Grand Canyon and Flagstaff

Last night we got back from a 3-day trip to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. When you have friends come from Germany, going to the Grand Canyon is kind of a must. The trip was fun, although it was super cold. Yesterday morning as we started our day, the temp was 2 degrees Fahrenheit! For you metric users out there, that's minus-17 Celsius! And that doesn't account for the wind chill.


The Canyon was as beautiful as ever. The Germans were really blown away by the sheer size of it, and rightfully so. It ain't called "grand" for nothin'.


When we got back to Flagstaff on Thursday, during dinner, we got the voicemail messages that Steve and Laura had their baby! An 8 lb. 6 oz. girl, whom they named Seren Skye (Seren is Welsh...it rhymes with Karen). To see a picture of the wee one, check out the link to Steve's blog, or for those too lazy to look for the link, click here.

Friday, the kids wanted to go sledding, but we were only out for about 30 minutes before the two younger ones, with their boots full of snow, were crying to go home.

Yesterday, on the way back to Phoenix, we stopped at Montezuma's Castle, an ancient cliff-dwelling. I found this great spot for a picture and I set the timer on my camera to get a group shot. We all leaned or sat on a rickety, wooden fence and waited for the picture to snap. Just as the flash started to go off, the fence gave way and started to fall backwards. So the picture is a real action shot with various degrees of terror and anxiety recorded for posterity. I wanted to take another one because the spot was such a good one, but everyone was ready to go, so this will have to do:

Christmas Day

The Christmas dinner the night before Christmas went off perfectly. It was a bit later than we had wanted (we sat down to eat around 7 pm) but the food was great.


The next morning, we opened gifts with Marion and Harold. I got Cristina a new popcorn popper (the old fashioned stove top kind...bigger than the one she had and made of stainless steel). Cristina got me an alligator with 3 baby gators on its back (I had seen it at her toy store and told her I wanted it for my desk at school). The kids got various crayons and games and beeswax and stuff.


After a big lunch of leftovers, we walked down to the park and threw a football around. We took Vivien as well. She wore her jacket.

By the way, the dog on the right belonged to the guy whom we asked to take our picture. He lives in the neighborhood and happens to teach German at South Mountain Community College (the guy, not the dog)

Overall, it was a great day. After the kids were in bed, we watched the first half of "Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End" and then picked Jarue up from the airport at 11:30 pm.

Christmas Eve on Sunland Avenue

Cristina is working today, so I'm kind of doing the big meal alone. That's okay. I'm making a 19-lb. turkey, homemade dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn casserole, mashed sweet potatoes, and for dessert: pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and apple pie (all pies from Costco). Your basic Thanksgiving meal.

I haven't blogged in a while and I need to. Sometimes just posting comments on everybody's blog feels like blogging!

The news to report is that Cristina's friend from Germany, Marion, is visiting us right now. She came a week ago with her boyfriend Harald.


Cristina's mom arrives tomorrow night. In preparation for having 3 house guests, we finally got the computer room turned into a legitimate guest room. We assembled the antique bed that we used when we were first married. We bought a new mattress for it, as well as one of those cool mattress bases from IKEA that has storage.

An actual guest room!

The upstairs loft is finally a usable sitting room!

The dog and cats are doing fine. Vivien is having less accidents. Not sure if it's because she's learning to prefer to go outside, or if we're just being more vigilant. Probably a bit of both.

Dogs and cats living peacefully together is a nice change

The cats love to sleep on our bed. They look so cute curled up on the soft, down quilt that I can't resist taking pictures of them. Ah, to be a cat.

Sofia's piano recital

Today Sofia had a piano recital at school. Check it out!

Sofia's Story

Sofia just finished writing a story for school. Enjoy!

“A Strange Week in July”

by Sofia Eury

“Mother, don’t die,” cried Lorelei.

“Go find your triplet sister and I’ll be fine,” said their mother with her hair pale with death as she faded away.

