Mesa History Tour Part 1

The obsession all started with this book



My brother and sister in law got it for Christmas.  They live in Utah. I more than thumbed through it.  I was ingulfed in EVERY picture and EVERY detail.  I love history, I love all things old, and I loved seeing what the city looked like years ago compared to the today.  I was completely mezmorized and wanted to move to the Salt Lake City of before. 

I later found myself in our costco searching for the Now and Then books b/c thats where they found the Salt Lake City one and there it was.  The Phoenix version.


I grabbed it without a second thought.  Who needs sandwich meat? I'll just use the money for this wonderful book.  So I went home and read it cover to cover.  I saw places that i go now and love b/c of the old vintage walls and shops that are still there, places that I go now that I didn't realize were that old, and places I never even knew were around or existed.  So I started making a list of the places I wanted to go see.  I planned a day drive for the places in Mesa, then I'd move on to the other cities like Gilbert, Phoenix, Chandler and so on for other days in the future.  As I was looking up online the hours for this museum that was on my list it had posted "Mesa annual history walk"  All the things on the walk map were on MY list :)  So I decided hmmmm pay and go with the city just to basically get the brochure and museum fee waved and wait a couple weeks to go? Or just go myself? 

I of course couldn't wait so with my mom, sisters, and Jayda in tow we went on our own Mesa History Tour it was actually quite fun.  My sisters complained a bit b/c they are always being dragged around on my random outtings and antics but for the most part I think they enjoyed it too.  Here are the pictures:

We started at the Antique Wedding House.  I've seen this building for years and knew it was used for wedding receptions now but never thought anything else about it. It was constructed by Mesa's first Mayor. It was passed down to his son and his wife and 9 children then became a halfway house after that for recovering addicts, and went into disrepair with transients coming and going.  Worried for the historical home it was boarded up, in spite of this arsonists tried to burn it down and the scorch marks still are relevant today.  It was bought and restored to it's originality and is used as the reception hall today. 





Sitting in the front parlor





 I don't know if people were smaller back in the day and shorter or what? But everything felt like alice in wonderland and I felt like a giant.  I could've probably touched the ceiling when I reached up in some places and all the halls and stairs were so narrow. 


 Hallway looking toward the front door and parlor








We then went around the corner to the Historic Irving School which seems like it is used as a arts school now.  You have to buzz and be let in but we got in anyway and the teachers were all having a meeting in the auditorium so we looked around without having to deal with anyone asking us questions and why we were there lol




 





They had all these seats made out of things that the art students had done so the girls made me take pictures of them


 














There was a display of all these different cameras the students had made out of clay that was my favorite.




To most people this would be weird but I couldn't stop staring at the floors which you could tell was the original wood flooring and thinking of all the students come and gone and the history there.







 This really cool fireplace in the middle of an old classroom.  Come on how cool is that? What school has a fireplace in it today? Not one.  Plus it was a gorgeous fireplace.
 


Same room as the fireplace





I kept seeing this thin thin thin little doors all over and just had to look inside.  I was thinking jeez is this the timeout door lol? but they are only like as wide as my hand so I unlocked and opened it and saw the original piping and was hiding behind.







The rest of the history tour to be posted tomorrow

Feel the Love

Another year gone by.  Time to put out our LOVE pictures which is a tradition I plan to keep on going till my kids are old enough to complain and then I'll still make them :) But for now its still fun and Jayda loved sharing the letter duty with Maya this year.  Next year will have baby number 3 holding a letter.  I decided to post last years too to see if Jayda has really changed that much.  Happy Valentines Day to everyone and hope February is wonderful for you all. Happy Birthday to my awesome dad too who tried to lie to Jayda about his age.  Come on dad 51 isn't even old. 


2009

 

2010

Deals to Meals

I have been using this website for almost a year now and i absolutely love it.  It helps me with meals and new recipes, shopping and saving a TON of money every month and mostly my time.  So I thought I'd share it with all of you b/c as of today they have expanded to a bunch of new states.  The website is

http://dealstomeals.com/index.cfm


And from there you can find their blog, website, and food storage website as well.  I use and look at all three every week.  I love it.  You can also probably just click on their button on the side of my blog as well. 

Rain and Snow

Its raining here.  A lot.  And to take my mind off of the water stains that have seeped through the roof and are now an ugly spot over my bed to be exact, which will result in exasperated groans and worries from Chris about fixing it before it falls in over our head or drips like a torturing device one drop at a time, I decided to post.

To post about going to the snow, which ended up being fantastic, solely because of one phenomenal event shown here....

but before you watch let me preface the situation for you.  Alexa is the gullible one in our family.  To the extreme.  We used to say "Alexa we'll count and see how fast you can go get (whatever the item was) when we were little just so she'd do things for us bless her heart, and guess what it still works lol.  We'll still tell her we're going to count and when she runs off we obviously stop counting til she rounds the corner again which is when we start counting at a random number like..."whoa alexa you're fast" :)  We absolutely love her, and love the trait which she carries.  She makes life so fun.

Well we told her she needed a picture taken with her lovely snowman, while the rest of us knew I was going to tackle her while bailey and my mom filmed.  The rest is history.



This was Jaydas first time playing in the snow and she LOVED it.  She mostly loved grandpa being her sled dog but thats a whole other spoiled rotten tale in and of itself :)







 Pure joy on that face



 



 Jayda and my nephew Mason





 Did I also mention that since it's raining we were having a dance party in my bathroom?  I tell Jayda, "Look this is my new move!"

At which point she attempts to roll her eyes and says "You shouldn't do dat mom, it goes like this" which is when she showed me how I should've really been doing the dance move.

Just another day

In our home you can more often than not, find us just lounging around and playing all day.  Sometimes we go out for the day and stay out until the girls are falling asleep in the car.  For the most part though I like to enjoy my girls doing what they like most and that means just being lazy and playing all day with nothing but silliness and loud LaVern Baker music blaring in the background becoming the playlist of our memories and life at home. 

I never want my kids to think I was the bossy, too busy to play or be silly, non involved mother.  Oh I can lay the hammer down, but I'd much rather be caught doing this.........



































 Followed by homemade snowcones which is always a must after a rousing jumping match on moms bed.  I think Maya had more fun than we did.  She would laugh hysterically everytime we'd land and it would bounce her over into the pillow. 

New Years

Since I'm horrible at posting I thought I'd just steal my sister in laws post since it was about my kid anyway :)

It's just not a New Year's Party until some pukes...
Thank you Maya, for filling that quota... and then some!

aaaaand, thank you Grammy for taking one for the team!

Yearly Pics

We took our yearly family pictures last Sunday before Christmas and without our Sis. Grant who is still serving in the Philippines.  Even though we had a crying baby....(somehow it's always one of my kids), other children who could care less, my dad who was worse than the kids about smiling for the camera and not talking or moving during every picture we somehow got some good ones.  At least Brooklyn only has to miss one family picture.  It'll be great to have her back next year.  Christmas was great.  We spent a lot of time back and forth between the family and it was so fun having Chris's sister in from Utah with her kids.  We played hard, ate A LOT, and even got to sneak away for a late night movie with the adults.  A lot to be thankful for this year.  Hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas too.