RV-in' it across 4 states

We had a great time on our RV vacation to the 4 Corners area these past 9 days! We left Tucson for Queen Creek and then headed to Monticello, Utah for a Hansen reunion and 24th of July celebration. It was wonderful seeing all the relatives that were there. Go Big Four Tractor! From there we drove through Cortez, CO and onto Lake McPhee where we spent the night and then on to Durango which is where the first picture is taken. We went swimming and enjoyed seeing/hearing the Silverton train go right past our RV park several times a day. Then, on to the lovely city of Farmington, New Mexico (cough, cough). We met some missionaries in our RV park and learned that this was part of the Albuquerque mission. We had fun exploring a children's museum there and tired Bryn out completely! Then, on the way to Shiprock, we got a little lost and had to backtrack through the rez about 20 miles. . .but we did get to see the rock (or shipwreck, as Craig calls it) and made it to the 4 Corners monument. We droveto Canyon de Chelly in Chinle and spent the night really roughing it with no hookups at Spider Rock campground. It was a beautiful campground and Weston built a lovely 2 story red sand castle that he topped with a cactus and got needles on every finger on his right hand! He won't do THAT again, I'll bet! Then on through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest and some cool photos and then to a KOA in Flagstaff where our camping neighbors were a cross country track team from Mountain View High School in Mesa!! Small World! Nat and Leesy kept peeking out the windows at them---I wonder why?! Then on Friday, July 31, we drove back to Queen Creek and Sat. we turned our vacation home on wheels in. We were glad to sleep in our own comfy beds Saturday night and use a REAL flush toilet! Good Memories, Good Times!

This is our Cruise America RV parked in a beautiful spot in Durango, Colorado. It was a 30 footer that seated 9 and had the possibility of sleeping 8. With 7 adults + a baby for 2 of the nights and 6 adults + a baby for the rest of the trip, we were pretty crowded! We all loved the fact that we could use the bathroom while traveling (especially Natty!) and we didn't have to make any potty stops! We also enjoyed being able to cook our own meals in it although we did eat out a couple of times. We all even showered in it even though it only held 6 gallons of hot water at a time. I don't think anyone had to have a cold shower though!

This is the Blue Spruce House at Mesa Verde, Colorado--an ancient Anasazi ruin that we hiked down to (a vertical descent down and heck to climb back up!) and got to roam around in. That is rare that people are allowed in the ruins--usually we just had to look only, but we got to explore this one and it was way cool!

At Lake McPhee in Colorado, Natalie cooled off by reading her book IN the lake!

Leesy took Bryn out into the cold, but refreshing lake where Bryn promptly bit the dust and fell into the water and scraped her knees up on the rocks! It took her about 15 minutes before she would step foot in the water again, but she did!

Some of the gang at the Petrified Forest sitting on a petrified log/rock. Notice the happy smiling faces even though this is the 3rd National Park we visited! Kelli and Bryn stayed in the RV and enjoyed some 1 on 1 time together while everyone else traipsed to all the sights.

We took lots more photos, so if you want to see them, you'll have to come visit us in St. David!

Back from Girls Camp

Alpine, AZ--July 6-10, 2009

We love being in the cool pines but,

this is how we all looked at the end of the week after 4 days at girls camp!

It kinda makes ya stir-crazy!!!

This picture is of the stake leaders doing a bit of Michael Jackson's Thriller--notice the blue gloves on their left hands?! Pres. Kartchner, Merrill and Curtis got into the act too! It was pretty funny!

"Indiana Jones" and his 4th level gals and airplanes he had them make.


Miss Natalie on her horse "Waylon"! She also went Aussie style rapelling (as well as regular style), and "superman" traversing! Awesome! You Go Girl! (. . .and she was nervous about having to "rough it". . .)

On the way up to camp, Kelli was driving a load of 7 people plus a trailing luggage rack on the back when her car had a complete blowout of the back right tire going 75 mph---AAAAAAARRRRGGGGG!

Not just a flat tire, but a complete blowout along with a shredded to the metal tire, a ripped off side trim and a shattered right rearview mirror!!! It was pretty scary, but we are pretty sure she had some Heavenly help getting the car safely to the side of the road with no rim damage to the tire. 12 girls and 3 leaders waited on the side of the road for our hero--Bishop Jones--to come and rescue them! (The leaders tried to jack the car up to change the tire themselves, but it was so flat that they couldn't get the jack under the car safely and without going into oncoming traffic to jack up the other side.) Our Hero came with his floor jack, got the car jacked up, took the tire off, went into Wilcox (about 2 miles away), bought a new tire, came back and put it on. When we tried to start the car to be on our way, IT WOULDN"T START!!! The battery had died during all this trauma! So, we went on a hunt for jumper cables, but to no avail--no one had any! So, our Hero, drove back into Wilcox and bought some along with a new battery and some extra tools. Just as he was returning, the Highway Patrol FINALLY showed up and gave us a jump! (Our tax dollars at work!) Our Hero followed us to the next off ramp to make sure the car wouldn't give us any more trouble and then he turned around to go home. Thank goodness he was still at home when Kelli called at 7 am to come rescue us and thank goodness his boss said he could work from home that day rather than drive into Tucson after the rescue!

All went well on the ride home--no blowouts or dead batteries!!!

We loved going up to the cool mountains, but are glad to be home too!

