Just for fun a picture of Mike and William both at 16 years old.

Happy 16th Birthday, William!

William's Birthday was on a Saturday this year, so that meant he could sleep late, cause that's what he does best. No school to go to, no homework to do. Fall break started the day before and he is free of school stuff for a week. What a great birthday present! William is a creature of habit when it comes to his birthday: Joe's  Crab Shack for dinner, which meant mussels and crab. Then a cookie cake for dessert. It was a perfect day for him!

 

That's a lot of food there and it takes a lot of concentration.

 WIlliam and Dad with the big Crab.

 Yes, he is taller than me. Not much but I think he is still growing.

 The birthday cookie cake.

A birthday surprise from his brother!

I am not sure where the years have gone, but they sure have gone. As much as I miss the young child you were, I love the young man you are becoming. Stay true to yourself and remember no matter what, I love you forever, I love you for always as long as I'm living my baby you'll be. Happy Birthday! Love, Mom

Pinterest Attempts #5 and #6 - Sliders and Crab Stuffed Avocados

In my forever quest to have something different for dinner, I have tried out two of my Pinterest pins. First up Easy Cheesburger Sliders. I figured this was a quick easy dinner and who the heck doesn't like sliders?

 

They were pretty good if I do say so myself. Next up is Crab Stuffed Baked Avocados. Now I thought with the amount of guacamole William eats this one would go over pretty well. Not really, apparently actually eating an avocado is not the same as eating gobs and gobs of guacamole.

There you have it, my latest attempts at trying something new for dinner.

Daytrip to Globe

Let's get this out of the way. 

• Yes, it is still over 100 degrees most days here
• Yes, I have had more than enough
• Yes, I know it will probably last at least another month
• Yes, I am still whining about it 
• Yes, I know we are all sick of hearing me whine about it
• Yes, I am sick of hearing myself whine about it. 

So we took a daytrip to Globe, if you think that stopped my whining, wrong you are. It is just as hot there, but at least it was new scenery. We are doing the 31 day Geocaching challenge. Which means we need to find at least 1 cache a day for each of the 31 days of August. Check out the Instagram photos on the right for progress of the 31 day challenge. I am determined not to miss a day no matter the heat and I may extend it to a year long (or more) challenge. We found a couple caches in Globe, there aren't that many in that area that don't involve hiking and I don't hike in 100 degree weather. We did find the old Globe cemetery, which proved very interesting. Since Globe is an old mining town (big shock I know) it is situated on hills and parts of the cemetery are so old that it is in a state of disrepair and it appears graves are slipping down that hill.

 

 Stopped in Superior looking for a cache, this was a park full of old mining equipment, we didn't find a cache here but it was fun to look around.

 On top of Globe, found the cache up here and a nice view of the town!

 This is what I mean about history in the cemetery. A prospector killed by Apaches in 1876 (that's a bit before my time) and first to be buried in the Globe Cemetery.

 Some grave sites were very well tended and even had recent "additions" to them.

 A much older section of the cemetery, not that well tended.

 The children's section was very sad, there were multiple graves, some very old and some newer, but all had new  toys left at them.

 There was a section for Confederate Veterans and Buffalo Soldiers. I am not even going to pretend I know anything about that.

All in all it was a fun trip, we got 2 caches, spent some time exploring an older section of Globe, well all of Globe is old but we hadn't been in this area before, and we stopped for lunch at the Mexican restaurant we found last time we were in Superior.

Hiking in Prescott Valley

On Sunday, July 21st, in another of my never ending attempts to flee the heat of the East Valley, Pat and I decided to go hiking north of here and hopefully find cooler weather. We ended up in Prescott Valley, it is north and the weather is cooler. Problem was, at least for me, there had been a lot of rain up there the week prior and it was still hot to me and HUMID. Yes, humid, I do tend to forget how much I dislike being in humid air. My hair quickly frizzed out to three times it's normal size, all of me was one big sweatball, and although it was only in the high 70s to low 80s it was hotter than I can stand, the humidity making it almost worse than 100 degree heat. Stress on the almost, seeing as I would never hike, I barely walk more than 20 feet in the 100 degree heat. We hiked in what was a local park with many trails, it is an area known for gold mining. We saw an actual site where they were panning for gold, if that's what you call it and we met a real gold digger. Unfortunately I have no pictures of him or the gold mining site. But trust me he looked like someone who spent his days panning for gold.

  This is the sunrise as we zipped along 101 on our way out of town.

                                          Rest stop

                      Walking the trail or looking for gold?
After the hike we headed into Prescott to see if anything was going on and yes, there was plenty going on. There was an arts/craft show on the town square, not sure if a weekend goes by that there isn't an arts/craft show on the town square. They were also having a fundraiser for the families of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. We walked around a bit, had a burger, fries and shake at a local shop then headed on home. It was nice to get away from the heat and at be able to walk around outside, even if it was rainy and humid.

                        Stormy skies on the ride home

Home Phone No More

This is the end of an era for me, I am canceling the home phone number and we are going cellular. I know so many have gone this path already, but it took me some time to be able to part with my home phone number. I am the only one that really uses the home phone and I am having some separation anxiety, but it will be okay. So if you want to reach me my number is 480-282-7537 and Pat's number is 480-248-5435. I am not completely sold on the being available 24/7 like so much of today's youth, so if I don't answer well it's because I am not available at that instant. If I am having dinner or driving or in line at a store, I will not be answering, but I will return your call. Hope to hear from you soon!

For you mom

Here you go try this