31 for 21

We did this last year and are determined to try again this year, I cannot do it on all three blogs, so we will use our family blog instead of this one and Kara's and Amanda's LOL.

Every October I think about what it means for our girls to have Down syndrome in America. Now most well meaning folks say the same thing to us when they see the girls, can you guess what that is? "Oh, you are so lucky, all Downs kids are so sweet, so loving" and "You must be special people to have three" I just smile and say thanks and move on...I have given up trying to explain anything to them. Meghan has always been shy, I share that with her, I was a terribly shy child myself. My dearest friend was over a few weeks ago and Meghan hugged her for the first time, now B has been here quite a few times, but Meghan has always been so reticent around her, not sure what is going on in her head, but she gifted B with a hug and it made B so happy. It isn’t because Meghan dislikes a person; she just prefers to assess them before warming up to them.

Now Kara, our jolly and rascally little scamp, she will jump on all our visitors and say hi, she is learning that not everyone appreciates it and is doing it less. Amanda climbs in everyone’s lap, but she drops her head, grinds her teeth, and shows distress when she does, not sure what is going on in her little head, maybe she thinks she has to say hello?
So many people also say that they could never do what we do; that puzzles me until I think about what we do that other parents do not, that for almost 9 years our lives have been about therapies and developmental milestones. That is normal for us, but most parents take their children’s development for granted, I know I did with our first 5 children, typical kids roll over, scoot, crawl, cruise, and walk, and talk on their own and on a good timetable. With Meghan and now Kara and Amanda, we had to show them how to do each thing and then do it over and over and over until their bodies and minds learned to do it on their own. It took work from her (them) and us, and it took time away from our other children, but truly not an excessive amount of time, and often they would help us and do the therapy exercises with their sister while they played with her! Of course they are not here to do that with their two new sisters now. Trying to find a balance between Meghan's needs and the needs of our typical children has always been a struggle.

Besides our three little girls, we have their big sister Julia at home, our sons are grown and on their own. Julia is pretty independent, almost 17, and getting ready to get her license and finally get to drive her brothers (now hers) Camaro. I think that having a sister that needed so much attention was hard for her 8 years ago; it would be, she used to be the only girl and then had a sister that took her parents to doctor’s appointments sometimes 5 times a week. Now she has three sisters who have lots going on. When Meghan was a baby, Julia used to help with her therapies, she colored pictures for the therapists to use for other kids, she was a huge help. Today she is in a musical theater group that includes 8 young men and women with Down syndrome. I think being with these young adults and getting to know them has shown Julia that her sisters can and will have futures too. Sometimes we can get mired down in today and fail to see what lies ahead. It has also been a wonderful thing for us to witness, they love being in the productions and the other students are very helpful and kind to them, Julia says, very protective of them.

We have taken all there little girls to Julia’s performances, and the other children’s parents are also in attendance, but try as we might, we cannot get them to talk to us. There is a new young man in the group and we were walking behind him and his parents to our cars, they saw us but did not engage us in conversation, I admit I was befuddled; I ache to talk to other parents, why would they do that to us? Surely they see us with our three daughters; I just cannot understand their reticence. Does something happen after puberty in our kids that closes off parents to one another?

Today will be a busy one with dentist’s appointments for Amanda and Meghan. I hope they can see Amanda; she has 5 cold sores on her mouth right now. Poor sweetheart slept with us last night she was so miserable. She slept well though, hope it is not a trend; we already have Meghan sleeping with us.

Yes, we advocate the family bed, but Kara and Amanda rock themselves to sleep, even after falling asleep first and being placed in bed, they pop back up and rock for a few minutes, or in Kara’s case, sometimes much longer. No way can a person sleep with that going on.
I believed the rocking would diminish over time, but I am finding out that habits a child acquired and did for 3 years are pretty well ingrained in their coping skills. Their so called orphanage behaviors are hard wired. Sometimes it feels like we failed somehow because being in a loving home did not help them overcome this. Then I think about other bad habits some of us have, nail biting, chewing on pencils, chewing on hair, etc, and I guess I have to cut them some slack? After decades of living with one nail biter, I can tell you, I do not think he will ever stop doing it. I have bad habits of my own too…

I am worried about Amanda though, she is not eating very much because her mouth hurts, but her pediatrician says it is a virus, he cannot help her, for us to treat the symptoms, and doesn't that make you want to scream? All she can eat is yogurt right now; anything with even a tiny bit of acidity hurts her mouth. She managed peas and brown rice yesterday. Amanda is itty bitty; she does not have the weight to spare. It makes Tom and I so sad to see her so miserable. We were up with her at 1:30 this morning, she was moaning and so distraught and we were zombie like trying to console her. We gave her ibuprofen; we held her and rocked her to sleep. She seems a bit better this morning, those small steps are important. We would appreciate prayers for her recovery.

