10-26-12

Martin: Nice morning but the weather changed abruptly.

Me: Kavan and I standing in front of our new lemon tree! Today we planted a fig tree, an orange tree and a lemon tree. Fun!

Mom & I enjoyed having the garage sale. Though, it was a lot of work for not much pay, ha. Hoping for more business on Saturday! I'm cutting our prices so the stuff will go.

10-25-12

Me: We are having a garage sale! Friday & Saturday starting at 7:30am.

Mom and Bob helped me color in the signs.

 Please, come and buy everything!!!

I still have several boxes in the car to unload, need to spread out or hang up all the clothes and have to price all the items. Gonna be up early tomorrow! 

10-24-12

Me: Pic from our evening walk. The creosote bushes have little fuzz balls that glow in the sunlight.

We're working on our Halloween costumes and my mother-in-law sent us parts of our costume in the mail today. Home-sewn by Pat! Thanks so much! We'll reveal the costumes (which will hopefully come together like we envision) on Tuesday, October 30th... the Halloween Costume bike ride. :-)

10-23-12

 Me: Great-Grandma reading to Kavan.

Bob building a nice brick platform outside our new gate. Harley approves.

Charlie and Karen sent us a wonderful care package today! Inside was homemade fudge and 3 Austria chocolate bars. Oh wow, it is yummy! Mom is reaching for the Austria chocolate and I'm grabbing another piece of Charlie's homemade goodness! Thank you sooooo much, Karen and Charlie! Very thoughtful & we are enjoying it tremendously.

Today we also biked 50 miles, did a morning walk with Mom & Harley and another one this evening. It's been a full day!

10-22-12

Me: Watching the presidential debate tonight.

10-21-12

Me: Yesterday's Grand Canyon hike continued...

There's the Colorado River and the bridge we'll cross to get to the north side and Phantom Ranch.

Through the tunnel and over the bridge.

It's only official when you put your feet in the Colorado! Brrr.

We hung out on the beach and ate our lunch; PBJ and cheezits.

Then to Phantom Ranch. We stopped in the cantina to buy a snickers and mail a couple postcards from the bottom of the canyon. Phantom Ranch is the only place left in the United States where mail is delivered by mule.

Time to start hiking out of the Grand Canyon - 10 miles to the top. We crossed back over the Colorado River on a different bridge to connect with the Bright Angel trail. From here we all pushed it and made good time.

In 3.5 hours Anna, Bob, Troy and I reached the top! Abbie, Mike and Janet arrived soon after.

Happy to be done! We celebrated our day with ice cream (what else?!) at Grand Canyon Village.

19 miles. 6 hours of hiking time. 7.5 hours in the canyon including our lunch, water and photo stops. 

Adios to the amazing Grand Canyon!

10-20-12

Me: Our group (minus me) at the start of our Grand Canyon hike! 6:30am.

Clear skies & awesome temps (low of 32, high 71).

From the start we had seemingly endless switchbacks and amazing views!

Mile 3 of our 19 mile trek.

Luckily none of us are afraid of heights.

Um, don't step back any further!

Mike & Abbie; their first time hiking the Grand Canyon!

Me, Janet, Bob, Anna, Troy, Mike and Abbie - in awe and having a fabulous time!

The sunrise hitting the rocks brought out the most amazing glow in the canyon!

We laughed that it often looked like we would follow the person in front of us right off the edge of the cliff.

This is just beautiful!

"We have to hike down that?!"

We saw several groups of mules bringing campers out of the canyon.

Around every corner was another incredible view! This was at mile 6. Almost to the Colorado River.

Grand Canyon hike to be continued...

I'll post pics from the second 1/2 of our Grand Canyon hike tomorrow.