Trip Home

We made the drive from Arizona to Washington and stopped to see children and grand-children along the way.  But we ran into snow everywhere.

Snow snow snow - in Utah, Idaho, and even Washington.  This is Nathanael at our first stop in Utah, clearing the snow off our car for us.  

 Jacob and Jonathan.  We got to spend several days with Nathanael and his family.

 We got a stuffed dinosaur for Jonathan for his second birthday.

 We had a lot of fun playing with the kids and got to attend one of Hannah's dance lessons.

We also got to visit Amery and see the new home that she just bought.  Jacob and Hannah came with us.

Agnes and Asher.   Our second stop was Idaho where we got to spend several days visiting with Joshua and his family, and got more snow.

 We watched the children for a few days while Joshua and Rebecca were off on a trip to Washington DC.  Everything went fine.  The only problem was Elliott being sick.  He spent most of the time sleeping and laying on the couch.  Poor little guy.

Asher and Jonathan both just love playing with balls.   We got Asher the same stuffed dinosaur for his second birthday.

 Julia putting on a magic show.

 Elliott and Christian playing with little people and a castle.

 We went to church with each family in Idaho and Utah and Washington respectively.  Notice the matching ties.

 We got to Spokane and there was snow there too.  We even went sledding at night with James and Ashton.

 They really like the snow.

 We did find one warm place to go, Tianna took us to an Arboretum.

 James with his good friend Connor.

 We saw some incredible orchids.

 And we watched Ashton play on his Ward team in a basketball game at the church.  He's good at the three point line.

 On the way home we also stopped in Las Vegas and stayed at the Luxor pyramid.

 We saw a show and two exhibits and walked around the Strip and also Downtown looking at the sights and had a buffet breakfast.  It was a nice stop.

 This is our hotel room, right in the pyramid.  You can see the wall on one side is slanted.

 We got home and even had snow here.  We got back in time to celebrate Spencer's sixth birthday.

 And Mallory's eleventh birthday.  They grow up so fast.

We also saw Talitha and Caleb when we got home.  It's good to be back.

Within a short period of time we saw 6 of our children and 17 grand-children. (Jacob, Hannah, Jonathan, Amery, Julia, Ethan, Christian, Elliott, Agnes, Asher, James, Ashton, Evan, Dallen, Andrew, Mallory, Spencer).

Flatiron birthday hike climb

For my birthday Jacquelyn went on a hike with me in the Superstition Mountains.  We were trying to get to the top of Flatiron Peak.

 We made it, but it was hard, one of the most difficult hikes of our lives.  The trail was three miles up and three miles down. It was more rock climbing than hiking!

The arrow points to the top of Flatiron Peak in the Superstition Mountains.  The trail started out level but quickly got very steep.  We took our time and just kept going.

 As the trail progressed we soon got a views of Flatiron Peak raising up like a giant monolith.

 The trail was rocky and often involved rock climbing.

The trail ran up along a draw and went beside and then up the back and then top of Flatiron Peak.  This picture shows the ground way way below and gives a feeling for how high up we climbed.

 Another picture from the top.  We were so happy to have made it, but totally exhausted.  Going down was just as hard as going up, and we were tired.  We were so sore the next day we could hardly walk.

A picture of Flatiron taken by a drone.  It was a super fun hike.

Miners Needle Trail

This was a fun hike up into the mountains that lead to an interesting formation called Miners Needle.  We were with the Hiking Club and are getting to know some of the other hikers.

 We started out with lots of underbrush.

 We even came across a series of streams and pools.

 Then we got up into the mountains some and got a view of Miners Needle.

The weather was beautiful and we had a great hike.

Arizona Trail

This hike was along a segment of the Arizona Trail, which actually run all the way through Arizona from the Mexican border to the Utah border.  We went with the Hiking Club.

 The trail was flat but longer than any we had done before, about 6 miles altogether.  We had a nice sunny day, but it was a little chilly in the early morning.

 We saw some beautiful desert scenery and bluffs.

 This is a baby Saguaro Cactus growing in the middle of a nurse bush, with a Jumping Cholla Cactus behind it.  The Saguaro usually start out in a nurse bush which provides protection and prepares the soil.  After the Saguaro gets big enough it takes all the water and the nurse host dies.  The Jumping Cholla, Cylindropuntia Fulgida, is native to Sonora.  It can get 13 feet tall.  It gets its name from the fact that the stems are easily detached when brushed against, often just the merest tough.  Then it sticks to its victim.

Don't know what type of cactus this is that puts out this tall trunk and then dies.  This one has a black bird sitting on a nearby branch.

Young Saguaro with the mountains in the background.

Siphon Draw Trail and Christmas Vending Machine

This trail was called the Siphon Draw Trail and it goes about half way up the Superstition Mountains.

This was a guided Hiking Club tour.  At the top was this little waterfall, really rare for Arizona, but we had a good rain yesterday.   It was interesting to find water like this half way up the mountains.

 This was at the trailhead with the mountains in the background.

 A close up of Superstition Mountains.

 An interesting peak.  The mountains were quite jagged.

 At the draw it was all smooth rock.  Then it starts going up steeply.  We want to climb to the top here some day, which would be Flatiron Peak.

 For Christmas one day we bought some items at this vending machine in Gilbert.  It's sponsored by the Church.  You select an item and pay with your credit card and it gets donated to a family in need.

We bought a goat and some chickens and some trout farm starter kits and a few other items.  It was fun and will hopefully be of real help to some people.

Coon Bluff trail

We've really been enjoying our hiking.  It's one of our favorite things to do here in Arizona.

 This is a baby Saguaro Cactus, the type that grow really tall and has the cool arms.  They start out in some type of helper bush where the soil is broken up.  They only grow here in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona and Mexico.  It's the largest cactus in the United States.  They can live to be 200 years old and grow 60 foot tall and have up to 25 arms and weigh 5,000 lbs.  The roots only grow half a foot deep, but spread out sideways as far as the cactus is tall.  They're very slow growing, the one here is probably 10 years old.  It's covered in needle type spikes and makes a home for different types of birds.

 This is the hiking club group starting out.  More and more people each time we go.

 This hike was a little different in that it was totally flat.  We were following different washes and gullys.

 We were totally surprised when we ran across some wild horses.  Who would of thought to find wild horses in this dessert climate. 

 There was a young horse with the group.

 They were beautiful and kind of shaggy looking.

 We saw two, maybe three other groups during the hike.  Our guide said they flourish in that area and the wildlife rangers have to take measures to keep the population down or they would overrun things.

It was amazing to see wild horses, and up close too.  Still can't believe it.

Broadway Cave trail

We went on another hike with the Hiking Club and this time had more people.

 This is at the start of the trail, at the base of Superstition Mountains.

 Cactus and the Superstition Mountains.  The cave we hiked to is in the shadows somewhere in the middle.

 This is called the Jumping Cholla cactus.  You don't want to get close.

 Making our way up the trail.  It was flat at first.

 Then we started going up hill towards that cave in the middle of the picture.  Our guide actually lost the trail, if you can believe it, and could not find it.  But we could see the cave up the hill.  So we ended up working our way through the prickly desert vegitation as we climbed this hill to the cave.

 Beautiful bluffs.

 There was an actual cave at the top this time, not just an indentation in the rocks.  It was cool.

Looked like some prospectors at some time in the past may have mined into the cave.  There was no sign they found any gold or silver.