We have been working on getting Kara a communication device, the request has been sent in to DD, hopefully long term care will cover the cost, I doubt AETNA will, but you never know. We are waiting to hear when the specialist will come and evaluate her. Yesterday the girls got in their wading pool for a short time, it is still hot here, but the day went from hot to windy and cooler very quickly. Amanda was shivering in no time, Meghan jumped out and Kara was the last one to exit. She was in there saying ba ba ba ba, ha ha ha, da da da da, but get her out, and she says nothing at all. I suppose keeping her in water all day is not an option, but it does illustrate that she has some sensory issues. That is another evaluation we are waiting on for both Kara and Amanda.

Time for breakfast for all and then homeschooling, I need to check school emails as well, we are having an issue with her Odyssey Math program. See you tomorrow.

Please donate to our Buddy Walk!

It is that time again, our local Buddy Walk is coming up soon, Sunday October 26 from 2-6:00 PM at the DeMeester Bandshell.

Our Buddy Walk sometimes gets ignored by the press, such a shame as it is always a wonderful event with so many families attending. I encourage all of our friends and family in Tucson (and all over AZ) to come and show your support of our girls and all people with Down syndrome.

Please give a little to our fund, our goal this year is $500, all the donations go to SANDS and they in turn support The Down Syndrome Connection and Crecer de Amor, local support groups. Go to the SANDS website and read about all they do for our community and Southern Arizona.

The girls having fun in the pool

Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You. -Dr. Seuss, author and illustrator (1904-1991)

Kara, she loves getting her picture taken and then looking at herself afterwards. She was pretty happy yesterday, playing with Meghan, both of them giggling, splashing. Amanda turned her back and looked the other way, no matter what Meghan and Kara did, she would not acknowledge them. It makes me sad when she isolates herself that way.

Silly Meghan, all she does these days when I try to take her picture is stick her tongue out and laugh at me, so I got this picture without her tongue LOL. Meghan has alopecia aerata, in May her dermatologist told me she was failing the squaric acid protocol, she mentioned steroid cremes or injections, but we decided to try to alter her diet instead. We eliminated gluten completely and began to wean her off dairy, specifically the 4 glasses of organic milk she drank daily. We bought some whole grain organic rice milk, vanilla flavored, and gave that to her instead, then weaned her off that to plain organic rice milk. She does well on it. In late August we noticed that her hair was growing back in several places, she has tiny tendrils of new hair all over her head, so we feel we are on the right track with this. I know it is only hair, but it makes Meghan happy to have her hair back. You can see the shorter hair along her temple in the picture below, that is all new hair.

I love this picture of Kara, she looks so sweet, you can almost see her dimples, I do not know if it is her low tone or not, but they do not always show when she smiles.
Amanda just had an off day yesterday, she went off on her own, would not play with the girls at all, barely smiled. When she had feeding therapy she would not cooperate and would not look at Ms R at all. Right now she is rocking on her dog, backwards. We feel like we are making great strides with her and then those days happen and it makes us wonder if anything is helping...frankly, I do think it is, but we can get pretty discouraged. She did clap last night at her sisters Julia's musical theater performance, though she was keening quietly the entire time. She was just so unhappy.

Amanda ignoring all of us, she did not enjoy her pool time yesterday, I think she is fighting a cold, and after the flu too, she also has a few chigger bites, she loves to play in the grass, I guess that is where she got them? I will be glad for cooler weather when all the bugs go to sleep, bugs love her.

Feeling better

This flu, or whatever it was, marched through the house and left behind coughs that don't seem to want to leave, but the headaches and bone aches are gone and our energy is returning! I am grateful to feel human again! We have too much to do to be sick!

