Spring Beauty

I love Spring! All the blossoms, all around, colorful and fragrant, one just after the other, just teasing us about the warm and sunny days and delicious fruit to come. All the seasons are great, but Spring is my favorite. So many happy memories, just like the flowers on the forsythia, creeping phlox, basket of gold, tulips, daffodils, apricot, pottawatomie, peach, pear, cherry, and then apple blossoms. But who can forget the pussy willows or the sand cherries or all the trees that just glorify the days? Our red bud and lilacs are ready to pop as well as the crab apple and hawthorns. Just love all of the color and the many sounds of all the birds. Just can't get enough of the love that is showered upon us from above.

And BTW: A Happy Birthday wish to a great sister!

So a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to LeAnne!

Birthdays - double the fun!

Kaiden and Keagan had their 3rd birthday party last night. Their birthday is actually tomorrow, but they are headed up to the Boise area for a bike race that their dad will be racing. Hope to see their cousins and also Uncle Roy. It sure was fun to see them open and react to all the presents and toys. What exuberance they have for life. Gotta love 3 year old's. If we all could just see life with so much gusto and joy in all the simple things. It is so cool to hear them talk, to see them play and just to experience all the new things that they find every day. Wish I had a picture to show, but my camera had no 'umph', dead battery. Having 2 little boys around reminds us of how our home was years ago. What a fun time and much happiness to see them all grow up to be such fine men, now.

Cactus and Baseball

We sure had a fun time last weekend and checked off one more thing of our bucket list . We saw lots of Cactus and Baseball and Mexican food, hot dogs and peanuts!

We headed down to Phoenix early on Friday and immediately went to see the Dodgers and the Royals play baseball. Great seats, behind the catcher, just 8 rows up and what a view. We were just across the aisle from a bunch of scouts and all of the speed guns. Had a guy behind us talking real baseball with his friends and loved it. Hotter than we were definitely use to, so lots of slathered on sunscreen gel. Pretty slow game, with the exception of Manny Rameriz, he hit 3 of 4 ups and played for 5 innings. Pitching was great on the Royals.
Up in the top box was Tommy La Sorta and wandering through the aisles talking to a million people was the Penguin! Lots to watch there.

Early the next morning we were heading to Tucson for our next baseball game, but first I took Brent to the Sonora Desert Museum. (Sure, we had to first get lost using the Micro-suck Streets and Trip planner.) It was worth the time and so fun. Sure we had already seen lots of Saguaro cacti, teddy bear cholla, prickley pear and barrel, but not so up close and personal. So many were in blossom, the aviary was pretty cool, but I liked the humming birds. Last time I was there they were outside under a ramada with lots of feeders, so cool.

Then off to see the Rockies and the Cubs at the Hi Corbett field in Tucson. Pretty neat, parked in a mall parking lot and they bussed you over to the field, no hiking. Nicest fans there and so fun to see the passion of the Cubbie fans! This was a REAL game and boy or boy was it fun.

We saw everything, home runs, hot-box outs, hits to all bases, runs comming in and even though we were up in almost heaven, the last row 1/2 way between home and 3rd, it was terrific! The Cubs were ahead all the way until the 8th inning, then the Rockies came through and blew them away! The Cubbie pitcher was so funny, he would act like he was washing his hands when he had the ball in his glove, too weird, but fun to watch.

The weather was perfect, so not needing any lunch, one foot long huge hotdog and one foot long hugher brat for Brent and who's hungry? We headed down to see Tombstone and the OK Corral. Sure we are tourists, but that is the fun.

Along the way, Brent saw a sign for Fort Huachuca and so we headed towards the Mexican border. We passed border patrol, cactus and drove right past the little fort. We went to a gas station for gas, (Was checked out by a girl named Cally and she checked Brent's license said her Dad had the same name as he does, Callis. That is the only other person we know of, not in the family. Pretty neat.)

But, where was the Fort? Just back a mile or two... so we did get to see it, the outside of an old building that was closed. It was actually a building for the widows of the buffalo and other soilders. So then we headed back to the crossroads to get to Tombstone. We got there just at dusk, almost dark so we missed all the shooting, but got to walk in the town with all the old buildings and on their boardwalk. We ate a terrible dinner in the Crystal Saloon with real cowboys and wrangles and vests and hats and mustaches and cold gravy left over from the shoot-out, but still fun to eat in an almost pitch-blackbfood saloon. So I do not know if the whiskey is good, the water was toerable, but they lied about the best food. Just got to say the old bar was great was saying nothing, it was the real one and pretty picturesque with all the old cowboys belling up to it.

So we had to go back to Tucson for our room and so we did. By the way construction and closing exits is for the birds and the locals, not for tourists! But a good sleep and off we go! Taking the day to go back up to Phoenix on back roads. Checked out the ruins at Casa Grande, it was amazing and hard to believe it was over 500 years old and still standing. The Ho Ho Kum people were so smart and advanced. The picture doesn't do it justice, over 3 stories high, unbelievable that they did this without any tools other than thier hands and rough hammers.

Later we meandered into Phoenix via Mesa and took in the temple. It made our Sunday. Then a good Mexican dinner, best chimi in a long time, and to bed to head out to the airport early Monday to fly back home and end this exploration.

Sure is fun to travel with my best partner for 40 years! Hope we never stop exlporing! So many places, so little time and so much work!