Camping - June 2011

We're back from our first camping trip of the summer! We went to Knoll Lake, as usual.

Rob's sister Brigette and her family came with us - except for Rett; he had to work. Erin and Robbie really liked having their cousins there to play with! The weather was great, and it was a nice, smooth week.

Walking to the lake

There are two ways to walk to the lake - one is on a nice little trail, and the way we usually go is straight down a ravine at a 45-degree angle. The kids all did great on the hikes and nobody complained.

Cousins on a log - Ayla, Erin, Briana, and Robbie

The kids did all kinds of stuff to entertain themselves. They explored the dry creek and played on the "tree bridge" (just a log that fell over the creek bed), played tag, colored, read, made sharp sticks... all the important things you do when you're camping.

Brigette and Steven at the lake

Robbie at the lake - always holding a stick!

We got a good campsite that had three tables. It was quieter this time than the last couple of years, and we were camped next to a group of boy scouts who were very well-behaved.

Our campsite - the grills, fire ring & screen rooms

Looking the other direction at the screen rooms, plus the kids' tents.

I didn't get a shot of Brigette & Steven's tent.

Our tent - You can fit two queen-size matresses in there and still have room to walk around!

Ayla and Robbie in the lake - MIND-NUMBINGLY COLD WATER!

This is where we jump off the rocks. It's a long swim across the lake to the rocks, so this time we brought two kickboards so it would be easier for the kids to get across. Rob would go with them and hang out at the bottom. He would toss kickboards to the kids after they jumped in so they didn't have to swim as much.

Robbie wanted nothing to do with it, but the other kids jumped several times. So did Rob and Brigette. Steven stayed on shore and took pictures, and I was too cold by the time I swam over there; maybe it will be better in July.

Erin on the rock, Ayla in the water

Coloring in the screen room - Erin, Ayla, Robbie, Briana

On the way home - looking off the Mogollon Rim

Rob's truck hit a milestone on the way home - 100,000 miles! (No, he didn't take the photo at 70 mph, that was me... leaning over him while he drove - maybe that's safer?)

Rob and some of the kids saw some deer on one of our hikes to the lake, and Robbie and I saw a big fluffy-tailed squirrel. We watched big birds swooping down and snatching fish right out of the lake - that was something new.

It was nice to have Brigette & Steven and the kids with us, and we couldn't have asked for nicer weather! Our family will go again in a few weeks.

St. Patrick's Day Hike

This week is Erin's Spring Break. Rob and I were both able to take today off, so we had a nice day together as a family! We hiked up Camelback Mountain this morning. I hadn't done it for maybe 10 years, and I've been wanting Rob and the kids to go.

I guess this post is more for people who haven't hiked it, so you can see what it's like up there. The hike up Echo Canyon to the top of the camel's back is only a little over a mile, but it's tough. There are several places where you just have to tackle it hand & foot because you're just scramling over boulders.

You start out going up railroad tie steps for the first 1/4 of the hike, and then it gets steep. It pretty much stays steep after that. The fence below is to keep people from wandering down the mountain to the ultra-wealthy homes below, and to catch those who might slip and fall onto the ultra-wealthy homes below. You can see a handrail in the picture below. There are two spots with handrails.


Going up one of the less-steep handrail spots:


This cliff sort of looms over the trail after the handrail - probably over 100 feet high? The picture doesn't do it justice, so I took one on the way down of the same area.


I put a blue circle in this picture to show where we were when we took Erin's picture... a little better perspective.

This is near the top. Another blue circle around some people to give perspective:

At the top! So I'm the one who thought the hike was such a great idea, and I was the slowest one. I'm in much worse physical shape than the last time I did this!

We remembered to bring binoculars this time, so we got to check out the view for a little bit while we rested. I bought a hydration pack last night, and it was a good investment. Lugging water bottles up there would have stunk!

Erin on the way down. Downtown is on either side of her, right about armpit level. (No offense, downtown) The Estrella mountains are at her shoulder, and 44th Street is coming out behind her calf.

Robbie did great going up, but he was a little nervous going down. It's easier to slip on the way down. Rob hiked with him the whole way down and helped him when he got nervous. He was the littlest kid up there, except for a baby in a backpack carrier.

Here's a picture on the way down, looking at the camel's head.