So we go back to our regular routine, which today includes feeding therapy for Amanda and 4 hours of schooling for Meghan, mixed with laundry, cooking, naps, and diaper changing, you know, regular mommy stuff! While I truly miss going to work, and the last few years, the hours were minimal anyway, I do not miss the stress of trying to get out of the house on time. I worked for 25 years; it is a huge adjustment for me not to do anything outside the home at all. I wonder if I can return to group fitness instruction being an almost 50 something. Will clubs even hire a WELL seasoned pro? (Grin) I know I need to get out and do some things alone, people tell me this repeatedly, I suppose eventually i will be able to, but right now, I have too much to do here.

I was not too thrilled to wake up at 5:45 AM this morning, wished I could have slept in, but I was up for the day. Tom was already in the shower, getting ready to ride his bike to work this morning, the first time since he fell sick two weeks ago. The school is 11 miles or so from here. I think he is getting used to his new job, teaching one chorus class and the rest technology. It is a huge change for him, and I know his love will always be music education, but we all do what we have to keep our jobs in this economy. This too shall pass; I have to believe that he will be allowed to return to what he truly enjoys teaching some day (year) soon. I also believe that regardless of what he teaches, he will do a great job.

Julia is learning how crazy life can be when you are in multiple activities, musical theater, chorus, hip hop crew and a hip hop class that starts on Friday, add to that school and work, and she is pretty tired at the end of each day! Being a junior is exciting though, and she is taking a few AP classes; History, Anatomy and Physiology, and English.

Meghan is growing up; every day I see positive changes in her maturity level, with little backslides to be certain. Seeing her play with Kara and Amanda, hearing them laugh as they twirl around and around and even seeing them play tug of war with dollies makes me tremendously happy. She is a big sister, and she is a pretty good one! She will fetch diapers for me, or grab the phone if my hands are full. If I need to get up to get something, she sits down in front of Amanda and feeds her for me. She is very protective of her sisters.

Her speech; which has always been much delayed, is improving daily too. Just little things, like 5 word sentences where I can understand every word! We work hard on speech with her; she struggles so hard sometimes to make her needs known. Everything is in small steps, and in its own time, she can recite words from flash cards like a pro, it is stringing them together that is the challenge. As always, her behavior can get in her way, it hinders her progress in many areas, that stubborness that all my kids have is tenfold in her! If she just got out of her own way, she would do so much better!

Miss Kara, goodness, the Tasmanian devil has nothing on our dear little Kara. She can tear a room apart faster than you can blink! She is learning some self-control, but she simply does not listen when we tell her no. She has taken to falling on the floor and fake crying to show her distress when we tell her to stop, usually we get up and walk her out of whatever room she is tearing apart. Because of her destructiveness, she is no longer allowed in the kitchen unless we are in there; she adores throwing silverware in the garbage, and is quite clever in getting forbidden foods off the counters, using tongs to reach things we put out of her reach, she has learned that chairs scraping along the floor make a lot of noise, so she stopped trying that one! Her tantrums when we tell her no are very dramatic and often comical. I have learned to completely ignore her; she eventually gets up and moves on to the next thing.

Kara is completely non-verbal, she used to say a few words, but they slipped away somewhere, you can tell her receptive language is good, but her expressive is all but non-existent. Consequently; we are ordering a communication device for her. Kara refuses to use most sign as well, so we need to help her another way. I am worried about her breaking the poor thing, she throws everything, even after two years it remains her first impulse. Cups, bowls, plates, toys, remotes, clothing, anything she gets her hands on. What are really distressing are the cups full of liquid flying across the room. A verbal reprimand usually stops her in mid throw, but she is a challenge. Constant vigilance, all three girls require it, but they do not all go in the same direction at once!

I absolutely adore her, she is such a rascal, and her waddling walk is just too precious. It is obvious to me that she needs orthotics again though, so off to the orthopedic doc we go, he will need to reassess her feet and make a recommendation for her. Kara has learned to spin in circles, it is a new thing for her and she and Meghan play at spinning around and around, but Meghan can do it for several minutes and Kara is dizzy and stumbling after a few turns! She makes me laugh when she sits down and rubs her eyes and chuckles afterwards. Kara loves to laugh, she finds so many things amusing, and is a huge fan of slapstick humor. Watch someone get smacked, stub their toe, get hit over the head? She is guffawing. Even when it is not funny...she would have loved the old Tom and Jerry cartoons. Maybe we can find some for her! Kara will be 5 next month, she seems more like an 18 month old, but considering that she tested at the 8 month level when we brought her home, I would say she has made tremendous progress!

