Happy Birthday

Alisha says: We celebrated Dave's big 3-0 birthday last week. I really don't know where the time has gone. We rang in the thirties with some big ol' bowls of ice cream at Cold Stone.

My mom also came to visit us for a few days. We had a baking day where we made several different kinds of cookies for a church event and then we spent an afternoon checking out some sights downtown. We ate lunch at one of my favorite places, Cafe Poca Cosa, and then went and saw the Mormon Battalion memorial sculpture where one of the figures depicted is an ancestor of ours, Jefferson Hunt, he is the one in the middle with his hand up pointing.

Snow in the Desert

Alisha says: After living in the desert for a few years now a few of my perspectives have changed. I now think that the 60's are chilly and anything below that is just plain cold. Any amount of water in nature is cause for a pause and perhaps even a few "ohhs and ahhs". Places where people have grass and vegetation that doesn't include thorns, spikes, or other prickly things are considered very green and lush and snow is now a novelty. Tucson rarely ever gets any snow so when it does it is kind of a big deal, hence the snow pictures. A few years ago I would have never thought to take pictures of an inch or so of snow but this is the most snow that I have ever seen in Tucson. I don't miss the snow at all so the great thing about Tucson snow is that it falls about once a year, you get to see it for a few hours and then it quickly disappears. This particular snow stayed almost a whole day and made for some spectacular scenery but I was glad when the sun returned. When first moving to Tucson it took me a little while to appreciate the desert but now I love it. I love all of the varieties of cactus. I love my view of the Catalina mountains from my backyard and the city from the front yard. I love the amazing sunsets and sunrises, the summer monsoons, the smell of the desert after a good rain storm, the wildlife, our "pet quails", Mt. Lemmon, the spectacular cycling, and the sun. I am now an Arizona girl and I love it!!!

 

 

Gem and Mineral Show

Alisha says: One of the big events in Tucson each year is the Gem and Mineral Show. Ivan and Venice came to stay with us for a few days and took us down to see the exhibits. We also celebrated Venice's 83rd birthday while they were here.  Each year the show features a different mineral and this year it was fluorite. It was the first time that I had been to the show and there were some really amazing things to see. Fluorite is cool because there are many different colors and it forms in cubes and sometimes the cubes are made up of thousands of smaller cubes.

The previous weekend we made a trip up to Phoenix where Dave did a mountain bike race at White Tanks. He was looking good until a ripped sidewall in his back tire ended his race. At least it didn't happen until the 3rd of 4 laps so he still got in some good racing. The next day I did the McDowell Mountain circuit race and made a late move from a break of six to win the race.

 Gem and Mineral Show

 We celebrated Venice's 83rd Birthday while they were here

 White Tanks mountain bike race

McDowell Mountain Circuit Race

January Recap

Dave says: We had a lot of fun in January but somehow never got around to updating our blog. The month started on a good note as I had my first ethics paper accepted for publication. I have several more that are in progress right now. I am also done with classes and studying for comprehensive exams that will take place at the end of March. On my living room floor there are 13 giant stacks of readings that I have been reviewing. I am estimating that it is about 10,000 pages of materials that I am expected to review for the exam.

We also did some fun hiking in January. We went up Romero canyon with Sam on a cool Saturday morning at the beginning of the month. It had some good scrambles and some not-so-good bushwacks and we finished up in the snow at Romero pools.

We made it up to Phoenix one weekend to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday. We also got to help Christine move some heavy dressers upstairs into her new house.

The weather has generally been great for cycling. We have been doing to Tuesday hill ride and Alisha has been putting in some serious miles. She's been doing group rides or training with her friends Lauren and Katharine a lot. We took an afternoon trip to the Pima Air and Space Museum with Lauren, Katharine, and her husband George who knows a ton about the planes there. The collection is pretty impressive and I think the SR71 is the coolest.

Alisha's cross country coaching has been going well in January. She put on her first meet which was a success and there will be another one this Friday. Alisha also won her first bike race of the season last Saturday at the U of A crit. Despite a flat, four-corner course she was able to make a good move at the end and hold off the competition. We have plans for some more events and I may try a bit of mountain bike racing this season as well.

 Dave and Sam figuring out how to navigate around this cold pool of water

Training buddies, Colossal Cave anyone??

