A bit for my Mom and Dad

Well this is the last of it. And it's just a whole bunch of AZ landscape. My parents wanted some pictures of the landscape down there. They thought maybe they could get a canvas print from Costco and slap it on a wall in the house down there. So, sorry this is just a whole bunch of landscape pictures. It's more for my rents than anybody else.

On a related note, I paint and I like art. Haven't painted in years, but I still have my fishing tackle box with my paints in it from when I was 9 or 10 years old. I brought all my art supplies out here to MN on the basis of me possibly painting, possibly selling, and possibly making a dime to help support us in our new situation. Turns out we moved into a shoe box and thankfully Dave got a job. So, my paints a ever so carefully packed away like they have been for the last 7 or so years.

When conceptualizing this idea/plan, I knew I would want to paint pictures I've taken. I still love the idea. It combines two of my great hobbies and it would be all me from start to finish. I like it. Just recently, I saw a painting of a dead bird that looked like a photograph (photorealism). It blew my mind and made my mouth water. Not that I want to eat a dead bird, it just made me want to paint more than I've wanted to in a long time. After seeing that painting, I was looking through all these AZ landscape pictures, but I was looking at them as material to paint and my mouth just kept watering and I just kept getting hungrier and hungrier.

So, Mom and Dad, I think that the pictures that show true AZ landscape aren't really something you'd want printed big and slapped on your wall. However, if you want to feed my apartment some magic beans so it will grow and get me a babysitter/nanny, I'll paint you a beautiful picture. Until you locate the magic beans, here are some pictures. Love, Ashley.

To anyone with me here in MN, I'm sorry the looks of all the warm looking blue sky is making you sad.

The holes are bird houses.

The bark on some of the trees is green. I thought that was cool.

Peace. Am I right?

Buzz.

This is my dad after a run. He's lost a bunch of weight and runs 6 some odd miles with my mom every morning he's in AZ. I'm so proud of him. All of these picture I took were on the trail of their run.

And lastly, for your viewing or gagging pleasure, here is a series of pictures of Miles eating a donut. I call them: Miles the fatso. Enjoy:

The AZ Monkey

I've got to get this AZ monkey off my back. Somewhat to not really ironic that this post is of the wild animal park/zoo/aquarium and I don't have a picture of a monkey. So, like I said, I'm disappointed with the lot of pictures I came home with. Again, I like them, but they are more of stuff than Miles and my fam. For example, the first two pictures are the only two pictures I got of Miles at the zoo.

Picture one.

Picture two. Miles looks pretty excited and interested, doesn't he?

The rest are just of animals and fish. And that's that.

A jaguar. Kind of gives me chills just a bit. I'd really hate to run into one of those out in the wild.

Like I said, you could get really close to the animals. And the fencing was just some logs that didn't even go as high as my hip.

The tortoises were ginormous.

The giraffes were one of the animals you could feed. I didn't feed them for a couple reasons. 1. I'm too cheap and too big of a penny pincher to throw out a few quarters for the food. 2. The stringy slime its tongue left behind on peoples' hands just wasn't worth it to me.

These guys were all over each other like they were in love or something. I think they look in love.

This bird had an ear piercing squawk. So pretty, so loud.

Fatty.

Skinny.

Pinocchio?

I like this blue frog. If I were a frog and could choose my color, I think I'd choose this here blue, even though blue is not at all my favorite color. Or one I even like a whole lot. But I like this blue frog. I'd do blue if I were a frog.

This park/zoo/aquarium was really cool, I thought. You could get so close to all of the animals and feed a lot of them. Miles favorite part was without a doubt the train of which I have no pictures. He thought it was the greatest thing ever and was so happy and excited to go on a train. He wanted to sit on the bench/seat all by himself like he was really owning the awesome experience. He was pretty intent on seeing the giraffes more than once, but didn't seem that interested in getting too close. All in all, it was a great trip to the zoo. Thanks Mom and Dad.