The next day Lorelei and her twin, James, were by a lake and quiet. James quietly skipped stone, then suddenly, he threw with all his might but the third stone came skipping back. Both children stared with astonishment. The stone floated in the air in front of them but as James reached out, the stone went forward a little bit. That happened a few times when Lorelei said, “maybe we’re supposed to follow it”.

“Then lets follow it,” James said with excitement in his voice.

They ran over a bridge and climbed half way up a mountain when suddenly Lorelei stopped.

“I don’t want to go on a journey!”

“Think of mother,” James said “ we have to find our triplet! But if you want to we can stop for the night” he continued, his blond/brown hair hiding his disappointment.

“No, we can go for a little while longer,” she answered, seeing her brothers disappointment.

They traveled a little while longer than stopped at the top of the mountain where the stone magically moved some branches to make a place for them to sleep.

The next day they decided to explore and have fun after quick breakfast of wild bird eggs the stone had found and magically floated them to a small fire to cook them.

First they found cool things like feathers, rocks, and leaves and then they saw something different. It was a sled.

“Even though its summer, with the mossy ground we can use the sled,” squealed Lorelei as her long, brown, hair flew up as she tried the sled for the third time.

For the rest of the day the two children played with the sled and explored.

The next day Lorelei lead them on, first sledding down the mountain in a joyful ride they would always remember, then they walked through the woods where James got stung by a bee. After the sting, Lorelei gathered some mosses and other things she knew would help his sting and calm him down. Then for the rest of the day they rested in the shade of a big oak tree and ate the honey they had found.

The next day the stone lead them on like the first day. After a small hike they came to river where the stone stopped. James and Lorelei caught on that they were supposed to find something and after some hours work they found it.

“Hey, it’s a small rowboat!” James said.

“And here are the paddles!” Lorelei said a little while after.

They picked up their belongings, which were the stone, the sled, and other cool things they had found, and they got in the rowboat, which was just their size.

James started the rowboat down the river with the stone at the stern and then asked for help. When they were tired they took a nap or got out and explored. While exploring, Lorelei got a surprise.

“Ouch!” she screamed, waking up her brother.

“It’s a crab,” stated James as he tried to pry off the crab from her leg. They pulled and finally they pried it off.

“Oh no, my leg’s bleeding,” exclaimed Lorelei with pain.

The children got in the boat and the stone magically controlled the paddles.

Lorelei’s white dress was now torn and had bright red blood on it. James’s green shirt and brown pants were ragged and had some specks of blood on them.

Finally, they came to a castle. They hurriedly got out of the boat and went to the castle door. After what seemed like a long time at the door, a beautiful girl answered. Her name was Gabriella.

They all went into the castle. First they helped Lorelei and then they told their story of the journey. While the story was being told, Gabriella kept looking at them. Finally, she stood up.

“I think I know who your missing triplet is,” Gabriella said. “ I think it’s me.”

Exactly what she said was true for, sure enough, when they stood up, the girls were a mirror image, and James was their perfect match.

All the children stared and smiled because it was very true and now they were done with their journey.

Lorelei’s green eyes shone with light and happiness, the most of the three children.

That night, they ate with Gabriella’s foster parents and told them of the journey, at the end asking if they could live together. Her foster father answered the question by saying that he would discuss it with her foster mother.

Right before bed, they decided they must live together so if her foster father says no, they will run away.

That next day they were waiting to here from him so they went outside. When outside, they showed Gabriella what they had found on the journey.

First, of course, they showed her the stone and all of its great powers. Then they showered her the sled and walked back to show her the rowboat. Then they just showed her some other cool things they had found.

Finally they saw Gabriella’s foster father coming. They all gathered around him.

“Well?” they asked.

“We have decided that since you are triplets you should live together so we can live together here.” He said.

They all shouted out with joy.

“Hey, I have an idea since we don’t have extra rooms,” Gabriella said. “We can divide my room in half so the girls can have one half and James can have the other half.”

They all agreed.

