Carin from California

The past two days our family has hosted our first house guest here in Arizona. "Carin from California" as Madison says, came to stay with us. I believe Madison is so specific in her naming process as to not confuse Carin from California with Aunt Karen. Madison DEFINITELY knows there are two different people and really enjoyed meeting "Carin from California." Ironically, Carin, our first house guest here in Arizona, was our first house guest in Florida over seven years ago.

Carin is a childhood friend of mine. We met at the age of 10 as pen pals when my class had to write to any elementary school in the country. I chose to write to Wells, Maine, our summer vacation spot. We had been going to Wells every summer since I was two years old. Carin and I became pen pals, and then as each summer came, we got to see each other while my family was on vacation in Maine. During college, I went off to Clemson, and Carin went to college at Quinnipiac in Connecticut. She was in our wedding. Then, for a brief couple of months after graduation and first jobs, we both lived in Florida. Being the large state it is, we still lived about four and half hours apart. Then, as soon as Edward and I moved to Florida, Carin moved to California, where she has been since. Letters have turned to email, and we've kept in touch. A great thing about Carin is no matter how much time might slip by, we can catch up pretty quickly. I hadn't seen Carin in about five years. I flew out to visit her in California twice while living in Florida. In the past five years, she hasn't had the chance to meet the kids until this weekend, but with the technology of the blog, she's "known" them since birth.

Now, at our closest distance, we live four hours apart, and we were so glad to have Carin visit us for a couple of days. The kids LOVED hanging out with Carin and already want her to come back. I'm really looking forward to meeting in San Diego for outings. I think if we didn't scare Carin off yet, she'll be a trooper with us at the zoo. Carin doesn't have any kids, nieces, or nephews, so we were her first "kid experience." I don't think we let her down :)

Carin was new to military installations, so we began our tour Monday morning at what I like to call the "Tank Park." This is just across the street from the gated/fenced portions of base. It's an area with a variety of tanks, missiles, and weapons, all created and tested here at YPG. YPG does a lot of the Army's weapons and vehicle testing.

While Luke enjoyed the tank park (Madison was at school), he got really hot really quickly and didn't like the hot sand in his sandals. Carin was quickly introduced to "kid time."

"Dude, is that my shadow?"

After picking up Madison at school, she introduced Carin to her cactus. I can safely say Carin left our house with a lot of new cactus knowledge courtesy of Madison.

Instant friends

Then, Madison introduced Carin to her world of puzzles. Carin really seemed to enjoy puzzle time and convinced herself if Madison could do a 63 piece puzzle in 10 min or less, she could too.

I think Madison is showing Carin how it goes together.

Carin had actually met our other cat, Tiger, seven years ago in Florida, but she'd never met our cat, Bear. I had to keep a close eye on Bear because I thought she might "accidentally" pack him in her bag...she really enjoyed Bear.

Carin came bearing gifts...dress-up clothes for the kids.

Fireman Luke

Unhappy Fireman Luke

What could it be?

Princess Madison

Hanging out...for not being around kids much, Carin was AWESOME with the kids, and they really liked her.

Yes, we took Carin to gymnastics. Both kids had a blast, and Carin and I survived!

Silly Luke

The two of them tried to team up on us...we didn't let them, much.

Madison had a great time.

Climbing through the foam pit

Getting ready for another foam pit jump

Airborne! Hmm, sounds like she's been around Edward's new job too much. I think she's got the perfect form for freefall jumping from 10,000 feet! All she needs is a parachute.

Luke kept making this face.

Again

"Okay, maybe that face isn't my best look."

The kids found a little table similar to theirs at the gym. I think this was their subtle way of telling us they were ready to go for lunch.

Amazingly, with as crazy as it is with two kids running around, Carin and I forgot to take a picture together. Oh well, I guess we'll save that for another visit.