Amelia's Castle

 A few weeks ago we were privileged to have a visit from Grandpa Dibb because tax season was over. While he was here we did a few fun things, but none has given such great pleasure as the castle that he built Amelia out of moving boxes. She was not too sure of it at first, but about a week after he left, I had left Amelia in the family room playing while I started dinner and I called down to check on her and got no response, and so I went to check on her and I could not find her. Then I heard some faint sounds from the castle and there she was...completely loving her castle. Here are some pictures:

What is he doing in there? 

The Castle Overview: it has multiple tunnels and a look out. 

This was the first time we put her in it.

Here she is enjoying it with Dad. She is in her swiss dress because we were supposed to be at the Sound of Music Sing-a-long this night, but they cancelled it. Apparently it was too hot for outdoor events! (Just kidding, they gave no explanation for the rescheduling at all.)

Alan went through the tiny connecting tunnel between these two tunnels and I though he was going to get stuck, so I was taking pictures.

Here is Amelia playing in the look out tower!

This is where I found her that day. Just hanging out in her castle. Thanks  Grandpa Dibb!

Acid Wash

Little did I know that "acid wash" was not exclusively a jeans thing.  Now that I own a pool, I have to learn and perform all sorts of (costly) maintenance.  Back on the 9th of this month we had to drain our pool.  We were advised to have it acid washed while it was empty.  We were going to pay a pool company to do it.  But then we had the same company come and service our filter.  After watching what the service guy was doing, I thought, "I'm paying him how much for this?  I can definitely do this on my own.  I am not paying them next week for the acid wash."  On top of that, you can only acid wash if the temperature stays below 85 degrees.  If it was going to be above 85 on the day of the wash, they would cancel and we'd be out of luck until next year.  So when it was going to be only 70 degrees that Saturday and in the 90's the next week, I thought, "I'm doing this."  So here are some photos:

The start of the draining process.  Notice the sump pump in the middle of the pool and the hose that exits the pool (to our sewage drain).  We started it at about 9pm and it was done at about 2am.

Me in the draining pool.

Acid washing away I go.

Hip waders come in handy for other things besides fishing in Alaska.

Rubber gloves, respirator, and safety goggles round out the safety equipment.

Amelia enjoying the clean pool water.

Thunderbird Park

We have a great little hiking area by our house.  Well, we can't say the whole thing is great since we've only gone on one short hike.   But that hike was a very nice Sunday afternoon activity last week.  Here are some photos:

Enjoying the fauna. 

Hydration is key in the arid southwest.

Us at the summit.

"Look, I can see our house from here."

"We climbed all the way up there."

Amelia's First Art Project

 I keep trying to think of new things to do with Amelia during the day. It seems that we do the same few activities and I often think she must be bored. So, the other day I made some edible finger paints out of vanilla pudding and let her give it a whirl:

A blank canvas and an inquisitive mind. 

The artist studies her palate and does some mixing.

The colors need to be just right to create this masterpiece.

Getting started.

Getting to the finer part of the art project.

She loved art. What can we say!

The final product....gallary worthy!

Comic Strips and General Conference

This is a continuation on the comic strip theme from my last post.  With General Conference around the corner, I often find myself wondering how I will remember and apply all the good council we'll hear.  Well, here's a new method: read the funnies page.  This is Pickles from March 25, 2011:


What the grandpa should have said was "President Thomas S. Monson once said ..."  I love that Pickles is quoting Grandpa now.

Spooning

As you know, I enjoy the funny pages of the newspaper.  I now read most of my favorite comic strips online.  This was my favorite of the day. 

Spaghetti O's

Now, I have never seen the draw of Spaghetti O's. That is probably because we did not eat Spaghetti O's growing up and so I do not find them to be particularly palette pleasing. I know some of us do (Jed). However, when we were in Texas, I did feed Amelia Spaghetti O's with meatballs on the night we arrived before I made my Walmart baby food run. Amelia loved them. So last night when we were planning to leave her for a date, one of the rare times since she was born, I decided to treat her to Spaghetti O's.
   She ate Spaghetti O's and I tried her Spaghetti O's but ate something else for dinner and then Alan and I dropped Amelia off at her daycare. The daycare does a "Date Night" once a month where the teachers stay until 10:30 so that the parents can have an evening out if they like. So we dropped her off and then continued on our way for the date.
  Well about 15 minutes after dropping her off I started feeling a little queasy. That lasted the rest of the night. It began to get super intense on our car ride back to the daycare. I asked Alan to check his phone to make sure the daycare had not called to tell us Amelia was sick, but they had not. However, when we arrived at daycare we found that Amelia had been sick and had thrown up all over herself, the teacher and the bed! Poor Amelia (and poor teacher).
Was it the Spaghetti O's? We cannot say for sure, but it certainly did little to redeem them in my eyes. So, Amelia and I enjoyed a night of food poisoning together. We are both doing much better today.
I do not wish any bouts of food poisoning on any of you any time soon!