Spring Break

 So this post is about 2 months late in coming.  I'll blame it on Blogger's new look.  Darn Blogger.

Mike had a much needed Spring Break in March.  We were able to get a lot done (like finally getting our AZ drivers licenses and plates) and my family came down to visit for the last few days of it.

Literally 5 minutes before my parents pulled up to our apartment, Ellie dislocated her elbow while Mike was picking her up.  Poor thing was in a lot of pain!  So my parents walked in the door at the same time we were rushing out the door to take Ellie to Urgent Care.

They had to take x-rays and finally they just popped it back in.  As you can see, she was in a lot of pain.  But about 10 minutes after the fixed her up, she forgot the pain and was back to normal!

At the clinic.  Not even Dora & Boots could  cheer her up!

We drove over to Tempe to a Ramen Shop and had a delicious lunch!

And then we did a lot of tourist stuff, like the Superstition Mountain Museum & the Goldfield Ghost Town.

Riding the Train at the Ghost Town

 We also visited the Mystery Castle.  You can read it's Wikipedia article here, but the basics are it was built by a man dying of tuberculosis for his daughter that he abandoned after he found out his diagnosis.  He built it using whatever material he could find, and he was an eccentric man so you can imagine what the house is like.  

His daughter moved in a few years after he passed away, and lived there until 2010 when she died.  It's a pretty cool place to see!  Not only is it a house, it had a chapel, a guest house, and an underground bar.  

This is a little window he built to frame the city of Phoenix as it appeared back in the 40's.  

We also drove up South Mountain to Dobbins Point to get an incredible view of Phoenix.  You get a good idea of how huge Phoenix really is.  One thing I like about Phoenix is that it's the 6th largest city in the nation, but it's so spread out that it sure doesn't feel like a big city.  

And of course, since we're Higbees, we had to stop and get frozen yogurt.  It's no Menchies, but it comes pretty darn close!

No, that's not a drunk homeless man.  That's Jamie.  He hasn't shaved his beard since No-Shave November.

My Dad and Jamie drove out on Saturday morning, but my Mom stayed for an extra two days.  We visited the massive Asian market by our house.  

And we also visited the Japanese Friendship Gardens, built by Phoenix's sister city Himeji.  It's a beautiful, peaceful oasis in the middle of downtown.  Also, you can see that it was actually cloudy that day, a true rarity here!  So since it was a brisk 55 degrees, we were the only ones in the garden, making it even more peaceful.  

Feeding the Koi Fish

It was a short trip, and I wish they could've stayed longer, but we're grateful my family could make it down for a visit!

Our Little Twinkle Star

Ellie climbed up on the piano bench and gave us a little show! Our little musical prodigy!

Christmas & New Years

Merry Christmas!

Ellie wasn't quite used to the weather up in Salt Lake!

Ellie snatched my Mom's camera without us knowing and started snapping pictures. I always underestimate how tall she is and what she can grab.

We went to Temple Square with my family. Ellie got to ride Trax for the first time.

As you can see, she LOVED it!

We made sure she was all bundled up, but Mike actually grumbled more about the cold than anyone else! Poor guy! He says that Phoenix is where he's meant to live because he hates the cold!

Temple Square was beautiful, but to be honest... I was actually more impressed with the Mesa Temple Lights. It seemed like there were more lights in Mesa, even though there wasn't.

We had a great time with family and had lots of great food! It was a very wonderful Christmas. It was nice to have Zeke's family there from California too!

Tilly made a new friend! She loved hanging out with the other dogs, although I'm not sure they shared that same sentiment. She's still very much a puppy, and the older dogs weren't quite as energetic as she was.

Ellie got to see a little bit of snow, although there wasn't much.

Grandpa was nice enough to go outside and make a snowman, while the kiddos watched from the warmth of the living room!

We had a great trip, but it would've been better had we not been constantly sick. It was one cold after the other. We were in Utah for 5 weeks, and were sick for 4 1/2 of them. It was ridiculous!

We didn't do much for New Years, on account of me coming down with a cold/flu. We were able to carry on one Higbee tradition: Japanese food @ Kyoto.

Japanese food is so pretty! Too bad I was so congested that I couldn't taste any of it.

I spent New Years Eve and New Years Day laying on my parent's couch, wanting to die. What a way to bring in the new year! But I guess when you start the year so low, it's really easy to go uphill from there.

