So...how did you spend your Christmas?

Anyone looking for the tradtional unwrapping-of-presents photos? YAWN you won't find them here. Those aren't interesting to anyone but family, so here's something better, or at least....warmer.

Jeff and I were going to go skiing at Christmas, but he really was not excited about it. To me, 10,000 feet, crisp air, pine forest, and come on...SKIING, well there's not much that beats that. Except in order to go skiing, we'd have to leave my parents house in warm sunny Phoenix and drive 2 hours north to their house in cold (yet sunny!) Flagstaff. Jeff wisely suggested hiking the valley instead. He's a smart boy, he knows that as long as I'm outside doing something active, I'm happy.

We both decide we want to climb Piestewa Peak (was Squaw Peak before the Iraq War). That's the "big one" in the area...elevation gain of 1200 feet, lots of tourists. I saw that it was only 1.2 miles one way, and decided that wasn't nearly enough. So, I mapped out a hiking itinerary of my own. Three hikes, two happy hikers (HA!), one day without kids.

Hike #1: South Mountain
Knowing I wouldn't have a willing partner for a decent warm-up hike, I chose the less strenuous but still moderate one mile Kiwanis Trail at South Mountain Preserve for a "get ready because Piestewa Peak will kick our rear" warm up hike. This is a popular park, but still vast enough to enjoy secluded trails. Here's a picture of me contemplating the trail. Actually, I'm killing time while Jeff gets his water ready. The trail wound back and upwards through a canyon filled with cactus, scrub brush, and palo verde.

No charge for beautiful city views, either.

Yes, those are power lines. The West IS in the 21st Century as well, you know.

Hike #2 Piestewa Peak

Sufficiently warmed up from our 2 mile moderate hike at South Mountain, we headed to the middle of the city to tackle Piestewa Peak. I still call it Squaw Peak though. I guess that comes from living there for 24 years. See that picture I took from the car? That's it. Doesn't look tall? It is. You can even see the trail zig zagging up the side of the mountain. Still don't see it? Here's a bigger picture for you.

Yikes. Neither of us, in our combined 50 years of living in Arizona, have done this one before. But it's such a big tourist attraction, we figure it couldn't be THAT hard (wrong!!!). The trail stats out nice and paved, and I'm thinking, ok, this is great. I can do 1.2 miles of PAVED switchbacks. Well, looking at the picture again, I guess it's not really paved. But it's not South Mountain sand, either.

So we plug away, enjoying the city view grow with every turn of the bend. I think it's planned that way....you see more city with every turn to take away from the fact that you also see more mountain above you with every turn. Just when you think you're near the summit, you either see a sign that says you've only gone 0.6 miles, or you look up and see that you are in fact NO WHERE near the summit and that trail you see waaaaaaaaay up there, well, it's waiting to kick your butt.

Pretty soon paved gives way to just rock steps:

Which in turn gives way to "ok this sucks" rock steps:

Which then gives way to "how the eff am I going to get up THIS?":

Yes that's the trail!!!!!!!!! YES! See the little head in the upper right corner? That's a guy at the top of the mountain. But who cares....LOOK AT THAT SKY!!!! Beautiful!!

So, 90 minutes after we start, we reach the summit. And Oh My God was it worth every rump-kicking step. You can see everywhere. EVERYWHERE! Here's just a few shots:

Looking south...the lower mountain on the left is South Mountain, our warm up hike.

Looking east at the 4 Sisters (part of the Superstition Mountains):

Looking west with a zoom lens at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale (UPiG!)

Here's us, about ready to fall off the top of a mountain. This was a few rocks down from the very tippy top. That can only hold one person at a time. The guy taking our picture was standing at the top.

A few more shots:

After catching our breath and taking in the view, we figured we'd better head down. I wasn't too worried about the trip down, because coming up was relatively simple for me. I still have some sort of cardiac health left over from my gym rat days, and I still have pretty strong thighs, so I figured hey, going down couldn't be THAT bad, could it?

WRONG. It was that bad, and worse. First off, I quickly discovered that my thighs are so strong because they've sucked every bit of strength and energy from my calves and ankles. Secondly, I live in the midwest. I am no mountain goat. How can you get down that trail without falling and twisting your ankles many times, including your surgically repaired previous twisted tendon? Well, if you're Jeff, it's a piece of cake. For me, no way. I had to make that above picture extra large so you could get an idea of what a straight-down hill sand and rock strewn trail looks like. That and you can get a good idea of what happens if you fall, take a misstep, or lose your balance.

And while I'm trying to stay alive going down this trail, there are people RUNNING past me. Not jogging, RUNNING?!

Obviously, we made it to the bottom. This is what one kicked Bristol Bootie looks like:

But HA! We're not done yet! No siree, we are not quitters. It's time for our cool down hike!

