Hand, Foot & Mouth

We had a visit from Julie, of the Alaska Higbees, the other weekend!  She had to come down for a Mining Conference in Tucson, and drove up for a few days to spend with family.  We were lucky enough to have her visit for a day.  We didn't have a whole lot of time, so we walked around downtown Phoenix and saw the sights.  It was so much fun seeing her again!  We all saw each other during Thanksgiving, but it felt like it'd been a lot longer.  And who knows when we'll get to see her again!  

Everyone making fun of poor, sleeping Ellie

She fell asleep with her leg up

 Stacy, Brian, and Ada stayed for a few more days.  We swam, we shopped, we ate, you know... the usual stuff.  It was fun!

The Japanese Friendship Gardens

Feeding the Koi Fish

 We had a good time!  We went to this really nice park in Scottsdale and walked to an Asian Fusion restaurant.  And here starts Part 2 of our adventure!  (If you read my sister's blog, you can probably skip this part cause she did a nice job of explaining everything.)  Ellie passed out on my lap during dinner, and afterwards I noticed she was running a fever.  The next morning she was really sick all day, wouldn't eat, and complained that her mouth hurt, which I took to mean she had a sore throat.  We went to the doctor and they diagnosed her with Strep based on her symptoms (not on a strep test) and put her on antibiotics.  I called Stacy to let her know, since Ada and Ellie had been sharing food all weekend.  Sure enough, Ada came down with a fever a few days later.

Meanwhile, Mike is in the midst of finals.  So he pretty much stayed at the school all day and night (which he probably would have done anyways) fearing for his health.  Since I was the sole caretaker of poor sick little Ellie, I caught the bug as well.  It was pretty awful.  I had horrible body aches like the flu, a nasty sore throat like Strep, and if that wasn't bad enough, my mouth errupted in canker sores. 

Stacy called me a few days later.  They had to take Ada back in to the doctor's office because she'd developed a rash.  Long story short, her doctor said that she thought we'd all contracted Hand Foot and Mouth disease instead of Strep.  I'd never heard of it.  But it's a common childhood virus that most kids get before they turn 5, and if you weren't lucky enough to get it when you were little, you can get it as an adult.  The symptoms can look like strep except people usually get blisters on their hands and feet, and some people develop mouth sores.  We all ended up getting it, except Mike, but we all had different symptoms.  It was not fun!  Even after my sore throat cleared up, I had canker sores all over my mouth, which made eating impossible. 

Anyways, we're on the tail end of it now, but man... I'm glad that's all over.  Thanks for coming down Hansens!  Sorry you got more than you bargained for!

Ellie trying out Ada's patches.

Babysitting in Flagstaff

A few weeks ago, Ellie and I spent a few days in Flagstaff.  The first night we were up, we went and ate dinner at a delicious Greek restaurant, and then NAU was holding their International Week so we went to campus and watched a Korean Drum show.  

It' s much colder in Flagstaff than Phoenix!

Watching this made me really homesick for Korea!

The next day we went shopping.  We went to a shopping area right next to the Purina Dog Food factory.  Stacy had told me about it before, but this was my first time experiencing the smell first hand.  Wow!  Everything smelled like dog food.  It was bizarre, and unpleasant!  Don't ever live next to a dog food factory!

Stacy and Bryan went to a concert that night, so I stayed and watched the kids.  Babysitting.  Not normally a problem!  But it gets a little complex with Ada's contact.  Stacy had me practice taking out her contact and cleaning it the night before.  It didn't seem so bad when Stacy was standing right beside me, but when it came to doing it solo that night, it was a whole different story!  I've never worn contacts, or had any experience with contacts really, so taking out a little toddler's contact was sort of intimidating.  Since she's been doing it her whole life, Ada's very good about having people fuss with her contact, but when I couldn't get it out after a few tries, her patience was wearing thing.  Poor thing!  I had a hard time getting her contact out, but when I finally did, she seemed to forgive me for the entire ordeal.

  

The next morning we went to a tumbling gym that Stacy & Ada love going to.  They open it up for toddlers two days a week, so the kids can run around jumping on trampolines and diving into foam pits.  Ellie loved it!  Flagstaff is a great place and we have a wonderful time every time we go up!  

Visit from the Trowbridges

Two weeks after my family came to visit, we were lucky enough that Mike's family could come down too!  Ellie LOVED having so much time with both of our families.  

One of Ellie & Kingsley's favorite things to do was play with Grandma on the iPad.

Eating lunch at South Mountain Park in between General Conference sessions.

 We were able to do a lot more, since they were able to stay for a week.  The only downside was Mike wasn't on Spring Break, so he was at school most of the time.  Here are some of the highlights:

We took a walking tour of downtown, guided by Mike and me.  I love downtown Phoenix.  It's so beautiful and there's so much to do!

The Orpheum Theatre

St. Mary's Basilica, the oldest church in Phoenix.

The Courtyard at the Basilica.  

There was lots of shade and lots of grass, making it a nice cool spot to rest!

Heritage & Science Park, where there are a lot of original homes from the 1800s.  One of my favorite spots in Phoenix!

Riding in the mining carts

(Not the real Boot Hill, but a nice little replica)

 We drove to Tortilla Flats, which used to be a stop on the old stagecoach trails.  They're famous for their Prickly Pear Cactus Ice cream.  It was delicious!

Encanto Park

One day, we went to the Pueblo Grande Museum, which has 1500 year old Hohokam Indian ruins.

They have umbrellas so you can still walk around outside even in the scorching sun.

Demonstrating the Hohokam's extensive irrigation  technology

Having an Easter Egg Hunt @ Heritage & Science Park

 I think the highlight of the trip for me, besides getting to see family, was touring the Victorian style Rosson House.  Built in 1895, this is the only home from that period still on it's original site in the entire city of Phoenix.  The city bought it in the 80's and it was really interesting to hear about the restoration process.  Before the city bought it, it had changed families several times, and ended up as a boarding house.  It was in disrepair, but the city decided to restore it to it's near original condition.  It was really neat, and reminded me of Downton Abbey, on a much smaller scale of course.  (Oh how I LOVE Downton Abbey!)  The original owner was a doctor, so they had one room they thought had been his office that had some really old school medical equipment.  And the kitchen had some really neat old contraptions.  Anyways, I loved touring the house!  It was beautiful!

Ellie had so much fun, she hardly had time for sleeping.   Which caused her to crash  in some pretty fun places and poses.

We had such a great time with Mike's family and were sad to see them go!  Come visit again soon!

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!