I had the most enjoyable time flower shopping the other day with my husband and littlest man.
Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t decide on anything to purchase. So I just snapped some photos of my favorites.
One day, I’ll get my big girl pants and landscape my yard.
One day…
I saw the most beautiful statue too… 
In unrelated news, how do you like how my blog is looking? I’ve been experimenting with new themes. Think I found a keeper!!
Happy Hump Day!
xoxo
I’ve been in Sedona almost one year to the day and this is the first javelina I’ve seen.
Well, similar to the one pictured.
They’re fat, brown, with wiry hair, nasty-looking, with a lean snout.
Like a pig and a rat or… a squirrel? I don’t know.
Anyway, I was almost home, rounding a corner and saw the shadow of a pig. He froze in the middle of the road so I was forced to lock up the brakes to avoid hitting him.
As I passed, I caught a glimpse of more javelina in the ditch.
It was pretty cool.
They’re pretty common I hear. Well, albeit late, I’m just happy I finally saw one!
Just as I imagined he would be.
So what does this mean?
Photo Credit: Courtesy Yahoo Search Images
THEY’RE ON THE MOVE!!!
Summer season and the time when all the creatures start moving, migrating, mating, whatever it is they do.
YOU GUYS. Get this.
I’ve heard horror stories of locust swarms, centipedes that rear up on their hind end and wave pointy things at you, and slippery highways closed down due to EXCESSIVE UNBELIEVABLE amounts of caterpillars crossing and being squished on the roadside.
Stay tuned, folks.
You want the good, the bad and the ugly of Arizona? I’ve got it right here!
The roses are unbelievable this year. Blooming bushes everywhere in the neighborhood have it smelling so good.
Hello y’all (I like to pretend I have a drawl. I’ll do it again I’m sure) and a Happy belated Mother’s Day to you!
Did you have a fantastic day, ‘cuz I did!
Yesterday was a magical and beautiful day and I look forward to many more like it in the future.
Nothing truly fantastic, unbelievable or magical happened, yet my attitude about the whole day proved it was all that and more. See what I did there?
Attitude is everything y’all.
Take it from me.
I spent the greater part of the weekend, Friday and Saturday in the dark hole again. Feeling sorry for myself, then a mix of being mad and bitter, angry and frustrated, pissed and mean and very, very lonely. I rotated between lashing out and picking fights and isolating myself and bottling it all up inside. Yet I couldn’t blame anyone for staying away from me. I bet you could sense my toxic mood from a mile away.
My poor husband takes the brunt of it…always. I hate that.
I kept perpetuating the emotions I was having instead of trying to just let them pass. I tried. But not very hard. It was too easy for me to get sucked back into the old comfortable cycle of misery. I felt miserable. I had no energy, just completely sucked dry. I wanted to do something to lift my mood but was too indecisive and pissed off to take action, instead I just wallowed in my anger and despair. Life was so unfair to me. I know, boo-fricken-hoo, right? That’s what I was thinking too…So,
I took walks.
I sat by the creek.
I read.
Then I snapped out of it.
Just like that.
Because that’s what I do lately.
I don’t want to waste another second to that unhappiness and it pissed me off so much that I wasted a perfectly beautiful day (off of work) to wallow and be gloomy. PISSED!
So I got a good night’s sleep and thanked my higher power for all the things. Good and Bad. All that is me.
It helped to go to work. I have to be friendly to people there. It’s just a happy environment, good energy. People are on vacation and for the most part, in great spirits. Except for the late-night, weary traveler who told me to “fuck off,” but that’s a whole different blog post.
Plus, it was Mother’s Day.
I wished all my mommy friends on facebook a very happy day. You’re not friends with me on facebook? You should be. I’m pretty witty there too.
I arrived home from work in the early afternoon and my boys were waiting for me with roses freshly cut from the neighbor’s bushes. It was adorable.
We spent a few hours down by the creek. At first it was Jack and I. Then Mason and his friend came to do some fishing. Then the whole neighborhood started trickling down. My two favorite ladies in the neighborhood showed up and my soul honestly smiled. A third friend who moved out of the neighborhood showed up too. That was a pleasant surprise! The kids all played and we all had so much fun!
