Monday, June 30, 2008

Tombstone

After the mission we went to Tombstone. Cheesy tourist trap that it is, we still had fun.

Yes, it really is as hot as it looks.

I've read her memoir entitled "Doc Holiday's Woman", she was one crazy lady!

HAHA!

Main Street in Tombstone

Horse Drawn tours

Train, Mountain, Sunset

The mountains and the abandoned wells and windmills always make me stop, or in this case quickly roll down the window as we're speeding down the highway, to get a shot.


Since I never seem to post any pictures of me, here's a parting shot.

San Xavier Mission

One of my favourite things to do on vacation is visit churches. I haven't gone to any of the local churches around here, even though there are some pretty impressive ones. Diana, Loren, Andrew and I went to Mission San Xavier. It was SO hot. The church is defiantly different than others I've been in. A bit more primitive, less elaborate on the gold leaf, but still very detailed oriented, and very Spanish. Unfortunately they were doing work on the facade so I don't have any good pictures of the place as a whole without the scaffolding.

San Xavier

Bells on side chapel

Church Entrance Door

Santa Maria

Front Alter

Outer Courtyard (Edge)

Outer Courtyard (Interior)

Kim & Loren's Adventure

Loren and I had fun one day exploring the countryside and driving across the desert on back "roads" they were pretty much two tracks. We started the adventure off by stopping at a gelato shop and getting ice cream and coffee, that was downed before any pictures could be taken.


Road across the Desert

Box Canyon Rd.

Box Canyon Wall (the path that is at the bottom is actually the road)

Kim the Rodeo Queen

Loren the Gangster


Open Range


Mountain Range


Windmill

Arizona

We were in Arizona at the end of June. Got to have a mini family reunion. Both Andrew and Diana had a conference in Tuscon and Loren and I tagged along to get some R&R. We took a couple days on either side of the conference to spend in Phoenix with Rob, Laurie and kids. I was in seventh heaven to have Mexican food almost every day.

We went straight from the airport to an Arizona Diamondbacks game. It was fun, but I was exhausted. Not enough sleep the night before and then too many hours traveling.



MMMmmmm Cotton Candy!

We spent a few minutes at the driving range, it was just too hot to stay out too long (118F that day).

Pro Golfer #1


Pro Golfer #2


Pro Golfer #3


Pro Golfer #4


Pro Golfer #5

Laurie, Diana, Risa, and I took a relaxing afternoon and went and had pedicures done. Rob grilled some great food for us over the weekend and we went out to a new restaurant, PeiWei. Diana and I took a quick "dip" in their fountain.


It was a fun and relaxing vacation. Lots of good memories and look forward to doing it again soon. Always great when you can say that after spending a week with family ;)


Thursday, June 12, 2008

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Trail Riding

I've been riding a lot with my neighbour, almost every weekend. Usually we trailer somewhere and ride and then trailer home. Dakota is getting used to getting on and off her trailer, and today just walked right in like an old pro. The goal of today's trail ride was to get Dakota across a bridge, something he's never done. The plan isfor us to go horse camping in August, and the camp has numerous bridges on its' trails, so we need to make sure he's going to cross (and if not we've got two months to teach him how). He stopped and sniffed the bridge before crossing and then walked right across, he wasn't too sure about the noise it was making (it was a wooden bridge). The ride was supposed to be "short" but ended up being 2 1/2 hours, not exactly a short ride, but got us a good taste for what's to come later this summer.

Each time we go out someone will say;" ______________ up ahead, he do ok with that?" Things that go in the blank are: lawnmowers, motorcycles, loose dogs, loud trucks, or other things like that. Each time my answer is, " I don't know, guess we'll see". And each time he plods right on by it like it's no big deal and he's Mr. Pro Trail Rider/Road Rider. Well today there was a bicycle coming down the trail, I suspected this might not go well, but wanted to make sure he saw the biker before putting my friends horse between us (That always makes him much more brave when Domino is between him and potentially scary object). I yelled up to the biker to say hello to us or at least talk so that he'd know that biker was human and not some monster. Biker dude kept coming without saying a word. Dakota FREAKED OUT, we spun around and went galloping down the trail AWAY from the biker and back where we came from. I finally got him under control and looked over my shoulder to see how far we'd come and assess getting back to where we needed to be and the biker was right behind us, coming RIGHT FOR US!!! WHAT THE HELL!!! I think that thought crossed both our minds at the same time. The oblivious biker pulled around us and kept on going, saying "sorry" right about the same time he was directly beside us. That was enough for Dakota and we galloped back to Domino. My neighbour said when he went by her she asked him to stop. We're thinking he must have had an ipod on, I can't imagine anyone being that rude. Actually, I have a hard time believing anyone could be that stupid. Who see's a horse freaking out and keeps "chasing" them? Cause that's what Dakota thought he was doing, horse eating monster chasing him down for a meal.