Amanda is doing better and worse at the same time, rather like a 2 step forward 3 step back girl. We watch her make tremendous progress and then all of a sudden we are back where we started. It is perplexing for us, I am not certain how it affects her, it is hard to tell. Take feeding, our goal for her is two-fold, get her feeding herself, and help her learn to chew her food. There are times when she will handle textures, small chunks of food, or thicker foods, and others where she gags and chokes on all of it. Some days she will feed herself a few spoon fulls and others where she sticks her hands down her pants and refuses to pull them out. She also loves to throw things, an orphanage behavior I wish neither girl had. If I get up to grab a ringing phone, she will throw all her food down, splattering it all over the walls and floors. Before I sit down to feed her I get everything I need and place it next to us, saves time in the end.

Amanda's typical day begins with her squealing from her crib, some days I reach down to get her and she turns away, not ready to get up yet. She gets up and scoots over to the back door, wanting to go outside to play. She climbs on the rocking dog, crosses her legs over the head, drops her head and breathes deeply a few times. Then she will get off and scoot around the patio a bit. She does that every morning unless it is raining. At 9:00 sharp she wants her breakfast, she always knows when it is 9. I have folks asking us to go to appointments then, or coming for therapy and I tell them, disrupt breakfast and her whole day is shot. They never seem to believe me, but it is very true. She is routine oriented to a fault. I suppose it would be fine, except her sisters are not on her schedule and she needs to learn that she alone cannot dictate the entire households schedule, it is difficult for all of us sometimes. Juggling, it is what being a parent is all about, learning to juggle all of your children's needs! (And loving, disciplining, caring for, and nurturing them of course).

She prefers her own company and does not often seek out her sisters to play; she is still at the parallel play stage. Her favorite activity is swimming, she will stay in the pool for hours, she will throw toys in the pool and them throw them out, retrieve them and will do it over and over again. She does not like sharing it with her sisters. They all go into the pool after morning school; Amanda will sit in it through lunch if I let her, which is how much she enjoys it.

Afternoons the pool is drained and the girls play with dolls or the cats. There are countless days when I look out and see Amanda in the middle of the grass surrounded by our cats and numerous kittens. She likes the cats, but often hurts them because she does not know how to pick them up correctly, instead she grabs they fur and squeezes, and they get upset and bite her. We have shown her hundreds of times how to pick up the kittens; maybe being bit will show her better? It profoundly hurts her when her kitties scratch or bite her, it does not seem like she gets she is the cause of their distress? I suppose it will take time for her to understand. You would think the cats would avoid her, but after a few days, they are right back to her side!

Been reading a lot about dual diagnosis, Down syndrome is one thing, we were prepared for the girls special needs where that is concerned, but adding autism to the mix has been difficult. My style of mothering is to hold, cuddle and bond and she seldom allows that type of interaction, she will rarely look me in the eyes, she rarely smiles in response to a smile, at times sometimes it hurts my feelings to be snubbed repeatedly. Though she does squeal with delight when we pick her up and smiles when we kiss her. There are days when she wants to be in my lap all day, and I do try to hold her as long as possible then. She is an enigma.

I know we will eventually understand her better; she is such a sweet even tempered little girl. Rarely throws tantrums, though she has been known to do them at times. She and Kara are polar opposites, Meghan is someone between them in temperament, ah, so much for all kids with Down syndrome being alike!

Recovering slowly

We are on the mend from the flu here, I am happily sitting down without and intense need to fall asleep. From our symptoms, it seems we have had the Swine Flu, though it was not confirmed by a doctor. Only very ill people are being tested for the virus, and the tests are inconclusive. We have matched at least 2/3 of the symptoms, I think we can say, yep, Swine Flu. Apparently the only flu in town is the Swim Flu so...hope this means the vaccine discussion is a mute point for us. I will tell folks that our first symptoms were intense fatigue and high fevers. The fatigue reminded me of that which I had following chemotherapy, I literally could not stay awake.

