Pool Party and Big Storm

For the past couple of years, Jay has had a pool party to celebrate his birthday. As most of you are aware, Jay celebrated his 12th birthday in Flagstaff, so he couldn't have his normal party on his actual birthday. We decided that the annual pool party had to go on, though. Yesterday was the day!

We sometimes find dead rodents, lizards, rabbits, etc., in our pool, so I sent Annie and Jay to do a "dead critter" search before the party. No casualties were discovered.


The party was a smashing success. I think the kids ended up swimming for over 4 hours.

The kids really enjoyed the diving board . . .

And the slide.

For the first time, there was an "overnight" component to the party (I guess it's only a "slumber party" if it's for girls). The boys (and Annie) watched "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" and ate popcorn. During the movie, a massive storm blew in. There was constant lightning and thunder for a couple of hours along with hail and pelting rain:



And then, the electricity went out. I was unsuccessful in getting the boys to bed by 10:00, but by midnight, with the electricity still out, they were all fast asleep.


Of course, they were all up by 6:00, except for Sam (pictured above).


Bagels and orange juice were consumed by all. Everyone will go home soon (I hope), tired but happy.

Last Hike

Well, the weather didn't cooperate with us last night, so we went out for Indian food (which was quite good) after a big day of cleaning (for me) and playing outside (for everyone else). This morning everyone woke up early because I had promised them breakfast at Denny's which became everyone's favorite breakfast place when we were in Honolulu last December.

Then, we decided to go for our last hike of this adventure.


And we weren't disappointed!

Sometime during the last couple of days, someone ruined one of the artworks we so enjoyed. Most of the glass shards were in the bottom of a hole in the tree stump. The kids decided to start the work up again and placed what glass pieces they could find.


Michael was adamant that we should visit the teepee again. They made quite a discovery. There was a hidden compartment in the white plastic table. Apparently this teepee is called Camp Six String. There was a sign in sheet inside the table so the kids signed in and dated their visit.


Our final discovery of the hike was these interesting red mushrooms/toadstools which popped up overnight.


We're now back in Phoenix where we're planning a nice swim and a light supper. The kids seem extremely happy to be home. I am too, although the amount of work I have to do to get this house back together seems daunting! I'm sure I'll spend the next few hot weeks/months dreaming of a cool hike at 7000 ft!

Places We'll Miss

We finally made it to Lowell Observatory last night for their evening program. We saw a couple of movies and we went on a tour of the Pluto telescope, but it was still too cloudy to look through the telescope. Tonight is our last night in Flagstaff, so if it clears up, we'll be at the Observatory again this evening. Wish us luck!

There are a lot of things and places we'll miss when we leave tomorrow. We've named a lot of our favorite places we see every day on our hikes (these are not their official names). These are the Sand Cliffs. The kids thoroughly explored this area many times.


The kids named this "Grasshopper Marsh" which doesn't make much sense unless you look a little closer . . .


And see a lot of these little guys all over the place.


We've talked about this place before: Cairn Garden (my favorite name, for obvious reasons).


I think we'll be able to take one more hike tomorrow to take a last look at all of our favorite places. We're hoping to bring friends for hikes at Pumphouse Wash Trail soon, too.

Return of the Monsoons

After a short warm and clear spell, the monsoons returned yesterday -- with a vengeance. The day started out cloudy and it started to rain soon after our morning hike. I don't know if I've ever seen it rain as hard as it did yesterday! The water streamed down the yard and pooled at the bottom of the hill where the kids had been playing just a couple of hours earlier.


We reaped the rewards of the rains today, though. The wash is running again.

And it seems as though more wildflowers grew overnight.


I've seen a lot of these mushrooms (or toadstools?) pop up just like this.


After a fairly sunny morning, some clouds are gathering again, so I'm thinking we'll get another storm this afternoon -- ooh, I just heard some thunder. We've been waiting and waiting for a clear night to go to the night program at the Lowell Observatory so we can look through the telescope. We may have to wait and come up on a clear winter day.

Wildflowers

I started taking these wildflower pictures along the Pumphouse Wash Trail with the intention of looking them up and labeling them. That's just not going to happen. I still wanted to show them to you, though. See if you can pick out the one "wildflower" that's a little different from the others. Enjoy!

Tuesday Morning Hike

On my "alone" hike this morning, I tried to get a little artsy with the camera:


I'm not sure what this flower is, but I thought it looked like a gigantic dandelion gone to seed. The kids and I met up on the trail and as we walked along, they saw this interesting tree. We think it must have grown up around or under something that's no longer there.


Then, right next to that tree, we saw this lean-to, teepee type thing with a white plastic table and some logs for seats.


I thought I'd give you a close-up of the kids having a lively conversation around the small plastic table. I'm sure that's what the original builder had in mind when she or he built this structure!


