Travel – The Rottman Family Adventures

Mt Lemmon and Friends

May 13, 2015 by Beth Leave a Comment

Once again, I cannot keep up on the blog so here is a quick recap. We were able to spend time with several friends at the beginning of the year that we do not get to see often enough. What a huge blessing! We miss so many of our dear Tucson friends and feel so at home when we are with them.

Clara just loved “Miss Natawee” and Liam. It was so good to see them for a few days!

David, ErinStacy, and Asher came by while they were in town. I wish we had gotten a picture of everyone but made David and Jeff quickly smile for the camera before they left. It was our first time to meet sweet Asher!

Jeff took a few days off in January, and we went to Mt Lemmon. It was so nice to get away and stay in a cozy cabin! It snowed the previous weekend, so there was still plenty on the mountain. Clara had the best time playing in it and even got new boots just for the snow. This was her first real snow experience.

Nina seemed to enjoy the cabin as well. It was a great opportunity for her to wear the “magic snowsuit.” After Clara wore it while we visited Natalie and Liam in Alexandria at about 5 months and slept for around 6 hours straight while we wandered the town, we decided it was magic. It seemed to be pretty magical for Nina as well.

Nick and Betsy visited while we were at the cabin, and we were able to see Silas and meet Amelia! Amelia and Nina are only a few days apart and hopefully will be great friends!

A Wedding and the Beach

August 21, 2014 by Beth 1 Comment

Since I missed some blogging over the last several months, I may play a little catch up. We all went back to Mississippi in May for a good friend’s wedding that Jeff was honored to be a part of — congratulations Mark and Hayley! The wedding was great, and we had such a good time seeing friends! It’s not too often that we get to spend time with them.

Unfortunately, Jeff had to head back to work after the wedding while Clara and I stayed and traveled to the beach with my family. We had a great time! This was really Clara’s first real beach trip. It was so much fun being at the beach with family and all being together for several days. Clara really enjoyed her time with her cousins. Anna Ruth even took her first steps while we were there– and to her Aunt Beth! I was thrilled! We did lots of playing at the beach, eating good food, and just enjoying time together. Thank you Nana and Pops!

And one of my favorites from the trip…

Whidbey Island

August 1, 2014 by Beth Leave a Comment

On our way to Whidbey Island, we spent the morning at a blueberry farm. This is not something we can do around Phoenix, and we had a great time! Clara really likes blueberries. She quickly caught on to picking them from the bushes but mostly put them straight into her mouth. The few that made it to her bucket only lasted there for a few seconds.

We stopped in La Conner for lunch and a quick walk around their downtown. What a quaint place! Then we headed to Whidbey and arrived at our cabin that afternoon. It was lovely! I can definitely see the charm of living somewhere like Whidbey. I love the mix of mountains, forests, and beaches.

The cabin we rented had a marked trail to the beach, so we headed that way. Little did we know that it was a trek with lots of stairs down into the woods and finally a crazy set of stairs down the bluff to the beach. It was gorgeous! So private and beautiful!

We visited Langley that evening for dinner at Prima Bistro with great views of the water.

Rain was predicted the next day so we decided to stay around Whidbey and have more of a relaxing day. We spent the morning hiking the bluff trail at Ebey’s Landing. Even with the misty, cloudy day, the hike was beautiful. Clara enjoyed seeing huge snails, slugs, and bunnies. I don’t think I have ever seen snails like these. Maybe the ones in Mississippi are just puny and these are just normal sized? She really did like seeing the snails but just not when they got too close…

We stopped in Coupeville for lunch at Ciao. Later, we briefly visited Double Bluff Beach and then had a steak dinner at the cabin.

On our last full day, we went to Deception Pass and were so glad we did! It was beautiful and the weather that day was great. Clara really enjoyed the beach, meeting new random friends, and petting any dogs nearby.

We had lunch at Knead and Feed in Coupeville and wandered in some of the shops. We stopped in Langley to see downtown again and then headed back to the cabin with a sleepy child.