It was and still is a bad flu for me, the coughing from the chest congestion being worse because I already have asthma, I am also not able to eat much, but believe me, I need to weigh less, unlike Amanda, who was the third person to get sick, she lost a couple of pounds form sleeping instead of eating. Amanda is almost back to her old self. Meghan was the 4th person to catch it, she is still tired and coughing, big dark rings under her eyes, but she was outside playing today and does not cough at night any longer. Tom is feeling much better, but still coughing himself, says he feels almost back to normal. I was next in line to get it, I tried not to, but kids are not good at covering the faces when they sneeze, I was doomed! Kara seems to have the diarrhea part of the flu, also fever and runny nose. She is doing better today too. Been a rough couple of weeks here.

Julia says she never caught this, but was feverish, had extreme exhaustion and the chills before anyone else was ill so...

Prayers are very welcome.

Homeschooling and therapy

September is almost upon us, I cannot believe how fast this year is flying by, it is true that the years go more quickly the older you get!

Meghan has been in school for 3 weeks, we are still working on a better schedule for her, trying to balance the therapy all three girls receive, cooking, cleaning (need to do much more of that) and any doctors appointments we may have, meetings, evaluations, etc. Sometimes getting the 4-5 hours a day in is difficult. As always; her behavior gets in the way of her schooling, but I am determined to get past that and get on the same schedule we used successfully last year.

Homeschooling pushes people’s buttons; from their reaction you have to believe that many assume that you are too dumb to teach your child anything, and why would you ever think you know more than someone with a college education in, well, education!?

Worse for me is hearing the complaints about lack of socialization for Meghan, (and Kara and Amanda) How in the world can they be socialized if they did not go to public or private school? I like this list written by the Bitter Homeschooler, so read it and then come back so I can finish venting a little. :o) (Thanks Jill for showing me the link)

Love what this person says: STUDY

Our other kids did and do attend public schools. My husband works for the largest school district in town, we are not so much anti public school for our kids, but we are for the three youngest, at least in the current environment. Being a part of the system here, my husband hears first hand the complaints made by his fellow teachers when they are forced to have a special ed student in their class. They frankly resent them and the time they take away from "Kids who actually have a future" (do not get me started on that right now).

I cannot tell you how many teachers , therapists, doctors, and even social workers who should know better, still use the term "Downs child" when they discuss my children. Despite numerous reminders from me they continue use this term to describe my daughters, I suppose they have not read or heard about People First language? Our daughters HAVE down syndrome, they are not Down syndrome. They are precious little girls, one loves to dress pretty and dance, one loves to eat, look at herself in the mirror and sneak food from the kitchen (did I mention she likes to eat), the other loves to swim and play outdoors. They are just my beautiful children!

Like many children with Down syndrome; Meghan has an IEP which we follow for her scholastic goals and I adapt her curriculum according to the guidelines given to me in a workshop provided by Jill M, a woman who educates parents and teachers about modifying schoolwork for kids with special educational needs. Meghan (and I) has a classroom and a special ed teacher, a speech and occupational therapist to bounce ideas off if we run into issues. They are an email or phone call away. I think and online charter is the best of both worlds; I love that we can get books, a computer, and on-line courses for free, because it is a charter school, we have it good here! We just learned on Friday that Meghan qualifies for Title 1 math, something we are considering, though it adds another 3 hours of work per week to her schedule. We are contacting the math teacher to discuss this further; we cannot understand why the hours spent on this cannot be incorporated into her daily math schedule. We are also considering Numicon math for all of the girls, we have read many positive reviews from other homeschooling parents.

Most of my friends choose public education for their children with Down syndrome. I do not condemn them for making that decision, I know they are very involved in their children’s schooling, and they trust the system, feel confident they are making the right choice for their child. However I do wish it did not cause a strain on friendships…somehow they think I am judging them.

Homeschooling takes time; we are required to do 4 hours of schoolwork a day, 5 days a week. So we have to make some adjustments so we can navigate through our week with as little issues as possible. Our first obstacle was the number of hours and days we had therapy for the girls; Monday morning was speech for Kara, Tuesday morning feeding therapy and OT for Amanda, and Friday morning speech for Meghan and Kara for 2 hours. Though it probably does not sound like a lot of time spent on therapy, it disrupts our school schedule.