The Dog Days of Summer are Here

Yes, the dog days of summer are here. The skies are gray and threatening rain, but never deliver! It just keeps getting hotter and more humid (is humider a word?!) Here is a picture is a quail family that frequents our birdfeeding area. The poppa bird is on the table keeping watch over the momma and babies that are feeding on the ground. If any other bird comes and tries to join them, poppa quail scares them away! Behind them is the beginnings of our garden which the birds like to eat from too! So far we have bellpeppers, green beans, corn, squash and assorted melons starting to grow. A little cottontail bunny that likes our garden ate our 2 strawberries that were growing. Oh Well!

ELISE IS HOME! Yep, Elise came back to St. David after her 6 month stint in So. Ca. with G & G Jones! We REALLY appreciate grama and grampa for taking such good care of her and we know you must be missing her. We are glad to have her back and right at this moment, she is playing the piano and singing at the top of her lungs---oh how we missed that!!!! (Teddy isn't impressed with her modeling pose in this photo!)

Before Natalie went to Idyho to visit her 3 sisters that deserted Arizona, she had a mishap on our scooter! She went around a sandy corner too fast and BIFFED IT! Right in front of a group of people to make matters worse! She was fine, but they kept asking! Her hand and knees did get a bit scraped up and here is the proof!! Hopefully by now both hands and knees and dignity are well on the way to healing!

OUCHIE!

Dead Windmill

Our windmill died :-(
While Craig was in Idaho and Kelli & Weston were in Queen Creek and only Natalie was home (but not at home at the time it fell), our windmill head bit the dust--literally!! We did some research and discovered that it weighs about 1300 lbs and costs $ 6,300 to replace!! We are going to hammer the dents out of it and put it back up as purely decorative--not functional--especially since we now have solar panels to pump our well water!!




While visiting Idyho, 2 girls (ages 25 and 21) got ahold of their dad's camera and decided to take some "glamour shots"!!! I guess dad's camera is too much of a temptation for even 20 something year-olds!! (what's that in your nose, V?!!)

Craig with his 3 beautiful grandgirls; Sydney, Tenley and Mallory. Cute Smiles!

We found a momma coyote and her 3 babies out in our front yard and Natalie and Weston thought it would be fun to howl at the moon with them. . .

It's Springtime in Arizona!

Spring has sprung in St. David as you can tell from all the Mesquite trees behind the ballfield where Natalie is pitching during one of her softball games! Yep, it's hot and windy and dry and we may not last through another summer!!Speaking of Natalie and softball, she had Athletic Awards last night and got the award of Rookie of the Year for her pitching abilities as well as being able to be a versatile member of the team and play 2nd base and right field! Purty excitin'

Weston continues to grow up (not that this picture shows any maturity!) He is taller than any of the girls/women in the house now and if family tradition continues, he may grow as much as 4 inches this summer like his dad did between 7th and 8th grade!! He was comparing his school picture to Chad's senior picture and said "I'm looking more and more like Chad!" You can decide whether that is a complement to Chad or not!!

We got to spend some time up in Queen Creek with the only Arizona grandchild when Craig took pictures at Justin's sisters wedding. Kelli got to be the main babysitter and loved it! Bryn is becoming such a character with her own definite personality--it's fun to watch her grow up!

Here is Craig's MR2 which he has totally fixed up and is very proud to drive. The last thing to do is to get it painted and he is thinking about silver. What do you think? He loves to drive it to work and around St. David because it "goes fast!" Kelli thinks he should get a customized license plate that says "CMDCC" which stands for "Craig's mid-life crisis car." Craig doesn't think that is very funny!!!

At the last report, it was 102 in Phoenix and 99 in Tucson today! Anyone brave enough to come and visit us in AZ??!!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

The whole state of Arizona is in the middle of a high wind advisory with gusts up to 30 & 40 mph for our Easter weeknd! My windchimes are getting a really good workout!

Here's a couple more random pics to keep you up to date!

Below is Padre Stadium in San Diego taken from our hotel room on a night when there was a Baseball game there. If we'd have had our binoculars, we might have been able to watch the game from our room!

Here are our 2 crazy mutts; Teddy and Noelle doing what they are best at--eating and sleeping. I thought it would be in bad taste to put in a picture of their other best activity--pooping. You'll just have to use your imagination!!

Noelle likes to smoke cigars too!
Teddy is a snuggler and likes to cuddle up on soft rugs wherever he is!

Dad and Natalie looking at Elise's blog!!!

(just teasing Elise!)

either that or they want us to check their throats to see if they are red! Crazy peeps!

For Easter Weekend we are going to the Annual Higgy Reunion out at the farm on Saturday morning, if we don't get blown away first. I doubt there will be swimming in the irrigation ditch this year because it's just too cold for us Arizonites yet! There will be lots of eatin', boatin' and egg huntin'! Have a wonderful weekend too!

More pics from our Cruise Vacation

This is a pic of us in front of one of the museums at Balboa Park in San Diego. We spent one day there going through a few of the museums like old people do! We didn't even go to the zoo!

Here is Craig standing by his rebuilt Toyota MR2!! Noooooooooo, not really--it is a Lambourghini from the Automotive Museum---he wishes it was his!

Craig---doing what he does best on all of our vacations---flip through the channels on TV!! He had to constantly be reminded that he was on a cruise and could do LOTS of other things besides watch TV!

Kelli and her animal loving ways--made friends with a Mexican Tabby in Ensenada!

There are wild Bison in the interior of Catalina Island--they were taken there for a movie shoot, but as soon as they were unloaded from the boat, they all took off into the interior of the island and were never used in the movie! Here is Craig standing by one that decided to return to have it's picture taken with all the tourists.