Fat Man's Loop

Mark's Aunt Mary invited us to go on a hike with her and her two beautiful granddaughters up the side of Mount Elden.  It wasn't an easy hike, but definitely worth it.  The views were beautiful!  We are going to do it again, hopefully soon, because there is another hike that goes off of it to the top of Mt. Elden. Here are the pictures...

Mark, his Aunt Mary and her granddaughters.

There was a swing up there!  Mark was going to try it, but he didn't trust that branch.

Mark and a view of the mountain we were climbing.

Me and a view of the valley from our hike.

Shany, Aliyah, Mark, and I.  I don't think I spelled their names right.

There are tons of these really cool trees up there called Alligator Junipers.

Hail, anyone?

I told Mark today that we really need to get a house so we can have a garage.  The past two days it has hailed in the late afternoon, and the second day was worse than the first.  So far there hasn't been any damage to our car, but if the hail gets any bigger, whose to say it won't.

There is a funny part, though.  Ros loves it!  I had the patio door open, but the screen closed, and Ros was scratching at it to get outside.  When it finally stopped she ran outside and started scratching around in it and eating it.  Silly dog!

Yesterday's hail in our dead planters.  Not too bad.

Today's hail.  Much bigger, and much more of it.

It's kind of hard to tell, but it is pretty big hail.

P.S. I think I am getting sick, and that totally stinks!  I am such a big baby when it comes to being sick.

7th Anniversary

Well, this definitely wasn't the most exciting anniversary we have ever had, but it was enjoyable.  That is until BYU's football team lost.  We were planning to go to breakfast at the Grand Canyon that was supposed to be really good.  Since we weren't able to do that, we just went to breakfast here in Flagstaff at Coco's, which is pretty good.  Then we picked up our stinkers from the kennel, where they had spent the night. 

Mark got an apple waffle

I got the banana pecan waffle.  Yum!

Because we weren't able to roast hot dogs and marshmallows for s'mores, we got pizza for the BYU game, and a S'mores dessert pizza.

The best part of the whole day was that it was just relaxing.  We drove around Flagstaff enjoying the fabulous weather and taking pictures for those who wanted to see pictures of Flagstaff.  See below.

This is the view that we get to enjoy while driving around Flagstaff

This is the Amtrak train station/Flagstaff Visitors Center.  We haven't actually been here, yet, because parking downtown is a nightmare!

The part of downtown that you can see from Route 66.  Yup, Route 66, part of it runs right through Flagstaff.

The other part of the Train station.

The train on display.  It doesn't move.

A train that does move.  We have to be careful which streets we take to cross the railroad, because it's likely we will get stuck waiting for a train, and if we are very unlucky, two trains!

This is our replacement for Kneaders/Panera.  In Utah we loved going to Kneaders, and in Omaha we enjoyed Panera.  Wildflower is our new Bread joint.

Anniversary Eve

Tomorrow is our anniversary, and we were planning to go camping at the Grand Canyon.  When I went to pick Mark up from work last night and it was raining like crazy, I thought, "I wonder what the weather will be like at the Grand Canyon this weekend."  I looked, and all of our weekend plans were ruined!  It is supposed to be storming all weekend, just like here. 

Just an FYI, something we haven't learned in our seven years of marriage is to have a plan B.  So we thought and thought, and thought some more.  On such short notice all we came up with was to drive to Happy Jack and check it out, then go skip rocks at Lake Mary.  Oh, and take lots of pictures of the beautiful scenery.
  Really, I took lots.  86 pictures, not including the ones I deleted.  No worries, I won't post all of them. 

We found out something interesting, though.  Happy Jack is not a city, like we thought, but a very large campground.  Our GPS said that we had arrived at Happy Jack, and all that was there was a ranger station, which was closed.  So I guess we could say that Happy Jack was closed!  It was very beautiful, though, and the clouds were performing beautifully.  I told Mark that the clouds here in Flagstaff are always very creative.

Clouds over Mormon Lake

The road to Happy Jack

Our beautiful Humphrey's Peak in the San Francisco Mountains.

Amazing clouds over Happy Jack

This is Mormon Lake, which isn't really a lake, but more like a large marsh.  The cliffs and scenery reminded us of pictures we have seen of the highlands of Great Britain.

Mark, and the cliffs around Mormon Lake.

Beautiful billowy clouds over our apartment.

We promised more pictures of Flagstaff, so I had to include this one.  This is the golf course across the street from our apartment.

Mark's wind-up to skip a rock...

Execution...

and follow through.