Meghan and Kara had OT evaluations last week, beyond a doubt they need help with fine motor skills, though Meghan may not get approved for in-home therapy…but they both will likely have OT added to our therapy schedule. We are also in the process of adding sensory integration therapy for Amanda and Kara. You can see we may have some issues with organizing our time.

We are hoping and praying a physical therapist will become available soon for Kara and Amanda, but when will we fit that in? We have a PT shortage, so many left when AZ cut funding to early intervention. While Kara is walking, her gross motor skills seem disorganized and clumsy and Amanda at age 4 ½ is not walking yet. They need PT.

As a result of our scheduling issues, Monday is Kara’s last speech therapy session with Ms T. We are adding Kara to Friday’s speech therapy session with Ms. A. Ms. A has been Meghan’s speech therapist since Meghan was a toddler. She agreed to take on Amanda this year, but her schedule did not allow adding Kara too, so we sought a different therapist for her. Ms A has agreed to add Kara after her schedule opened up more, thank goodness for her kind heart! All three girls will begin therapy Fridays at 10:00 and will end around 1 PM; it will be a long morning for everyone.
Kara has no expressive speech, uses little to no sign, and we are in the process of getting her approved for an communication device, they are extremely expensive, consequently we are a little nervous that our insurance will approve her for one, and if not, whether or not our financially beleaguered state will be able to provide one instead. We cannot afford this device ourselves, and honestly I am truly surprised that Kara does not have verbal speech, I just do not understand what happened; she used to call me Mama and Tom Papa. She used to babble and vocalize a lot; she just does not do it any longer. Check out this website to see the device we are planning on getting for Kara. https://store.prentrom.com/ It will surely help her express her needs more clearly, the lack of expressive language is adversely affecting her behavior. She will begin with a device that has 8 choices and move on from there.


Having therapy on Friday mornings means Meghan and I will not be able to attend the reading Elluminate http://www.wright.edu/ctl/dl/elluminate.html session Meghan’s special ed teacher gives. We are hoping she will begin to record her sessions so Meghan can listen to them later on in the day.

We will continue to have feeding therapy for Amanda on Tuesdays. It is helping her immensely, she looks healthier, and has so much more vitality, but she is still below the 5 percentile for weight on the Ds weight chart, her height is at 8%. She is a peanut, but I am not going to worry about her size any longer, as I said on her blog, she is who she is, and she is going to be tiny. (The geneticist and the developmental pediatrician agree with me) She has gained 5 pounds in a year, not bad for a tiny girl. We will continue feeding therapy until she can self feed and learn to chew. She is getting closer to self feeding, not so close to chewing. Tom and I continue to feed her all her meals, mostly pureed and some fork mashed foods. If Kara (maybe Meghan) is approved for OT, they will come on Tuesdays and work will all three girls, we discussed this with their therapists last week.

With all of this going on, I need to be better organized, I am a bit of a procrastinator, and my family does not seem to notice dirty clothes that need washing or floors that need mopping, so I can get stressed out from the demands placed on me with therpay, schoolwork and housework. We signed up for this when we became parents, and then decided to adopt Kara and Amanda, but goodness, I sometimes wish for a day away from all this work! A mommy only day.

If you ever visit me, never expect my house to be clean, there are only so many hours in a day.

Pictures from the passenger window-Arizona Highways

We decided to take a little trip and visit my sister, we have been wanting to for months, but Tom worked strange hours all summer, it was not until last weekend that we could go anywhere and we finally took off. Driving a few hundred miles from the intense heat of Tucson to the 45 degree summer nights in Mogollon Rim country. I was excited to go, though truth be told, I was reluctant to leave the house, we had three, yes 3, litters of kittens and the moms would have to stay in the house with them. They go outside during the day to relax and well, relieve themselves, though we have a litter box in the house, we prefer it that way. I worried the moms would devastate the house (they did in their way). We called our oldest son to check on them that evening, but he never got the message, so we had a huge mess to clean up when we came hope and it literally stunk, if you get my drift...

So reluctant mom packed hastily for a visit to cooler temps and higher elevations, which meant fall clothing for us. I was sweating in shorts while I ran around the house, 85 degrees inside with the cooler going, and I could not imagine being cold in a few hours, but many family reunions taught me to be prepared.

