Autumn Moon Festival....

Tonight we went to the Chinese/Vietnamese Autumn Moon Festival at Indian School Park in Scottsdale. Lots of little Chinese and Vietnamese adopted kids were there playing on the playground and eating mooncakes- apparently the customary thing to eat at the Autumn Moon Festival. They are supposed to have an egg in the middle resembling a moon.... which I am grateful that they didn't... yuk.
The Autumn Moon Princess read a story, then they marched around in a parade with the lanterns they made

Coloring with the college kids from the Chinese Undergraduate Group from ASU. Brittany seemed to be Jasmine's personal babysitter for the entire evening.

Eating a mooncake.

Listening to the Autumn Moon story.

Beginning of the lantern parade.

Busy week....

Been doing all kinds of new things this week: New piano lessons, "Let's Play Music", new dance class, gymnastics, ice skating.....
Today is "National Gymnastics Day" so there was a free open gym. Normally, we don't go to the open gym because there is really no supervision or guidance. The kids just go around do whatever they want... which is fun...but it would be better if they actually had classes.. like today. Apparently, National Gymnastics Day is the beginning of the competition season. Typically, we get in more skating time because unlimited skating at the public sessions is included in the fee for lessons. More bang for the buck... so to speak.

Having fun today. There was a handstand contest to see who could hold a handstand the longest. Jazzy didn't win of course.. but she was right up there.
Practicing a backbend, on the bar, and of course... making a face at me:)

Statue of Liberty...

Today when we arrived at swimming lessons, Jasmine pointed out an emblem of the Statue of Liberty which is in front of "Liberty Insurance" right next to the swim school. She told me that it floats in the water in New York! Then she asked me if we could go see it... Aaargh... Next year we are possibly/maybe/probably going to the New York Vietnamese Culture Camp up in the Catskill mountains, but my intention was to fly into Hartford, CT and avoid NYC if possible. Now we might have to go? I am not looking forward to going there with her by myself, but it would be a really nice thing to do. She also can recite the Pledge of Allegiance- with a few mis-pronounced words:)

This morning on the news, I heard about a book called "Life Is Too Short" about the post 9/11 lives of 12 people who were in NYC and experienced the Twin Towers destruction. I ordered the book on Kindle and read almost the whole book on the stair stepper at the gym, then went to my usual Sunday morning yoga class. The book featured their stories on that day, but mostly it was about how their lives had changed for the positive in the past 10 years... i.e. various organizations they had started, changes in their professions, moving away from NYC, and changes in their belief systems.

It was 99 degrees today.... first day below 100 degrees since some time in June!

Imagination Ave....

Today, Jenny and Gadiel came over for a "playdate" since Jasmine didn't have school due to a "teacher's conference". We went to a place called "Imagination Ave".... which is a little town for kids. It has a hospital, post office, houses, dress shop, streets, etc.

After playing there for a couple of hours, we ate lunch at Red Lobster. Jazzy and Gadiel got to pet a lobster.

Jazzy in her wedding dress from the "dress shop"

Dr. Jasmine administering a treatment in the hospital.

Jenny, Gadiel and Jasmine eating lunch at Red Lobster.

Tonto National Monument

Today we left Cherry Creek Lodge and drove about 60 miles to Payson, AZ. I hadn't been there for many years and it certainly has changed quite a bit. About 12 miles north of Payson is the Tonto National Bridge. We had to climb down some steep terrain to get to the bridge/monument, but it was well worth it. Very pretty with a natural waterfall spilling over the bridge.

Dr. Vince and Jazzy sitting under the bridge with the waterfall in the background.

Jazzy playing with some hound dog puppies at the ranch.

More photos from Cherry Creek Lodge

Cherry Creek Lodge vacation....

Yesterday we picked Dr. Vince up at the Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport ..... a little airport in Mesa....and drove a very scenic 180 miles on semi-paved roads to Cherry Creek Lodge in Young, Arizona. The "driveway" alone to the lodge is 5.1 miles. We saw lots of billowing smoke on our way here and weren't sure what it was. Turns out, there are "controlled burns" in the area.

The lodge is in a beautiful setting with alot of history. Apparently, there was a multi-generational family feud. Cherry Creek Lodge sits on a 300,000 acre working cattle ranch. There are horses for trail riding, archery, hunting--- if someone is into that sort of thing, and Jeep Tours.. which is what we did.

This morning, we walked down to the barn to visit the horses, then over to the lake to skip some stones. We had a nice home made breakfast since this is a B & B. We brought all our other meals from Whole Foods market in our big cooler.

Later we went on a Jeep Tour of the area. This redefined 4-wheeling for *me*. We went thru some very rough terrain, rocks, thru creeks, into canyons, and saw lots of huge Elk bull tracks. Later we took a nap. Amazingly, Jazzy slept thru part of the Jeep tour as we were almost bouncing out of the jeep.

Tomorrow we will leave and drive a short distance over to Payson and do some hiking, stay there the night... then go back to 114 degrees in Phoenix.




Having breakfast
Checking out the horses
Skipping stones at 6:30 AM
In front of the barn
Jeep Tour