Author: midder

Unfortunately we’re not really beach bums. We’re just bums who happened to get to the beach recently. Me, I was able to make it to some beaches in Havasupai. The whole family was able to take in the cool breezes of Oceanside.

Unfortunately (again) I didn’t take a camera to Havasupai. Actually, that’s not true. Michael and I bought one of those crappy disposable 35mm cameras in the once-booming town of Seligman. I’m sure it was happening in its heyday, but it’s hurting in today’s day. I figure that we probably paid $.50/shot. Plus I haven’t even gone down to get them developed. Who knows where I can even get them developed these days. The long and short of it is that there are no pictures. But here’s the run-down for those of you who care:

We got up to the rim just as it was getting dark. Luckily I checked the weather the day before (Saturday) at about 11:30pm. The temperature was 33 degrees. So my struggle over whether or not I needed to take a sleeping bag was quickly resolved. Michael and I got all of our sleeping gear out of our packs on Sunday night for sleeping. The other 5 guys that went with us decided to pull up a chair or something in the van they all came in. Apparently it was so cold that they ended up turning the thing on every couple of hours to try and thaw out. Needless to say, they were ready to go at the first hint of sunlight. I almost threw something at the guy who woke me up, but at least I was well rested.

After the long hike down into the village, we all decided to look into the easiest way out of the canyon a few days later. I had read that the helicopter doesn’t run on Wednesdays, which, of course, was the day we planned to hike out. We unfortunately were able to verify this rumor. So the next order of business was to see about getting some horses to carry our stuff out. We were eventually able to sort that out.

Havasupai is truly a beautiful place. It’s like the garden of eden in the middle of a desert. The falls are spectacular, if a bit cold at the end of May. We did lots of hiking and I did lots of sleeping. I got into my bag on Monday night at around 7pm and didn’t wake up until about 7am on Tuesday. Surprisingly, I got a reputation of being a social reject. That’s certainly the first time I’ve been labeled as such.

Michael had to get out of Dodge on Tuesday to get back to some work. One of the other guys had to go as well, so they trekked out and rode back to civilization in the luxury that is my Hyundai. We headed out the next day. I don’t think I will ever walk out of that canyon again. 3 times is enough. Plus the helicopter ride is only about twice as much as the donkeys. And you get there 100 times faster.

Last week we were lucky enough to be able to go to Oceanside again. This is about the 4th or 5th time we’ve been there, and it’s always great. Oceanside is pretty low-key compared to most of Southern California, and that’s how we like it. This time we invited/persuaded/manipulated our friends into coming with us. I’m sure that they wonder how they got stuck with a bunch like us, but we had a great time.

Beach:

Legoland:

Terrorist at Legoland:

On the way to San Diego:

Old Town:

Bus/Boat thing:

Our lively company:

Dinner at Seaport Village:

More beach:

Checking out the scenery at the beach:

More beach:

Etc, etc, etc.

Unfortunately it all had to come to an end too soon (for us at least). Summer in Phoenix finally decided to come, just as we returned home. Hopefully the furnace will burn out soon. Or at least hopefully the temperature will moderate. This global warming thing is killing me. I’m ready for the next ice age.

LOTS more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/

(more on that later)

This has been an interesting week here in AZ. Sunday we had our first 100 degree day of the year. Then on Monday we promptly had our first 110 degree day of the year. Tuesday our pool started boiling. Apparently Friday is supposed to be down in the 70s. I’ll let you decide which of those sounds the most reasonable for the desert in late May.

Our summer holiday begins this weekend as the girls finish their school year. They’ve both had really wonderful years, all things considered. We really couldn’t have asked for better teachers. Both were just perfect for what each of them needed. Now we’ll see what we can do to keep the girls’ interest through the summer. Surprise’s first movie theater opened today, so I think that summer movies might be in the works.

We’ve been very proud of Gwenyth and how she’s become so independent. Swimming lessons helped her build a sense of empowerment, especially as it relates to fashion. She’ll come down the stairs most days with her favorite garb on. It’s always particularly exciting when she dresses herself for swimming.

In other news, Julie is pregnant w/ #5. And . . .

I’m sure that Gwenyth will help out with the masculine stuff like sports:

Here were yesterday’s predictions/comments before today’s ultrasound:

We are registered at The Sports Authority.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/

It’s nice to have Julie home again. Though we survived without her, it’s not something that I want to get used to anytime soon. Sean and Jana were nice enough to take Lucy for a few days, which she thoroughly enjoyed. I’m not sure if Sean and Jana can say the same.

