Now that the weather is cooling down we can play outside! Saturday morning we got up and went for a hike. We went to see an old rusted out vehicle on the trail Aaron rides. We ended up going a lot further than we anticipated and had a great time!
Yesterday after church Lily headed up our effort to create the following list.
Things We Saw On Our Last Saturday Hike
1. a little town
2. rusty old car
3. jumping cholla garden
4. blocked-off trail
5. 5 hot air balloons
6. small fast running lizard
7. cottontail bunny
8. big black flying bug (a tarantula hawk??)
9. king Saguaro cactus
10. hummingbird
11. green, fully-leaved Ocotillo (these are usually bare and look like skeletons)
12. new Gore buildings where Aaron will work
13. blackish yellow butterfly
14. safety green moss on rocks
15. colored shadows (hot pink and turquoise) made by our water bottles
16. Arizona Coral Snake! (these things are bright! and poisonous!)
The rusted out vehicle. Carter thought it was very cool.
Although the vehicle was cool, he did not want to fall into the ditch with it. Since Saturday he's been telling me that the bad guys drove it into the ditch.
This "little town" is actually a community just north of us where some of our friends live. Lily captured this photo, actually.
And this one, budding little photographer that she is! (Yeah, Jas, this one might bring back some uncomfortable memories!)
Lil also took this one of the jumping cholla garden. Don't brush agains these guys, their pokies jump out at you!
Ocotillo
The Arizona Coral Snake. Very cool. We researched it when we got home and learned some neat things about it.
I love being outside, especially with my family. Hooray for comfortable weather! Today Carter, Hazel and I hung our hummingbird feeder, played on our grass, and laid in the shade of a palm tree in the back yard. Aahhhhhh, it's so nice to be outdoors!
P.S. I had a moment of personal growth on Saturday. I learned to mow the lawn! In my family growing up, that was the boys' job. (Don't worry, I had specific jobs they didn't do, like cleaning out the fridge.) I wanted to learn to mow the lawn so I could help keep our backyard lovely. So Aaron taught me to use the weed eater and the lawn mower. It was fun to do something new! The rest of the family sat on the patio and fixed Sherman (as in, P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sidney). He's the little vacuum-filter guy that crawls around the bottom of our pool and sucks up the debris. [Yes, Raschell, Sherman moved to our house. He says he misses you and wants you to come over for a swim. ;) ]
12 comments:
Home owenership is so wonderful... there's always a family project to be done. I also love that you went hiking. One of our favorite family outings as well!
What an adventurous family you are!
Mike stayed with Nathan this week end as a birthday present to Dad. On Friday morning the two of us went to the D.C. Temple and were able to be proxies for my father as he was sealed to his parents, them sealed to each other, Dad's mother sealed to her parents and them to each other, Dad's father sealed to his parents. We also had Mom sealed to her parents. Then we helped with a bunch of other sealings. Then off for a week end for two in Annapolis and Alexandria. Mike and Nathan were house and dog sitting for a family in our ward. They stayed up all night long on Friday, playing a new Halo game that just came out with friends....Glad I was where I was!
What a fun family activity! I used to do all the landscaping responsibilities, I loved it and my yard was finely manicured... seriously. Then I would never let anyone touch it because they might 'ruin' it. One day I got sick and Ed said, "don't worry about it, I'll take care of it." I thought, "OK, I need the help and Ed will REALLY appreciate me!" Next thing I know a landscaping crew shows up and I looked over at Ed who had a look on his face like, "I didn't say I was going to do it MYSELF!" I've let HIM 'take care of it' ever since. ;D Be careful, you may find you are REALLY good at it!
How fun!! THere is nothing better than the outdoors and hiking. I can't wait till I can do that again.(after the baby comes) and yeah for cooler weather we have been stuck in the house for the last three months. ANd it is still 95 here with 100% humidity. Can't wait for the fall to start!!!
Haha! When we went over to see your house I asked Aaron if you were gonna name yours and he said everybody had already been calling him Sherman :) Too funny. Glad he has a happy new home ;)
What a Saterday! The first pic with Carter... sooo cute, he melts my heart! Love how he talked about the bad guys and the rusty old car the next day
Part 2...
I'm so impressed with Lil's photography skills! I love her tons!
Wow, you found a snake, oh my!
Please give my Hazey a huge hug and kiss for me!
Oh and by the way I ran across Carter's jams again this morn. I decided I'm NOT sending them back, I wish your kidos were running all over my house! But if they can't be here then their stuff can! ;) xoxo
Those jumping cholla plants do hurt! The only thing i can imagine compairing the pain to is giving birth. it hurts that much. and there was blood even.
-Jason
i can see in your profile you like to speak french ! it' s so unusual in the american blogs i read !it's pleasant ! so: bonne journée et peut etre à bientot !!
Awe-some! We want to come next time!!! Arizona sure sounds like a fun place. I tried to get jar to teach me to mow the lawn (he's mowed it like three times this whole summer...), but he won't because he believes it's the boys job! So it was funny to hear you say it too. :) Thanks for posting pics and keeping us updated! We love hearing about all the fun things you guys do!
Be carful of those coral snakes. That particular snake in the photo you have is venomous which will attack the nervous system and of course could be deadly. There are other snakes that appear like the coral snake that are not as deadly.
2 ways to identify the venomous coral snake are these:
1) a very blunt head that is black to behind the eyes.
2) bands that completely encircle the body, along with the yellow or white bands occurring on both sides of the red bands.
I looked it up on google.
Neat pictures by the way.
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