Hike #3: North Mountain
After Squaw Peak did us in, I insisted that we finish off with a short cool down stroll around North Mountain. I picked a nice 1/2 mile trail marked "easy" and figured we could do it a couple of times. So we collapsed into the car, made a mad dash to the Golden Arches for a Diet Coke, had an energy snack, and made our way to North Mountain. I wish I could say something exciting about this hike. It wasn't. It was a stroll to stretch our muscles and try and get our bodies to stop hating us. It was so uneventful, we left our camera in the car. This picture here of North Mountain was actually taken from the top of Piestewa Peak. Ha ha, see I was savvy and planning in advance. Smart girl.

Well, that's it. We knocked off our 3 mountains, headed home, gathered the family, and went to Red Robin to eat our weight in food and replace all liquids with beer. Ahhh........

Oh, and did I mention that my sister-in-law used to hike Piestewa Peak EVERY DAY AFTER WORK?!?!!

Some Christmas Filth

Tuesday Top Ten

Well, I've fallen months behind on the board Tuesday Top 10, but hey I'll jump in when I can....

Top 10 Not-So-Serious Things I Am Thankful For...

1) Let's just get this out of the way...friends, family, health, and home.

2) The people that not only read my blog on a regular basis, but also have it bookmarked. I'm thankful that someone cares enough about what I have to say to read it on....let's say....a semi-annual basis. So here is a, what do you call it? Shout out? To you.

3) Silly stuff, like the book I'm reading to keep me entertained yet thinking in a way I haven't thought, nor care to think. It's called Working Stiff by Grant Stoddard. Amusing, creepy, but I like it and while I'm not so much thankful for it, I do appreciate the diversion.

4) On the subject of diversions...I appreciate my workday diversions.

5) Iced Coffee. Well, only McDonalds iced coffee. It's not bitter, not burnt, not alot of calories, and quite yummy. And how about Mega M&Ms. My God those are good.

6) My church. For being normal. I'm thankful that we're not a bunch of crazy holy rollers that Colleen things we are. We're not. But they're the only family I have here, and friends may be fickle, but I doubt church will ever come close. I'm thankful that my pastor has a sense of humor, and that he tries to convince us all that when he hit the ball in the water on the 13th hole, he was really yelling DUCK! As in OH NO WATCH OUT, DUCK!!!

7) The location of my house. OK so this has been done before, but here it is again. It's a prime location to view aircraft in and out of O'Hare, Waukegan, and Chicago Executive. Can't beat that.

8) That my dog is in heaven. Thankful? Yes, thankful, because there was no way he'd survive this winter pain free.

9) My husband and his wonderful sense of humor that keeps me laughing even 15 years later.

10) WLSam. Yes, I'm thankful for them. Talk about a true diversion. I've listened to that station for 9 years and I'm still not tired of it. If I added up all the time I've spent listening to them at home, in the car, and online, how many weeks/months would that equal?

On a lighter note....

Maicy is two! Can you believe that?! She had a fun little party with her friends and enjoyed her gifts and cake!

"He was a good dog, My best friend, right through it all"

It's over, he's gone. The house is different, not quieter, not any cleaner, just different.

We miss him. He had a wonderful morning, with two walks, lots of hugs and lovin', and then a trip to the vet with family and friends. He struggled at the end, I wanted to scream "no wait stop, don't do this, don't go." The needle wouldn't go in. Finally she got in enough to calm him down and make him drowsy. Then she went to add more, and he was confused, upset, struggled, tried to get away. Jeff had to hold him down, I buried my face in his fur. Emily buried her face in her stuffed duck, Reilly buried his face in his Mom. We all took a break, regrouped, and tried again. This time I held his face in my hand and kissed all over and told him how much I loved him. Then, suddenly, the light in his eyes was gone. He didn't go to sleep, didn't lay down, the eyes were just gone. I asked the vet if he's gone, she listened to his heart, and then nodded. That was it. We stayed with him a bit longer, and then left. He'll come home next week in an urn.

A Couple of Halloween Pix

Does it get any cuter than this???

Maicy had to have staples in her head today for a gash in the back of her head....

Nothing serious, she's fine. She'd fallen and sliced open the back of her head. It was a wound that really could have gone either way, but it kept bleeding after an hour, so Jeff wanted to take her in. The doc at Urgent Care said the same thing....had we been in the middle of nowhere with no access to medical care, she would have been fine, but since we're not, let's staple her up. Yikes! It was quick and relatively painless, they numbed her up before hand and kept the numbing pad on with this little hat. The staples took less than 8 seconds and then she was done!I was at work and checked my cell and saw 2 missed calls from home. I called home, no answer, called Jeff's cell, no answer, so I jokingly told my boss "my family tried to call, now they're not answering, I hope this means they're not on the way to the hospital for some reason". Ack!I was bored in the waiting room so I decided to use Jeff's BlackJack and take pix. Maicy got a kick out of seeing herself on the screen with the hat.

Amelia Island...

I originally questioned our decision to go anywhere tropical during the middle of the summer, but it turned out to be a perfect choice. Amelia Island is a beautiful area, with magnolia trees, spanish moss, flowers, palm trees, and LOTS of biting buggies.

