Camping with the Fam!

Every year, for my entire life, my dad's family has gone camping in Southeastern Utah for fall break.  We've spent a lot of time there for a couple of reasons: most of us like camping, and that is where my grandma's dad lived for a while running cattle.  So, we go visit Anasazi ruins and various sites, and each year we usually end up going somewhere we've never been--which is always an adventure on washed out dirt roads.  A shovel or three is always a must.  You never know when you're going to have to be the road crew.  I think we only had to fix one spot of the road so we could pass this year--and it might be a record. 

So, I drove up there from Mesa and my family came down from Genola.  I thought it was a long drive from Genola--no so!  It's 420 mils from Mesa, over the reservation, and by yourself, it gets kind of long.  I did get to see some cool stuff on the drive that I had never seen or had seen last when I was 8-years-old. 

I arrived in camp about 10:30 pm and the temperature change was a little hard to adjust to that night.  Mesa was 103 degrees when I left, and at camp it was 53 degrees and dropping quickly.  My parents arrived somewhere around midnight, and we set up tents in the dark. 

The next morning we ate breakfast and decided to go for a drive and a hike to a ruin called "Over Under."  Other than losing the vehicle behind us with all but one child under 12, it was pretty fun.  The hike wasn't too bad, but I realized that altitude is a bigger difference when you have to change 5500 feet in elevation instead of just 1500 feet. I was struggling that day a bit. 

Over Under ruin

Henry

Uncle Don and Aunt Adele hiking into the ruin

 

Melinda

 Daniel, Henry and Herschel (Uncle Don in background)

Spillway where water flows in the spring.  You can't see the drop very well but it's quite a doozy.

 Melinda hiking on the trail

 

That night we went back to camp, and some people went on another hike.  After dinner, sleep came early for everybody that night, and I slept much better--probably because we broke out the air mattress, but we also moved the tent from off the divot that prevented sleep the night before. 

Friday, we again went for a drive and hike to another ruin we'd never seen before.  This was called the Citadel.  I couldn't help thinking of Lord of the Rings, where Gandalf says to Pippin, "Go back to the citadel!"  The hike was a bit longer, but we started a lot earlier too.  On the hike we found pools of triclops, which are some funky water bug (I'm sure that someone is saying, "Ellen, we told you it was this kind of bug," but I don't remember what it was).

The triclops feeding upside down

 We hike out on a peninsula and when we reached the end, we could see the rock and the view from two forks of the canyon joining.

View of the ridge and rocks we're going to climb!

Elmina

Melinda and Mom

After figuring out how to get down the the level where we have to to get across the narrow rocks, we started hiking down.  It was worse getting there than coming back--for some reason it's always harder to go down than up. 

Mom

Yes, there's a 800 foot drop or so to the left

Henry: King of the rock

At this point, we hiked out the narrow rock, which was about 20 feet at the narrowest, and 40 feet at the most, with a sheer cliff on one side. 

Looking down into the gorge

Cordell and Herschel

Henry hiking up into the ruin

The last leg of the journey was kind of hairy--very steep, and a step too tall for most of us--especially those vertically challenged like me.  But, we made it, and ate lunch there.  Aunt Adele stood on the edge of the cliff and said, "You shall not pass," just like Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, and it was hilarious!

Henry and Cordell

Mom sitting on the rock like it was a horse--I believe she was saying "Yeehaw!" during this pic

Herschel and Andrew at the Citadel

Cordell, Mom, and Andrew stopped in almost the only shade on the peak

Andrew

Henry

After lunch, we climbed back down and up again to meet up with Dad and Melinda (who don't do heights so good), and Elmina, who is a little too sure of herself to hike on cliffs.  It was an awesome hike and the ruin was in extremely good condition. 

Herschel, Daniel, Mom, and Uncle Don

Herschel, Daniel, and Uncle Don

Cordell and Andrew

Cordell

 
After hiking back to the van, Dad took us on a drive that I will not willingly go on again unless I have about 5 more hours to drive a lot slower.  Several of us got car-sick.  The Dollhouse ruin was remarkable though.  

Elmina with one of the representatives of the absent.  A couple years ago we started pretending that an object was one of our missing siblings, and the tradition has stuck.  I think this was my brother-in-law Matt, but I'm not sure.

I wish this picture showed how really steep in was.

Herschel and Elmina

Herschel pretending to be an indian

Cordell, Elmina, and Henry

Those that hiked down to the ruin: Elmina, me, Herschel, Cordell, Melina, Henry, and Mom

Cordell, me, and Herschel.  After looking at this picture, Herschel and I both said something like, "how did that happen?"

Me, Cordell, and Elmina

Elmina hiking up the rocks

That night, after another long drive, we got back to camp and ate.  Mom or Melinda found marshmallows that were huge!  I ate two and that was more than enough.

The next day was the drive home: over the Moki Dugway, through Monument Valley, through Tuba City and Flagstaff, and back to Mesa.  Here are a few of the better pics:

Me, Henry, Dad, Andrew, Elmina, Mom, Cordell, Melinda, Herschel

The Bear's Ears

I've never seen a sign quite like this

The Moki Dugway

Comb Ridge

Monument Valley

Mountain north of Flagstaff

Botanical Gardens

A couple Saturdays ago, I went to the Phoenix Botanical gardens with my cousin and her family.  I'm sure some of you are wondering, as I was when I first came here, what can possibly grow in this heat and survive, let alone be beautiful.  I also thought it can't be nearly as cool as the botanical gardens in St. Louis, Missouri.  Then I realized that would be comparing apples and oranges, because the climates are so incredibly different, and cactus can actually be pretty.  At the gardens they have a butterfly exhibit right now, and it was incredible!  We walked around for a while and saw all sorts of cool stuff.  We hiked up a hill and it was really cool to see the whole east valley from that angle. 

