McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park

After calling to confirm that the live steamers would, indeed, be running today, we headed back to Scottsdale to feed our train addiction. This was our third annual visit to McCormick-Stillman Park but our first time to visit on a Sunday when the live steamers were running.

From the website:

The Scottsdale Live Steamers operate miniature locomotive built 3/4 inch to 1 foot scale. A train ride takes you on a 10 minute ride through the park's desert arboretum.

Paradise and Pacific Railroad was the first attraction to the park and continues to be its centerpiece. It is built and operated as an exact 5/12 (5 inches equals one foot) reproduction of a Colorado narrow gauge railroad. The Paradise and Pacific Railroad carries delighted passengers throughout the park on a a one mile track.

Huge playground and water spray mister for non-train fun!



































































The beautifully carved and meticulously restored Scottsdale Charro Carousel was purchased by the Scottsdale Railraod and Mechanical Society with signifiicant participation by the Scottsdale Charros, a local service group. Completed in 1950, it is registered with the National Carousel Association for the preservation of antique carousels. With 30 horses and 2 wheelchair chariots, it is a child's delight!

Spring Break begins!

We had an inch and a half of new snow when we woke up last Thursday morning. I picked Jamie up from school at 11:00 and drove to the Albuquerque airport for our flight to warm & sunny Phoenix!!! I was SO happy to be leaving the snow and cold!!! Bill remained in the frozen valley for the Crane Festival Craft Show. He'll be joining us in Phoenix on Monday.

We had a nice flight to Phoenix, Jamie made friends with the flight attendants and scored a coloring book and other goodies. My mom picked us up in Phoenix and we headed back to Mesa.

Friday morning we went to garage sales, one of our favorite things to do in Arizona! Well, not exactly Jamie's favorite thing...even though he always ends up with cool stuff. I had to bribe him to not complain by offering a trip to the toy store at the end of the bargain hunting. It worked and Jamie got a remote control car. My mom & Jamie stayed at the casa while I went to Jo-Ann's, one of my favorite craft stores. (They have huge Jo-Ann Superstores in the Phoenix area.) I had a pocketful of coupons to use and a list of supplies that I needed to replace from the flood. My trip was not very successful, they didn't have very many of the things I wanted and what they did have was already on sale, so they wouldn't take my coupons. Oh well! I had fun looking! As I was driving back, I witnessed a crazy hit & run in my rear view mirror. A truck changed lanes and side swiped a little Honda Civic. The Honda slowed down and moved over to the shoulder and the truck did too...for a while. Then the truck took the next exit and almost hit three more cars as it took off. I didn't stop either, I was just in shock that the truck would just take off. I hope that the Honda was able to get a license plate number and description as they were both driving on the shoulder.

Friday night we saw a commercial on TV for a train expo thing in Scottsdale over the weekend...perfect (or at least I thought it would be) for today's bribe. Jamie was very cooperative while mom & I shopped garage sales. After lunch, we headed to West World in Scottsdale, unaware that the 101 freeway between Tempe & Scottsdale was under construction and down to one lane of traffic. It took us over two hours to get there in stop and crawl traffic. Jamie had a good nap and it was all I could do to stay awake. The train expo was a major disappointment and the afternoon was a bust. I don't know about Jamie but I did not get my train fix so, tomorrow, we will go back to Scottsdale (using an alternate route) to go to the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park. The live steamers run on Sunday, so that will be fun.

I talked to Bill tonight...it's snowing in Alamosa. SO glad I'm not there!

More Progress...ideas for my scraproom

We decided to move the kitchen table out into the family room and the dining room table into the kitchen. We're going to convert the dining room area into a computer and office center. I wanted to put a table in the family room so that I could have a place to hold Stampin' Up! classes & workshops and it was actually my mom who came up with the idea to just rearrange our current table situation. I LOVE it!
















I found some standard kitchen cabinets at Lowes.com that I like and drew a sketch of how I want the north wall to eventually look. I want lots of cabinet storage and drawers for the supplies that I use frequently, plus two work areas. I'll probably set up my laptop at one of those spaces. This is how I want it to look, who knows how it will actually turn out!

