Getting to Work
Making New Friends
Pumpkin and I have also been finding a new MomTribe of friends here in town. I was pleased to find the Cottonwood Mamas Garden which meets every Thursday morning and often has 10-12 mamas and 12-15+ kids at a range of ages, but there are several right around Pumpkin’s age.
In all honesty, the groups can get slightly overwhelming for both of us with 20+ people (and lots of toddler excitement), but we’ve been connecting with a few mamas & toddlers from the group for private playdates too and that has been lovely! I definitely miss our MomTribe back home at times, but we’re opening our hearts to meeting some new wonderful friends here too.
For all of you who remind me that you’re living vicariously through our journey, I’m sure what you really want to hear about is the weather.
It Really is THAT Beautiful
Yep, as I write this I know that many of our friends up north are experiencing a truly frightening polar vortex with bitterly cold wind-chill and temperatures in the single digits and teens. Today, in Cottonwood the high will be 65 degrees F, and generally it’s been highs of 45-67 for all of the past several weeks.
Additionally, we’ve seen more rainbows here in the past few weeks than I’ve seen in years! Here’s one (pictured above) that we captured as we drove up Oak Creek Canyon on one of our first weekends in town.
Having had our share of scary New England winters, we are definitely loving the fact that we can go hiking and wandering around adorable little towns like Jerome, AZ in the middle of January often with just a light jacket.
Jerome, AZ has AMAZING views of the Verde Valley, delicious wine tasting rooms, and lots of eccentric and fun art galleries. Known as “the wickedest town in the west,” Jerome was a historic mining town that began its boom in the 1880’s. Then, after the copper mine tapped out in the 1950’s, it became a complete ghost town with abandoned buildings that were literally sliding down the mountain and crumbling into rubble.
Now it’s experiencing a revival of tourism, and even in the five years since we were last here it’s become quite a unique and colorful place to visit for a day or two.