That night they all smiled in their sleep, thinking about their new life that was just about to start.

Another story

Wow. Several people liked the Jane and Freddy story, and I thought that one was kind of weak. You've inspired me to write down some of the stories I've told the kids over the years that I think are a little bit better and actually have more of a story to them. So here's your story for the day. I know I've told this one several times over the years, but I can't remember who I told it to. Maybe Sofia, but I think definitely Alex. Not sure if Bella ever got this story, but I'm sure she'll hear it now that I've finally written it down...

The Spider Who Caught the Sun

Once upon a time, a spider named Chloe lived in a forest. She loved watching the sun rise in the morning. She marveled at how the sun beamed down brightly throughout the day. And at night, she was always amazed at how such a big powerful thing could gently lay down behind the far mountains.

One morning, before the sun came up, Chloe made a big decision.

“I’m going to catch the sun!”

She found the biggest clearing in the forest that she could find and she started making the biggest web she could possibly make. It took her nearly an hour just to get one thread of silk across the entire span of the clearing, which must have been at least six feet wide. But she was determined, and she kept at it.

After a while, a frog hopped through the clearing. He stopped and looked up at Chloe working away.

“What are you doing, spider?” he asked.

“I’m making a web to catch the sun,” Chloe said. The frog wrinkled his brow and frowned.

“Are you kidding?” he asked. “You’ll never catch the sun. It’s way too big. You’d need a web ten times this big to catch the sun.” And he hopped off.

Chloe never stopped working. She just kept building her web and making it stronger.

It was around noon when a small deer stepped into the clearing, munching on grass. By this time, the web was big enough for most animals to easily see. The deer, with a mouthful of sweet grass, stared at Chloe with boredom.

“That’s a big web, spider.” he said. “Trying to catch an elephant or something?”

“No, I’m going to catch the sun.”

For the first time the deer looked amused. He almost choked on his grass with laughter.

“Ha! Now that is funny! Don’t you realize the sun is way too hot to catch? It’ll burn up your web when it gets caught in it. It would probably even burn up this whole forest.”

Chloe heard the deer, but she just shrugged and kept making her web. The deer snorted with another laugh and walked off, searching for more grass to eat.

It was late afternoon when Chloe finally took a break. The sun was starting to come down so she had to hurry. While she took a drink of water, a butterfly fluttered to a nearby flower. When the butterfly saw the web, she had to ask.

“Why such a big web, spider?”

Chloe wiped her mouth and sighed. “I’m going to catch the sun in it,” she said.

Unlike the frog and the deer, the butterfly thought deeply about Chloe’s statement before answering. The butterfly stared at the web and rubbed her chin.

“And what are you going to do with it when you catch it?”

Chloe hadn’t really thought this far ahead. So now she had to think a bit before answering.

“I think I’ll just look at it and enjoy it. Then I’ll let it go.”

The butterfly nodded a few times, still contemplating this idea. Finally, she sat up to leave.

“Well, be careful. Goodbye!” And the butterfly fluttered off.

Chloe finished her web.

It was spectacular. It was perfectly round. The lines were straight and even and it looked big enough to catch the sun nicely. Chloe was pleased.

The sun went down behind the far mountains.

As the sun went down, the frog, who was still in the area, remembered the spider and smirked. He knew Chloe would fail. The deer watched the sun go down too and chuckled as he thought of the foolish spider. The butterfly watched the sun disappear and she thought of Chloe’s huge web, sitting there in the dark.

Chloe curled up at the edge of her web and waited. She soon fell asleep.

In the morning, the frog and the deer wanted to see Chloe and her web. They wanted to prove that they were right and that she was silly to want to catch the sun. The butterfly also came to visit Chloe and see what had happened. The sun was just rising up into the sky.

When the frog, the deer and the butterfly got to the clearing, they gasped. They could hardly believe the beautiful thing they saw in Chloe’s web.