We made it out to Joe’s Farm Grill with Sean, Jana, Michael, and Alison. It was a great place. You should go there if you’re ever in Gilbert. You know, the town where the LDS church is building a temple but the hosers there don’t need one. After dinner, we headed out to Mikey and Ali’s place so that the girls could veg on XBox and I could veg on whatever else. We had a great time, even if we set them back a week with their fun projects. How’d staining the door go, Ali? 🙂

Abigail and Grace were excited to do something for their mother, even if she wasn’t going to be around for Mother’s Day. When Julie got home, she found these. A sweet note from Grace:

 

A poem that Abigail wrote:

They were very proud and I think that Julie was touched as well.

After Julie got home (the flight was only delayed an hour this time — things at US Airways are looking up, apparently), the routine began again. Things are really starting to wind down with school, and up with summer.

Lucy finished her preschool this past week. Abby and Grace had their recital today, and will be finished with school next week. I head out to Havasupai with Michael and some other guys. Then a week after we get home, we’re heading out to Oceanside for some beach time. We’re looking forward to that one. After a beautiful spring, my thermometer on my web browser says that it will be 109 on Monday. Ouch! But if our first 100 degree day doesn’t happen until May 18, I’ll take that.

Of course the heat means lots of swimming. We seem to have a steady flow of girls coming over to swim each day. The doorbell rings around 4:15, like clockwork. Being the demons that we are, we make the girls do their chores before they can play. So the conversation at the door starts with “How long till your chores are done?” Instead of “Can you play?” Evil, I tell you.

We got some new family pictures taken. The whole Elcock clan was around for this one. Lucy rules in this picture.

So I’m pretty proud of my garden. It’s looking like it will turn into quite the business venture for us. Some kids have lemonade stands, sell sno-cones, whatever. I’m going to have Abigail and Grace set up shop out front and start selling tomatoes. These things are good. The cherry tomatoes are like eating candy. Even Lucy was popping them and wanting more. Today I had my first sandwich with the homegrown tomatoes. Very yummy. I’m a little concerned about the enthusiasm of the pumpkins. I wasn’t expecting them to take over the whole side of the house. I am going to have to pull back some more of the rock and make some more room for them. Once it gets to be 110, they may wilt on that granite and next to the wall.

In other news, I’m officially boycotting US Airways for the rest of my life. In the span of 10 days, they’ve canceled 2 flights on us. I had the displeasure of sleeping in the Philadelphia airport a few weeks ago. They finally decided to cancel my 8:40pm flight at 2:30 the next morning. They compensated me with a $10 meal voucher (!??!) and a flight back home at 10am. But I guess I was one of the lucky ones. A husband and wife tandem that was sitting next to me got split up. One was routed through DC on her way back and the other directly to Phoenix. So the husband was going to have to wait for his wife for 4 hours once he got back to Phoenix.

The other canceled flight was Julie and Gwenyth on Tuesday. They left me to go up and see Julie’s parents. Like clockwork, they canceled her 1:50pm flight at 3. They did get her on another flight around 5, so that was good. Luckily it didn’t take too much haggling to get Gwenyth a seat by her mother. The geniuses at US Airways assigned them seats at separate ends of the airplane.

So I got all tough on US Airways and told them I would be closing my (un)substantial credit accounts I have with them (through Bank of America). I’m sure they’ll miss all of my business.

In other news, like I mentioned, Julie is up in Utah with her parents. It sounds like there’s been lots of sleeping going on, which is always a good thing. Gwenyth thinks she owns the joint. There’s much less sleeping here while Julie is away. I just wallow in my patheticness without my wife.

Speaking of Gwenyth, she can now swim and thinks she’s really hot stuff. She didn’t really enjoy it at first (or in the middle!), but she’s done really well. She always wants to go “jumping,” which means jump in the pool and “kick, kick, kick!” back to the side. She’s a certifiable nut. Her high hopes at the beginning:

Quickly faded to blood-curdling screams and glares of “daddy, why are you letting this happen?!?”:

After a few of these:

she came out on top and was happy as ever:

Abigail and Grace had a performance the other night at school. They both did really well. Abigail has quite the voice and really learned to project during her short time at her theatre group in Pleasant Grove. Grace sang a solo. Yes, that means that Grace was all by herself on the stage. Well, her microphone was with her. She did awesome. I have some video that I’ll try and put up soon. I’ve also got some of Chuck jumping off the diving board.

Jana was kind enough to take Lucy for the week so that I would have time to blog . . . errr . . . I mean . . . . work this week. I think she’s taken over that household as well. Jana said that Lucy insists that her mother is on every plane that flies overhead. Hopefully by today she understands that Julie and Chuck have landed safely at their destination. Of course maybe she knew they were flying US Airways, so there were really no guarantees that they would get there before Memorial Day.

More pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/