February Family Day 2010

Ok, here goes... I will do my best to catch up my family's happenings for 2010.

So in February for our family day, we took Bryce and Paige on the Light Rail (city train system set up recently in Phoenix). We took them down to the arts district and then went to the Japanese Friendship Garden. Then we went to get lunch at an artsy-fartsy cafe (why I love cities!)

...And NOW I remember why I got behind on blogging. We forgot our camera that day, so we took all the pics on Scott's phone, in which it is just shy of brain surgery to get these pics off. Well... not quite brain surgery, but it's a pain, no less. The stars have to align for it to work out - Scott has to be home (and in the mood to help me blog) and this little cord has to be around to help transfer the pics to the computer (and it never was around), AND the computer has to be in a good mood to transfer the files. I kept putting it off, and then I was so far behind, it overwhelmed me to catch up. Hence, two weeks after I committed to returning to the blogging world and 3+ hours of trying to sync it to the computer, I finally have my pictures. (and there weren't many anyway, I don't know what my hold-up was.



The Japanese Friendship Garden was this beautiful oasis set on top of the "stack" on I-10 and 7th street in Phoenix. Those of you Phoenicians know the "stack" and would be surprised to know that a Japanese garden is built on top! Anyway, they had this mosaic quilt-art exhibit going on and we loved it. The art went really well with the garden and the kids really loved the plants, waterfalls and creek, as well as the art. It was a little chilly, but a really nice day to be out.

Then we walked a bit until we found this cute cafe to have lunch. It reminded me a lot of Houston, where I used to drive my '73 VW orange bug downtown at least once a month to hang out at a cafe just like this one. An old brick building with pastries, drinks, and lunch. I could stay in a cafe like this all day and that's no joke. Something about the atmosphere speaks to me and makes me introspective and creative and really appreciate life. It's one of the reasons I always like to live in cities.



Here's a pic of riding the train - a light rail, but still Bryce's first train ride and he loved it! He's a little tired and serious as he's looking out the window, but he really did enjoy the ride. Honestly, if I realized I only had 2 blog-worthy pics on my phone, I would not have postponed all of my blogging just for this. I had this new years resolution to blog about every family day and every event this year. Well, it stressed me out so much that I did nothing. Note to self: drop that goal for 2011!