Flagstaff Trip

We went up to Flagstaff this past weekend to get away from the heat and get some climbing in at Priest Draw. We crashed with our friend Linda at her campsite the second night and it was BEAUTIFUL. Surrounded by huge pines and aspen trees. It was a fun time and we plan to go back in a couple weeks to actually send some problems. 🙂

Henry eating some grapes
First nights campsite - not too bad but kind of muddy

Tommy, Keto and Henry
Keto, Henry, Chico and Dana
Henry making a new friend, Brett, at the boulders
Second site
Gorgeous aspens

Miscellaneous pics from my NM trip

Henry catching a meal with Uncle Joe before bedtime
Getting some more food
Playing around downstairs
Stealing my camera case
Being goofy
Looking innocent
Ok enough...but he's just so cute!!!
Remembering our heroes on June 28th
Godspeed, warriors
Henry and Great Grandma Helm
Henry screaming at the poor birds
Playing with our good friend Chris
Henry having trouble getting the yogurt in his mouth
Fourth of July
Playing in the bird bath
A snail moving around after the rain
Here's my girl Amanda shooting her shotgun
Falling in love with my Kimber
Tim throwing some leftover skeet for Joe
Tim showing him how it's done

My fun 10 day vacation – Gutters!

After Tom and Matt went back to Tucson, it was time to get to work on the project I went home for – mounting new gutters around my moms house. She had called a contractor to do the job but he never called her back (probably because it was just too much fun) and so I thought “why don’t Joe and I just put them up? It can’t be that hard right?”

Well…let’s just say that this being my first ever project of putting up gutters, everything that could have gone wrong DID go wrong and it was a major undertaking.

 First off, all of the home improvement places in Alamogordo (the town closest to my mom) did NOT stock the color we needed which was brown. We had to drive about an hour and a half away to get all of our supplies which burned valuable time that we needed. Then it turned out that the ladder my mom had wasn’t tall enough to get the job done – so we had to buy a new one…however we found out later that it was still somewhat useless when trying to put it on the slopes around the house.  THEN the drill that she had was older than time and didn’t work so we had to buy a new one. Then mother nature decided to mess with us and poured rain during the first couple days of the project…and then decided to let the sun shine through so it could heat up the shingles on the roof so hot, we couldn’t even sit down on them.  

I was starting to stress that we weren’t going to get it done in time and worked on the damn thing until the day before I came back. Honestly, I was miserable the entire time but it got done and now it’s over. There are still a few things left to tweak but the afternoon after it was finished, it rained like crazy and water was gushing out of the down spouts instead pouring off the roof…Yee haw!

Removing previous hardware
Same thing on the other side
Super hot up there
Since we can't be up on the roof (too hot) we fixed my mom's bay window - some guy had tried to break in to the house and messed it all up!
Putting them together
Long run
Me and my little man
Working on a corner
Back porch
Getting the slope right
Joe doesn't like heights
Joe trying not to fall off the ladder
Trying to balance and attach at the same time
Making a few adjustments - yes I am a total perfectionist
Finishing touches
Working on the last piece - Tim and Amanda came over to help
Henry loving on Amanda
Final push - Tim helping me on the roof
Pain in the ass! That corner was so exposed - scary!
Everyobody helping!
Now just details...
HOORAY! Joe and Henry celebrating

Getaway weekend in NM

We invited our friend Matt to come to NM with us for a fun little get-a-way weekend from the heat. We were going to ride motorcycles, play paintball and shoot, but the plans fell through and so we were left trying to find something to do. So, instead, we climbed, had a barbecue out at White Sands, got dressed up for some old fashioned photos and went shooting in the canyon.  Action packed and a lot of fun.

Highway from Hell - our view
Making my way up the shady side on Bandit 5.11
Starting to get pumped
Almost done - super fun
Matty taking his turn
Tommy tearing it up
Tommy getting ready to clip
Getting some exposure in Mid-Town on the warm up route 5.9
Reaching over the lip
Matty showing his stuff
Getting high
Heel click at the finish!
Tommy brings it home
View of basin
What we see at the top - scary!
Pancho Villa, a gambler and a saloon girl
Pancho Villa is a little drunk in this pic

 

Time for toys! Henry, Lenni and Lex at the sands
Lenni and Lex getting wind blown
Tommy, Henry and Matty chilling out
The little ones playing around
Me and Lenni catching up
Matt
Henry loving the sands
Lots of people
Different View
Beautiful Sunset
Messing around
Chasing after Lex
Having fun
The boys getting ready to shoot - Tom, Matt, Tim and Joe
Joe and his XD
Matt and his XD
Tim and his Glock
Joe and the .44 mag - that "Can blow your head clean off" - name that quote?
Tommy showing us all up with his Kimber
Me and my Kimber
Tim and his shotgun
Matt and his brand new Benelli
Joe getting in on the shotgun action
Long range practice - HARD!
Tom checking out the new scope on the SKS
The gang

Happy Father’s Day!

April had a great idea for this Father’s Day. Let’s all go up to Mt. Lemmon and let the boys climb while we watch the babies. We met up at 7:30, got some coffee and muffins and headed up the mountain. Paul and Tom did really well and we all had a lot of fun.  After we were done climbing, we came back home and then later met up with Grandpa K for dinner and dessert. YUM-MY!!

Paul, Tom and April heading up the trail
Juniper foliage along the way
Cactus flower
My favorite boys
Checking the gear
Paul leading
Buddies - Silas and Henry hear Morgan coming
Tommy's turn
Henry lovin' on April - so cute!
Beautiful boys
Grandpa's famous chocolate wafer dessert - DELICIOUS
The whole gang

Come See What We've Been Up To!