Phoenix en Febrero

For some reason, it takes me forever to blog about anything we do with Kara and her family. I think it's the sheer volume of pictures she takes of any event. Just figuring out which ones to use, takes me longer than most blogs. We were in Phoenix last weekend, Daniel and I attending a church-planting conference. Daniel went both days and I skipped out on one, spending the day with Kara and kiddos. She was nice enough and brave enough to watch Joaquin on Friday. I was very impressed, especially since she piled all the kidlets into the car and took them to Schnepf Farms (That's three little ones, all 4 and under, yikes!)Turns out to be a really cool place, with a little train (hence all the train track pics.), tractors, a playground and a petting zoo. Good thing it's so fun since Joaquin got sick on Saturday and we had to scrap our original plan of the children's museum. It seemed irresponsible to take him someplace while he was feeling blah and then have him touch and engerm things that would then be used by other children. So we went back to the farm and I got to enjoy it as well. A few highlights.... Kara's day o' babysitting apparently went well, except for the annoyance of Joaquin's extreme distractability (it's hard to keep him moving towards one destination when there's cool things to look at or pick up, like sticks!) The petting zoo was a big success both days, but on Kara's day they got to see baby goats being born! Joaquin's main comment on the miracle of life was that the newborn goats where 'slimy'. He then christened them the ugly goats and referred to them as that from then on. However they were much cuter and really active when we saw them again the next day. One little guy even escaped the pen and as there were no workers around Kara and I cornered it, and let Allie and Joaquin hold it before putting it back. They really enjoyed holding the baby goat and where very grown-up about holding him carefully and being gentle. This made me think of a picture my parents have of me as a little girl. I'm in a petting zoo smiling sweetly while a goat munches on one little curl. It's a ridiculously cute photo since I'm in a little pink sundress and my hair is in perfect pigtails. Another pleasant surprise was that Joaquin and Allie got along very well on this trip. Their relationship in the past has always been a little volatile, but they've both matured (sort of) and had a lot more fun on this trip. This wasn't always the case, I love the picture of Kara with them both on the train where they are obviously arguing and Kara is keeping her picture smile, but only just. Still they were really quite good. Joaquin did apparently ask Kara at one point why there were so many princess toys at her house, but other than that he didn't want to go home. And who can blame him, a big family is always more fun. Plus he gets to watch a lot more Curious George at Allie's house! I love the last picture because it shows what a day outside can do to Joaquin (he really was getting sick, we came home and then he was sick as a dog for several days), and a day listening to people can do to Daniel. Fortunately they just need each other to relax. :) I love the total abandon from Joaquin. He's still such a little guy no matter what he says.