Team Torres Expansion Project: Phase Two: March 2010

Everybody's got a dream. An "If I Ever Won The Lottery I'd..."

You wanna know mine?

I'd buy one of them there RVs and tour the crap out of the good old U S of A. I'd get one of those maps of the country on the back with a sticker for each and every state and finish that map. I'd start with Alaska and end in West Virginia. I'd stop at every local diner and eat their signature dish and learn about the cultures all across America.

[dream sequence ends]

Considering I don't even play the lottery, the chances of winning it are pretty slim. I also have a full-time career, an 18-month old child, and beef with the amount of gas my Ford Explorer already eats up let alone a giant RV. That leaves me right back to where I started which is actually kind of okay considering I'm a glass half full kind of a gal. But "right back to where I started" doesn't necessarily mean that I need to be stuck being so unworldly, does it? As Miss Alessandra would say, NO!

Therefore, I've devised a strategy to nibble away at my dream one shiny morsel at a time. Every other year, Ricardo and I have agreed to take a road trip to one previously unexplored [by us] American territory at at a time. If it just so happens to blend in with a business trip, even better! And so, Destination Playstation 2010 out in Scottsdale, Arizona came just in time to quell the Southwest-thirsty bug in my heart.

Grandma and Grandpa Torres headed out for Ali Patrol:

(Oh boy, they're in for it...)

And mama and daddy headed out to Sky Harbor airport and immediately following, Hertz, to put some mileage on someone else's car. Excellent!

First stop, four hours north to the mind-blowing Grand Canyon. And yes, it's every bit as overwhelming as everyone says.

And yes, we were wearing our winter jackets and gloves. It was 42 degrees in Arizona. What I mean is, it was exactly the same temperature in Arizona as it was in Minnesota. Only Arizona had more snow. Damn you, global warming!

Breathtaking! Oh. And...The mountain range is nice too. :)

Everyone talks about the world in it's original format, unhindered by man's technology and technology's stupid pollutants. I guess it's prudent to be honest and admit that most of the time, "green" comments like these almost strike me as cliche. But as we drove through Navajo country which has remained relatively unchanged since America's inception, and through Canyon country which has remained relatively unchanged since Earth's inception, I realized just how much bigger than us all of this really is. I hope we don't ruin it.

On good word from several of Ricardo's colleagues, once we were done oogling the G.C., we got the heck out of Dodge and headed to our next stop, spiritual Sedona. Good news, we got to shed a layer! Long sleeves were more than enough for Sedona, which was about two hours south of Grand Canyon National Park. We arrived at night and traversed some treacherous hairpin curves to get there. Now, I just got back from Lombard Street in San Francisco a few weeks ago and I must say, the curviest street in the world may have met its match with whatever road we were on. Add an elevation of 6,000 feet, the drop of which mere inches from your passenger door, and that makes for some pretty adrenaline-inducing riding! After an amazing meal and good night's rest, we got back at it again for some hiking.

We hiked (yeah, that's Ricardo way down there)...

And hiked...

And THEEEENNNN I went to work all week while Ricardo laid by the pool. Luckyeee!!!

By the time Thursday came around, we were MORE than excited to get some of this:

We can't believe it's already Easter week around these parts! Hope yours is wonderful and relaxing surrounded by lots of friends, family and peace.

Hugs!

RAD

One day sometime last month, Alessandra the Great uttered a word that sounded an awful lot like she wanted to be picked up. I obliged, yet she continued to repeat it. Not quite sure why she would continue her request after she already got her way, I just chalked it up to a talkative morning and moved on with my day.

As with all toddlers struggling to understand the nuances of our language, little by little the context of our lives has served as translation. She began to speak this very same word following an Ali-initiated cuddly hug and smooch, while whisking around in a shopping cart doing our very best people-watching, or eating a delicious treat. "Hop. EEee." as it turns out was Ali's way of telling us how she was feeling at that particular moment. So, in celebration of such a wonderful emotion, today's theme is happiness. When there is happiness in your life, then that is all that matters. I, for one, am happy to be part of that club.

Hop. Eeee.

Happy 60th birthday Grandma Jo!!! I can hardly believe that this wonderful, beautiful, kind, charismatic, lovely, and interesting woman whom I call my mother has already lived for six full decades!!! To me she will never be older than the 30-something "cool mom" who always laughed with us when we made fun of her for completely botching words to a song ("Puhleeze stop playing games with my heeeeeaaaaaaaarrrrrtttt...") and for painstakingly sewing the bustle on my yellow tap costume a little bit higher than the rest of the girls'. Okay, it was TOO high, mom. It looked ridiculous! Or what about the time in kindergarten when I hardly recognized you because you dressed as a man for Halloween when you were the room mom for our party? That was a very excellent mustache! Or the time in Tawas when I fell and rolled bare-skinned onto the gritty concrete in my little tiny 7-year-old bikini and got the worst road rash of my life? I'll never forget the panicked look on your face and the way you burst into tears because you were so afraid of seeing me in pain. And the time I told you I had no friends to play with at recess and so you went in secret, parked in the parking lot adjacent to the playground so you could watch me cavort about with the very friends that I said I didn't have? I've never been able to understand how a mother can hurt so much for her younglings no matter how trivial, but now I get it. I know that one day I, too, will cry for my daughter's road rash and God's willing that will be the worst thing that happens. Alessandra and I will always be the exact same age difference as you and I are and I hope that the similarities don't end there. I hope that one day I can be the light of her life like you are to mine. I hope that I can also encourage her to live her life with the same spirit, confidence, and love that you always fostered in me. I hope that on my 60th birthday, she will call to tell me that she loves me as much as I love you now. Happy Birthday mama, and thank you for you and all that you've made me into.

Grandma Jo...Hop. EEee. :)

By now you already know how happy my little water baby is in the tub. I have inundated you with enough tub pictures to last a lifetime but I just had to snap this one more to show you how long her hair would be sans ringlets. When this little mullet is straight, it goes down to her shoulders!

We've also been working on our passion for art. I've been working on trying to figure out whether Alessandra will be a lefty or a righty. As a member of the Southpaw Club, I'm not-so-secretly hoping for her to follow suit, but as of right now, most signs are pointing to the dreaded R. (Okay, maybe not "dreaded", but oh, so mainstream!) Here are a couple of masterpieces in the works!

Okay, so we realize the holiday is a little off, but can we at least get credit for the "Shamrock" Crayola?

Look mom! Left hand!

Christie's Auction, here we come! Starting bid $2 million dollars!

This picture is more of just a brag, let's be honest. Alessandra put this shoe on all by herself and was working on the other one as I snapped! Furthermore, please note that it is on the correct foot! Don't rain on my parade and tell me it was just a fluke. Remember, today's theme is HOP. EEEE! :)

Also happy times are playdates! Liza and I always knew that Sawyer and Alessandra would eventually make an adorable BF + GF. That makes two of us girlfriends happy.

Adorable because she likes things with wheels. And simultaneously insists on wearing necklaces every day.

I thought I'd leave you this week with a photo essay to make you giggle a little bit. I bring to you now

The Anatomy of a Perfect Flirt

You may have heard a rumor that Alessandra enjoys flirting just a little bit. Enter our Sunday trip to IKEA. Daddy loves their delicious ice cream cones for $1. Enough to wait in a very long line for one.