Lastly, here is a pretty boring video of Miles passing up the opportunity to touch sting rays. He did touch some before I took this video but I guess he'd touched enough. Watch it or not: your call.

Sting Rays, Whiny Miles from DAM FAM on Vimeo.

One more AZ post, folks. One more.

A bit of AZ and a lot of mom talk

Hardly any of AZ, actually. I'm pretty disappointed in the lot of pictures I came home with. I mean, I like them, but they are lacking majorly. I don't have a single picture of Miles with my parents or my grandma, or of the stuff he did everyday like playing at the park and riding in the bike stroller. And you know what? Isn't that glass half empty? I think I'm waaaay more negative than I'd like or realize or admit or whatever. So, let me fill that glass right up with some pictures I did get. Just from the first day and a half, really.

When I said it was nice to see some non-flat terrain, I wasn't joking. What you see above is my definition of flat. If yours is any different, I'd be delighted to know what it is.

Miles wanted to watch "Cars" before the plane even took off on the way out, but didn't want to watch anything on the way back. He was totally perfect on both flights.

AZ welcomed us with a beautiful sunset.

The army men were one of the first toys Miles wanted to play with.

Using his neck/crane to see them way up there.

So careful.

So brave looking.

So cute looking.

Seriously, when I went through this group of pictures tonight, I just looked at my sweet little boys' adorable face and let myself melt. I've been in a crappy rut as a mom lately. I don't know what changed or what happened, but I've just found myself being ultra annoyed at Miles lately. Instead of just watching him with delight all day, noticing how cute his mouth is or how big he's getting, I've just been wanting a break from him. I feel so rotten about it all. It's just selfishness on my part. And I think this 700 sq. foot jail is getting to us. And the crap that is the weather. And the whole single parent bit since Dave is so so so busy and never home. And Miles never takes a nap these days. And I feel like I have to watch him all the time because what if he pees his pants?

But dog gone it, he's getting so big! I have to enjoy it while I have it. I'm a bit beside myself because I have been so pleased with motherhood. I'm the mom that dropped everything and gave 110% to her baby and loved everything about it. I'm sorry, was I still married back then? Poor Dave. Anyway, I feel like I went from one end to the other, and now I'm looking for the middle. Miles is such a pleasure, I have no reason to be annoyed that he takes like 2 freakin hours to eat a lunch while I remind him constantly to eat, or that he wants to play and play and play and be wild at bed time and stall by saying he has to go poop, but really he's just milking time by sitting on the toilet not pooping or needing to poop. Those things are so normal. He is such a good little boy. He's so happy and fun loving and still laughs at the drop of a hat like he always has. He would seriously be content for 24 hours straight playing on my bed. I'm so lucky to have him and be his mom.

Back

Miles and I got back on Sunday. Dave did the grocery shopping before we got back so we had some food. What a pal. We had a great time in AZ, riding the bike to the park and just going outside. Miles had so much fun being around my parents and grandma. When we got back to Minnesota and in the car Miles was looking out the window saying, "Snow, Gramma" like he thought he brought her with him in his pocket. And yesterday he wanted to get his shoes on and go outside and I told him it was too cold (teens at the warmest) and he gave me some fightin' words, "No, IT'S WARM!" We argued back and forth until I took him over to the door, opened it and let the air freeze his boogers. Also, I thought AZ was quite beautiful. I enjoyed seeing some non-flat terrain and I quite liked all the cacti. It's a pretty desert. It's a shame it gets hotter than sin.

I haven't even got the pictures off my camera. However, you're in luck because I got some videos off the flip.

To start out, here's something to make me wish the cold of this Minnesota winter was over:

When it's Warm from DAM FAM on Vimeo.

And here's Miles singing some song about horses. He started out by counting and kind of got stuck on the numbers 14 & 16... I think. And then made a song. You tell me:

14, 16 Horse from DAM FAM on Vimeo.

And last but most certainly best, here is a video of my dad. He has a love affair with BYU sports. It's amazing. It's slow at the start, but definitely worth it by the end. Enjoy:

Fan from DAM FAM on Vimeo.