A Bird in the Hand

This week has totally gotten away from me. So my Travel Log: Days 2-5 will be condensed into posts consisting of my favorite pictures. Be sure to scroll down and see all the pictures. I had to post in three posts in order to get all the pictures shown. With that said...

Let me tell you a story about The Mister. He is one of those people that only eats when he is hungry and usually sees eating just as a means of fueling all those muscles he's got (he's so going to roll his eyes when he sees that last sentence.). However, when we are traveling, or on vacation, he likes two treats to be on hand: Pringles and non-frosted strawberry Pop-Tarts.

Now, if I asked this amazing man of mine for a pair of diamond earrings, I could almost guarantee that in 17 days I would be opening up a pair of earrings for my birthday. This is why I have stopped thinking out loud about items that I may have whim about, because if I say it, he will remember it, and sooner or later I will have it.

I know, I know! You can call me spoiled. I completely agree. For the record, I am not complaining.

But, BUT! If we are on vacation, and he gets out that shiny packet with two golden colored non-frosted strawberry Pop-Tarts and I ask him for a bite? Well, that is crossing a line.

So imagine my surprise when the White-breasted Nut Hatch bird pictured above heard that wrapper being torn open and immediatly began to fly all around The Mister's head. He was flapping and chirping and causing a scene. Then he landed on The Mister's hand and took a nice big bite of strawberry Pop-Tart. The Mister didn't even bat an eye, he just let the bird take a bite without even his asking?

The kids were ecstatic! Here's the thing...all that chirping? Was a sound off to six of his Nut Hatch friends! Breakfast ended in quite a hurry that morning as we tried to put away the stuff we were eating!

I love this picture because The Boy is opening his presents from each of us on his real birthday. I love that in celebration of the Decade Birthday The Mister not only got me coffee, but hot cocoa for the kids too. The Girl loves her hot cocoa almost as much as I love my coffee.

The Boy thought this tree looked like Tree Beard so he climbed in and set a pose. Then he hollered for me to: "Take this picture Mom! It's perfect for you blog!" How sad is it that even my children are thinking up posts for me?

Below is a picture of the ever famous Grand Canyon Mules.

Confession: As a kid, and OK!, as a teen, young adult, early married, and probably even now, I have been a Brady Bunch fan. All I could think about while at the Grand Canyon is: "This looks just like the episode when the Brady's went to the Grand Canyon! I wonder if this is where they all stood? They drove their station wagon on this road! They road mules into the canyon!"

OK, I am done.

This was a picture taken on Wednesday morning, the last day before we headed to the cabin in Williams, AZ. We were at the halfway mark of our hike (or so we thought...in the end we had to walk back rounding out our 2 mile hike to 4!) The Girl had just been chased by a greedy squirrel (they are definitely used to humans!).

I was sitting back taking pictures of three of my favorite subjects. It was at this point that we were all finally letting go of stresses and "to-do" lists, and started to enjoy ourselves and our time together. It was then I stopped thinking about forgotten pillows, and expensive firewood and the fact that I had forgotten matches.

This is when I sat back and thought to myself...
...La Vida Dulce.