Along every tiny silk thread in the web clung thousands of drops of morning dew. The entire web was glistening and shining as if it was covered with a million sparkling diamonds. And when the sun peeked up over the trees, the rays of light hit the drops of dew. Every tiny drop of water reflected the sun, creating a rainbow on the surrounding trees and on the ground. As the sun rose higher and higher, the web glowed brighter and brighter, until the animals had to look away from it because it was so bright.

Chloe smiled as she watched her web glow. And she knew she had succeeded.

She had caught the sun in her web!

{Copyright 2007 Wayne Eury}

I'll be signing copies of my book at Barnes and Noble in Tempe on Saturday. Hope to see you there! Ha ha.

Tebow wins Heisman

Our Gator quarterback made history last night when he became the first sophomore to win the Heisman trophy! Go Tebow!

Jane and Freddy

I recently received a long-lost travel journal (pre-blog days) from our 2002 trip to Costa Rica. I thought I had lost it forever after a combination of my laptop getting stolen years ago, an assortment of fatal hard drive crashes, and a stubborn failure to back-up my files on CD or DVD. But luckily, I had emailed it to a bunch of family members and friends, and luckily my mom found it. So she emailed it to me about a week ago.

As I read through it, I was struck by how detailed I had been. I even went so far as to record what bedtime stories I made up for Sofia or Alex. That's pretty cool, because some of those stories are fun, but there's no way I'd remember them if I didn't write them down.

With that in mind, last night I was putting Bella down, and she requested a story. I didn't feel like telling a story, but I summoned something off the top of my head. It wasn't great, but it made me think of that journal. I thought as soon as she's asleep, I should write it down so I don't forget it. So here it goes...

Jane and Freddy

You know how many arms an octopus has? Eight. And do you know how many arms a spider has? Eight also. But you probably don't think of octopi and spiders as being friends, do you? Well, I know a spider and an octopus that were best friends. And here's their story.

Freddy was an octopus that lived in a tide pool. He lived in the warm sea water amongst the rocks and shells and critters. Beside the tide pool was a tall palm tree. It was so big and tall that it leaned out over the tide pool. At the top of the tree was a little gray spider web. And in the middle of the spider web sat a little gray spider. Her name was Jane.

Jane would sometimes let a long line of silk out of her spinneret and drop down towards the tide pool. She'd go all the way down until she was right above the water. And if the tide was out, she'd sometimes land on a rock and crawl around. She liked to look at all the stuff that was in the rocks and nooks and crannies. One day she was walking around like this and stepped on something soft. She looked down and saw that she was standing on something wet and squishy and she saw suction cups and an eye looking at her.

"Who's walking on me?" a voice asked. It was Freddy the octopus!

"Oh! Sorry," Jane said as she crawled off of Freddy. The two talked for a while and soon become good friends. You wouldn't think that a spider would have much in common with an octopus, but Jane and Freddy, apart from both having eight arms, both loved polka music, both had three siblings, and both their mothers were named Greta! Can you believe that?

So for years and years, Jane and Freddy would meet at the tide pool and talk about what was happening in their lives. And they were happy. The end.

{Copyright 2007 Wayne Eury}

I wish I could say that when I finished the story Bella was sound asleep. She wasn't. I asked her if she liked the story and she was kind of noncommittal. Oh well. It at least satisfied her desire for a story and she then got busy tossing and turning for 30 minutes while I fell asleep.

When I woke up an hour later, she was asleep, and I really didn't feel like doing anything, especially writing down a story. But today...I made a point to record it. Someday Bella might be glad I did.

Sofia's music

I've been meaning to post these videos of Sofia practicing piano and trumpet, but it took me a while. I think I made these videos about 2 weeks ago.

Ling Ling and Vivien

This was going on while I was making breakfast. Luckily I was able to record some of it. Ling Ling is obviously playing, because if she wasn't enjoying herself, she would have gone through the cat door. Coco would have never hung around for this. He'd have been out that door in a flash.

It's amazing how quiet they were.

Now if I could only get the kids to play that quietly...