Thanksgiving 2009!

This year we were lucky to have 4/5 my children (Mary and Jeff missing) and Don's 2 daughters come for TG.  I thought I took more pix than I did and definitely need someone else taking pix when we all gather as too many things are on my mind than recording it all!  We sure enjoyed watching the kids/grandkids get to know each other a little bit.  I wish I had taken each family's pix.  We need to do the weekend all over again and focus on more pix!

Sisters sharing secrets and being silly. 

Rylan Harmon

After TG dinner we went rock climbing which was great fun for all these boys!  Here is Skyler Chase going 1st!

Isabela wants to rock climb too!

Trevor Chase

Trevor did great!

I called Amanda (Aaron's friend) spider woman because she scaled the rocks like a pro.

Mark MacArthur (Jme's husband) made it!

Stacie with their new puppy. 

All the kids loved playing games with Mark

Don and Kristi checking black Friday's ads to see how they compare to yardsale prices!

Brooklyn (Heidi and Bruce's) is hoping no one catches her sneaking into the bathroom to play in the potty!

The game Aaron played as a kid was a favorite (knock the army man over with a marble)

Amanda found her very own chair!

Another game

Happy Brooklyn!

Rylan was so cute to collect favorite rocks where ever we went.  Sat. I took Stacie's boys to Roper Lake and he had his pockets full! 

So sad the weekend with everyone here passed too quickly!  Thanks all for coming!

Ash Creek trail going up Mt. Graham 11-16-09

We headed up for a hike today on the Ash Creek Trail. It was a glorious day for a hike!
While we were eating lunch by the creek I looked over and saw this little cactus growing out of the rock. What a cute little guy.

Some of the trees were turning and so very pretty.

If you look closely almost in the middle of the picture you can see our new Temple! It will be dedicated next April or May and we are so excited! We just had Sk. Conference and heard from Pres. Keith Crockett who was recently called to be the Gila Valley Temple Pres. We loved his talks (and all the others!)

These pix of the two of us are always a little dorky 'cause for some reason I am elected to set the camera on auto and run for the pose before it clicks. This was such a pretty spot - called Oak Flat we think.

Oak Flat - too bad the pictures don't show just how pretty it was. We hiked forever to reach this spot and just as the hike was getting interesting we had to turn around and come back. We started at 10:40 and returned to the car at 4:30 and were pooped!

We went to Tucson last Thur. and it was fun to spend a little time with Mark, Jme and cute little Isabela who is 2 going on 12! We watched the movie UP with them and in one part she turned around to her daddy and asked "what is going to happen next daddy!?"

Rock Climbing w/Kamala and Chad 11/7/09

Kamala and Chad love to rock climb but I have never watched them so I went along today. One of the places they go is located off the hwy to Clifton in a slot canyon. It is a fun walk to this gorgeous canyon.
Chad is attaching the carabiner (?) to the hook in the wall.

Chad has been doing this since high school and makes it look so easy!

Kamala goes up.

Almost to the top - well not even the top! I was surprised they didn't go all the way to the top but Chad said that isn't the purpose. I would want to stand on the very top and look around! You climb all that way and don't even to go the top??? Now as a hiker I just don't get that.

Aren't they a cute climbing couple? I'm sure their kids will be rock climbing at a young age.

Fall on Mt. Graham Matt and Kristin Halloween

Matt and my niece Kristen came by with their cute kiddos Halloween night. Kristen made their costumes from the play Wicked. They all looked so cute!
Pix from Mt. Graham. I just love fall colors and wish we saw more of them here!

Chiricahua's with Kristi, Connor and Skyler 10/15/09

After an immensely stressful busy 15 hr day at work Wed. Don and I were able to leave Thur am for a few days at the Chiricahua's. Don's daughter, Kristi was able to meet us there with her two youngest boys. It was great fun seeing them again and watching the boys enjoy the cool stuff there. It is a boy's paradise (as long as they don't get hurt!) The next pix is a deer that was walking up the trail we were walking down. We finally bored him and he bounded up the cliff like he had wings. Doing things like this totally rejuvenates me to go back to the stressful job.
The rock formations are so amazing there! You can see for miles in some places.

Connor and Skyler having quite the adventures exploring.

They are very good climbers! Skyler is 9 and Connor is 5. We all did a 4.2 mi hike and the boys did very well! Kristi is doing a great job starting them young hiking. We met an older man on the trail that was glad to see 2 youngsters hiking. He said "I can't get my grandkids to leave the tv set."

Isn't this amazing? This was taken on the Echo Canyon trail down to the Grottos. I wished my grandkids could have enjoyed the hike with us. All the kids would have loved the grottos!

There were many Mexican jays at our campsite.

They got quite assertive! This one jumped onto my lap and grabbed this bread!

The temps were warmer than we anticipated but we had a very enjoyable time. We love the Chiricahua's!

Weekend at Time Out For Women with Kamala

I spent a few days in Mesa and attended 'Time Out For Women' which is an event sponsored by Deseret Book. We heard wonderful speakers: Brad and Debi Wilcox, John Bytheway, Emily Watts, Emily Freeman, Wendy Ulrich and Kris Belcher and heard music from Jenny Oaks Baker and Kenneth Cope. We laughed, cried and soaked in the wonderful feeling of being amongst such wonderful people (1800 women!)
It was fun to spend this time with Kamala. She is currently working 2 jobs while Chad is in school full time and needed this time out as much as I did! She is such a fun person to be with and I love hearing her stories.
I enjoyed 2 good walks while in Mesa also. Thur. morning I went with Stacie, Carson and her friends along the canal and walked/jogged for 1 hr 15 min. I love a good workout first thing in the morning and wish I could do that every morning. Fri. I went with Austin and went almost as far and had a very good talk with my oldest grandson. Gosh I love that kid. I wish I had gotten a pix of us walking/talking. He is such a reader that he is fun to talk to.
My moms birthday was a few days ago. Lately I have been hearing her tell me something she said a lot as I was growing up "A place for everything and everything in it's place." I have been trying to declutter and keep things in their place! I am so blessed to have such a mother as I have.

Quading at Gila Box Area 10/06/09

We went to the Gila Box area to ride our quad on a gorgeous day. This is actually called Jones Road but should have been called Rocky Road! I took the picture riding on the back so you see our lunch container on the front. We saw 4 deer right off the bat which was fun, 2 mamas and 2 babies.
There are always gorgeous flowers on our outings!

We went where we shouldn't have and tried to find our way to another road by going down this wash. We weren't successful in finding the road so we had to backtrack. A friend from work, Neil, came too and he had a great time. He tried to go over this log but they ended up moving it.

They had to make a path much of the time down this wash. Don would often say "now I know what the pioneers went through." Lol.

One rocky wash!

Neil saw this rattle snake slithering across the road so we stopped to take a pix of it. I think it is a Mohave Rattle Snake and sure was ready to strike! As much as Don and I are out in the desert this was the first rattle snake we have seen.