ASU Orientation Day

The entire day yesterday for Patty, Mark and Jordan was spent at ASU. It was Jordan's orientation day as an incoming Freshman. From the report we received, it was a very long day but well worth the time as Jordan has a good idea now of what it will be like beginning in August when he begins his time as a student at the University:

It was also a wrap-up last evening of Patty's visit as Brian and Amy were to meet them in town for dinner while dropping Brandon off to spend the final night in Phoenix before leaving for Chicago today. Their visit officially ends this morning.

The next big event for us is the preparation for our trip to Jackson. There is lots to do to get ready and we have several issues to resolve before leaving. We will address each of them as the time goes on in April. The plan now is to leave around the 14th of May to allow for time to travel and acclimate in Jackson before beginning work on May 22...

Final Day and Departure

The day following our "extreme" hike was spent in a relaxing mode. We all started out at the pool in the morning and Josie and I came home at around noon to escape the sun. Patty and family stayed until 2 PM. The rest of our day was a relaxing one sitting outside and preparing for our final visit with Brian and Amy and family. That occurred at their home following Jason's baseball game at around 6 PM.

It was a short but very nice visit with everybody and gave us a chance to see George and Cheryl again and to say goodbyes to Amy's folks. The plan is for the boys to stay at Brian's house and Patty and Mark will swing by this morning to pick up Jordan for his scheduled orientation today at ASU. That has happened according the Facebook post from Patty this morning They will spend the day at the University and meet up with Brian and family again tonight in Tempe and have a final dinner before Patty and Mark and the boys depart for Chicago tomorrow AM.

It was a wonderful visit and always reminds us of how much we miss being near them. Hopefully, all will work out in the coming months and we can rejoice in reuniting permanently in the Phoenix area before the year is out...

Days 6 & 7 of Visit

There was no entry yesterday because that was the day we had our scheduled hike to Yarnell where the Granite Mountain Hotshots perished in 2013. Before getting to our big day yesterday, I'll just summarize our day on Wednesday. We pretty much just hung out and spent most of the day at the pool:

and the boys also had some relaxation on the patio at home:

Now, for the main event of the day yesterday. We left the house at around 8 AM and arrived at the "Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial State Park" at around 9 AM. We all totally underestimated the amount of effort required to hike the 2.6 mile trail to the end and also the almost 1 mile trail to the Fatality Site below the main trails' end. The hike was 1245 feet of elevation change. Below is a copy of the trail map to show the markers that were present all along the trail, one for each of the 19 hotshots that perished:

The shots below were taken along the way. It didn't take us too long to realize that the boys and Mark would make better time than myself and the girls, so we let them go ahead to meet us at the top.

Starting with our departure:

and a shot of Patty taken about 1/4 of the way (notice how high we are on the mountain at this point):

We finally made it to the top:

 while Mark and the boys had already taken the additional 1 mile trail to the Fatality Site and were waiting for us:

We were not going to make it any further, so they came back up to us after taking some terrific photos of the site:

 This shot is of the location where the remains of the leader, Eric Marsh were found.

 Each of the markers were placed in the exact location of the remains:

I took this photo of the Tribute Wall located at the top:

It was a very emotional scene and contained items left by firefighters from all over the world plus items left by folks that were moved by the story.

The hike back down to our vehicle wasn't much easier than the climb to the top. Once again, Mark and the boys went ahead and the entire hike totaled about 6 hours. I almost didn't make it back as my legs were so weak from the hike that I fell very close to the bottom. Fortunately, I wasn't hurt, but it reminded me of how much extra weight I have been carrying around and drove the point home that it is time to do something about it.

What a wonderful, intense and satisfying day. It is something that we will always remember and feel blessed that there are men who are willing to sacrifice their lives to protect us...

Days 4 and 5 of Visit

Monday was a busy day at the lake at the Lakeview Rec Center where the boys took out a rowboat and did some fishing while we watched from the bank and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It took the boys a while to figure out how to row the boat:

No fish were caught although Jordan had a couple on his line but lost the fish before he could boat them. We followed that up with some golf and visiting on our patio.

