San Tan Flat

The highest recommended restaurant in the San Tan Valley (Arizona) was San Tan Flat. We were told to arrive early as the place gets packed... with long line-ups out the door and no parking. This is likely in the evenings or weekends when there is a live band playing (which didn't happen the night we were there). We arrived shortly after 4 pm and this is what it looks like in daylight...

To the left of the above picture there are more tables and fire pits, which are completely surrounded by restaurant buildings: a room you can rent for gatherings, a live stage, and two bars. Quite the set-up! 

We ordered our food... Brody was pleased to have an apple juice drink box!

Dad & Melissa gathered firewood to stock our fire pit...

An employee came and lit the fire (cool job eh?!)...

For dessert we roasted marshmallows...

Super cool way to spend the evening... highly recommended if you're in the area!

School Photos

Here are Melissa & Brody's 2014 / 2015 school photos.

 

Melissa - Grade 4

Brody - Preschool Age 3

Brody's Class Photo

Bird Watching

Pretty much every day we get plenty of visitors to our bird feeder. It is such a fun thing to watch... the beauty of the birds and their behaviors are so entertaining!

The kids aren't all that skilled in being sneaky, which tends to not work out so well... 

The most common bird we used to get... 

This year we have branched out to include some new regulars, some pretty red birds...

As well as some brown ones (not pictured) and these yellow ones. These new birds have a much more dominant personality. Whereas the chickadees would line up, take a seed and leave. These red, brown & yellow birds (sorry Pop, don't know their names) makes themselves comfortable, and eat in the feeder, facing out so they can fend off any other birds who want a turn too! 

Now today we had some entirely new birds show up, so I had to get the camera to capture them. They are much larger and have a very strong yellow coloring. They came in a pair and pretty much filled the bird feeder. 

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Just after I finished this post yesterday, I went back to the kitchen to find those two yellow birds had recruited some more! There were a total of 5 of them now! So of course I took more pics ;)

Santa Visits the Desert

We went to a Christmas event put on by Johnson Ranch (the housing community we were staying in Arizona). We were quite surprised by the great turnout and the things they had planned for us to do!

There was a huge line-up to sit on Santa's knee. The kids weren't at all interested in visiting with Santa, so we opted to just have our picture taken in front.

There were crafts for the kids to do. Melissa made a scarf out of fleece fabric...

and Brody a thumbprint reindeer ornament.

There was also a Christmas train, which was a huge hit with Brody!

The kids decorated gingerbread man cookies...

and played in the bouncy castle. (It quite the gong-show - there was no one policing how many kids were in at a time. We were quite surprised no one got injured!)

We caught Santa & Mrs. Claus as they were escorted to the washrooms for a break...

Effort Role

We are very proud of our Melissa for making the Effort Roll in the first term of Grade 4!

(Grade 4 is when students become eligible to be on the Effort &n Honor Roll)
She was so close to making Honor Roll too... maybe next term!

Goldfield Ghost Town

While in Arizona we visited a historic ghost town called Goldfield, which was established in the early 1890's. It is situated right beside Superstition Mountains - which as legends are told - is where the Lost Dutchman's Mine is located, containing a mother lode of gold!

We walked down Goldfield's main street, and explored the many shops and historic buildings. It might be hard to tell, but that is the kids & I on the upper balcony in this picture...

Every hour there was a very realistic gunfight...

The jail...

and some innocent prisoners ;) 

The view of the strip from up in the Bordello suite...

A family photo in the Bordello? Why not!

We took a train ride around the town...

The view of the town from the train...

An odd cactus! 

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After our visit to Goldfield, we drove around the area to take in the spectacular scenery (and let Brody have a little nap). The sun was going down, and the lighting was pretty amazing. Can't imagine what it would be like to live in one of the many houses there.

Our ride - a Kia Sorrento SUV - which was graciously lent to us by the people whose house we were staying in.

Ken wanted a picture of this mailbox, as he knows a guy with the last name Sewell which he wanted to show it to. They turned out to be a neat pictures, so I thought I'd include them here too!