My Mom, sister, and I all arrived Sunday evening, within an hour of each other, thanks to careful planning on the part of our dedicated travel agent (me). We grabbed a car and headed for the Island. Not knowing what to expect, I kept apologizing in advance for our hotel room. I'd read some internet reviews that said the place was in serious need of an update. I stressed the importance of being on a beach rather than having nice digs. Additionally, the agent that I spoke with said they are NOT a "chi-chi" resort, with manicured gardens. That made me a little nervous. Well, alot nervous. Thankfully, I couldn't have been more wrong. Pulling into the resort, I understood what she meant by not being a manicured property. Instead of cute uniform flowerbeds, there was lush vegetation and ponds everywhere. It was like going to a private retreat instead of a fancy resort. We were impressed with the registration office, and was even more impressed with the 2 mile drive to our building that took us through the (rain)forest past fancy homes and resorts.

So the resort was awesome, next hurdle was the condo. I chose the 2 bedroom 2 bath condo on the ocean, but wasn't sure what that would mean. I was picturing linoleum flooring, avocado green appliances, and formica tops with glitter swirls. I was hoping for a TV, knew internet access and laundry facilities were out of the question. THANK THE GOOD LORD that I was wrong again. Instead we had a huge unit with THREE flat screen LCD tvs, DVD players, internet access, IN UNIT laundry, large kitchen with granite tops and new appliances, ceramic tile, updated baths, leather furniture, glass topped dining room table, updated fixutres....I sound like I'm writing a brochure for a house. And a lovely view of the ocean.

After getting settled, we headed to the store and dropped $140 on groceries. We did the math and figured out that it still came out less than if we were to eat out 3 meals a day plus snacks. Now we were fully prepared to live life as normal...cereal for breakfasts, salad for lunch, fruit for snacks. And of course goldfish crackers and some highly addicting Mega M&Ms. Oh wow those were good. And lots of Diet Coke. No fear of falling of the healthy eating wagon here. We finished off the evening on our balcony, listening to the waves roll in.

Monday morning started for me at 8am, with a phone call from my kids. ACK! Even 1000 miles away, they still won't let me sleep in. After lazing around and eating breakfast, Bethany decided it was time for Boot Camp to begin. The plan was for us to hit the trail and for me to jog (HA) and her to rollerblade 1.5 miles to the bike rental shop, get ME a bike, and then continue another 1.5 miles to the fitness center, where she would kick my butt for an hour and we'd head home. Sounded foolproof, right? Well for some reason Bethany couldn't rollerblade, and it was WAY to sticky to jog. She moved along the trail by lurching from tree to fence to ME, or whatever could stop her progress. With a burst of confidence she decided to coast straight down a hill with no support branches to help her along. Fine, until she hit a patch of sand at the bottom, fell hard, and broke her tailbone. She says it's not broken, I'm convinced it is...she can't even sit on it! Here's the scene of the crime:

At that, we decided to switch roller blades and she would walk. Or rather, hobble. Now I'd never been on roller blades before, and my progress even more pathetic. At one point I was racing down a hill screaming at people to get out of my way. One lady jumped off the trail, looked at my t-shirt and said "you're a pilot? I'll NEVER fly with you!" as I crashed feet first into a palm tree. Eventually we made it to the bike shop (it took us an hour!), I was covered with bug bites, we got TWO bikes (the roller blading days were over) and made it to the gym. Ahhh. That afternoon we hit the beach, did some sightseeing, and had a nice peaceful fresh seafood dinner.

Day 3 started without a phone call from my kids, I knew my mother-in-law wouldn't allow it, so we slept in, rode our bikes to the fitness center, and then decided to go to St Augustine to parasail. What a great time! We chose the 1400 foot package with two free falls and two dips. The dips were axed by shark-fearing Bethany, but my Mom and I were at least able to come close enough to get our toes wet.

After parasailing we went to a well-recommended restaurant, spent $$ on cheap junk, and wandered the streets of St Augustine. What a cool little town. We really wanted to do the Ghost Tours, but that would mean getting back to the hotel at 1am, which was 90 mins away. Maybe next time.

The rest of the trip was uneventful but very relaxing. It was pretty much days of sleeping in, exercising, sitting on the beach, and then sight seeing and eating out. The night before we left we checked out a restaurant that came well recommended but still remained highly suspicious. It turned out that the food was great (best meal the whole time), the place was packed, and it was quite popular with the locals.

The last day we took the scenic route down to the airport and saw some neat sights. This one kinda freaked me out though:

My sis and I dropped my Mom off at the airport and drove around some more before returning for our (alleged) flights. We decided to be brave and tackle our fear of bridges by taking on this monster bridge....

Clearly we survived, however the top of the bridge was like going over the hill on the highest roller coaster....kind of fun but freaky considering the bridges in MN had just collapsed. Prior to the collapse, my Mom and sis had laughed at my fear of driving over bridges. I told them that bridges DO collapse. Unfortunately I was proven right a few days later in Minneapolis.

We made it to the airport in time to find out that everybody's flight was on time except mine, which would cause such a delay that I would miss my connection and be stranded either in Jacksonville or Memphis. I chose Jacksonville and was booked on a 6am flight the next day. I found a hotel, had a nice quiet dinner by myself, complete with a nice phone conversation, went to bed, and made it home the next day. What a trip!