Our Last Two Outings with the Grand Kids

The days were winding down till Christopher and family had to return to Alberta and we had a couple more things we wanted to do with them. Doug wanted to take them for one more ATV ride to an area where we can get some rock called Christmas Tree granite. It has beautiful hues of green and red in it. The fellows use it to make clock faces and needed some more. As we now only had one extra ATV to use and Cole wanted to go, I had to stay home. Of course I didn't get to sit around and twiddle my thumbs, but took advantage of the quiet to vacuum, dust, do laundry and clean bathrooms! I also had to bake a second batch of my butterscotch cut out cookies as the kids had eaten them all and wanted more. I bake them and make the icing and the kids get to decorate them. Hannah and I did the first batch and Luke helped with the second. I was surprised at how good he was at decorating!

 Christopher and family in our ATV, Doug and Cole in the yellow RZR, our friends Sharon & Craig in the red kawasaki and Trent & Ann in the black Artic Cat!

 Everyone stopping for a bathroom and food break

Craig offering Lukie something to eat - knowing Luke and his "pickiness" he probably refused!

This is the cliff face where the fellows chip out the Christmas tree granite

You can see where the rock hounds have been slowly chipping away at the cliff face

The kids got quite a kick out of the red rock that looked like an elephant!

 I decided to let the kids make their own pizzas in hopes they would then eat them! It went over very well!!

On their last full day with us, we decided to take them on a drive over to Fountain Hills so they could see the huge fountain go off and also play at the play ground. It was a beautiful sunny day and quite warm so a good choice of activity

 Hannah wearing her sun dress Grandma Judy made and palying on the slide

 They had a good time hiding on each other

 Hannah figures she is "Queen of the castle"

 Luke coming down the slide. He had sweat pants on so he came down pretty fast the first time and there after, learned to hang onto the sides to slow himself down

 The fountain just starting. It goes off every hour on the hour for about 15 minutes. It is a gorgeous sight with the dark blue skies in the back ground

 The kids were quite enthralled with all the coots and different ducks in the lake

 Just enough of a breeze that it created a rainbow

 Thought I would get a back view of everyone looking at the fountain

 The fountain is pretty well at its maximum height

 Luke determined the coots liked to eat grass so he pulled some and fed them. Of course that only entertains him for so long......

 

Obviously Doug was more interested in the fountain than Christopher and I!

This is my cropped version!

 The bouncy dinosaur and car entertained them for a bit

 Great picture of Luke and Hannah sitting on a bronze toad. Hannah loves frogs!

This might be a little difficult to watch if you get motion sick!

 Hannah and Luke riding the dinosuar

The kids then saw all the ducks converge in one arm of the lake and wanted to feed them so they took their Gold Fish crackers and over they went.

Just before we left the park, we had to get a picture of all 3 grand kids sitting on a bronze tortoise.

The next day, Wednesday, they left for home at 1315 hours and arrived back in Edson Alberta late that night. Sounds like they had a snowy drive from Edmonton to Edson and it was still snowing this morning! Ugh...they can have that kind of weather. We are in for a week of below average temperatures with some nights falling into the 20's (F) so we are getting ready to cover all our citrus trees and put heat lamps under them. Seems this is the coldest spell Arizona has had in 25 years! Still, it is sunny and there is no snow to shovel!!

We got to go ATVing to Box Canyon without the kids!

On Thursday of this past week, Christopher, Laila and the kids went to the Phoenix Zoo for the day. We decided that this was the time to get our riding group together and go for an adult ride. We decided to do a trip into Box canyon. When we left Apache Junction to go pick our friends Ron, Elaine and their grandson Curtis up, it was calm, beautiful, warm and sunny. By the time we reached their RV park in Mesa, only about 10 minutes away, the wind was howling and Elaine said it had been doing this sine 0300 hrs in the morning! We then drove out to the Arizonian RV park where our ATV's are and our group heads out from there and the wind was howling there also. It was just 0900 in the morning and boy was it cool.
Doug and I were using our friends Bruce and Connie's Razer, Ron and Curtis were using our ATV and Elaine rode with our friend Harvey in his Rhino and Trent and Ann also came along,.

