A Summer in a Minute

Ok, I'm not a great blogger. I'm about 6 weeks behind. I know this. So I've decided that I have to do a blog blast of our summer, otherwise I will never feel like I can catch up. Here's a synopsis of the Cupak Summer:

June 25-30: Mike and Crissi went to St. Lucia for their 5th wedding anniversary. They scuba-ed, snorkeled, kayaked, tubed, lost a wedding ring, found it, ate a lot of food and got a lot spa treatments. Addie stayed home with Papa and Gigi and ate marshmallows.


July 4th weekend: The Cupaks met the Brookses in Sedona, AZ for a slightly cooler Independence Day.


July 22-31: The whole fam drove up to Orem, UT and spent the week pretending we'd never left. We lived with the Wann's and ate out as much as possible (Cafe Rio, Pizzeria 712, The Chocolate... how we miss you).


August 2-8: We drove over to Los Angeles on a combo work-personal trip. Crissi worked in the Beverly Hills office of her employer for a couple of days, then we spent the rest of the time oohing and aahing over our new niece / cousin, Drea Clausen. Then Addie got her first taste of the beach.

Now we are speeding toward the end of summer (August 29th, in this house). All we have left to do is a large pile of laundry.

{Insert Wizard of Oz Quote Here}

Day 2 of our Okie-crusted trip was dominated by a visit to the GW Exotic Animal Park near Wynnewood. This was the first day that we really felt the humidity. (We've actually decided that we prefer Phoenix summers to Oklahoma summers.) Addie's poor noggin was sweating after 10 minutes outside. Her hair has never been curlier:


Anyhoo, the park was truly one of a kind. It's mainly a refuge for unwanted exotic animals. You know, those idiots who think a tiger cub is cute until it eats their Maltese. And you get disturbingly close to the wildlife:



This particular guy was enjoying his nap and got a little nasty if you made too much noise:


And here's a little video that gives a little more perspective on how the park is set up, since Mike is moving around a bit, trying to get a tiger to charge the fence. He is successful, but because of the freezing-up nature of the video, you can only see the end of the excitement:

Should you frequent the Wynnewood area of Oklahoma, do check out this place out. There are something like 200 wild cats there, including a couple of Ligers. But I caution against wearing Flame by BK when you go.

Your Okie Roots are Showing

Despite our exotic surname, 2 of the 3 Cupaks have roots in the Great Plain state of Oklahoma (you can't say it without singing, right?). So last Wednesday, we packed up and headed to the formidable Masengale Family Reunion in Sulphur, OK.

Everyone has their own travel woes, so I won't bore you with the 'woke up at 3am, layover in Dallas' part of the story. Miss Thing hasn't been on a plane since she was young enough to sleep through the whole experience, but she did wonderfully. Of course, we had to relax some of our strict pacifier rules.


As everyone who flies out of Phoenix must these days, we flew over the wildfire. My brain clicked in 2 minutes too late to get a good picture, so here's a bad one (that's smoke, not clouds):


We landed in OKC around noon to find my mother already pulling our suitcase and carseat off the carousel. My Aunt Kaye had brought her car JUST for luggage, so she followed my Dad as we drove off to Sonic, Oklahoma's official restaurant. No one really knew where the closest one was, except for Fran, the trusty GPS. Like lemmings, we followed... as she led us in a roundabout circle. Finally it dawned - the closest Sonic was IN the airport. Attempt #2 was more successful, so we dutifully ate our Sonic burgers and drank our frozen lemonades (do try one) before driving 90 minutes southish to Sulphur.


Sulphur is unexpectedly quaint. It's definitely one of those 'can't find it on the map' types of places, but it does have a Walmart and a Sonic (see above), as is proper. There are also several antique homes, including the one we rented in old downtown called the Flower Bluff Mansion. It was built in 1924 by the mayor, which is earlier than 1960, my cutoff date for being unafraid of a house.


We threw down our stuff and attempted to get Addie to take a nap before trapsing off to my 2nd cousin's lake cabin to meet up with the extended fam. Dinner was relatively short, since we were exhausted, so we turned in early. And so ended of the beginning of our trip.

A High Time for Tea

You know me. I love tea. (end of poem)

I had my bridal shower at the Beehive Tea Room in Salt Lake City. I've dragged my family members to overpriced High Teas at the Grand America. I've made my long-suffering husband deign to be the only man in a tea house on multiple occasions. So I've been hankering for a good tea since we've been down in Phoenix, but I didn't know where to scratch the itch.

Enter Kimberly Ann's Tea Room in downtown Glendale. I went with some other med school wives - Emily, Adrianne and Rebekah (L to R):


Sure, it wasn't the most elegant of tea rooms I've been too, but they tried to keep it classy:


It was relaxing and mostly delicious, and an added bonus that we were seated in the aptly named Princess Room because the rest of the house was "booked up" (read: the tables hadn't been cleared). And then we found the dress-up box with the hats:


And I'm pretty sure I may have created a High Tea-sized hole in their hearts that will hunger to be filled on a semi-regular basis, as proved by the dreamy look in Emily's eyes:


This hunger has been temporarily abated, but be forewarned: I will need High Tea again. Some may welcome it; others (Mike) may dread it.

