Turning 15

    Cody turned 15 Monday.  15.  It was a happy occasion...and we pretty much began our celebration Thursday, meeting Andrea at the Pima County Fair around 3ish.  Andrea let me know that admission was free with two cans of food.  Check.  And, she said, bring a bottle of Dr. Pepper and you'll get $5 off the all you can ride wristband...got it!  And as some kind of bizarre bonus, Cody Simpson was going to be in concert and the girls were dying to see him (think Justin Bieber clone)!!! 
    
    We got there so early, thinking the fair would be mobbed.  Our strategy was to hit the rides early and often - letting Cody, Andrea's son, David, his buddy Cameron and Janene's son, Brendon, loose to ride the 'big rides', while we took the little ones on every fun house from here to eternity, slides, and other assorted kiddie rides (but we failed to see the two headed squirrel or get inside the giant bubbles on water!).  Then, we'd feed the kids, see the concert and get out of there by around 9:30.  It was Thursday.  A school night, so we wanted to be home by a reasonable hour...

 

By 5ish, we realized the kids had already hit about 30 rides each...and figured the crowds would be coming.  But we didn't care, because the kids were totally enjoying themselves and had gone on almost every ride they could!  So, we told them to keep going and we'd eat around 7:30 or so, before the 8:00 start of the Cody Simpson concert.

We headed over to the main stage by 7:30, got the kids roasted corn, corn dogs and we got the Indian fry bread tacos and found a table nearest to the stage.  After eating, Lexy, Autumn and Breanna made their way towards the stage as the show began!

                         It was the girls first concert and they were thrilled!!  They got pretty close and really like the dancing, singing, screaming and light show that Cody Simpson put on!!!
                        After the show, we discovered that the rides still had no lines and decided to stay until 10...David, Brendon and Cody quickly talked us into 11...and then, the curse of the 'smart phone' hit!  All of our phone's batteries died one by one...except Andrea's, who has stuck by the flip phone with no apps or internet!  Lacking communication, Andrea asked the boys to meet us at the ticket booth by 11:00...But, in today's world, without a phone, the boys concept of time was lost and we ended up closing the fair!!  We got large funnel cakes as we exited, covered with chocolate and some fresh made donuts too!  Luckily, the kids had just finished a week of AIMS testing and had pajama day at school the next day...And the late night was well worth it!  We lost count of how many rides our kids got to go on!  Cody's favorite rides were the Zipper and Speed, I didn't see him most of the night, so I go no pictures of him and the boys to post, but...it was an incredible night!

                        What Cody had wanted for a party, was to take David, Brendon and buddy Jesus to play laser tag at Funtasticks.  So, Friday, we picked up Cody and Jesus from school, drove to Janene's and picked up Brendon and then watched the end of David's basketball game and picked him and Breanna up from Andrea.  Hungry, we headed to Shane's Rib Shack, where the boys devoured an amazing amount of wings!

                           Once I got everyone their wristbands, the boys headed straight for the Indy cars, while I took the little ones on the rides!

Breanna was a fearless driver!!  Autumn took first!

  

These kids were drenched on the bumper boats!  They'd ride them, go on the mini Indy cars to dry off and go back on the bumper boats.  Once again, there were no lines, no waiting, so they all got their money's worth.  They all played a rousing game of laser tag and the big boys played mini golf, too.

The boys slept over at our house and they played XBox until the wee hours of the morning... I let them sleep a couple of hours, waking them up to go to Brawley's, our favorite hole in the wall, for breakfast!

One of Cody's 7th grade teachers was kind enough to give us passes to the Tucson Botanical Gardens, where they had a butterfly exhibit going on.

The butterflies were incredible!!

Sunday, after church, we had an enormous breakfast at Viro's with Andrea, Janene, Lupe, Manny and their kids...

Rosa and Vito made these special gelato filled treats for Cody's birthday.

And then it was Monday...My boy young man's actual birthday!!  Autumn and Antonio helped me to decorate.  Putting up banners, hanging streamers and balloons...just as Kim did for all of us.  I baked him his favorite 'cake'...brownies!

And it was a special day...

Janene snagged Cody from school early, around 1 and took him, Brendon and her son's Bryson and Kason back out to the fair!!  He was so happy and surprised - I left him a note for the office saying that his 'Aunt Janene' was picking him up for an 'appointment'!!  They had fun going on the rides and then met us all (Angie, Andrea, Janene, Kim, Roshan and kids) at Mama's pizza for dinner and brownies!!

Cody enjoyed the company and the food - his favorite pizza!!

When we got home, Cody asked me if I'd give him a haircut...which I'd usually leave for Janene!  But, Kim used to cut the boy's hair and Janene had given me some lessons...so...

Doing my best Zohan...

As I monkeyed around for the camera, the guard fell off the blade and I literally buzzed Tonio's head!! It happened in slow mo...I saw the guard falling, as I touched down with the clipper...but, I was able to save the hair do by going to a lower guard setting.  Both boys actually loved their new haircuts!!

It was a fun filled birthday celebration!!!

Thank you all for your birthday wishes for Cody!!!

                          

Street Fair

        The 4th Avenue Street Fair has so many memories.  Kim and I went to many....the sights, the sounds, the smells - all converging, like a kaleidoscope, to take in.  This wonderful occurrence happens twice a year, in the spring and again in the fall.  We'd like to make it down there both times - enjoying the crowd - great people watching!  Grabbing some food (usually something greasy from Piggly Wiggly's), coffee later at the Chocolate Iguana and we liked to end up at Caruso's for dinner.

