August 15, 2009 - Grand 'Edvendture' - a collage of our fun!

 

Another Grand 'Edventure' experience

Today we headed off with the local grandkids for another grand 'edventure'. This time our starting point was in Pine Valley. We drove to the Whipple Valley Trailhead (after a pit stop in route) and took a little hike behind the camping areas. Then we headed down to the very end of the road and went on another hike (an old neighbor we met up there told us about it)in search of butterflies and wild raspberries. We hiked from 10-12:45 and covered quite a bit of ground. We did find the raspberries and also some currants and lots of butterflies. When we started getting hungry we headed back to the car and then had a picnic by the stream. There were some very funny faces made during lunch when some people started stuffing grapes in their cheeks and under their lips. We saw a paper wasp nest. We decided we were tough enough to wade in the icy stream water...but not for long! After our bellies were full and our feet clean it was time to head home. After one last pit stop, we took off. One the way up we sang lots of songs and on the way home Grandpa told some great stories about when he was a boy. It was a fun 'edventure' and we hope to head off on another one some time in the near future!

Brenden showing his alligator teeth!

This boy loves to smile... and now he has teeth to do it with. He also loves this our alligator. What a smiley pair they make.

The nest is empty...boo hooing...Supe's send off party.

Well, within the last couple of weeks we have had the last two kids move out. Bean moved out to be close to work and further from us! Supe packed it up yesterday to head off to Logan for continued education. It's a good thing that I'm still feeling the sadness as I clean up after them, or I might be feeling crabby about the messes they left behind! I hope their new 'edventures' will be sweet and that they know they can always drop in for a free meal, to do a load of laundry or pick up a new toothbrush. We are missing both of these wonderful sons and feeling a little like two lonely old people and a cat who need to adjust. Thankfully J.J. slept over last night and says he will drop by the check on us every so often. Change is inevitable - as they say, but it kind of hurts while you get used to it. Cooking for just two people is going to be strange...but nice:o) We can have oatmeal every day if we want and no one will be wishing otherwise.

Navajo Bridge area & the fox

 

Fox in rocks...one last trip before school starts!

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to go back to school on the 13th. Can't wait to meet all the new little kindergartners, but I will miss just being able to take off at a moments notice and go on rock trips with Paul. Monday afternoon I rode up to New Harmony with him to look at a possible job. The people want some stone for it that we need to locate. On the way home he decided he needed to head over to AZ to check it out, so as soon as we got home we loaded up the tent, sleeping bag, etc. and left. We had a great dinner at Jacob's Lake and a great camp at our regular spot in the forest outside Flagstaff. I'm getting pro at setting up camp and sleeping out...as long as I have my air bed! We breakfasted at Safeway in Williams and then headed out to look at the different stone yards. At one I was able to get a picture of a little fox. He was kind of scraggly looking like maybe someone had been feeding him and then deserted him or something. Anyway, he let me get close enough to take his picture. On the way out we came across a very strange accident where a guy had run off the road and through a barbed wire fence into an old cinder pit. He said a bunch of dogs had been chasing his car and he swerved to keep from running them over. We never saw or heard any dogs? When we asked him what he did for a living he said he was a retired dog catcher. Too many dogs in his life I would say. Anyway, we got the rescue people there for him and they took over and sent us on our way. On the way home we stopped at Navajo Bridge and looked down and saw rafters and felt sad that we weren't able to be down there doing it ourselves. Hope that opportunity comes our way another time. We listened to good tapes, saw beautiful scenery and enjoyed hanging out together as usual!

Mill Flat - August 7th-8th

 

One last camp out before back to school...

We decided to do one last camp out before I head back to school next week. I got a nice backpack for Christmas and hadn't yet taken opportunity to do a backpack type camp so we headed up to Mill Flat on Friday afternoon for an overnighter. Paul was good enough to carry the airbed in his pack. I took the tent. We had great weather for the hike. It was a little cooler than it has been lately. It was beautiful as always with water in the stream most of the way up. We did a little service project en route. A big aspen had fallen recently and they had cut it in pieces and moved all but one piece out the the trail. That last piece was smack in the middle, so with Paul's skills and supervision we levered it up and to the side and wedged it with rocks. It was a lot cooler than we expected when we got to the top, so we ate a quick dinner, set up camp and headed to bed pretty early to get out of the cold. It was about 41 when we woke up, so we opted to eat breakfast in bed and didn't strike camp until about 8 am. Then we searched around and found the trail over to Anderson Valley. We cached our packs and just took water and headed over there. The Forest Service had done some work on it so you could actually find it. It's between 2 and 3 miles. We visited that site and then checked to see if they had done any work on the trail from there down to Browse. It looks like they have. We had no time to do that, so we headed back to Mill Flat and ate lunch and headed back down. We saw quite a few people on horses and one guy camped out training his hunting dog. We had several deer hang around camp during the evening. We met up with one rattle snake when we were just about back to the truck, but he just skuttled on out of the way. All in all we did about 18 miles and it was a great break-in-my-backpack trip!

Thought J.J. deserved a picture for all his help!

I don't know about you, but he's welcome any time as far as I'm concerned.

Family Camp 2009

Another Family Camp has come and gone. We are home, clean, and have slept in a real bed, enjoyed real bathroom facilities, and are starting to feel less stuffed with great food. I guess I have to ask myself the question...did the good times outweigh the inconveniences? Just want to say for me, they did. Thanks to all of the family for making it a great time! Love you all. (Brenden isn't in the family picture because he was too tired and was snoozing in the hammock.)