Tatum would have NO idea. See her at breakfast?
She was excited for a surprise but didn’t know what it would be. All she knew was that she had earned a grand prize with all of her piano practicing.
Little did she know that it would include a weekend away to Flagstaff.
It actually was a new LEGO set, but she would receive it the same weekend we had planned to go. My dear friends, Sharon and Andy, have a 2nd home in a luxurious community in Flag, and they offered to let us stay there. HELLO!! So, how could we turn that down? We would surprise her at school and pick her up early on Friday after her tests (we didn’t want her to miss the whole day since she had tests in the morning). We brought Coopy with us to pick her up. He was the hit of first grade and the whole school, actually.
She was so surprised! First stop, drop off Coopy at Boulder Falls for a nice weekend.
We didn’t want to bring him to the snow. Where am I going???? OH. gosh.
We love you Coopy-head.
Tatum saw the car all filled with suitcases and coats. Are we going to where it is cold??
You’ll see! Then she saw the sled in the back and that kind of gave it away.
When we arrived, we checked in with the guard and drove to the house. The homes in this neighborhood are ginormous! What a treat. We entered the house, and Tatum went right to the back porch and played in the snow. She only had her school clothes on, but she did care??
NOPE! She said she was hungry, and decide to taste it.
She was FAAAREEEEZING, and we had the next surprise she had to get ready for, so we got her all dried and warm and headed out.
We had kind of a bust at Kitt Peak Observatory in the summer, so we decided to go to Lowell Observatory and check out the sun telescope which was in operation. Also, it was so close to where we were staying.
The Rotunda museum was such a beautiful building. Tatum gave us a presentation of Saturn when we got in.
And then she noticed Charon, also known as Pluto I, which is the largest of the five known natural satellites of the dwarf planet Pluto. (BTW, The observatory is where Pluto Percival Lowell, an American astronomer who predicted the existence of a planet beyond the orbit of Neptune …this ended in the discovery of Pluto).
Here is to you, Mama!
We headed to the sun telescope presentation.
We looked in and saw a large red ball. Isn’t it beautiful and amazing! We looked at the sun!
There were a few wonderful quotes surrounding the viewing deck.
We then headed to another museum on the property.
We saw a Millionaire!
Not that kind…this kind:
A first telescope
Tatum stood on the moon!
It finally got dark, and we headed to the viewing deck again. What beautiful telescopes awaited us!
Then the Venus telescope!
And there it was….
As bright as ever!
It was phenomenal and awed us how BIG GOD is. However, we were absolutely freezing, so we headed home and guess what we did first?
Daddy and Tatum worked together.
And look at that!
We had some salads and cheers to the takeout cook!
And some Exploding Kittens game. Our new fav. Daddy is trying to trick me and get me exploded; He is pretty sneaky!
We plopped into our warm beds and looked forward to a fun-snow filled day tomorrow.