I prayed so hard when I was in my foul mood all weekend to have some girl time so I could feel nourished and to feel myself again. Not so lonely. I think we need that as women, the camaraderie and friendship. We all have very busy lives and we are all introverts at times so it’s difficult to spend quality time together. I just smiled though inside and out knowing that I’d have my long-awaited girl time with my favorite ladies. My higher power works in mysterious ways but I love it. I can’t tell you enough how much I love these women. They have become like sisters to me. They encourage and protect me. They teach me and love me as I love them. The fun aunties down the road, for my kids to hang with. They watch out for my boys and they love them almost as much as I do. And I love them even more for it.
After we spent a lovely afternoon chatting by the creek side, we headed back home and got ready for dinner.
The boys took me out to our favorite restaurant in town, the Golden Goose Cafe. YUM.
I had the Herb-crusted Salmon topped with shrimp and a Cajun-honey demi-glace served with garlic mashed potatoes and a side of asparagus. Check it out below. It tasted WAY better than it even looks.
Everything was superbly delicious and I was grateful for every bite, and every moment of that day.
A mother’s day meal fit for a queen!
xoxo
Monument Valley, Navajo Reservation, Arizona
That is all.
Found some beautiful roses blooming in my neighborhood. Here’s mine..
These, I found while walking…
All photos taken with my iphone 4. I love my phone.
I love my phone so much I made my husband buy one too.
My husband has finally joined the rest of the world and purchased his first iphone today.
Now I know how he really felt when my face was buried in my phone all those nights.
It’s fun watching him learn about it. And of course, I love helping him.
I’m excited to share photos and videos when he’s home with the kids and I’m working, face time, all that fun techno-geek stuff!
However, now our children think they can have one next.
If only they really knew just how big of an investment it is for us to have iphones!
I hope you all had a splendifourous weekend.
Yes, spell check, that is a word. Duh.
Ever since I moved to Arizona, I’ve wanted to take the boys to Out of Africa Wildlife Park.
Set atop the rolling landscape of the Black Hills in Camp Verde, Arizona, this wildlife park offers visitors a chance to get up close and personal with giraffes, predator cats, zebras, and many more wild animals that you might normally see on a safari in Africa! And, it’s just a short drive north of Phoenix and only 45 minutes south of Sedona so it was the perfect day trip for us.
We arrived at the park close to 11am. Unfortunately for us, that meant we had to miss the first show of the day, the Creature Feature. According to the park website, the show would have let us get up close and pet various smaller animals living in the park. Oh, darn.
We purchased our tickets and the ticket agent told us the first thing we wanted to do was wait in the line for the safari tour. We took our limp carrot stick that the driver provided us for the giraffe feeding and sat in an open-windowed bus that toured us around the property. The first stop we made was for the giraffes.
You could tell this guy knew the drill. He followed the bus until we parked and slowly and methodically began eating carrot sticks from nearly every passenger’s hand….or mouth.
This was our awesome tour guide for the short bus trip around the park, setting herself up for a sloppy kiss.
Ew. No thank you.
I tried to get my oldest son to do this but he was not interested.
After the giraffes, our guide drove us to the habitats of the elands, the zebras, the ostriches and a few other animals who, to be honest, I don’t remember what they were. The tour didn’t take very long, maybe 20-30 minutes max but it was very informative and fun.
The zebras followed us around knowing if they stood in front of our bus, our guide was bound to throw some snacks out their way.
Zebras are badass.
Mostly herd animals, this zebra took off from his zebra herd and decided he wanted to join a new herd.
Of ostriches.
According to the guide, ever since momma zebra had her baby, which by the way is BROWN and white striped, the teenage zebra went rogue and joined up with other herds of animals. The “unruly teenager,” as our guide comically described him, ventured from the elands to the ostriches, searching for a group to fit into.
After the safari bus tour, we hopped off and started walking up the hill toward the predator cat area. Which meant we got to walk right next to the giraffes.
My tall friend.
The big cat portion was my favorite. I love kitties. And cats. Big cats. ALL cats really.
I mean, I thought zebras were badass. Then I walked beside the tiger with only a chain fence separating us (thank god).
The fun thing about the park, which I really appreciated as a photographer, was that they had raised platforms in front of the animal’s habitat that brought you up just slightly over the fence so that you didn’t catch the fence in your photos.
…makes you feel closer to your subject.
I was pretty fortunate to grab some great shots too…
check out those fangs!
