Let's Take A Hike Stephen!

This morning we got up and I asked Alvin what he was going to do? (still on spring break) His plans were to go out to the college like he has done all week and do the millions of things that need to be done out there. He asked if I had something in mind to do and I said I wanted to go on a hike. I have been on a real excercise kick since seeing my knee doctor last week. The Doc and I decided I should really give my knee a workout this next month to possible see if it "might get better."

So, we headed out with tennis shoes, water and camera and decided we needed some kids too. Chelsea and Stephen are painting the outside of their house this Friday so Chelsea all week has been prepping the outside by sanding, scraping, cauking windows and fixing cracks. We didn't figure she would go but if we took the kids she would possibly get more work done.

Chandler and Tatum were overely excited to go but Cooper took major convencing that it would be fun. So, we headed out to Usery Pass only about 15 miles away from Chelsea's house.

We told Tatum to not touch any cactus so the first little while she walked with her hands behind her back. She was such a good hiker and kept up with her brothers. Chandler helped her in the rough spots by holding her hand. Such a good big brother!
She slid on the loose rocks a few times and came home with a few minor stratches.





We preceeded to walk up the hill (ok - that is just the lower part of the hill in the above picture - it was taller than that) and were about 20 steps shy of reaching the very top when a bee hive scard us from going further.

These rocks were about three quarters of the way up. We had a rest stop at my encouraging of course. Back down the hill we walked around the mountain so together we probably walked two miles.





We went to McDonalds for lunch and then decided to go to the lake and Butcher Jones Beach which was another 5-6 miles down the road.



Alvin was teaching the kids how to skip rocks in the water. Both boys were finally succcessful at the task with many tries.

We had lots of fun! Now, I am requesting a public apology from my favorite son-in-law Stephen! It seems when he called home to see how everybody was doing Chelsea told him we took the kids on a hike. His response was, "I hope we don't have to call the emergency crew to rescue them off the mountain." I understand that you haven't seen much physical activity from us the last few years and we have defnitely gained a few in the last years; but, well - - - next time you just come along and see for yourselves that we still can do these types of things. (You can only come though if you will let me try out your walking sticks)

My challenge for the October fall break is to be in better condition so we can hike the "wind cave" trail which is a 3.2 mile round-trip hike. Anybody welcome to join me. My grandkids committed themselves already.

Go to this site to check the hike out:
http://www.azcentral.com/travel/hiking/articles/2009/10/22/20091022hike1024.html