We only had one minor casualty, and it was just a grand re-opening of a previous scrape. (I think she was a little proud of the blood trail, because several people commented on it on their way past)

We took our sweet time, going slow with plenty of rests, and it took 3 1/2 hours. We'll do it again sometime, but not soon. I'll be feeling this tomorrow!

I'm proud of the kids. They're good little hikers, and this was the toughest one yet. Nobody complained - a little nervousness in spots for Robbie, but they did it whine-free.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Tres Rios Festival 2011

Spring has sprung! That means it's time to enjoy the outdoors before it gets hot. We spent last Saturday at the Tres Rios Festival. There are always interesting things to see and do there. The kids had fun, but Robbie wasn't feeling very cooperative with the camera most of the time. Exhibit A:



The first thing we did was fish in the little pool. It's a guaranteed catch for the kids, and the volunteers bait the hooks and remove the fish and everything.


...which was especially great in comparison to our attempt at "real" fishing. I am no fisherman! We basically just donated worms to the river because apparently I don't know how to attach them to the hooks well enough and we lost them with almost every cast. Many a worm died in vain that day. Still nice to be at the river.


We got to take a hayride from the festival to the river, which the kids got a kick out of. Kids just don't get to ride on open trailers or in the backs of trucks or ride their bikes off cliffs as much as we got to when we were little. So that was a novelty.


Robbie was disappointed that he couldn't do archery this year because he was too young. They let him last year, so I'm not sure what the new age cutoff is. Erin got to do it, though.


They had her hang around a little bit after the rest of her group finished so someone from the AZ Republic could take her picture. They posted it on azcentral here - she's in the fifth photo of nine if you want to check it out. She thought that was really cool!

Other stuff we got to see and/or pet: Burro, desert tortoise, monitor lizards, crocodile, pythons, rattlesnakes, scorpions, owls, burrowing owls, falcons, vultures, squirrels, prairie dogs, hummingbirds, various skins (wolf, javalina, mountain lion). And there were lots of neat displays by different wildlife groups, power companies, etc., etc. All of which had free crap - er, promotional items - to hand out. You know, pens & things that are kinda neat when you're there, but when you dump it all out at home you realize you brought home a bag of crap. But a treasure for the kids!

We had a fun day in the spectacular weather! Next up - the Aloha Festival.

Police & Marines

On Saturday, Rob had to umpire and Erin went along with him. She really likes going with him, and it's probably good for her and Robbie to have some time away from each other.

So it was just me and Robbie. The Tolleson Police Department was having an open house of their new station, so we dropped in. It's a pretty neat building, and since we went near the end of the open house time, our little tour was just me, Robbie, and a detective. That was cool becuase he let Robbie push buttons & stuff. I ended up not taking any pictures because it seemed weird to take pictures while the guy was talking to just us. Anyway, Robbie loved the police station, and one of his new prized possessions is the badge pin they gave him.

After the tour, we went over to the Cardinals stadium because our nephew Rett was competing in this day-long event for all the Marines recruits in Arizona. We met up with Sandy and Dan there, and we watched some impressive rounds of tug-of-war between different groups of recruits. It was a great day to be outside!

None of my pictures were very good. It's hard to get a good shot when you're trying to photograph a huge group of hundreds of people. None of the pictures do it justice, but here are a couple of attempts. Here they are lining up to go inside for the closing ceremony:


And here's Rett's group. He's in the 2nd row, and he's the 4th from the left, including the guy holding the flag.



There was a bit of standing-around time between events or while groups took pictures, so Robbie and I explored a little and I got some pictures of him.


I think this next one is my favorite.

You can see the police pin on his shirt in this one.

Then we went inside. The grass was outside basking in the sun. I thought it was neat that they put the Marines logos up on the jumbo trons & scoreboards.


This was just less than half the entire group. I think Rett's group was the 3rd from the left, but it was hard to tell.

It was pretty cool. At the very end, they all stood at attention and the crowd stood while the Marine hymn played. Very patriotic and made us proud of Rett!

The Suns Game

We got to go to the Suns/Bobcats game last night! For no apparent reason, our credit union mailed us two tickets a couple of weeks ago. We found two more tickets really cheap so the kids could go with us.

The credit union gave us lower-level seats right by the Suns tunnel, and the pair we bought were upper-deck. Erin hasn't been to a Suns game since she was a baby, so she didn't remember ever going, and this was Robbie's first time. They LOVED it!