We took the ferry back to Seattle the next day and stopped in to see the Flagship REI. This was one of the things on Jeff’s to do list while in Seattle. It was impressive! We are all three fans of REI, and this one did not disappoint. Clara always enjoys the tents, kayaks, and bikes. We had lunch near Pike Place and visited the “guy throwing fish” again since it had been such a hit. Unfortunately, Clara was scared this time and did not want to get too close.

Overall, we really had a great trip and were so thankful for the time together!

Seattle’s House

August 1, 2014 by Beth 1 Comment

We decided to take a family trip to Seattle this summer– to escape the oppressive heat of Phoenix, to get in one last trip before we become a family of four, and to travel before we have to start paying for an extra full price plane ticket after Clara turns two (ouch). Side note: We are having a baby! Baby girl Rottman is coming around Thanksgiving this year. We could not be more excited for this gift and thank our Heavenly Father for another child! More on that later… Back to Seattle, we have some great friends from Seattle that made us so excited to visit after hearing them talk about the city and who also gave us some great tips. Before the trip, we decided we were going to take public transit and forgo renting a car until necessary. So, we arrived at the airport, took the light rail to downtown, and then took a bus that stopped within feet of the house we rented for the next several days. This may sound easy, but with a toddler and lots of luggage, it was an adventure. Jeff did a great job finding us a house to rent which was only a few blocks from Green Lake. We had been talking to Clara about visiting Seattle, and about a week before we left she started randomly saying, “I wanna go to Seattle’s house.” So, here we are at Seattle’s house and here is Clara embracing Seattle style in front of our rental house. This was mostly her doing, including the nice headband.

We spent the sunny afternoon walking around the lake, canoeing, and playing on the playground. This was Clara’s first time on a boat, and she had been talking about it for a while. “I want to ride in canoe.” She and Jeff had done some trial runs in kayaks and canoes at REI. She was ready! She enjoyed it for the most part and was pleased to “help” me paddle. So we did it all that day– a plane, a train, a bus, and a boat.

We spent the next day in downtown. We had breakfast at The Crumpet Shop (another great tip from friends) which even Clara enjoyed and then headed to Pike Place Market. Jeff and I have decided that this one of Clara’s favorite things from the trip. She has talked about it every day since then, “man/guy throwing fish. market. fun.” It has been the subject of many crayon and magnadoodle drawings.

We saw the first Starbucks, cheese being made at Beecher’s, fun street performers… Clara was enthralled by a band with a violin, banjo, washboard, and stringed bucket. We then headed towards the Space Needle, had a burger at Dick’s, and played at the Children’s museum. Whew… then we rode the monorail back to downtown. Clara fell asleep as we made our way to Ivar’s for dinner. She woke up just in time to join in on the fun of feeding chips to the seagulls.

The next day was dominated by our visit to the zoo. Clara loves the Phoenix zoo, but it has pretty much been off limits for the last month and for the next few with our 100+ temperatures. The Seattle zoo is great! We walked the 1.5 miles there from our house and then spent almost 5 hours wandering the zoo… tiring but fun. One highlight was feeding the giraffes…

We really appreciated how well you could see the animals with many exhibits having several places to view. We caught the bear at the perfect time and found a little window only a few feet from him eating a cantaloupe. Clara is at a really fun age right now and loves to recount her day. This is one of the things that she mentions, “Bear ate cantaloupe. I saw it” or “I feed giraffe.” She also liked the hippos which is a favorite animal right now and one that we don’t have at our zoo. After the long zoo visit, Clara took a 3+ hour nap. We finally woke her up to go to the park while Jeff walked to a nearby sushi place to get takeout for dinner.

The next day included biking around the city. We saw the Fremont Troll, Gas Works Park, The Ave, and the University. Clara was at first scared of the troll but warmed up to him a little before we left. She talks a lot about him too, “Troll under bridge. I scared. Troll making noise.”

Gas Works Park was beautiful with great views of the city.

