Trip to Arizona

I am finally posting some photos from our trip back in December.  Ahh... where do I start?  From the beginning I guess!  As usual, another red-eye flight.  Graham is completely passed out on the couch before departure. He even continues to sleep once we have put the luggage and everyone else in the car!

Charlie is wide awake and happy with Leo in the waiting lounge at the airport:

All checked in!  Charlie and Mommy photo op :-)

 New kids play pack from the airline. Hooray!

Getting cozy with the flight nanny:

As usual, headphones are on even before the plane is moving. And Charlie loves playing with the buttons on the seat. So glad we are able to fly Business class. Yes, we are spoiled for sure!

Speaking of spoiled....

I hope Bobby's stamina does not last 16:21 hours!!! :-P

Ha ha ha!!! NOPE! :-D

Sunrise as we approach San Francisco:

Oh!  I had almost forgotten about this.  We were just about to land when the plane goes back full speed again and starts pulling up!  The co-pilot later apologized about the traffic at the airport.  Phew! I wonder how close that was.  Well, Bobby later checked a website and said we only had 70ft to go which converts to 6.5 stories high (who knew there was a feet to story converter on the internet :-)

Charlie is hyper as usual and thumbs up from Graham after the long flight!

Huh! Who knew Santa was working at the Information desk today :-)

Mommy's breakfast - Japanese soba noodles with chicken soup:

The boys opt for pizza.  The American blood line are strong in these two. Haha!

Once we are settled in the room, we head out for a little walk. What is it with boys and rocks?

And boys and sticks???!!

Ahhh... we miss dandelions!!!

Okay, to be continued!  So many photos to post and we not even in AZ yet. Still day 0 of 2 weeks! :-)

Horse Show

Another one to put in the books!  I wasn't sure if we would do this one, but since we had Kamil the Camel for the weekend, it was almost sort of an assignment to do so.  That way we can put the photos in "Kamil's adventure book" for school.

Just a bit stinky depending on where you were, if you know what I mean ;-)

Quite the set up! We were able to watch the jump-off but that was about it.  We showed up just a little bit too late.

The crew was putting everything away while this tractor drove around to smooth out the sand. Almost like a Zamboni version for sand!

And this one fella was walking around checking the sand consistency. He would dig up a little whole, grab some sand and squeeze it in the hand. Interesting...

Well, break time means bouncy house time! You should have seen the size of the "raspberries" or bruise that Graham got at the end of the day with this steep slide!!!

And also snack time of course during the break. But first, photo op at the LOVE sign. Almost just like the one in Phoenix!

Oh wait, I haven't posted our vacation photos yet.  Yes, yes... will do that soon!

Chicken kebab and rice for dinner.  Graham actually like the tomato rice. I don't think he actually realized it was seasoned with tomatoes.  Perhaps another way to get him to eat his vegetables!  You should have seen him last night with just the 3 pieces of corn kernel!!!

And kunafa for dessert. YUM!!! I am not exactly sure what the shredded mesh is made out of, but it basically has a layer of cheese in the middle and then, it is soaked in a sugary syrup and then pan-fried with butter. Can't go wrong with any of those ingredients! HAHA!

We are still waiting for the dressage part of the horse show to start, so we opt for the pony ride. First time for Graham!

Looks like he is enjoying it :-)

Charlie on the other hand, looks just a bit tentative:

Still waiting for the dressage, so off to see the horses and riders warm up:

Big training area!

Okay, in our seats!

The horses and riders look very elegant:

After the first dressage performance... Graham doesn't look too enthusiastic!

After the second performance, we decide to leave. Bobby had to go out for a dinner so we walked home. Thankfully a lady whom I am guessing is part of the organizing team, overheard me at the food pavilion about needing a blanket for the night show.  There were some laying around the seats and she proceeded to hand us one.  How nice!  I was thinking we would just return it after the show but it was handy when we had to walk home as Mommy forgot to bring sweaters:

The boys would argue and tug at each other but eventually, we all ended up home in one piece. Although wait, Charlie did trip and bumped his knee. Nothing a Paw Patrol band-aid can't fix! :-)

Charlie and Kamil the Camel

It was another fun assignment with Kamil the Camel.  This time it was Charlie that had the chance to bring it home for the weekend. Right off the bat, we took Kamil to the park after school at the end of the week:

After that, we finally had a chance to give him a quick bath in the washing machine, which Mommy was very happy about!

The next day, it is back to soccer for the new term.  So glad the weather is nice now for it:

Charlie was so excited to have both Leo and Kamil watching:

Later in the afternoon, we decided to check the Horse Show at the Al Forsan Sports Resort.  As we arrived, woaaaahhh.... what a HUGE horse truck!!!

Horse jumping!

It's too bad our timing was not so good. We only had a chance to watch the end bit of the horse jumping - which was a quick jump off. After that, the next show (dressage) didn't come on until 1 1/2 hours later!  So, the boys opted for the HUGE bouncy house slide! Kamil stayed down below and just watched:

Kamil also stayed aside while Charlie went on the pony ride.  Charlie seemed a bit scared but when I asked him if he was, he said he wasn't scared. I am not sure how convincing that was!

And finally, always a fun weekend with online phonics!

Hopefully Charlie won't beg on getting his own personal Kamil like he did with Leo.  I have a feeling it will probably happen one day though!

Random photos of the week

There's nothing like trying to open a jar of sauerkraut when you are craving to have some with sausages during dinner!  After a few tries of knocking it with other end of the knife, I finally managed to open it with a rubber glove but that was already after dinner was over. Boohoo!!!  Anyhow, thanks to a friend for providing the handy tip. Although, Bobby said he had already loosed it for me :-P

More foggy days right before the HSBC Championship!  Hopefully no fog delays this year:

We had our last chance to play on the golf course last week before it was closed in preparation for the event.  Course is in amazing shape!  Really looking forward to watching some golf this year:

And finally, Charlie's Leo had a new friend from school this past weekend - Kamil the Camel.  Kamil looks much happier after a bath is the washing machine :-) Obviously a new update later on what Charlie, Kamil, and Leo did over the weekend!