Viva Las Vegas

As part of a Christmas present to ourselves, we spent two nights in Vegas over the break. We met Stacy, Bryan, and Ada there and had a great time! We stayed in the Flamingo, and were upgraded to some awesome rooms! I wish I would've gotten better pictures of the room.

This is one of my favorite parts of Vegas: the Bellagio Fountains.

Part of our room package included the Buffet of Buffets: you can go to 6 different buffets within 24 hours, if you so choose. We only made it to 3 (Planet Hollywood, the Paris, & Caesars Palace) but it was great! We didn't have to worry about where we were going to eat, the food was great, and the desserts were even better!

One of the buffets even had cotton candy for dessert.

Since we were there 2 nights, we took turns watching the kids so the other couple could have a date night. Mike and I didn't know exactly what we wanted to do, but after walking around Vegas for 2 days we thought that an Aqua Massage would feel pretty nice. It did not disappoint!

We also got to try out their Oxygen Bar. Breathing flavored oxygen... sort of a hoax, in my opinion, but it came with the massage.

At least we can say we've tried it now!

We had a great time, and it was fun to see Vegas with all of its Christmas decorations up.

2 Birthdays

I've been dragging my feet when it comes to updating this blog. I don't know why. I uploaded the pictures weeks ago... I just can't bring myself to type out a few words and then hit the orange "Publish Post" button. (Random side note: My senior year of high school, I was voted by my seminary classmates as"Most likely to write a book." Again, not entirely sure why, but I find it very unlikely to happen. Especially since I can't even eek out a simple post.) Maybe it's because we had so much fun over Christmas break, and now school is in session again and I'm in denial of once again being a "Law School Single Mom."

Since so much happened over the past month or so, I decided that instead of writing one super long post, I'd break it up into three or four posts.

Ellie celebrated her 2nd birthday in December! When we ask her how old she is, she proudly says, "I have 2 birthdays!"

For the Trowbridge celebration, Tiffany and I made these cupcakes.

Tiffany taught me how to make her super-easy Marshmallow Fondant and we made made some pinwheel fondant toppers.

Of course, Ellie was extremely spoiled and received several awesome presents. We were at Target and were perusing their $1 section and came upon this little gem. A Science Set, complete with beakers, telescope, tweezers, and glasses.

The scientist in me swelled with pride when she immediately opened it up and starting pouring things into beakers, and examining things in her microscope.

Ah, the quintessential "Ellie's a nerd" picture that I shall treasure for years to come!

This year was especially fun because she really enjoyed opening presents, as opposed to last year when she could have cared less.

For the Higbee celebration, we had Andes Mint Cupcakes, and Ellie was spoiled beyond belief for the second time.

One of her presents included a cooking set, which she adores!

And poor Ada just had to sit, watch, and wonder why Ellie was the only one who got to open presents.

She had a wonderful birthday, and it's such a joy to have a 2 year old! She's growing up so fast!

Keeping with tradition, let me share a few things about her that I adore:

1) Boy does this girl have an imagination! We spend most of the day running from monsters and bears. She'll run to our bed, hide under the covers (her tent) and sigh with relief. "We're safe now Mama!"

2) She's also incredibly sweet. I was trying on something at the store and she was in the dressing room with me, sitting in her stroller. While examining myself in the mirror, she said "Turn around Mama!" I spun around and modeled my new outfit and she said, "You look so pretty!" That's when I decided that I should always take her shopping with me.

3) The only way I can get her to brush her teeth is by telling her that her teeth are sad because they're dirty. Then she'll open up her mouth to let me in so that her teeth can be happy. Oh, the games we play!

4) She finally loves nursery. Now she cries when we take her home, instead of when we drop her off.

5) She love to wrestle with Tilly, until she realizes how much bigger and stronger she is.

6) She loves to be tickled and begs me for it every night before bedtime.

7) She'd probably stay in the bathtub all day if I let her. She takes a bucket and pretends to catch whales and sharks.

8) She likes to pretend to go to school, just like Daddy. She puts on her backpack and yells, "Bye Mama. Going to school. See ya later!"

9) She loves listening and dancing to music, but she says "musi-t" instead of music. And occasionally she mixes up her m's and n's. So "stand up" becomes "stam up."

10) She gives the best hugs. We're talking both arms, squeezing with all her strength kind of hugs.

11) When we reach the end of a book she says, "Amen!" and I have to gently remind her that it's actually "The End."

We love you Ellie! Happy Birthday!