We ate at a great Thai place on The Ave, Thai Tom. It is such an interesting shift now traveling with a child. The small, cramped Thai place wasn’t quite the same with a 2 year old. Of course, she certainly adds a lot to our travels, and we are happy to see her enjoying and learning new things! Jeff picked up a car that evening for our trip to Whidbey the next day, so we took advantage of having our own transportation and headed to Queen Anne for dinner. We walked to Kerry Park which was breathtakingly beautiful with a clear view of the city and Mount Rainier in the distance.

Molly Moon’s ice cream was next. This was another recommendation and was well worth the trip!

Thanksgiving in Pine

January 28, 2014 by Beth Leave a Comment

We decided to rent a cabin in the mountains for Thanksgiving just to get away as a family. We had a really good time! It was beautiful there and relaxing. It was cold for us but we enjoyed bundling up and having a constant, cozy fire in the cabin. It was great to be outside and let Clara explore the woods. She learned about pine cones and acorns for the first time I think. They are just not very plentiful around Phoenix! We hiked at Tonto Natural Bridge State Park. It was amazing! We went to an outdoor Christmas festival in Payson and even met Santa Claus in the small city hall of Pine after their Christmas parade. We managed to cook a pretty decent Thanksgiving dinner in our small cabin after bringing all of our food from home. This was our first family vacation with just the three of us (plus Walcott), and we hope to do it again soon!

Houston

November 25, 2013 by Beth 2 Comments

We went to Houston in September for the Mississippi State/OSU game. It’s the first State game I have been to since I graduated (which has been a while), and only Jeff’s second. Of course, it was Clara’s first time to see Mississippi State. Sadly, we did not get to see a win but we did get to see several friends that we hadn’t seen in a while.

We spent Thursday evening with Devin, Sally, and Avery and had a great time catching up. Jeff and Devin were roommates during a summer internship with Dow and had a surprising amount in common. This was our first time to meet Sally and Avery, and it turns out that Sally is a speech pathologist too (so even more in common). Clara and Avery are close in age and had a great time together at dinner. Too bad we cannot hang out more often!!

Jeff, Clara, and I went to the zoo on Friday and had a great time. We really like their zoo! They have an awesome children’s area that Clara just couldn’t fully appreciate yet. Maybe we will have to check it out again.

Friday evening we went to Maggie and John’s for a football kick-off party before the game the next day. It was great to see all of the Whites and meet some of their friends from Katy. We are normally all reunited just at Christmas, so this was an added bonus to see them at a less hectic time. Maggie and John were great hosts, and it was fun to get a glimpse into their life in Katy.

We met up with Grant, Allison, and Allison’s family at the game. It was so good to see them after several years! Several years?? Yeah, I think it really has been that long. We were all in each other’s weddings, except for Grant missed ours since he was in South Korea at the time (something I was reminded of when we saw them– I just imagine our wedding with Grant there I guess). Jeff and I both remember one of Grant and Allison’s first dates at their fraternity Christmas party when we all ended up hanging out in Jeff’s room.

On Sunday, we went to an Astros game with Grant and Allison. Although baseball isn’t really our thing, we had a good time just hanging out.

Mt Lemmon

November 24, 2013 by Beth 1 Comment

In early August, we met Ryan, Yunuen, Matt, and Dana on Mt Lemmon for a long weekend. It was so nice to relax and just enjoy time to hang out with good friends. Of course, we ate some wonderful food and even had pairings of wine for each meal and after dinner cigars for the guys thanks to Matt and Dana.

Mississippi

November 18, 2013 by Beth 1 Comment

In July, Clara and I were able to go back to Mississippi to visit family while Jeff went to California for a visit with Steven and work training. Jeff is officially part of the Rotation program now as the rest of his class joined him in training and began work in July. Clara and I spent our first day in Jackson with the Rottmans/Shirleys. Clara and Tucker are only a few months apart and were both so different from the last time they were together.

Mary Frances arrived back in MS after a semester in Spain. It was so much fun to welcome her home! While our parents were off at a high school reunion, Mary Frances, Stephen, Clara, and I headed to Petal to visit the Kolvites who just moved back to MS. Sibling road trip! We haven’t been all together like that in a long time… Clara and I met our newest cousin/niece for the first time. Anna Ruth is a cutie and content just hanging out. It was great to finally meet her. We were even able to celebrate both Clara’s birthday and my birthday.