The dancers were hanging out in the lobby taking pictures with people. Erin was happy to get a picture with them, but Robbie was too shy. (he'll kick himself when he's about 15!)


These were great seats! The Suns bench was just off the left side of this picture. Rob and Erin sat in the lower level and Robbie and I took the other seats.


The good thing about the upper deck is that you have a little wiggle room up there when the game isn't sold out. Robbie was SO excited! He's usually sort of embarrassed to cheer or clap along at stuff like this, but he was really into it. He liked yelling "DEFENSE!" and he always got excited when he saw Steve Nash. This was one happy boy!


Rob and I were going to trade kids at the 4th quarter, but the usher just let us go in and sit in the empty seats by Rob and Erin! So we got to enjoy the loss from the good seats. When the game ended, Rob brought the kids down by the floor for some high-fives. Erin was ecstatic that she got a high-five from one of the players! Robbie couldn't quite reach, but it didn't bother him. It was one of the bench players that high-fived Erin, but in the blur of people, we couldn't actually tell who it was. Erin squealed when she told me about it, and she was impressed that "His hands were huge!" It was pretty cool. Here are some of the players heading through the tunnel.

We had a great time! It was fun to see the kids getting into it. I think the Suns were only ahead once during the game, but it was nice just to be there.

Fat Man Revisited

On Saturday, the kids and I went back to South Mountain to finish our hike to Fat Man's Pass. The weather was perfect! This was the hike that we failed to complete back in May because it was just too hot.

We hiked up from the bottom again. I mapped it after we got home, and it was about 4 miles round-trip. Not too gueling, but enough to work up a little sweat.


There are great views of the city the whole way up (although Robbie was disappointed that I forgot the binoculars). Once you get to the top, the trail winds back into an area called "Hidden Valley" and there are no traces of the city at all.

This is on top of Fat Man's Pass - really cool giant boulders.


...and this is why it's called Fat Man's Pass. There's a foot-wide opening where you can squeeze between the two boulders and continue on the trail.


After squeezing though, we got to explore under the boulders. It was a great place to cool off, with the breeze, the shade, and the nice cool rocks.


Checking out the boulders on the other side.


Looking down at the kids inside the pass:

We climbed up on top of the rocks and decided to hang out for a while before hiking back down. It would've been a great place for a picnic, but I didn't plan for one. We met this little guy up there! Isn't he cute? We also met several of his friends.

The chipmunks weren't too scared of people; I'm sure they've had plenty of snacks from hikers. We didn't have anything to offer, but he still approached us. He sniffed my hand and scurried away, so Erin patiently put her hand out the same way... and he took a little nibble of her thumb! She thought it was hilarious.

Of course, Robbie needed to do it, too. And our little friend happily obliged and nibbled his finger. It surprised him, so he sort of jumped & said "ouch!" and immediately started laughing his head off. He was thrilled!

Mother of the Year for exposing the kids to rabies or whatever ailments chipmunks may carry! But these kids love animals, so this made their day. I have to say I was pretty happy about it, too - I have a little thing for squirrels & chipmunks.

Then we headed back down the mountain.

Christmas 2010

Christmas seems so long ago! Probably because it was.

Most of our shopping was done early and we were able to relax and enjoy the Christmas season this year!

My parents came over on Christmas morning. We stayed up pretty late Christmas Eve, so we had to wake the kids up. They certainly didn't have any problems getting out of bed! Here are a few pictures.

This one looks staged, but it totally wasn't! The kids checking out all the presents that weren't there when they went to bed.

Robbie with a new car carrier

Erin's big present was a Nintendo DSi XL - she really didn't think she'd get one! Santa Claus is full of surprises.

Robbie opening his big crane from Grandma & Grandpa - a week or so before Christmas (after all the shopping was done) he decided he REALLY wanted a "big crane". He absolutely loves it! Almost everything in the house has been hooked to the crane and lifted or towed somewhere.

Another one of Erin's favorites was her ASU hoodie. This has become her jacket, and she wears it as much as possible.

After stockings, we had breakfast and got ready for the day. We cleaned up the aftermath, and then we went over to Rob's sister Brigette's house for Round 2. It was a full day!

Erin also got a new dress, and Robbie got some new ties. He loves his new orange tie - he just didn't love having his picture taken the next morning before church. Can't say that I blame him.

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!