Hiking the Y

About 1 week ago my family had a reunion in Park City. It was a great time with lots of fantastic pictures, however they are all on Beth's camera. Needless to say, I can talk about the reunion in more colorful and picturesque detail when I have the pictures so I'll wait until then.

I will tell about hiking the Y. After the reunion, Katie, Ryan and I went to Provo to spend some time with our friend Tisha. We decided the best use of the morning would be a nice, relaxing, perhaps slightly aerobic hike. Tish decided we would hike the Y (that's the "Y" on the mountain). We were excited; after all we hadn't done this before.

At the beginning of the hike there is a sign showing the trail and the different options...the top or the bottom of the Y. Tish said, "we better decide now which way we'll go because otherwise at the top we'll just go to the bottom". We decided on the top, but we didn't know yet how true her comment was.

We started walking/hiking...and it was very steep. I love hiking and am in good shape, but it was still very steep. When you factor in the altitude, it was a difficult, tiring and a very much aerobic hike. Katie and I were feelin' it, but nothing that a few stops to rest didn't fix. And, in the end, we made it to the top of the Y.

After lunch and some "take in the view" time, we walked back down (it was equally as steep going down) and headed back to Tish and Chris's (her husband) apartment for some quality Canasta and Rock Star time. It was a fun day and a great hike.

Arboretum and Wyoming...

...better late then never.

Over Easter weekend my sister Katie came to visit. After getting to the airport a little late to pick her up (oops, but by late I mean 35 minutes) we headed off to go hiking. We opted for a nice, pretty, relaxing hike rather then climbing a mountain...so we went to Boyce Thompson Arboretum. I see the entrance for this place every time I go to Phoenix, but have never stopped. Katie and my mom had been before, but they wanted to go again. I am glad we decided to go there because it was a fabulous time/day to go! The weather was beautiful and there were flowers everywhere. I took pictures of some of my favorite flowers and, while I'm not photographer, they turned out quite nice in my opinion.

It was nice to walk around enjoying nature and talking.

Now that I look at this picture I am thinking, those sunglasses are kind of atrocious and too big for my face. Hmm.

On to last weekend, April 16-18. I decided to take a trip to Wyoming to see the show that Chris directed, The Music Man. Although my rental car did not have cruise control, gasp, I made it to Beth and Chris's without mishap, only major cramps in my legs. It was a fast weekend, but fun filled. I had time to play with Caitlin and Ashlee, go on a walk, visit with Taffy (who was is RS for the day), go to the show, see Chris's parents, and eat yummy food. The show was very good, Chris did a great job of putting it together.

This week I have been back at home and the everydayness of my life. It's pretty exciting here in our little valley though with the open house of The Gila Valley Temple underway.

Listen...

...that is the glorious sound of monsoon finally making it to Arizona. It was a little late in coming, but finally we had some rain to cool off the HOT weather. Here is a view from my front porch (as you can see, rain gutters are not a norm in AZ, so the corner of my rose garden gets it's more-than-fair-share of run off). The few days of rain showers was so great! I love how the rains dusts everything off so the outdoors becomes vibrant with color.

The joys of nature and home ownership

Oh the joys of owning a house :) Remember a couple years ago when they were worried because so many bees were disappearing?

Back in April I was mowing my backyard one evening when I noticed a few bees flying around one area. Upon closer inspection I discovered they were coming in and out of my sprinkler box. Hum...what should I do? Maybe open the sprinkler box - possibly a really dumb idea but I decided to give it a try. With my shovel I stood as far back as possible and pried the lid up...about 1/4 inch on one side, not even enough to do anything. Then reality hit me and I decided it was a really dumb idea. The next day I called the exterminator. He came right away, got decked out in his bee outfit, opened the sprinkler box and sprayed the attacking bees. From the safe confines of my house it looked like there were a lot of bees, maybe 75 or 100. When the exterminator finished his business he left me a small piece of honeycomb (about the size of a flat grapefruit) which was the smallest of 8 pieces. What!?! And said there were several thousand bees. WHAT!?! On second thought, I'm pretty sure it was the spirit telling me not to open the sprinkler box.

Fast forward to July.

Katie and Ryan came to visit last weekend and I opened the sprinkler box as I told them the story of the beehive. Boy was I surprised by what I saw (all the brown is bees).

Today I decided to clean this up (don't worry, I wore gloves). There was so much is it almost filled a grocery bag.

All that remains is some honeycomb left on the cover and some powder to make sure they don't come back. I also included an after picture of the box so you can compare to the pictures above to see just how many bees it really was.