We spent the rest of our time at Nana and Pop’s just hanging out, picking blueberries, going fishing, and doing other fun things that you do in Mississippi. I was awed by all of the green during this trip. It’s beautiful! I think I miss green even more now after moving to Phoenix. We are mostly back in MS during the winter, so it was really fun to see everything green for a change. Clara was not a huge fan of the grass, but she did enjoy just being outside on the swing or in the pool or slip’n slide.

Thanks to Pops and his fishing wisdom, I caught the biggest fish that I ever have (or at least that I can remember). Since moving from Mississippi over six years ago, the fish in our lake have gotten HUGE. This one was over 5 lbs.

In my mind, Pops knows all about fishing. I still love going out to our land and spending time with him as we fish– even when we aren’t very successful. Our family has some great memories out on our lake! I am excited for Pops to teach Clara and share his love for fishing with her.

All of the kids (minus Jeff- missed you!) cooked an anniversary dinner for Nana and Pops. 35 years!! Love you both!

Madrid

May 29, 2013 by Beth Leave a Comment

We went to Spain! We had an incredible opportunity to visit España again (this time with Clara) and travel with my family. We decided to go for it! Clara did amazingly well. We left on a Thursday evening and arrived in Madrid Friday night. We checked into our little apartment in the city and found a place to eat. The two pictures below are from our first dinner in Madrid at Mano a Mano. Paella, yum! Clara slept only a few hours in total on the way over and was ready to go to bed that night. Jeff and I were right there too with maybe 2 hours of sleep between us. Our apartment was on the ground floor and open to the courtyard but had little natural light. We went to bed around midnight, and Jeff and I woke up at 3:30 the next day. At that point, we woke Clara. What? Guess we all needed some sleep.

After waking up Saturday afternoon, we headed to the Reina Sofia museum. Luckily, Spain time is much later and the museum was open until 9. A highlight was seeing Picasso’s Guernica, a city in Northern Spain in the heart of the Basque Country that was bombed in the 1930’s. The bombing was actually carried out by Hitler in cahoots with the Nationalist leader at the time, Franco, during the Spanish Civil War. We later went through the town of Guernica during our tour of the Basque Country. Clara slept through most of our museum tour but her favorite part was by far this hallway with sculptures of heads. She squealed at them as if they were real and was hoping they would talk back to her.

Sunday was our 6th wedding anniversary and my first official Mother’s Day. What a way to celebrate in Spain! We grabbed breakfast at a cute cafe just down the street from our apartment and headed to the infamous Bernabéu. In case you aren’t familiar, this is the home of Real Madrid, Jeff’s favorite soccer team. Unfortunately, they were playing out of town while we were in Madrid. The second best thing was a tour of the stadium.

This was a big moment for Jeff…

View from the President’s balcony

We were even able to see the players’ dressing rooms, tunnel, and sit in the benches.

After all of the touring, we relaxed in a square in the heart of Madrid, Plaza Mayor. We drank café con leche and mojitos and people watched. Clara learned to just eat on the go wherever we happened to be.

So this thing was hilarious and creepy at the same time… It’s a street performer dressed as maybe a llama? The mouth is wooden and made a click noise as it opened and closed, and he had a bell between his antlers. Needless to say, he attracted any children nearby. We watched as kids braved getting close enough to toss a coin in the jar in front of him which caused him to break out in a dance. Clara was pretty entertained.

The rest of the family arrived in Madrid late that night, and we enjoyed dinner together at an Indian restaurant. It was so fun to see everyone! Clara made friends wherever we went, and the waiters at this place were no exception. As we left, they gave us a local bottle of wine and a bottle of pineapple juice for Clara. I’m telling you, she has fans already!

Clara’s Passport

April 26, 2013 by Jeff Leave a Comment

We got Clara’s passport in the mail today. Now we’re all set for the Spain trip next month. Her picture is hilarious. It’s funny to think this will be good for 5 years.