On nice days like this, Kim and I would ask for an outdoor seat...they have a beautiful garden setting out back, with fish pond, fountain and statues.  At night, overhead, are twinkling white lights.  I could always feel the magic of us enhanced when we were here, out back...

Here's where we would clog our arteries.  It was worth it!

       When we first moved here, we'd bring our first pup, Cajun, with us.  It is a very dog friendly environment, with people ready with water and treats for pups.  We also liked to hang out on the veranda at O'Malley's and enjoy some icy cold beverages before walking around some more.  I always enjoyed picking out a nice pair of earrings for Kim to remember our day by - and she always liked to pick something out for our home (what a surprise, eh?), to make it more beautiful and to be able to look at it and, holding my hand, say 'remember that time...?'.
       The weather always seemed pretty good for the Street Fair, both times of year.  If anything, a little on the hot side, but we enjoyed the sun 'to work on our color', Kim would say.  The fall fair was always more challenging for me to attend, being in retail, but I'd always manage to have a late shift so we could sneak down together for a couple of hours in the morning.  One of the young ladies who worked at Toys R Us with me, Laura, had a family Thai food booth there every year - her parents always gave us extra kabobs, etc.  Delicious!!  We'd ride the trolley and they had an old hand pump driven car that I once gave Cody a ride on.  There was nothing like holding hands with Kim, carelessly strolling along 4th avenue...leaving everything behind for a couple of blissful hours.

         This year, I realized that our streak of street fairs had been broken for a number of years and decided to get the bambini down there, as only Cody remembered ever being there.  It was a warm, sunny day (again, what a surprise!) - temps in the mid 80's.  We strategically parked to be all the way on the south end of 4th, so we could make our way from the very beginning (or is it the end?) all the way to the north end.
         The architecture in this area is fantastic, with many of the homes built back in the twenties and thirties...the kids found a set of row homes that had basement entrances and went crazy!  They wanted to go check them out, not having much experience with basements.  Autumn snapped a few photos along the way.

     

This hotel is a beautiful building near the start of the street fair.  Cody was particularly fascinated, trying to imagine how it might have been when it first opened.  He thought it was probably viewed as a very fancy place to stay.

                               This little red (faded) caboose was randomly parked in someone's back yard along the way to our car, just east of 4th Ave.  Tonio wants to get one for our back yard.

       
                        Autumn liked this piece of sidewalk art she spotted as we walked...

                      I think Antonio was most mesmerized by this place - he looked as though he truly enjoyed the crowd.  I treated the kids to large lemonades as we arrived, let them choose a 'treasure' for our house, just as Kim used to...and I tried to paint them a picture, as I told them stories of me and their Mama strolling down these very sidewalks, trying to show it to them through Kim's eyes and with her high spirit and enthusiasm.

I don't know what the official attendance was this day...but, if pressed, I'd estimate it was near several billionty.

Antonio missed nothing as he enjoys his frosty lemonade.

We bought a raffle ticket from Francie Palencia, who knows loss...having lost her 17 year old, Stephen, to, guess what?  Cancer.  She was raising money for Stephen's Foundation.  They are a wonderful, positive family, who uses their loss to try to help others.  We immediately decided that, if we were to win, we give it all back to Stephen's Foundation.

I even let them choose a ride to try out...it always amazes me to listen to the three of them rationalize - length of ride, thrill factor...and cost.  They are really something else!

    

In the end, they decided on the virtual ride.  Now, there is a menu of 8 different 'virtual adventures' that you can choose to experience.  My heart swelled up as Cody graciously made the decision that it should be up to Antonio to choose their experience....he chose "Time Machine" - the picture showed a large, T-Rex bearing down on some hapless adventurers!

As I said, the 'people watching' is tremendous at the street fair!

We also saw several men swathed in marijuana wreaths trying to, in Peter Tosh's words, 'legalize it', and it seems that a great deal more tie dye shirt stands, hemp based products, etc have proliferized this fair over the years...

Scary clown in background!!

Tonio and Autumn hunt for their 'treasures'...they both chose dirtless plants.  They loved the sales lady, who was from England.  Her accent delighted them as she told them about once a week to 'chuck it in a bucket!' to water them!

Here are some of the 'treasures' that Kim chose for our home over the many years we were blessed to walk the street fair together:

A series of desert storm, monsoon, paintings Kim collected over the course of five street fairs.  She corresponded with the artist, who lives in northern California, over the years - sending her little notes to ask if she'd be at the next street fair so she could add another piece to our living room wall...I wish I still had the artist's address...

                              She bought this Madonna for me...it's a beautiful piece with copper backing....

We both loved lizards...

Kim absolutely loved the hand punched silver Mexican style that can be found here in Arizona.

These are a couple of pieces she picked up over the years there...

We almost always bought something from one of the Mexican Nationals selling their beautiful works along the sidewalks at the street fair...

Kim also bought this beautifully carved Mary of Guadelupe for me there...

This year, all three bambini helped pick out something for our house....well, for our garden...

We felt the need to add some 'permanent' color to our garden..for Kim.  Autumn chose the colors, after we found the man selling these metal flowers with hummingbirds and butterflies sipping the nectar from the colorful flowers.

As I hung these, Kim's sister, Terri, texted me "Please say goodnight to Kim for me tonight.  I miss her."  I stopped in mid-drill, took a photo of what we were working on, and told her we sure would say goodnight..and that there is not a moment that goes by that we don't miss Kimmy...

The sun was setting in spectacular fashion as we finished kicking up Kimmy's garden a notch...

Kimmy winking in approval?  Smiling down on us?  Or am I, once again, trying to find meaning in every sunset, beautiful cloud, pretty flowers, shooting stars or stunning star filled night sky????????