Our Lives

Last night was a BLAST! Jay and I met Matt and Jen at the Red Robin and had dinner. Then we stopped at Target to get two more remotes for the wii. Then we went to their house to play. It was AWESOME. whoever developed this game system is a genius!

You hold the remote (which is wireless) and swing it like a tennis racket, golf club, fist, bowling ball or whatever depending on the game.

We played tennis, we bowled, we played golf and the boys boxed (Poor Jay got the snot knocked out of him) and played baseball (I think Jay’s team won). The neat thing is it’s just like you’re really playing. It is so realistic. The way you throw and aim the ball for bowling - the way you swing your club in golf. Tennis was a little harder, I had trouble figuring out the backhand, so always missed those shots.

After a score in all the games, there is a replay. It is so cool to watch! The tennis players even jump around and fall. It’s great because unlike other video games it’s quite physical! I had a sore shoulder this morning!

You even get to create your “mii”. You pick from a selection of face shapes, body shapes, eyes, eyebrows, mouth, coloring, hair style and color, etc. Matt’s “mii” looks just like him! It was almost scary!

Anyway, we had fun. We all laughed a lot. The cats were weary (they have been trampled in the past from this game) but watched with curiosity and interest. We did have to move the furniture and rug (no potential accidents for Momma) but they have a huge family room, so there was lots of room to get silly.

Thanks, Matt and Jen for a great night!

There was another spectacular adventure to tell about from our trip to the Rim Country. We were driving on a primative road at the bottom of the rim and came accross this wonderful creek. It was so peaceful and beautiful!

Oh, I forgot to mention the free range cattle. They were plentiful!

There was NO one else around, and we stopped and took a walk. This would be a perfect place to camp. (this whole area was filled with campers camped at random spots) The creek was pretty lively because of the monsoons they had the night before.

Enjoy the photos, I wish I could have included the sound and smell! Slideshow

Well, I really did it this time.

I was minding my own business, cleaning on Sunday, when I decided to take a break. So I went to sit down on the chair in the living room and I kicked the leg so that the corner of it (the leg) went in between two of my toes - my baby toe and the toe next to it. OUCH! The pain was so bad that it traveled all the way up to my hip!

I’m sure I broke the toe. I don’t think anything else broke, but it is really swollen and black. Which in and of itself, is no big deal.

However, We have two weddings coming up in just a couple of weeks, and I had bought the most fabulous pair of patent leather heels to wear, and guess what? There is no way I can wear heels. Now I have broken a toe before, and it hurt for at least 3 months. I have 2 weeks.

Right now, I can only wear one pair of sandals that I have, and even they hurt.

Needless to say, I will most likely take the heels back and purchase a nice little pair of flats or <span class=”blsp-spelling-corrected” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_0″>ballerina</span> slippers that have lots of space for my toes. What a bummer because heels make my legs look thinner! : (

So, take a good look at this picture. The cactus at the bottom is a prickly pear. Click on the picture to open it larger if you need to. Notice the pickers? This is a photo from last January on this road, so it is not bearing fruit in this picture. They are now and the fruit is also full of pickers.

Well, Jerry decided it would be cool to taste a prickly pear, so he jumped out of the car and ran over to the side of the road and with his bare hands picked 4 pears. OUCH! We tried to tell him to wait until he had some gloves, but NOOOOOOO, Jerry was really anxious to try one.

Needless to say, he was covered in pickers. Some so fine you couldn’t even see them. We went back to the house and got out the tweezers and duct tape to try to get the pickers out. While they were working on that, I got my tongs and a bowl and brought the fruit in. I looked in my Mexican cookbook and found out how to cut them and what parts to eat.

I squirted fresh lime juice on them after I opened them and removed the seeds. Then scooped out the flesh with a spoon. Now remember, this is a wild variety, but it wasn’t half bad. I’m sure they use other varieties for jams and juices though. In my book, they looked a little less seedy and a little more fruity. I wish I had thought to take a picture.

Okay, this was one heck of a destination - Tonto Natural Bridge. It is made of travertine and is the largest natural travertine bridge in the world. The span is 183 foot high, with a 400 foot long tunnel that measures 150 feet at its widest point.

First of all, let me point out a couple of things - the road grade was 14% going down into this valley to get to the bridge. That in itself was a bit scary! The last section of the road headed about 500 feet straight down to the entrance booth! Honestly, I didn’t think we would be able to stop.

Secondly, let’s be honest, Jay and I are both a bit overweight and not exactly athletic, so the ranger at the entrance was sure to stress how strenuous the climb down was. He also took the time to point out the options for viewing the bridge from above. There are about 3 vantage points from there - but what he didn’t count on was how adventurous we are! So, we made the hike down to the bottom and boy was it ever worth the hike.

They say you can climb all the way through the bridge and come out the other side and take a trail back to the top, so that was what we were hoping to do. Well, we got to the bottom and there were the travertine boulders, polished so smooth from the water over the years that they shone like glass. The boulders were stacked, with water coming down from above and running through them from the creek. It was incredible!

So, Jay thinking I would never climb over all these obstacles to get a better view, went ahead to “take a picture to try to get perspective” of the size. Well, I figured if he could climb over the rocks, so could I, so off I went. It was incredible.

At one point, we went as far as possible on the right side, so we had to cross the creek to the other side to climb over more rocks to get to the other side.

This is where the water was running. This was even more slippery! We went pretty far, then the last section to climb was really high, which was alright, but it was straight down on the other side to get the rest of the way through. We wisely decided that it might be best to go back the way we came (which is what most people we passed on the way down had done).

It was well worth the climb, it was really something. I have images posted that you really need to look at, but let me point out a couple of things first.

Note on the first slide the water coming down. When we got below, I took some pix from below to that point. Also, there are some other shots of water at the bottom that is misting. That is from the same water that you see at the top. One of the huge boulders has ferns growing underneath. Also, notice in some of the shots that the walls of the bridge look like liquid stopped in time. We learned that it was formed partly because of lava flow, but not sure if that is what that’s from. Pretty spectacular.

Well, yesterday was Jay’s day off, so we decided to take a drive up to Payson and the Mogollon rim. Great temp, in the 80’s, sunny and beautiful. Ponderosa Pine forests, babbaling brooks, a lake hidden at the top of the plateau, and the worlds largest natural bridge! Except for the elevation (7,900 ft, at the top of the rim, 4,400 ft. at the bottom) you would have thought we were in the upper peninsula. What a great trip.

First we took the “bee line” (the 87) highway up to Payson. Beautiful scenery. Once we arrived in Payson, we stopped at the chamber of commerce (like the book I have said to do) for information and local maps to everything to see. What a wealth of information. We have stopped at visitor centers before, but never have we gotten such great and helpful information about an area.

So we drove up to the top of the rim so we could see the view. On a clear day, you can see Phoenix from up there. It was a little humid, so a bit hazy, but we could see all the mountains, just not the city. Very neat. At the top of the rim, there are several lakes, we went to Woods Creek Lake. When we stepped out of the car, it was as if we were up north. The pines, the smell (I wish I could send you a sample) the sound. Just whispering breezes through the pines. It was sooooo quiet. The smell was so fresh and distinct. We found a picinic table and had the lunch we had packed. Then we walked over to the lake.

We didn’t want to leave. We sat down at the rocks and just enjoyed. I took some pictures of the lake. Notice the crayfish and the coi. We were really surprised by the coi. Pretty unusual. Great place for camping too. I wish Jay would camp.

So I will continue telling you about the trip in my next post, as there is much to share. Enjoy the photos of the upper rim!