 This is an actual coconut tree growing

The ginormous cactus!

Blanco: Tacos and Tequila

For a friend's birthday, we went to a restaurant called Blanco: Tacos and Tequila.  Now I am not a huge fan of Mexican food, however, I will be going back to this place because they had fabulous tacos, and hands down the best rice this side of the border.  I wish I had the pictures, but perhaps I will get them and then I'll post them.  If you want to check out Blanco a little more, click here.

That night we also went to First Friday Phoenix, which is downtown, and a whole bunch of museums are available for free, as well as outdoor stuff to see from artists everywhere.  They had free churros and a Spanish band playing outside the Phoenix Museum of Art.  After Blanco, the churros left a little something to be desired, but were still enjoyable.

Fall is canning season

This year I didn't think I would be canning like I have the last couple of years for various reasons: mostly, I don't have the supplies or the fruit.  My coworkers Mayra and Vickie decided they wanted to learn, and I figured it would be fun, so we bought peaches and pears, and started.

Things I've learned from this experience:
1. A pear corer is impossible to find in Mesa!
2. Bottles and lids are not located in every store in Mesa. 
3. When slicing fruit instead of halfing it, it fits a lot more in one jar, but it's more work.

After hours of cutting and bottling and steaming, this is what we got:

Looks pretty good if I do say so myself!

 Thanks Mayra and Vickie!

Baseball and Dancing Tacos

This past week I had the opportunity to go to a Diamondbacks game with some friends.  It's been a while since I went to a baseball game--almost 10 years ago when I went to a Dodgers game while on choir tour in high school.  At my first major league game, the highlight of the game (apart from being with friends) was the drunk guys that couldn't decide which team to cheer for, so they cheered for both.

At the D-backs game, one of the best things was people watching.  One vendor selling lemonade was fabulous guy who said in a loud, rough voice, "Lemonade, lemonade, like grandma made!"  He was by far the most entertaining seller of goods.  It's also perplexing to see girls at a baseball game in skirts and high heels. 

At one point, there was a dancing taco on the big screen: advertising free tacos if the D-backs got six runs.  This taco was of course animated, and it had short stubby arms that waved back and forth, up and down, again and again.  I sure wish I had a picture of it.  Even more, I wish I had a picture of the actual dancing taco.  Everybody knows of the people who stand on streets and wave signs.  One step up from that is the people who dance with their signs (like the girl with the Little Ceasar's sign in Provo--a must see if you're there).  Well, Taco Bell's animated taco is not only animated, but the have an actual taco outfit that someone will occasionally dance in down here.  Imagine a person in a tortilla waving their arms.  Fabulous.

Anyway, here's some pics from the game:

 The Legends Race

Sarah, Dave, me, and Amie

We passed this sign on the way to the game...who created this and why?  I have no idea.

I will definitely go back for some more fun. Apparently the next night some guy was tackled by security.  One never knows what will happen.

Deadrenalize

Recently I had the experience of needing my nursing skills outside of a work setting (nothing too serious, so don't you worry).  Now, at work when things go wrong, patients start crashing, etc., there is a natural adrenaline factor.  It is most notable when a code blue happens, that is, when someone stops breathing, or their heart stops beating.  Adrenaline is the body's natural response to that stress, and keeps you going and able to get things done.  After a real adrenaline pumping experience, there is usually a period of time afterwards that I have lots of extra energy and usually need to go for a walk.  At work, it's a semi-controlled environment where I can have access to doctors, and medications, and a defibrillator.

Outside of work is a completely different environment.  When called on unexpectedly to use your nursing skills, adrenaline immediately starts pumping, even when you appear to be completely calm and in control of the situation.  I realize I was calm, and I was not really worried during this situation, but 2 hours later, was a different story.  At that point, I started feeling jittery, I couldn't hold still, and felt the need to go for a run or something.  (Me wanting to go for a run doesn't happen often.)  So, in honor of this situation, I have created a new word for myself, and soon it will be incorporated into the medical community. 

The word is deadrenalize (v): the body's need to be active to use extra adrenaline not used during a stressful situation.  Evidence has proved that it may happen minutes to hours after stress occurs. (Deadrenalize does not necessarily apply to people who intentionally get adrenaline rushes, i.e. roller coasters, sky diving, bungee jumping, swimming with sharks, etc.)

As a side note: I always get a kick out of people who come into the hospital and say they are allergic to epinephrine (the other name for adrenaline).  It's a naturally occurring hormone people, and it's supposed to cause an increased heart rate.

Catching up

As my sister recently returned from the Philippines, and my brother in law was leaving for officer training, among other things, I decided to visit home.  It was a quick trip, but good.  It was nice to escape the heat from Mesa and sleep with the windows open at night.  Here are some pics:

 

This is a view of the valley where I grew up.

 

Mt. Timpanogos

Mt. Nebo (don't mind the fence post...)

We went up Santaquin canyon for a weenie roast..the canyon's only 20 minutes away or so.  So much easier to escape the heat when the mountains are so close.

It was great to get out of the Utah heat.  I've realized since coming back that Arizona heat is different from Utah heat.  I haven't figured it out quite yet, but in Utah, you can feel your skin cooking when it's 95 degrees, and in Arizona, it doesn't feel like that, even when it's 110 degrees.  My theory is it's the altitude: when you're closer to the sun, you get burned easier.  My home town is about 4500 feet in elevation.  Mesa is 1200 feet.