Despite those things, we had such a good time, the best part was visiting with family, anyone who knows me knows I love to chat. Julia, my sister and I hunted for geodes, crystals and other treasures in the dry stream beds. We ate Elk roast from a cow my sister got earlier this year (or late last year, not certain) and came home with homemade jellies and jams, made from fruit my sister and her hubby collected in the forest.

We really needed more than two days to catch up, but at least we were able to have two.

I took pictures along the way, thought I would share with you.

Love the rock formations in Southwestern states

Yes, Saguaro's, we had to take some of the thousands of Saguaro's! I missed the lake in this shot, we had finally climbed high enough to see the lake. We drove through valleys and small hills as we climbed in elevation until finally, there it was! Roosevelt Lake! You can see a tiny bit of the lake to the middle left. I admit, it is difficult to get a really good picture in a moving van through the windshield. I think I did OK though, at least after I rolled down the window. When I was growing up the sight of the lake brought great excitement. We knew we would be able to cool off in it's fishy waters soon! I spent many hours walking along it's shores trying to catch guppies, stealing water dogs from fishermen, not realizing it was wrong, just knowing they were cute and were dying as fish bait!

After too many blurry pictures I begged Tom to pull over so I could get some better shots of the lake and surrounding area. This is the new bridge at Roosevelt Lake, I like the old road around the lake much better, we used to drive across the old dam The road was narrow, and sometimes scary, but I loved it. My father worked at the dam for a time as a security guard post retirement, he was never one to sit around. He loved it as much as I did. I think all of us; my extended family and I, loved the old dam.

The Roosevelt Dam, this is not my picture, I found it here: http://www.edupic.net/sci_pics.htm

When people hear I am from Arizona, they often ask about the cacti and deserts, but Arizona is a varied and unique environment, I love it here.The lake is so full this year, when we drove along this road in 2006, we saw a much different lake, a depressing sight, the water was at an all time low.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5797238 The picture above is from 2006, taken from this old article. They had to move the marina to a new cove, as the old one became too shallow to accommodate the boats. My sister said they made a temporary ramp for the boats to dock; a rutted dirt road, so narrow and she had to back up down the hill, boat and all, where she would get stuck in the mud. It was not the best of times.

The lake last weekend, so happy that the lake is full once more. The marina in it's new home.

Just a sailboat, I wonder who they were? I wish I could do that, it looks so relaxing.

Meghan did so well on the trip, I was proud of her for staying dry and using an unusual potty at the gas station. She has come very far since she decided potties were better than pull-ups.

She is a really good traveller, and rarely complains as we drive along.

Kara sound asleep, at least until she heard, Food Kara, then her eyes flew open and she was wide awake. Kara loves her food, and Meghan, and everyone else's...We ate at the Dairy Queen Brazier on the way to see Aunt Sandy. Kara loved her french fries and chicken strips. We rarely eat fast food like that, so it was a real treat.

I could not get a good picture of Amanda from the front seat, she was all the way in the back with Julia, but she never slept, she looked out the window the entire trip, jabbering away and enjoying the scenery.

One of my sisters many hand fed "pet" birds, a few years ago she rescued this Robin's great grandfather, whom she calls Junior. Junior was the sole survivor when the nest he was in was attacked by crows. For as long as I can remember my sister has saved birds, especially nestlings, or at least she tried, when she was a child she did not know they could not eat bread with milk.

I saved one bird in my life, a young pigeon capture by two teenagers intent on burning his wings, and I raised him, and later his mate (he flew away one day and returned with her a few days later) through three clutches, mom and dad said enough was enough, we had 8 pigeons roosting in an old doghouse, and they did not smell very good. LOL. Frosty and Velvet had to go.

Sandy told us that Junior flew away for the winter to roost with the other Robins and brought home a mate early spring, they nested in her trees. They raised a brood (or two), and they have returned every year. This year, the Robin in the picture was chasing all the others away, including Junior, and taking all the meal worms for himself.

I think it is wonderful that my sister lives in a place where she can have friends like this.

Approaching Oro Valley! Something I missed when I was in Ukraine and Estonia; the Arizona sunsets and the lack of tall structures. You do not know how claustrophobic buildings and even trees can be when you are used to wide open places and great expanses of sky.

Almost in Tucson, the Santa Catalina's at dusk. Taking a digital picture with little light from a car is not easy LOL.