Mother Nature is Cruel!

We've had two days of beautiful weather, and we are definitely ready for a few more. Jamie & I spent Friday afternoon at the park riding bikes and yesterday, Jamie had a full day of birthday parties, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. It was nearly 50 degrees yesterday and we were thinking that maybe, just maybe, spring was on it's way. We were cruelly brought back to reality today, though, when we woke up to a fresh layer of new snow. GGGRRRRR!!! I like the snow and I don't mind the cold weather but, enough is ENOUGH!! I am so looking forward to our trip to Arizona for Spring Break!!!

We're slowly moving in...

We're slowly, but surely, getting our new family room put back together. We are totally re-doing it, so it's taking more time to figure out where we want everything to go. Looks like Outside Kitty would love to come in and have some input in the creative process!

Reading Night

Polston Primary hosted a "Reading Is Fun" night. The kids dressed in their pajamas and prominent community members came in and read or told stories. It was fun and Jamie was so thrilled to get to wear his pajamas to school! Cookies and milk were available when storytime was finished.

Getting Organized

Since we had to move EVERYTHING out of "the room" and are now reorganizing, I figure that I can set up my scrapping & stamping room exactly how I want it. I've been reading lots of magazine & web articles and looking at pictures of other people's scrap rooms. I'm excited to actually have an organized and dedicated space for my hobby!

The only thing we've got in "the room" now is shelves in the closet area. It looks crowded but it is organized and I like it a lot. Oh, and the other permanent feature is the electric heater!

my stamps

my paper

This was a cassette tape rack that Bill made back when cassette tapes were THE music industry standard. Well, we went through the cassette tapes and got rid of most of them and actually put this rack in the stack of stuff to sell in the next yard sale. I happened to be cruising the internet yesterday for organization tips and saw that someone had used something like this to hold punches. I dug the old rack out and, it works perfectly. I love how my punches fit on it and I love that I was able to find another use for this rack.

Valentine's Day

Jamie's kindergarten class had a pizza party to celebrate Valentine's Day. All of the kids were so excited to share and receive their valentines. Jamie is involved in a cute love triangle with Ashley & Taylor. We knew he'd be a heartbreaker, just didn't expect it to start in kindergarten!

Taekwondo

Jamie is learning Taekwondo through our local Parks & Rec Department. His friends Parker, Ryan H., Ryan A. and Aaron are also in his class. They have learned a few kicks & punches and the instructor (master?) makes it fun for this age group. Jamie thinks it's cool that he has to call her "Ma'am".

Mom's Day Out Ski Trip

Julie and some of her "mom" friends took a day off to hit the slopes at Wolf Creek. It was a perfect day, lots of sun and not too cold! This was my second time ever on downhill skis and I started to feel really comfortable on the skis after the 3rd or 4th run. It took me a while to figure out how to get off of the chairlift without falling. I finally did it, though, and had a blast!

The perfect pizza wedge!

The "girls" (Julie, Christine, Coleen & Lynn)

Hanging out in the lodge after a full day of skiing!

Snow Day...Work Day

We took advantage of an extra day off to get some work done on "the room". We finished the closet, put in the transition strip, installed the quarter round baseboard and painted. Now, we just have to go through all of our stuff and figure out what needs to go back in there.

WHAT???!!!??? ANOTHER SNOW DAY???!!!???

It was snowing when we were leaving scrapbooking last night but I was only joking when I told Coleen & Tiffany that today was going to be a Snow Day! Who would've believed it? This is the second Snow Day this school year, the school super- intendent must be beside himself!!! We woke up to about 6 inches of new snow and an unexpected day off for both Jamie & Bill. YAY!!!

The day started out dark and dreary, but the sun broke through and it turned out to be a beautiful day! Jamie had fun helping Bill shovel the driveway and then had to taste-test the freshly fallen concoction. Bill dug out the cross-country skis for a trek around the yard & took Jamie for a ride on the sled.

Outside Kitty was NOT as excited about the Snow Day as we were!