Then when we got back, Mark's amazing Aunt Mary called us and asked if we wanted to go to dinner with them, and they treated us!  We went to Outback, and the food was great.  She also made us some yummy cookies, and gave us a dozen eggs from their very own hens.  We love having Mary and Robert close by. 


Tomorrow we are going to Coco's for breakfast, since we were going to go to a really great restaurant for breakfast at the Grand Canyon.  Then we are going to pick up our silly dogs from the kennel, and then make a pizza and buffalo wings and watch FSU's and BYU's football games.  Oh, and finish up some homework.  Maybe next year we'll have better luck, or at least a few backup plans, just in case!

Silly Poopy

Oh, yeah, so Roslyn's nickname is Poopy, because our first few months with her we had a hard time house training her.

Any way, she loves to sunbathe, and will go any lengths to get some sun.  So this is what we found today.  Apparently the plant was hogging all of the sun.  Dumb plant!

And of course she is invoking the, "I can't see you, so you can't see me." clause. 

To Bear, or Not to Bear

So as many of you know, we have been unable to have children.  I have had 2 miscarriages, after trying for years to get pregnant each time.  In 2009 we used up the little savings we had in fertility treatments, which were unsuccessful, without receiving a diagnosis as to why I was having trouble.

Then in 2010, Mark and I applied for adoption through the church's Family Services Program, and were unsuccessful in that.

Since moving here to Flagstaff, I have been thinking about what we should do next.  We have said for a while that once Mark got a stable job, we would try again for a baby, but we didn't really think much about it, until recently.

I have found a Fertility Center in Phoenix, and we have our first meeting with them in October.  On top of that, I have been working out daily so that I can get my body ready for whatever lies ahead, because if you weren't aware, fertility treatments are very taxing on the body.  Not to mention childbirth!

To explain what brought me to blog about this, it all has to do with Relief Society.  In our lesson today we talked about have a good attitude and being cheerful in our afflictions.  The scripture that was quoted was John 16:33.

What had the most impact for me was what a sister said.  She said that it is the difference between only surviving our adversities, and overcoming them.  Then it hit me.  I have only been surviving infertility.  It doesn't take much effort to survive infertility, it isn't something that is deadly, or physically painful.  But I should be overcoming it, putting in real effort to beat it, in order to create my family.

So, I have determined that I am going to overcome it.  I am going to go through all of the fertility treatments necessary to have a child, and if that doesn't work, then we are going to do all we can to adopt.  Either way, I have decided that I am no longer just going to survive, but I am going to overcome! 

Remember Marley?

Since school has begun, again, Polly and Ros have been feeling the neglect, I think.  Polly worst of all.  I spend a lot of time on the computer, since my classes are online, which means I am often on the couch.  Our apartment is too small for a desk. 

Lately Polly has begun "sneaking" onto the couch.  I say sneaking, because I think she thinks she is sly, but it is quite obvious that she is climbing up onto the couch next to me.  She climbs up and then looks away from me, as if I can't see her because she can't see me. 

Hmm, so sneaky!

Then today Polly went out onto the patio.  Within Seconds, I hear a snap, then Polly just comes walking in with a part of my tomato plant hanging out of her mouth.  After I gasped, she dropped it, then went to mope.

When I scolded her, this was the look she gave me.  It's a pretty common look, since she is often up to mischief.

Then I was reminded of a similar scene, from a couple years ago, when we first met the Marley in her.

This was when she tore up my very large Geranium that I had been growing for a very long time.  When we get a house and start a garden, it will definitely have to be fenced, to keep "Marley" out!

Old Cave Craters

This week we finished the hike that we didn't finish before because the dogs wore out on us.  The hike isn't particularly fabulous, but the views from the top were amazing!  At the top, we ate our lunch, and then hiked back down.  Unfortunately, I think both of us ended up with heat exhaustion even though we took water with us, because we both went to bed early last night, and woke up a little late this morning.  It was well worth it, though!

Entrance to the Park

Around Flagstaff there are lots of hiking trails, and so instead of having someone man stations at all of them, you just sign in that you were there in case of Emergency.  Luckily, no emergencies while we were there.

Mark, and a view, about half way up.  Looks a little tired, doesn't he?

Another view from about half way up.

Mark at the top!

Ginny at the top!

Mark and Ginny, very sweaty and hot, at the top.

View of Doney Park, where Mark's Aunt Mary lives.

The house that I am pointing at is the house that we want to buy.  Hopefully it will still be for sale in 6 months!

Mark and a cave.

Ginny and a cave.

And that's all for now.  Hopefully we will be able to get some really great pictures next week of the Grand Canyon!  Yippee, I am so excited!