One Year Ago...

Dylan and Grace were born. Today, they got to experience their first piece of cake. Dylan was in total bliss as he shoved it in his mouth.

Grace preferred to pick off little pieces and flick them on the ground. These two little mess-makers belong to my friend, Beth.

ASU Park

Tahoe and I spent MLK Day at the park where Tahoe tried to get the pesky soap smell off his fur and replace it with that special lake aroma.

It is 74 degrees today. In January!

The ducks followed us around in hopes of getting some bread.

The lake is home to mostly catfish, but there are a few random ones like this large koi.

Walter's World

Sometimes, people forget we have a frog (including Josh). I suppose since he is the quietest of all our pets and can't really be petted, it is easy to do so. However, every day I am amazed at the tenacity of my little frog. I got him about 2 years ago, and he has traveled from school to home and made it through a tank change. He spends his time hopping along the bottom on the rocks or hanging on a leaf in his "zen position".

Sometimes, he gets a big gulp of air. Also, you may not know that he is actually female. Of course, it was too late to rename him when I finally discovered that.

One More Saturday Night

Tiffany and I celebrated her birthday by eating dinner at Pita Paradise where I had some excellent falafel. Then, we went to Dave & Buster's for cocktails and games. My favorite was Arctic Thunder. It was not only a fun snowmobiling game, but it had a vibrating seat...

I totally rocked the skee ball game. All those years of practice have finally paid off. We were able to buy two Chinese handcuffs with the tickets we won. Yes!

Tiffany was drinking and driving, and to be honest, she was actually doing really well.

Happy New Year Again

Here are the pics from below.

Backpacking the Superstition Wilderness

I decided to take advantage of the recent rains and do a 3 day trek through the desert.

There is a rough trail that follows the creek, but it requires a lot of bushwacking and results in my arms getting torn up by prickly trees and bushes. I wore my water shoes and boulder-hopped through the water most of the time.

When the rain runs down the canyon walls, the minerals react and make "desert varnish."

The normally dry wash along the Boulder Creek Trail was really flowing. It's amazing how just a few days worth of rain can create rivers for weeks. During flash floods, the river rises really high. You can tell that it once flowed up to where Tahoe is standing because there is a piece of driftwood there which was carried and placed there by the force of water.

Lower LaBarge Canyon

This was the view from my tent on the first night.

I was going to head further up river that day, but I was attacked by a cholla and had to do some minor surgery to remove the 15 stubborn fish hook needles from my leg. Good thing I was wearing pants, or it would have been much worse. Tahoe hardly ever gets stuck with cacti needles. I think he is better at avoiding them than me. I always keep an eye on him though because he will never let me know that he is stuck, so I watch him walkiing and standing to make sure he is not favoring one leg.

Pretty sand ripples.

Look how smooth the granite rock is from thousands of years of erosion.

Happy New Year!

I couldn't think of a better way to spend New Year's Eve.

I celebrated with dehydrated potatoes and mini wine.

The waxing crescent moon and Venus were the first things to appear in the sky. I saw one shooting star.

Upper LaBarge Canyon

Tahoe is poised and ready to pounce upon a butterfly.

The deep pools of water looked so inviting. I really wanted to swim, but it was too cold for that, so I settled for sloshing through the water. The best part is that, because the creek is seasonal, none of the rocks were slippery.

The sunset created a fiery glow upon the canyon walls.

The temperature hovered in the low 40's both nights, so we really had to bundle up to keep warm. In the morning there was a lot of condensation on the rainfly, so I had to dry it in the sun before putting it away. One night Tahoe woke me up by hacking and coughing. In the morning I found a HUGE wad of wet grass beside me. He always nibbles on grass when we're hiking, but I have never seen such a big wad. He must be learning this from his sisters.