January Hike

After 1.5 miles we reached our destination and found our third geocache. The hike wasn't too hard, just enough uphill to make it fun. Rhayn walked almost all the way, the babies both slept along the trail. Between work and Soccer JVA and G'rat's families weren't able to join us this time. The weather was perfect by the end of the hike, it was a little cool at the beginning and as we were hiking along the ridge, it was fairly breezy.

Afterward we went to leaner's house and had hotwings, some good artichoke chili dip, fried mushrooms, and potato salad.

Can't wait to see wher we go next month!

One expensive bike

So we have finally done it. We purchased an exercise bike. Yes, we have had one in the past. We have actually purchased many different pieces of exercise equipment that have become great clothing racks. Those wonderful things that they advertise on TV that look so easy, but when you get it and actually try to use it, you realize that the people demonstrating them are in amazingly good shape. You (or me) on the other hand are probably not. The only piece of equipment that we have seen advertised on TV that actually worked was the Total Gym. It is easy to use and even fairly easy to put up and take down (guess you know we bought one of these too)

Anyway, thanks to leaner's family we realized that we really liked using recumbent bikes. The kind that sits really low and you peddle forward on. Now understand that this is not something that will ever leave our bedroom. It doesn't have a wheel, and it keeps track of your heart rate, calories burned, etc. It also has programs built in that make it simulate riding up a hill then down, then back up. The best part is that it makes no noise.

We may be a little crazy, but if we are going to continue to climb up all these mountains in Arizona and keep up with these youngsters in the family, we need to do something. If you ever want to check out our expensive new toy, just drop on by.

Blue Monday

Yes, this is apparently a song by Fats Domino made famous by some other group. But it is also listed as "Blue Monday: the most depressing day of the year"

Monday, January 22, 2007
Bad weather, credit card bills and the failure to keep up those good resolutions make today the bleakest of the year. So if you feel down, you are not alone - but help is at hand, reports Richard Garner
The weather is bad, the nights are still long and your Christmas overspending has finally caught up with you.
On top of that your New Year resolution to give up smoking has just gone out of the window as you strive to cope with the pressures of having gone back to work after the holiday break.
So welcome to "Blue Monday" - Monday, 22 January - officially designated by a psychologist as the most depressing day of the year. It has been singled out by Dr Cliff Arnall, psychologist and former tutor at Cardiff University, who has used mathematical equations to reach his verdict.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/features/health-and-beauty/article2175825.ece

No wonder we've all been in a "Blue Funk" We've even got a holiday to celebrate it!!!

The rest of the story...

For months (literally) we have been trying to solve a puzzle cache in Casa Grande. This team took another teams idea and then modified it a little. Anyway, we have driven to CG on at least three different occasions with the 4wheelTaco's to find this elusive cache. Once we were in a paking lot of a bowling alley and it would have been a perfect place for a cache, but after looking for 30 minutes we gave up. Another time we drove into a part of town where you wouldn't want to be after dark. The third time Ms. Taco knew she must have the solution, so we drove to the end of field and searched around there for quite awhile. Anyway, we had decided to ignore this for awhile, maybe it would disappear or it would solve itself. As I was emailing another team about one of our caches, we asked them if our newest solution was accurate. They then told me we were off on one number. With a little nudge we found our error and then called the Taco's to find out what they were doing Friday night. Ms. Taco told me that they were finding a geocache and going out to eat.

The best laid plans of mice and men. We left Cooltown around 5 PM and headed for the perfect location for a cache. A few minutes later, abe had a little box in his hand. We opened it feeling quite proud of ourselves. But alas, this wasn't the cache, just a well placed decoy. It did tell us we were close. So we continued looking. One more little box later, and one more decoy. It was cold, it was rainy. Mr. Taco told us he was hungry. So we decided to go get something to eat and then regroup. After dinner we went back and tried one more time. Not finding anything new we ended up driving home empty handed.

On Saturday we had a B'day party for Beth in CG. After eating Pizza and breadsticks and fried zuchinni, watching the kids (big and little) play games - leaner was quite good at skee ball. We gathered up the Tomb Raiders and Fowl Powell's to try one more assault on the cache. Our method was for them to find the ones that we had already found to see if there was one more clue. I grabbed the little box to see if we had missed something the first time. And sure enough, there was somthing we had failed to notice. Signing our names on that log was quite an accomplishment.

What a grouch!

I had one of those days yesterday, the kind where you want to throw the phone across the room. The kind where you really don't want to deal with anyone or anything. I wanted to blog about it, but that was yesterday, so I didn't have time to do it then. I even had to apologize to someone about a phone call, because even though I was not in the wrong, I can't stand people thinking I am normally a grouch. I got everything done I needed to do and it really wasn't a bad day. We even had an adventure in geocaching that I will have to write about at a future date, but since we haven't finished "the rest of the story" I can't write about it yet.

