A Journey of Seven

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Kingman and Beyond

Giggle/guffaw. I just have to laugh a little at the title because, well... Kingman! Not exactly noted as a real destination, it's generally a good place to drive through. But Christian and I went on a getaway to Kingman for my birthday! Well, it was my birthday, but really it was just the soonest weekend that worked for both us and the Lantings for passing off the kids on them! Thanks, guys!

Although I guess it's not completely accurate that Kingman was our destination; mostly it was a launching point for going to other places (hence the "beyond").

First day, we drove out there and watched two (TWO) movies. This in unheard of with my husband, who generally won't watch more than a 45 minute show maybe once a week. But apparently if he's tired enough and he's away from home, and there aren't any kids around... So we watched a Thin Man (the one where Jimmy Stewart is a bad guy). After that we got dinner at Paco's Tacos! Grace used to always answer her phone, "Paco's Tacos, this is Paco!" So we laughed quite heartily at actually finding one. We were still so excited about it when we ate there that it didn't bother us at all that the girls behind the counter were white, tattooed, and gun pendant-wearing, or that the drive-through speaker was so loud in the kitchen that we could hardly hear each other talk. The food was actually quite good, though! Anyway, then we rented Alexander & the No Good, etc. Day- very funny, especially without the kids there!

Next day was the big "Aimee gets to visit a ghost town day." Pfff. Except that said ghost town is currently population 252. I'm afraid Chloride didn't get any pictures taken of it by me! Fortunately that wasn't all the we had planned!

We drove up to Pierce/Pearce (it is officially spelled both ways) Ferry, which is close to the official end of the Grand Canyon. The Colorado River comes through the Grand Wash Cliffs and it's just so cool. Speaking of Grand Wash Cliffs, we saw a couple funny signs on our trip. One was a few miles away and it said, "Grand Wash Laundromat". Ha! Another said, "Indian Jewelry for sale at Canada Mart!" Ok... And another said,"Antiques: New and Used!" So silly! Anyway.

The terrain is craaaazy messed up! Look at those stratified layers going almost straight up- major faulting going on. And THEN all of that craziness is half-buried under other deposits. As usual, Christian has a very convincing theory that you'll have to ask him about.

It was wonderful to be able to picnic at the Colorado River without having to hike for an entire day down the Grand Canyon!

I kept wanting to sing, "The hiiiills are alive..." but I didn't except once just a little. But all the cacti in bloom and wildflowers were really quite beautiful! I think "He makes beauty from ashes" might also apply to deserts.

There was a massive joshua tree forest in front of the Grand Wash Cliffs. These are just a few, obviously. :)

Since we were so close, we decided to drive up to Hoover Dam. This is the newish bridge that crosses the canyon instead of everyone having to drive down and over Hoover Dam. And so that it would be harder for terrorists to blow up the dam. Seriously! We had to go through a check point to even walk on the bridge! Speaking of this bridge, it's HUUUUGE. I made it maybe 1/3 of the way across before I started freaking out...have I mentioned I don't do well with heights?

My wonderful husband didn't force me, but let me go back while he bravely went on so he could take a picture of Hoover Dam. And Hoover Dam is huge! The white walls behind the dam is where the water level is supposed to be- it's just part of the hills.

So, this would be like the worst possible job imaginable for me- to have to be hanging over the edge like that- gives me the shivers. I'd rather drive a trash truck. Or maybe even clean toilets.

Here's me feeling kinda bad that I'd sorta rather Christian die without me when the bridge inevitably buckled. It is what it is! Irrational fears just might be genetic...

See?! And you can't even see the bottom of this thing! That's not even half of it!

Ok. Back on good old terra firma. But man, this place looks like Mordor!

The river (Colorado) runs through it...

And these are the same mountain range, except covered in that same deposits as I mentioned awhile back- massive depositing!

Ok, then today before heading home, we went to Oatman via Old Rt. 66. Oatman itself was a little more ghost town-like, except that it was filled to the brim with tourists. So again, no pictures. I want a REAL, abandoned ghost town.

This was just outside of Oatman- such crazy landscape!

Oatman is known for its wild burros leftover from Grand Canyon mining days (think Brighty of the Grand Canyon) that were relocated here. Apparently on this day they were fed up with the tourists too, and were out roaming the land!

Yay for birthday getaways!

Monday, March 23, 2015

Sunset Crater

Hmm,. Ok, so none of these pictures are actually OF Sunset Crater. But it was a fun little hike and walking in a lava/volcanic field is just cool.

These stairs were a little more scary in person apparently. They look pretty safe in the picture!

Crazy trees growing out of the cooled lava

Sisters!

Climbing a cinder hill

Smelling, not kissing. Supposedly ponderosa sap smells like vanilla. The jury is still out on that one.

Lichen!

Mad Hatter Silliness

We had a Mad Hatter "tea party" for my and Christian's birthday this year. Which essentially meant that it was a good excuse for a couple games of Scum! I think a couple people drank tea at least, though the rest of us were too busy with the chips and guacamole...

I think Titus ate one half of the guacamole and Tirzah polished off most of the rest! :)

Let the silliness begin!

Poor Grandma got stuck being the scum

There's no shame in pink, Christian, no shame!

I worked my way up to being president!

And Grandma pulled out of Scum, to hand off the position to Uncle Mike!

Fun times, thanks everyone for humoring us! :)

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Catching Up, March edition

Here it goes, in no particular order...

Seedlings! Working hard to get those tomatoes growing for my dad to enjoy this summer!

This is what I call March panic. Every March I realize how far behind we are in school, and panic sets in... and every year the kids still end up finishing with plenty of time for Summer break.

Sisters!

Brothers! :)

Garlic!

Christian remodeled my chicken coop for my new girls. That was a test of love, I tell you, tearing out the walls/insulation that mice had been living in for a couple years...

Oh yeah, my brains eventually kicked into gear and I figured out that all the yellow chicks were the males since I didn't order any that would be yellow. Duh. So they found a new home pretty fast and we didn't have to butcher. I think one of my black ones might be male, but time will tell.

Happy spinach

Itty bitty baby onions/leeks

Tirzah feeding our goldfish a.k.a. "Aphid Control" I think the bucket of cinder gravel/plants is a filter and the fish water that's pumped through it feeds the plants. Something like that.

We had this cilantro come up on its own...in January.

Happy lettuce

Lots of strawberry blossoms coming in! We may actually get to harvest strawberries this year! Elijah's faithfully going out there and pollinating them every day with a power blower.

Christian finally got his beloved hammock set up in the Shire! It's super easy to set up and and take down- wonderful!

Cat in my onion patch. Oh! CRAZY story made short- we found our cat Courageous that's been missing for a year! He's living one street away at someone's house that feeds stray animals. And he doesn't want to come home! My guess is that the two brother cats decided there wasn't enough room for both of them and Cory drew the short straw and left. Boo. And now I have a cat in my onions. Oh well, we love him anyway, and I guess it's better than two cats in my onions.. :)