Arizona

This weekend, we went out to Arizona to visit with Jeff's family and to get some warmth in this cold winter. The weather didn't cooperate too much at first with some cold and rainy days, but we made the best of it with the family and had a great time. 

Like we did in past visits to Arizona, we set out to climb Camelback Mountain. Last time we were there, Aaron was a baby. And the kids hadn't been to the top (to the best of my memory). This time, that would change. Jeff, Kyle, and Emily made it to the top on this climb. Aaron and I stopped just short of the top because Aaron was getting tired and we still had to be able to climb down. Nonetheless, he made it 95% of the way up. Not bad for a 4 year old!! Kyle and Em were thrilled to have made it all the way to the top. 

The next day, the cousins arrived and so we had a lot of family time. Kids played, swam, played poker, hung out. Emily came down with some sort of flu or cold or fever or something that basically knocked her out for the rest of the trip and then some. So she was pretty much couch surfing for the rest of the trip. When the rain cleared, a handful of us went to a new train which we called Coyote Trail because of the real life coyote packs that we could hear howling and crossing the paths!! We were a bit frightened about that but found comfort in the fact that there were many other people out on the trails. They basically advised us to stay together in a pack and to certainly keep smaller kids with us. We didn't quite make it to the top due to daylight fading and not wanting to be out there in the dark with the coyotes so we turned around just shy of the top. For me, it was my 2nd attempted and failed (though that's too strong of a word because they were wise decisions in both cases) at a summit. So I was going to make it to the top of Camelback the following day when we went again. 

With Emily still sick, Jeff, Kyle, Aaron and I set out to attempt Camelback again. About a quarter mile in, Aaron tripped on a stone and skinned his knee. He wasn't going any further at that point, well, unless he was being carried so Jeff turned around with him. Kyle and I scurried our way up to the top at a good clip. And we made it!! Wahoo!! Was a great cap to a fun trip to Arizona.