Today the little stupid things, including the migraine that was getting worse, are all washed away with the rain that has cleansed the earth. It is cold and wet for real this time. The sun has peaked through the clouds a few times today and my spirits have been lifted. Today I think that I could conquer anything (except Picacho Peak briep). Today I was patient when things didn't go the way they should have (and I even had a reason to be upset). Today was another day, that grouch from yesterday is only a memory.

Cold and wet

So when you read the title of this, you would assume that it is raining in sunny Arizona. Not so, it has been extremely cold the past two nights - in the low 20s. Some of our plants outside have frozen and there was frost on anything with a wee bit of moisture on it.

Today, abe and I went on a geocaching adventure (surprise! surprise) afterwards we decided to go see a movie and enjoy our day off. While we were in the movie we both received a phone call - of course our phones were turned off to keep from disturbing others around us. Both calls were from home, both from Jesse, telling us that a water line had broken outside the house. On Sunday when I got up ready to take a nice warm shower I realized that the water was frozen. This happens at least once every winter. This morning when it was frozen again we didn't think anything of it. As it was still frozen when we left there was no problem, as the day progressed the line began to thaw and that was all it took.

So here we sit, JVA and abe worked on the line, but there is still some problem. So, if we want a shower tonight it will be across the street at the kids house.

Life is such an adventure!!

Speaking of Birthdays

Here are some of the people who have birthdays in January in our family.

The first was on the first, then there was a young man whose birthday was on the third.

Next we have two birthdays in one week - the 11th and the 12th for two really old people.

Then there is a special girl born on the 21st of the month, an easy day to remember as her dads birthday is the exact opposite (12).
Happy birthday to these five special people!!!

Okay, so there is an extra picture. Just wanted to show how cute this guy was as a little boy, back before he ran out of energy.

More desert fun

This weekend we went to baby Max's blessing. We got to Safford in time to eat lunch at our favorite place - the Casa Manana. Then we found a few geocaches while we waited for the Taylors to get ready to go for a drive. We drove East of Safford to the area known as the Gila Box. None of us had ever been there before and other than the geocaches that were along the way, there were a lot of neat things to see.

We got this wonderful ice cream cone antenna "ball" at our 600th geocache. Abe had been complaining about having a vehicle that is too hard to find in a parking lot and that we needed something to help us find it. So when we found this bright pink ice cream cone, we knew it was the ideal thing.

Sunday morning we went to church for the blessing and then over to the T's for lunch. We crowned the oldest of the Taylor children as the King of Guacamole and then after taste testing it and the salsa, some of us weren't extremely hungry. The family photographer showed off his new $10 camera. Don't know if it takes great pics, but it is small.

It was sad that leaner wasn't able to go with us, due to her illness. We did have a nice time, but it was cold and their house is pretty small for the crowd that was there.

More on the 1st day of the Year

We went with SLA and JVA into the desert. We also took our friends the Carpenter's with us. After climbing to the top of a couple of hills finding geocaches, we went back to the main road and built a fire. G'rat was going to meet us there and bring the food. We had sliced potatoes and onions and he made hamburger patties. We put all of that together and made foil dinners. While we were busy cooking, SLA got a chance to try out her new camo shotgun that Santa had brought her for Christmas.

We also made some dutch oven Peach Cobbler, forgetting that SLA doesn't really like Peaches. But she ate some anyway. Sadly, Katie wasn't feeling well, so G'rat just brought the two kids out and wanted to get back home after a short visit. We did manage to take them to one geocache that was close by so the kids could find it.

After we cleaned up everything, we continued into the desert on some more geocaching adventures and the rest of the group went home. We finally got to try out our new truck and add a little more Arizona pinstriping to the paint. One more hike up a hill and a few more nice flat walks were part of our adventure.

For the first time in ever we actually remembered all of the food and all of the other essentials for our meal, along with enough water, chairs, a table, to make it a nice day. We normally forget something, so this was a good way to start the year.

Happy New Year!

Our Bear called last night at 12:04 to wish Happy New Year to everyone. Just wanted to relay the message. He told us that Verizon had set up a free call center for the troops to use over the holiday until January 2nd.

He called to talk to us, then hung up to call Crissa, then he called back, just as we were falling asleep. But anytime we can hear from him is fine.

Today we are going on a grand adventure. Hopefully it will be fun and we will write about it later. Hope your year started off as well as ours did, and continues that way.