Saguaro National Park

Our last photographed stop on Saturday night was Saguaro National Park. It's amazing to see how big all the cactus get and how many of them there are. It's funny though to think that this is considered a forest. Not typically what I think of when I think of a forest.

Colossal Cave

Saturday afternoon we headed down to Colossal Cave which is located just southeast of Tuscon. It's kind of a cool place. It's about a 45 minute tour through the cave. I can't say that the cave was fabulous... I did try to take some pictures, but my cave photography is not perfected yet. I did try, but I have to say that I tried. Actually I was much happier with the pictures from outside of the cave. I think that one of my favorites of the "Whoa" sign.

My beautiful garden...

So Saturday morning Austin and I set to work on my garden. I'm hoping that more of the plants make it this time. The weather is a ton warmer now, so they should be able to settle in before too much of the heat. I planted some tomatoes, strawberries, bell peppers and jalapeno peppers. Add that to the peas, garlic, cilantro, onions and lime that I already had and I'm well on my way to have the salsa garden of my dream. That is if any of them actually grow and fruit. If not it is definitely a fun experiment. Plus I added some happy Gerber daisies.

Walnut Canyon

Our last (photographed) stop on Friday was Walnut Canyon National Monument. It's located just east of Flagstaff. It's a small canyon where there are some preserved reins in the cliffs. They were kind of cool to see, but honestly don't too exciting.

Our last stop even though I didn't take any pictures was Rock Springs Cafe. We stopped because they have the BEST pie in town. It's a tiny little restaurant, but the pie are home made. Definitely worth it.

Wupatki National Monument

Our next stop on Friday was up to Wupatki National Monument. It's also just located north of Flagstaff. There are some old pueblo reins. It was kind of cool to see and amazing to think that they built them so long ago and they are still around.

Sunset Crater Volcano

Friday morning Austin and I went up to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument up near Flagstaff. It was a beautiful day to be outside hiking around. There was snow on the ground, but it definitely wasn't cold. It was really cool to see the combination of the snow and the lava rock. It was a crystal clear day so you could actually see really far.

Dirt Biking

So Saturday afternoon after the snow melted we got the dirt bikes out. Those who hadn't taken my Uncle Alan's "bike lessons" spent a little while learning how to drive the bikes. Then we went out in shifts out on the bike. I ended up going out to the "bowl", but we didn't make it up the hill to the bowl because it was about a first deep of muddy clay. All the bikes got stuck. It was an adventure. I have a beautiful bruise on my leg from where I feel over onto the bike. All in all it was a wonderful time!

I love blue sky

So I've decided recently that I LOVE blues skies. Not only are they beautiful, and they mean that the sun is shinning, but they are a sign of renewal or hope to me. They just make me so happy. So here's to the happy, blue skies.

It snowed!

So Saturday morning we woke up to a dusting of snow covering everything. It was beautiful. I couldn't resist taking pictures. Plus I had to take a picture of my car, because I think it was the first time that it had ever been covered with snow.

Happy Birthday Rob

Friday night up at Gunlock we got to celebrate Rob's birthday. It was also Julie's birthday but she was home having a fabulous party. Anyways Gunlock was all decked out with the Happy Birthday sign and we even had a couple of gifts for him. Marie also made a fabulous oatmeal cake. The only issue was that we didn't have enough candles so we used what we had. Overall it was a fun celebration. Happy Birthday bro!

For the first time

So I had a dentist appointment yesterday and an amazing thing happened. I actually got a compliment from the hygienist. Now don't get me wrong my teeth are usually pretty good. I consider myself someone with good dental hygiene, but I have never gotten a compliment from the hygienist, they usually tell me to floss more, or work on a couple of spots, but this time my hygienist came out and said "your teeth look really good, continue doing whatever it is your doing". Happy day!

Our friend the snake

So we had an uninvited guest in our backyard today... a snake. Personally I'm not too familiar with snakes so I can't tell you what kind it was, but I know it wasn't a rattle snake. And I know I didn't want it in my back yard. Thanks to my friend Nick who decided to be daring the snake was transported across the street (originally he just put him over the wall, but the snake came right back in through the drainage holes). It was a pretty long snake maybe three to four feet, so I was glad Nick was around to move it.