That's not a slide. THIS is a slide!

Community Church of Joy had a leetle carnival last Friday, so the Cupaks and the Brookses traipsed off to see what fun could be had for our children. While the older Brooks boys were enraptured by rides and cotton candy, our little one was more about the {your adjective here} music:

After a little walking, a little dancing, more walking (away from mom and dad) and dancing, we cojoled her into going on the largest slide she's ever seen. Twice.

The best $12 we've spent in a long time.

A Serious Post

My second ever Mother's Day was great - a new Coach purse (that's right, Brandy, a new one), a lovely lunch at with other moms and pre-moms and their families, a much-needed haircut and some 'me' time. But really, I just wanted to take time to tell you about my mom.

Alice was born during a nomadic period in her family. My grandparents traveled throughout the country, my grandfather as a pipe-liner and my grandmother raising her 3 girls in a motor home. They moved constantly; the longest they stayed in one place was 18 months. When my mom was 13 or so, they finally settled in Dustin, Oklahoma, population 600. By some miracle, my dad's grandmother lived in the same tiny town and on a visit from California, they met. By the fourth date, they were engaged.

Soon after my parents married, they moved to California. She left her family, her friends and her familiarity to be with my dad, so he could make the best living he knew how. Over the first 9 years of their marriage, my dad worked as a pastor, a bail bondsman, a dairyman, an ice cream truck driver, among other things. My mom had to put her plans aside and just be a supportive wife.

Finally, in 1979, without meaning to, my parents became parents. My mom's pregnancy went smoothly, but (it's no secret) my dad wasn't ready. Essentially, Alice was prepared to raise her child without any help from him. But then a second miracle happened - on September 13, they found out that they were having two babies. Somehow, that was the trigger for my dad. He was ready for this - excited even. Cassi and I were born five days later; Blll and Alice were new parents of identical twin girls.

They settled down in a house in Tulare, California, where they lived for 22 years. My sister and I never knew transition like they did. We had the stability as children that my mom didn't have. They somehow kept us in private Christian school through 8th grade, took family vacations every 6 months and sent us to ballet, jazz, tap and piano lessons as long as we wanted them. They couldn't have been wealthy, but we always felt rich. I am grateful, now more than ever, for the childhood I was given.

There is a rare kind of bond between mothers and daughters. There is sympathy, there is stubbornness, there is gentleness, there is rebellion. But what I didn't know was there until I had my own daughter is the inexplicable, unimaginable, unconditional love. And now that I have the capacity to return the love my mother has always felt for me, it means so much more to say this: Mom, I love you.



Oh and here is a little video Cassi and I made for our kids' Gigi:

Oh Soot!

Our little one has really taken to 2 word phrases. "Mommy Shoes", "Shoe On", "No School" and "My Cheese" have been recent additions. But we're starting to realize just how much she hears, only to internalize and repeat at a later time and place.

I have this habit of saying "Oh Shoot" - pretty sure my mom did too - when something slightly negative happens. Dropping something or missing my turn or braking hard enough where my purse falls on the floor are common uses. As these are typical occurrences while in the car, it should be no surprise that Addie has started mimicking me when she drops something while strapped in. Fortunately, it now comes out as 'oh soot', but when she first said it, it was much closer to the more secular version. Expletives have never been cuter!

Easter-pocalypse

This was Addie's first REAL Easter, where she semi-cared about egg hunts and Easter baskets and sugar cookies. (She may have cared about sugar cookies last year, but we didn't ask.) So like dutiful parents, we filmed the full Easter morning experience. This is almost 10 minutes long, so if you're inclined, please enjoy:

The final winners are the spinning light-up toy, the Discovery Toys marble-works castle and the Beanie Babies bunny, which she keeps calling a puppy. Whatever. She'll figure it out one day.

Next, we prepped for church. Mike talked me out of making Addie dress up in the slightest, claiming that her nursery teachers would be the only ones to see her. It was true, but I was robbed of any hope of Easter pictures as an appropriately-attired Christian family. I didn't even take photos of us as an inappropriately dressed family. Poop.

Easter lunch was with the Brookses, plus several other families from Mike's school. The kids were rambunctious, the lunch was delicious and the company was capricious. (Not really... just ran out of alliterative adjectives.) But just as is any event with children (and sangria), it's a blur. Don't ask for details.

Mike and Matt

L to R: Shira, Ali, Bekah, Crissi, Emily

Photo credit goes to Rebekah Brooks. I hope you don't mind that I stole these.

I Give Up

Well, this isn't really giving up. It's giving IN to the cry of the masses for more Cupak.

I've decided (independent from my family) that creating a blog for the occasional blog update is the easiest way to disseminate the answer to the enduring question "How are things?" Target audience members include people we used to live with or nearby, but no longer do.

Welcome to Cupcakes in the Desert. If you can't discern the logic behind the name, then you haven't thought to yourself "Hm, Cupak. That's pretty close to cupcake" and/or didn't know that we live in Phoenix. Ah, simplicity.