 Pima Air and Space Museum Field Trip Gang: Kathryn's Dad Peter, Kathryn, George, Lauren, Alisha, Dave

 Dave and the SR71 Blackbird

 This was the only one they would let me take for a spin

 We even ended up on the moon

 About half of my runners after one of their meets

Bringing 2012 to a Close

Alisha says: This year for Christmas we tried to stick to the warmer climates by only traveling to Phoenix and San Diego. We enjoyed Christmas hanging out with Dave's family in Phoenix. The day after Christmas we all loaded up and headed to San Diego for a family vacation. The first evening we arrived we visited the Mormon Battalion Historical Museum and got an idea of what it would have been like to walk from Iowa to San Diego as part of the U.S. Army.

The next day was spent at Sea World. We watched the sea lion, dolphin and cat/dog show. I was impressed by all of the tricks that they have been trained to do. The penguin exhibit was cool but my favorite part was helping Kaylee and Rachel feed the bat rays.

There were a few various colds going around in the family. Ivan ended up getting really sick and so the next morning one of the cars had to head back to Phoenix. So Dave and I ended up staying in San Diego and being the responsible adults :) with Daniel, Katie and Christine's two oldest daughters, Kaylee and Rachel. We planned a fun day of spending some time at the beach and then another afternoon at Sea World. The best thing we saw the second day was the shark exhibit. We walked through a tube surrounded by water, it was cool when the sharks would swim right over your head and you could see all of their teeth.

Our last morning we went to Cabrillo National Monument and checked out the great views, lighthouse and did a small hike. Kaylee got her junior ranger badge and then we loaded up in the van and drove back to Phoenix.

The last few days of 2012 were spent helping Christine and Parker move across town into their new home that is closer to the rest of the family. I almost made it through the 10 day vacation without catching any illness but it got me on the last day. I think the final count was that 12 out of 14 people ended up sick. I guess that is what happens when little kids are around and then you travel in the same car together. Here is to a healthy and happy 2013!

 Dave's best pioneer face

 

Dolphin show at Sea World

   

 

 

 

 The Bat Rays

 Mission Beach

 Looking towards San Diego from Cabrillo National Monument

Thanksgiving at the Grand Canyon

Alisha says: Thanksgiving morning we got up and went on one last adventure in Moab before driving to the Grand Canyon to meet up with Dave's family for a few days. The last thing we did in Moab was a hike to Morning Glory Arch. We had such a fun time in Moab that we are ranking it as one of our top adventures.

The Grand Canyon is spectacular. I love standing on the rim and taking it all in. Everyone from Dave's family was there so there was a big group of 14 of us. Dave had a fun time getting all of the nieces wound up, they liked to try and steal his hat during the whole trip. We hike Red Butte (located just outside the Canyon), and to Dripping Springs down the Hermit Trail. Dave had fun talking lots of politics with his mom while we were hiking and I just liked to take in the view and learn about the geology of the canyon from his dad.

Moab: Day 5

Dave says: For our final full day in Moab, we tried to up our number of daily adventures from 3 to 4. It was pitch black and freezing as we were driving the atv back to the car at the end of adventure number 3 (we never made it to the sand dunes for adventure number 4) and it felt like a fitting end to our series of adventures to go from sunrise until after sunset.

 

We spent the day to the north of Moab and first did a mtb ride on the Moab Brand trails. We began with the Lazy E followed by the Rockin' A (bumpy slickrock that would have been perfect for a 5 inch trail bike but Alisha got to show off her much improved technical skills) and finally the Bar M which is a fairly flat and fast old jeep road.

 

 

It was a big day on the mountain bikes today because we threw them in the car, drove a few miles north, and then unloaded them (we didn't even take off our cycling shoes) and started on the Klondike Bluffs trail. Alisha liked riding up the big sheets of sandstone and was excited to find a mtb trail where she had to wait for me rather than the other way around. At the end of the Klondike Bluffs trail is a half-mile hike into Arches National Park to overlook the bluffs. We parked our bikes and walked in to see some great views. We looped back on the more technical Baby Steps and Little Salty trails before finishing with the Dino Flow trail which did have a good flow to it. 

Right across the street was the start of our atv adventure for the day. We drove Ten Mile Wash (although my odometer said 11.6 and we didn't even do the part that requires winching at the end) for a nice change of pace with a generally sandy trip down a canyon with tall sandstone walls on each side. The canyon traps the cold air and at one point we drove across a slightly frozen section of the stream that must not get much sun light during the day. I hoped that we would make it through the canyon in time to hit the sand dunes on the way back for adventure #4 (I even put my flag on the back of the atv for the dunes) but we ran out of daylight long before we made it back to the car and had a cold and dark ride back (or romantic sunset and moon-lit ride back depending on how you look at it). The best part of the ride back was the heated grips on the atv so at least one part of you was warm. We pulled into town and ate at the Moab Diner scarfing down a hot meal way too quickly and then rushing home for a shower.