We were so busy yesterday I didn't get the opportunity to post an update. It was Patty's birthday and there were several activities planned. Patty wanted to spend most of the day at the pool and we combined that with other Rec Center activities for the boys. We actually went to two different Rec Centers to try the pools and the boys played miniature golf at each of them. These shots were taken in the morning at our house and at the pool at the second Rec Center visit which was our home Center (Bell):

Josie and I each forgot our phones at the first stop and had to pick them up between Rec Center visits.

The birthday celebration was then wrapped up with a terrific dinner at Oregano's Italian Restaurant. The day was a special one!

Day 3 of Visit

The plan for yesterday was to join Brian and his family and Amy's parents and, of course the boys at Lake Pleasant for an afternoon. It was a perfect day, weather-wise, and we arrived at around 1:30 PM and had a terrific visit all afternoon - and had a great BBQ in the evening. These shots were taken during the day:

We missed George and Cheryl who had a conflict and couldn't make it. I believe that Brian was staying overnight with Traeger as their kids ended Spring Break yesterday and had to return to school today. It's too bad that the Spring Break weeks don't match so that the kids could enjoy more time together. That should change when Patty and Mark move down to Arizona and we can ever get all the boys together from college and from Illinois.

Mark will arrive today following a visit to his office in Scottsdale and we have a fishing date scheduled with the boys. I hope we have some photos of fish for tomorrow...

Day 2 of Visit

It was another fairly hectic day yesterday. The boys were spending the weekend - except for a brief time hanging out at our house yesterday - with Jason at his house. This shot was taken on Friday afternoon and I forgot to post it yesterday.

The boys getting a taste of the Arizona sun:

Patty, Josie and I had a list of things to do while the boys were gone. Starting with a visit to Lowes to try to find a nice lime tree to plant in our yard. They were sold out. Our next attempt was at Home Depot - they were also sold out. Finally, we wanted to get some fishing equipment for the boys so we stopped at Walmart. Bingo! They had some lime trees in there garden department and we found a nice one to bring home and plant. We also got the fishing equipment - poles, tackle and a tackle box - and they are ready for the big day on the lake tomorrow.

While out on our shopping trip, we stopped at the Lakeview Rec Center to show Patty the Lake where we will be fishing and also the other miniature golf course that is fun to play. We also stopped at the Mountain View Rec Center to show her the better pool for us to use for swimming with the boys.

Our next activity was to plant the lime tree. It will take some time before we can get to enjoy any limes, but we wanted to complete our citrus plantings as soon as possible.

Today is the day we will meet Brian and his family (including George and Cheryl, we hope) at Lake Pleasant for a BBQ at his motor home site. They were planning to go out on the lake with his boat, but the water is still too cold and it also would involve another trip for Brian to bring the boat. I'm sure we will have a great time at the BBQ, visiting with everybody.

Safe Arrival

Patty's flight arrived ahead of schedule and we met her at the curb outside baggage claim at around 6:45 AM. The ride home was not without incident as the freeway was closed about two miles south of where we needed to exit - a stabbing death and auto crash. We sat for almost an hour before the police were able to get traffic moving again. At any rate, we made it home safely and started the visit with a round of miniature golf:

We all enjoyed the round and hope to play a few more times this week. There is so much to do and the passes for our family visitors are all ready to use. We took the boys to Brian and Amy's house where they will spend the weekend visiting with Jason. The plan is to meet up again tomorrow at Lake Pleasant following their day out on Brian's boat.

In the meantime, we will do some shopping and go to the different rec centers to get procedural information on the boats to use for fishing on the lake and to get some fishing equipment for the boys to use. We are looking forward to that activity either Monday or Tuesday.

We enjoyed our first night sitting out on the patio and being entertained by the birds and bunnies. This morning, Josie "raided" one of the orange trees and gathered some fresh ones for our breakfast:

They are from our neighbor's tree who has given us permission to take whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. His tree still has lots of tangelos left where our trees are pretty much empty now except for being loaded with new blossoms for the next crop.

The fun has started and we will try to keep up with our activities by reporting them each day...