 When we went riding with the kids on Tuesday, all little Lukie had wanted to see were cows in the desert! Of course we never saw a one! When I spotted cows on Thursday I knew I had to bring him home a picture

 We had to travel over an hour just to get to the trails on the south side of Highway 60. A lot of the travel was on roads through Queen Valley where we were traveling at least 30mph and boy was the wind cold. Even with gloves and goggles on, my hands were numb and my eyes tearing. I thought I would never get warm again! Here we are heading up into the hills over looking the mountains to the south looking down towards Florence and Tucson

 I had to take this picture for Christopher and Cole of the this rigged up jeep heading past us into the hills

We are getting into some pretty rough, rocky trails and we are sure glad we put new heavy duty tires on our ATV this year!

 Minus the wind, it was a sparkling sunny day and we could see for miles

 There is one spot where we have to traverse down a rocky ledge to get into the wash that leads us into Box Canyon. Ann is busy giving Harvey directions as he is the last of our group to come down.

These were some dirt bikers who came along right behind us at the ledge. The young woman was too afraid to ride her bike sdown so one of the fellows brought her bike down and she scrambled down. Gave us some entertainment!

 Curtis, Doug, Ron and Elaine just chatting as we take a break after coming over the ledge.

 Looking ahead and Ron & Curtis in our ATV as we approach Box Canyon

 It is hard to stop taking pictures as the scenery is so spectacular

 I have some dust on my lens and it makes for pretty spots as the sun reflects off them!

 There are some very narrow spots in the wash that you just squeeze through. You sure don't want to be down there is it starts to rain!

 Lots of different rock formations

 We were protected from the wind down in the canyon so it was a welcome relief!!

 You can't be claustrophobic as some spaces are very narrow with the rock walls closing in on you

 We are slowly making our way to a spot that has some sunshine and is a good place to stop for lunch

 Almost there, one more cornor to circumvent

 

We know we are at our lunch spot when we see these formations!

 We are all parked on the shady side of the canyon so other vehicles can get by us when we are stopped. It is a popular ride so we saw many other ATV's and jeeps this day

 We have lunch in style, making sure we are in full sunshine so the women are warm!

 Heading home, we have a couple of steep, shale hills to climb that are lots of fun. Especially  when we have friends along that have never done them! They never look as steep when you take a picture but they really are

 Doug is at the top waiting for the others to come up the hill. He will be setting up his tripod so we can get a group picture to commemorate the trip.  Something we always do!

 Elaine is taking a picture of Trent and Ann coming up the hill

Trent stalled his engine right at the steepest spot and we were all holding our breathes but he got it going and made it to the top.

 

 The scenery from the top is spectacular again as you can see for miles.

 Everywhere you look you see different scenery

 We look like we are dressed for a Canadian Winter!! from left in the front is: Ann, Trent, Sharon, Ron, Elaine

Back row from left: Harvey, Curtis and Doug

 I think Doug wants to black mail me with this one! I was bundled up so much doing my best to stay warm. My ears were aching from the cold breeze when we were zipping along at 25 - 30 mph!

 Hopefully soon you will see me in a lot lighter clothing as the weather starts to warm up. I am so glad I brought my down vest along!

Doug made me drive the rest of the way home as he thought it might warm me up! I had to borrow Elaine's blanket to wrap around my legs as i was freezing! The little Razer we were using didn't afford any protection from the wind and we don't get any heat off the engine like you do when you are riding in our Rhino! We had a wonderful 8 hour ride with good friends despite the cool wind!

On Friday we decided to just stay at home and relax and let the kids have some down time and just swim in the pool, play some tennis and sit outside and sun! On Saturday Christopher, Laila, Hannah and I went to a huge gem and rock show in Mesa. Cole and Luke didn't want to go so Grandpa stayed home and babysat. It was so lovely, warm and sunny and Laila got quite a sun burn! You have to learn down here to slather on the sun screen! Hannah was in her glory as she loves rocks. She got many free rocks from vendors and used her Christmas money to buy a few more! Both Christopher and I forgot to take our cameras so I have no pictures of her gold panning darn!