This is daughter number two, sweet Ava Rose, getting her face good and messy.

Ava enjoys her squash at 8 months old!

A post-Thanksgiving walk to Upper Clarkdale Park. My hair has turned red and my cheeks are parched from the countless days in the Arizona sun. Although in this photo it has been raining. It felt great to walk in the slushy leaves and climb trees.

Happy Thanksgiving from Upper Clarkdale Park!

Thanksgiving has come and gone and its finally chilly here in the Southwest. The house is dark while I sit and type but I see the sunrise in the distance. Our close friends, Linda and James, came this year for Thanksiving. They visited for just a few days but it was still nice to share a meal with them. Next time I hope they stay longer as its hard to let inhibitions go when you haven’t seen each other for a year. I still felt rapport with Linda but I didn’t have enough time to listen, being that I was having to tend to Kaya and Ava. It was also rainy but there was moments of sun which made for dramatic mountain scenery.

Linda and her husband are doing well back in Los Angeles. They still live in the hip nook of Silverlake, a community between downtown and Hollywood. Linda and James both write computer software and they are also trying to have kids. Maybe they didn’t want to stay in our house too long, as they could change their mind. People usually don’t daydream about the terrible two’s when envisioning being parents! Drew and I kept joking that they could take one of our kids home for awhile. Nonetheless, it was fabulous to see them and so sweet of them to fly here from Los Angeles to share our not so tender turkey. We don’t really eat or cook meat so maybe that should be a prerequisite in Thanksgiving 101. Next year we will cook a whole fish instead!

We had a festive sunset birthday party for Kaya, who turned two on November 22nd. Ava sits on the ottoman eating one of Kaya’s foam circles she received for arts and crafts time.

Kaya’s birthday fell on a Saturday so we invited seven other couple’s over with their toddlers, whom Kaya plays with at the park and other around town activities. All of the women there I consider close friends and it was a cozy soiree where people enjoyed microbrews and butternut squash soup. Everybody chatted and got along. We had a music person come and sing songs and such. The kids ate pizza that I bought at a grocery store called, Safeway. I tried it the week before and it seemed tasty but next time I would order from Vinnie’s pizza shop, a NYC style joint.

Speaking of food, I am missing the variety of restaurants that is in towns I have lived in the past. I didn’t realize that I was so food centric but I suppose living in cities like; New Orleans, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Ann Arbor, Los Angeles, etc…has made me that way. I was also raised in the Detroit area where the Immigrants brought with them excellent recipes. So we had wonderful Italian food as well as reasonable American fair.

Kaya and Ava are fine with life here. I still take them to the park everyday. Ava especially enjoyed the butternut squash soup that Daddy Drew made.