A Hike a Day (at least)

Every morning and most evenings we go for a hike on the trail close to our house. I usually let the kids get a head start and then I do an up-tempo hike to get my heart rate going (which is really quite easy for me to do at 7000 ft.). I wanted to share some of the sites I get to see every day.This view is along the Pumphouse Trail, which is about a ten minute hike from our house. And what is this?

You guessed it -- it's an elk dropping (photo courtesy of Michael). Michael was upset with me because he saw it in the morning and wanted to hike back to it right away to get a picture of it while it was still "fresh." I made him wait until the evening so it didn't have quite the "chocolate chip" look it had in the morning.

I took this photo this morning. This harmless looking cloud is a cumulonimbus cloud (sometimes called a thunderhead) and it may bring another storm this afternoon. I usually stop to make sure the kids are doing o.k. before I head home again. We stay in close contact by walkie-talkie.

In other news, the Tooth Fairy made a stop at our Flagstaff house last night to take possession of Annie's first tooth! We were all happy that he or she knew where we were!