After we walked around and saw most of the animals in their own habitats, we decided to stop and get something to eat. We still had time to kill so we made our way over to a couple of concession stands and lots of picnic tables situated near the animal’s habitats. I ordered a turkey hoagie and got some chips and a bottled water for around $8. The kids got a pizza and hot dog in a kids meal. My husband got a burger, nachos, and chips. He was NOT a fan of the nachos AT ALL and Mason thought the hot dog was “gross.” (sigh) I thought my sandwich was delicious, very fresh and soft bread. We came back later during the snake show for some ice cream and refreshments. Slooooooow service that time around but we were patient. There weren’t many choices and prices were comparable between the two venues we used. Not sure if you can bring your own picnic lunch in but that’d be a nice option.
Anyway, we ate our food underneath the shaded picnic table, next to the grizzly bear habitat, I think.
At 1:30, the best, most-anticipated part of the day was coming up: The Tiger Splash Show.
I saw a lot of people were finishing up their lunches and making their way over to the show area. So, after I forced my kids and husband to shove their food down as fast as possible so we could “get a good seat,” we went to find a seat. And we did, in fact, get a good seat in the concrete stands perched above the crystal clear pool.
(OF COURSE, surrounded by a very tall chain link fence that was sure to keep the tiger contained.)
We people watched. We watched the handlers prepare for the show by stretching and doing sprinting exercises. They brought the most beautiful white tiger out. The tiger, whom they named “Chalat,” paraded around the fence line marking his territory, spraying everything (one) in his path.
Then the show began. The owner of the wildlife park who was personally escorting some of the VIP guests to their seats soon took to the microphone and enlightened us all about the natural tendencies of the white tiger. We quickly learned that their “show” was not tigers performing tricks. The handlers were working with the animals natural prey instincts, which, yes, is as dangerous as is sounds.
The men and women who performed in the show were fit, fast, and absolutely full of personality! They used inflatable toys tied to poles to entice the white tiger to pounce, sometimes into the pool, to retrieve his prey. As you can see from the photos, the handlers were actually going in the pool with the tigers.
This must be the universal symbol for “don’t eat me, I’m swimming.”
Once the tiger had claws in his “prey,” he dragged it out of the pool where more handlers awaited with spears to pop the last of the air out of the toy. The owner explained how this tactic was used to keep the tiger’s interest in other toys. Once the handlers decreased the value of his current “prey”, by popping it, the tiger moved on to more inflatable toys.
It was pretty cool to see the power and beauty in these wild animals. There were a few times where I held my breath when the tiger jumped towards the men or got a little too close to pinning a guy to the fence. It was definitely a dangerous situation and like the owner kept telling us, if that tiger wanted to kill any of those men, he would. Simple as that. That tiger has the capability of shredding those men but it chooses not to because of the relationship they have built up with one another. This was clearly a place that cared about the animals in their care.
After the show, we got some ice cream and settled into a standing-room only spot at the Giant Snake Show. Admittedly, this was my least favorite part. Only because snakes absolutely, positively, creep-me-the-hell out! I don’t like them. I never will. It doesn’t matter what you tell me.
I tried really hard to not say much because the last thing I want to do is perpetuate my fears onto my kids.
Didn’t matter. They’re fearless.
Mason was volunteering to go in and help hold the 9+ ft. Burmese python and after the show wrapped up and they allowed anyone to come in to pet the snake, Jack wanted in!
We all had a great day. It was a lot of fun and if you’re nearby to Sedona, take the trip to Out of Africa to experience this unique wildlife park.
The best part is that ALL money spent within the park, goes to maintaining the grounds and feeding and caring for the animals. No federal funds accepted here so come out and support the wonderful world that is Out of Africa.
Uh-huh, yep, it’s what you think it is.
Have you all seen this before?
Yes, I know. I know what you’re thinking right now.
No. This is not a joke.
This is an actual product that I am told, “hardcore hikers, campers” and other nature-loving freaks use when they’re too lazy or like me, uncoordinated, to pop a squat.
Or, if you’re playing soccer and you gotta go, you politely run to the bushes near the edge of the field, whip out your SheWee that you keep in your knee highs and proceed to urinate while standing with your back to the crowd. Classy. WTF?
Which leads me to the only logical question that I can think of…how does she clean it?
Drip dry?
Whip it through the air until there’s no drips left?
Does she just throw it in the dishwasher when she gets back to civilization?
Seriously? They answered all these questions and more on their website. Don’t believe me YET?
GTS, Baby.
(Google That Shit)
One of my most favorite animals to photograph is my monochromatic friend, the zebra.
***************************************************************************
So, what do you think?
ARE ZEBRAS WHITE WITH BLACK STRIPES OR BLACK WITH WHITE STRIPES?
Leave a comment and I’ll share with you the answer. And YES, there is a correct answer.
Redwood giant