The sky began to look quite ominous, so we quickly hiked home. We weren't home more than a couple of minutes before the thunder started, followed by a downpour. We were very lucky this morning.

Cardinals Training Camp

Every summer, the Arizona Cardinals NFL team begins its training in Flagstaff. Their camp began last weekend amid great hoopla and anticipation. The first thing we did when we got there is go to see "Big Red," the Cardinals mascot. We were actually the last people to get a personal "meet and greet" with the big bird because it was kind of warm and Big Red needed a break.

There were a few booths selling souvenirs ($95 for a Matt Leinert jersey) and water ($2 for a bottle). There were also several very crowded kids' activities for which the parent had to sign a waiver, but nobody said anything about that until the kids had stood in line for 5 minutes!


After a turn on the "jumpy thing" there, Annie and I decided to leave the male world of football and go for a walk on campus. Michael has filled me in on what happened after we left.


The Cardinals are a perennially terrible team, And Tim says not like the "lovable losers," the Cubs. Michael tells me they found out why the team is so bad. Apparently the quarterbacks were doing a drill where they were trying to hit a trashcan with a football. The starting quarterback, Matt Leinert, was unable to hit it. Ever. During the drill, one unsuspecting player was hit in the nose while he was stretching about 10 feet away from the trashcan, and an assistant coach was hit in the shoulder -- although, to be fair, the ball ricocheted off the rim of the trashcan in that incident.

Oh, well. Another losing year, I guess.

Evening Campfire

Due to Tim consuming a bad taco at Taco Bell on Saturday, we spent the day at home yesterday (except for me -- I had to run out and get Tim some Gatorade). Michael proclaimed it the best day he'd had yet in Flagstaff! The kids played outside most of the day after their picnic hike and Tim felt well enough later in the afternoon to play Frisbee with them in the cul-de-sac.

We decided to have a campfire in the backyard fire circle here. Since we're in the forest, we had to get a campfire permit. The fire station is on our corner, so three fire fighters came to inspect where the fire would be. With the promise that we would rake all of the pine needles away from the fire circle, we were issued Campfire Permit 0155.


Tim was an Eagle Scout and learned how to make a fire with the Boy Scouts.


But he decided not to trust rubbing sticks together, matches, or even a lighter to do the job of starting the fire.


And here's the resulting bonfire:


In the Gardner tradition, you can't just have a campfire, though.

Yes, you have to have s'mores, too.


The kids got right down to roasting the marshmallows. Each has his or her own idea of the perfectly roasted marshmallow. Jay sets his on fire and then blows it out for charbroiled goodness. Annie likes her marshmallows slightly warm. Michael looks for the perfect color of brown all around and on the top.


Everyone loves the results, though. Michael and Annie like the full s'more and Jay likes the 2/3 s'more (graham cracker and marshmallow)


After we consumed all the s'mores we could hold, we sang songs around the campfire. I pulled out all the songs I learned at Camp Shaw-waw-nas-see and Tim dug deep into his scout days and remembered a few more. We sang until the fire died.

Then we all went to bed late, happy, and smelling of campfire.

Sunset Crater

Tim is here for 4 day weekends every week and goes back to our house for Tuesday through Thursday. The 4 days he's here seem like a vacation and we go, go, go. Yesterday, we went to NAU to watch the football Cardinals practice (more on that in another blog) and then we went to Sunset Crater which is on the same route as the Grand Canyon, only much closer.

Sunset Crater is a volcano which erupted as recently as 1000 years ago. The experts thought it was an ancient volcano until they found pit house foundations under the lava. Don't worry, though -- it appears everyone got out alive. Visitors have not been allowed to actually climb to the top of Sunset Crater since 1972, so we had to be satisfied with hiking up Lenox crater and taking a 1 mile informational hike at the base of Sunset Crater.

The hike up Lenox Crater was 1/2 mile up a steep incline. Once at the top, we could see how the lava flowed down it in little rivers. Unfortunately, none of my photos of that turned out!


This is a picture of a spatter cone -- basically a mini-volcano.

The surrounding area looked a little like what I imagine a moonscape looks like (no, not green cheese), except with little plants starting to grow in it.


Annie fell down at the beginning of the informational hike and hurt her knee. She managed to make the whole 1 mile hike with just a bit of whining. She wanted, however, to make sure there was actual documentation of her pain.

Jay's World

I think It's time I said something about this foray into Flagstaff. This is a really nice place, and I'd like to show you some of our day-to-day life.

This is my room. A bit of mess.

This is my desk. A lot of mess.

This is my siblings room. Too neat!

This is my siblings bed. Way too neat!

Michael and Annie go about their business.

The chickens go about their business (Eating, mostly).