As Jason's car wasn't running this weekend, we ran a few errands together. At one point, he dropped me off at Kroger to turn in a prescription, and then drove Veronica to Tim Horton's for a snack.

At some point during their sojourn, Veronica uttered "Oh, dammit!" Which is one I haven't heard from her before, and neither has he. Jason told her, "Veronica, you can't say that word yet. That's a grown-up word. That's not a kids' word. You'll get in trouble if you say that."

Fast forward about an hour, when we're all in my car. Veronica is making up words in the backseat, stringing letters together to "spell" things.

"M E O R Y...H!" she exclaimed.

"What is M E O R Y H?" Jason asked.

And then she said, in a slightly haughty tone:

"No Daddy, you can't say that. That's a kids' word. That not a grown-up word. You say that, you get in trouble."

I laughed so hard, I had tears coming out of my eyes. I had to share that one. I'm still laughing at it.

Veronica is working on a puzzle of the United States. As she's been playing this game frequently (well, she sits on my lap and I place the states), she's beginning to learn some of the states. Ohio is where we live! Grandma and Grandpa live in West Virginia! Debbie's in Arizona! And so on and so forth, including places where we know no one, such as Kentucky.

So on her puzzle tonight, she pointed proudly at the one north of Texas, shaped like a saucepan, and said "That Oklahoma."

"Yes, Veronica, that is Oklahoma."

"Yeah." Pause. "It scary."

"Oh," I say, stiffling a laugh, "it's scary?"

"Yeah," she replies. "Scary and sad."

I lost it then. I've been there before, she has not, and yet I think she captured it about damn near perfectly.

He he he....

OK, a pictorial of our trip to Arizona.

First off, Veronica quickly adapted to airline travel, simply adoring the rush of take-off and the "bumps" of landing.

Debbie was there when we landed in Tucson. Our first stop was even before we'd gotten to her house, at the nearby Mission San Xavier de Bac. It was beautiful, and Veronica enjoyed the artwork, especially posing by a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe:

That night, Debbie made some delicious arroz con pollo for dinner. The next day, we headed out to Tohono Chul Park, where they had several gardens and examples of the local flora. Debbie was quite knowlegable about the plants, but Veronica had been awakened from a car-ride nap and was more than a little cranky:

Fortunately, it wasn't much longer until Debbie got her smiling again:

She especially perked up when we reached the children's garden, complete with a large stone rattlesnake that she walked upon, a fountain, birdhouses with furnishings inside, and a large sunflower photo-op:

Her favorite part of Tohono Chul Park, though, had to be the prickly pear lemonade. Pink and sweet, what's not to love?

We drove around Tucson some more. Veronica became quite adept at chilling in the backseat with her new Dora sunglasses, courtesy of Debbie:

Thursday found us at Sabino Canyon. It was quite chilly, and we had to break out the winter gear. In fact, the entire week was unusually cold for Tucson, leading to jokes that I must have brought Ohio's weather with me.

After a trolley ride into the canyon and a hike out, we checked out the dam and took advantage of a tour guide and another photo-op, before a giant saguaro cactus:

After Sabino Canyon, Debbie drove us up Mount Lemmon. We ended up over 8000 feet above sea level and got some gorgeous views, including this one of the sunset after our stop in the town of Summerhaven:

Friday's forecast called for rain, also unusual for Tucson. We used this as a chance to take Veronica to the Tucson Children's Museum. It had exhibits where kids could learn about fire safety, dinosaurs, the ocean, electricity, and how to make their own art. Veronica, however, preferred the play area for children under 4, where she built a pink foam block tower, of which she was very proud:

After the children's museum, we had lunch and then hit Tucson's 4th Avenue shopping district, as the rain had cleared by then. Veronica loved the Dia de los Muertos skeletons we saw everywhere.

Saturday morning, we went to the Hotel Congress for its "Dillenger Days", a reinactment of the 1934 capture of the John Dillenger gang at the hotel. We also stopped by the historic Amtrak station, where Veronica posed against the huge locomotive that was the first train to ever arrive in Tucson:

We then went to the art gallery town of Tubac, where we did a lot more shopping and looking around. Veronica was quite outgoing, introducing herself and talking to all the shop owners. She completely charmed the ladies running the kitchen shop of Tumacookery, to the point that they gave her a huge lollipop that she ate throughout the rest of the town:

Sunday arrived all too soon, and that morning we flew back. Veronica considered herself a seasoned traveler by then, even correcting me when we were coming in for landing that my tray table should have been up. (sigh)

All in all, we had a wonderful time, were very appreciative to Debbie, and can't wait to go back!