. I bet that working woman has a seat to sit on now that everyone has to purchase a ticket to ride.

Today I am grateful for

a sense of humor.

time with my family.

progress in the acceptance of cultural diversity.

Second Grade Field Trip

Today I got to go on a field trip to the Desert Botanical Garden with my oldest daughter and her Second Grade Class. I thought it was a fun and interesting trip.


This is our group - 10 of her students.


The second grade program that the garden presents is about life cycles so we learned about the life cycle of a Saguaro Cactus.

A seven year old saguaro is only as big as a second grader's thumb. A saguaro gets it's first arm usually when it is about 50 years old. Saguaros can live about 200 years. A saguaro can hold up to 60 bathtubs of water inside during a wet period. Saguaro's are ribbed so they can expand and contract as they gain and lose water.

We also learned about the Yucca plant. Here the students are depicting the Yucca life cycle.

I really like this next picture because it looks like everyone is really involved in learning something.

The Desert Botanical Garden has a Christmas event each year where they light the trails with southwestern luminaries. They have thousands of luminaries and I'm sure it is very beautiful.

I have always wanted to go to it, but I am too cheap to pay the $25.00 that it costs each person to attend. As I walked the trails today I just pretended that the candles were all lit and glowing.

They also have some really unique blown glass decoration "growing" in with the plant life that are quite beautiful even in the daylight.


After our time at the garden we went to Papago Park to eat lunch. The gardens are located in Papago Park so it was a very short bus ride. This is a park with plants and dirt and rocks and picnic tables but no playground. The kids were all very upset. This was a crummy park in their opinion. All there was to do was eat.

This is the daughter's entire Second Grade Class except for one little girl. She is pretty lucky to only have 15 students in her classroom. It may look like there are only 13 kids in the picture - one of the girls is hiding, but you can kind of see her if you look really hard.


Today I am thankful

that I still get to enjoy a bus full of kids every once in a while.
for the opportunity to learn something I didn't know before.
for dinner in the crock pot at the end of a busy day.