This is the best time of the year in Arizona. Everyone else around the country gets to freeze their butts off and its actually good weather here. I usually get in 3-4 hikes a week and all the summer fat starts coming off. Plus we're really busy with the kids and the holidays.
This year my sister decided to come out here a couple days before Halloween. It was a good decision on their part. We have a lot of cool activities for the kids out here. We took the kids to Cave Creek, Zoo lights, and the best pumpkin patch I've been to
At Cave Creek
That's a 400 pound pumpkin
Natalie bought a selfie stick. Nerd.
That's a giant sundial
This was at Autumn Fest at Anthem Park
On one of the days my sister was here Jeff and I went shooting at Table Mesa. Cody didn't have earplugs so he got my earmuffs and I got toilet paper in my ears. My AK-74 isn't that bad but Jeff's S&W AR 15 made my left ear ring for days. I've had to take it easy on the heavy metal since then. I'm getting pretty good with my HK VP9. 14 out of 15 shots hit their target.
The pumpkin on the porch was in a cactus the week prior. I think it's supposed to be Trump. On the left side of the patio a pumpkin puked his seeds and guts out.
At Zoo lights. It was pretty cool but no animals.
Captain America fell asleep before getting his first piece of candy but he had a death grip on his bucket through the entire line. He woke up to a nice surprise.
The morning before going to the pumpkin patch I hiked up the hill behind my house like I do a couple times a week. I took this panoramic from my Galaxy 7 phone.
At Mortimar Farms
No I didn't have to stage this picture. Zach went running right up to the tractor.
Adri showing off her gymnastics skills.
Zach kept wanting to go again. I let him go 5 times in a row. Cass and her family had already moved on, it was hot, I didn't have sunblock, and eventually I had to pull the kid out. Epic tantrum when his turn was up. I'm pretty sure he could have sat in there all day; or at least until he falls asleep in there.
Zach is quite the climber
I'm pretty sure Zach has a favorite cousin. We might have to have a talk with him because he might even have a crush. He loves his cousin Aubrey.
This wagon is the best thing since sliced bread. It's hard to get a good wagon these days. Everything is made of plastic, including the wheels. Had to get this one online.
Yeah we got lost. I didn't even try to get through it. We made it somewhere in there then turned back.
At this point the kids were getting tired and didn't want to smile. I told them to say "Hillary for jail". They all started yelling it and laughing and the guy next to us got the most disgusted face. I wanted to give him directions to California.
As far as handing out candy this was the best Halloween ever. I dressed up like Mr. Robot, got a fog machine and strobe light, and listened to the best Metal album of all time, Insomnium's Winter's Gate. One song 40 minutes long. I had kids refusing to come up and ask for candy. A couple of the bigger kids came charging across the street until I hit the remote in my hand for fog and stopped them in their tracks. Several people commented they thought I wasn't even real. I didn't move or respond; not even when they said thank you.
The last couple days his cousins were here Zach started his talking strike. He's been doing this a lot lately going from talking to humming entire sentencing. It drives us crazy. This round lasted three days then started up again. So we got him another evaluation with a speech therapist. Personally I think it's selective mutism. Last week Natalie left for the weekend with Cassandra and he talked most of the weekend. You can see here he's being quite the talker. Today he's humming again.
For the last month nothing too exciting has been happening here. I got cut twice so I haven't been able to do a whole lot of physical activity. A couple weeks ago the dermatologist had to cut some skin out of my back which led to a bunch of dissolvable stitches and four big ones. Last Monday while getting the sutures removed in my back I got cut up again right below my chest with almost a dozen dissolvable stitches and 3 big ones. So basically I have been spending a lot of time sitting on my butt. I had just started a daily kettle belt routine which was doing wonders for me and had to stop that as well.
Anyways these are the most exciting events we've had in the last month. About a month ago I took Adri hiking at Cave Creek. At the visitor's center they have snakes, scorpions, spiders, tarantulas, etc but this day they also had a show going on with a lot more snakes. After looking at all the critters I took Adri on a 3.5 mile hike through the desert on the Slate Trail.
A couple days after my first surgery I decided it was time to take Adri up the peak behind our house. I work from home on Sundays so after work I decided to go. I couldn't carry her so I wasn't sure she would make it. Natalie was sure she wouldn't especially since she was already tired from the playground. It's a pretty tough hike as it's 400 feet in elevation gain, there is no trail going up, and it's climbing one rock at a time trying to find your way up and hoping you don't hit some loose rock and go sliding down. Well I'm proud to say the kid made it up. She had to hold my hand the entire way but other than that it was all her. She did fall a couple times and got some bruises on her butt but other than that no injuries.
Once we hit the base of the hill she was already saying she was tired and wanted to stop. I kept on pushing the kid though. She needs to toughen up for the zombie apocalypse. I just told her I'd be really proud if she makes it up. Of course her response is "If I make it up there do I earn a popsicle when I get home"? When we got to the top we called Natalie and had her go out to the middle of the street so we can wave at her. All I could see from up there was a black shadow in the street. We took a trail down the back side because it's too dangerous going down the way we came up. It was longer, still a challenge, and Adri was crying that she's tired long before we got home. Most of the way down the hill Adri kept asking if I am proud of her for making it to the top. Actually two weeks later I still here it from her every day. When we got back to the street we saw a baby gopher snake in the street so I grabbed a stick to play with it.
A couple days later we went hiking again at Cave Creek. This time the whole family went. On the hike back, almost at the car, we ran into a rattlesnake. This one wasn't nearly as aggressive as the one I almost stepped on at Daisy Mountain. This one about 2/3 the size of the one at Daisy and we heard it when we got about 7-8 feet from it. It was on Adri's side and stopped rattling after just a second or two so at first I didn't know what it was. I looked in the bush and could see him all coiled up. Natalie with her expert (sarcasm) outdoor experience started yelling for Adri to go back to her, 150 feet back in the parking lot. Luckily when I yelled at Adri to stop and get her butt back next to me she listened. This thing was so timid that when I chucked some rocks it's way it wouldn't even rattle. So after taking a couple pictures of the snake he decided to retreat. Once he was far enough away and on the retreat I snapped a picture of Adri with the snake in the background.
After this hike my feet were very sore. I've been to a specialist a couple times in the last two months because of my feet not thinking the problem was my boots since they still appear to be in good shape. I had x-rays done and the doctor couldn't find anything except the fact that my shins were really tight. Well a couple days after this hike I went back to the doctor and told her it appears the hiking is what is irritating it. She told me to see if I can bend my shoes. Sure enough my boots bend like a taco and the front can touch the tongue. Had to invest in some new hiking boots and they weren't cheap.
At the top of the peak
Anthem behind her
Behind Adri is Daisy Mountain
Adri with our neighborhood in the background
After hiking down the backside.
Zach at Cave Creek.
Playground at Cave Creek.
I found this nice comfy cactus to sleep on. I felt like a monkey laying there.
