Sunshine and Summertime

Ladies and Gentleman I do believe summer is officially here! I'm not sure why I look forward to summer so much, especially because as the rest of the country is getting pumped for warm weather to begin, most Arizonans DREAD the coming summer heat. While everyone else flocks to the outdoors to do all sorts of fun summer things, we flock INSIDE where the AC is, cause it's too stinkin' hot to do anything outside! But alas, here I am, looking forward to my favorite time of year! And lemme tell ya, it is off to a superb start!

Last weekend for memorial day I was lucky enough to have the holiday off work, and even luckier that the Haro's were in town for the long weekend! ...That's double the luck, did you catch that?! 

We fed our faces until our bellies hurt, enjoyed some BS (the card game, that is), and played a few smashing rounds of croquet. In fact, here's our professional players cards. We're Legit. 

Tyah Haro

 Tyah trains at the British Athletic Croquet Division. She prefers to play with the blue ball, drinks a pina colada or two throughout the duration of the match, and in order to get the full effect of the game, shouts at you from across the field in an English accent ("ELLO RISS!). Tyah currently has no wins and one loss.

Abel Haro

Abel trains at the City of Whales English Croquet League. Abel does funny dances when he comes in 2nd, is likely to spill his pina colada at some point during the match, and only plays the game in UofA garb so that his red ball matches his outfit (how cute). Abel currently has no wins and one loss.

Carissa Townsend

 Carissa does not currently train at any croquet facility, which explains her terribly lackluster performance and consistent last place finishes. She enjoys cheating when no one's looking, has difficulty following the direction of play, and prefers to play with the yellow ball, because yellow is the color of sunflowers. Carissa currently has no wins and one loss.

Nathan Townsend

(Disclaimer: I said "Nate pose for your professional players card" and this is what I got. I cannot be held liable for the weirdness of this photo)

   Nathan currently trains and the Iraqi School of Croquet. Nathan begins and ends each match with the Michael Jackson pose for good luck, does not consume alcoholic beverages whilst playing the match so as to get a leg up on the other, slightly more tipsy competitors, and thinks the added British accent is unnecessary. Nate currently has one win (jerk) and no losses (double jerk).

All in all...two thumbs up for the holiday weekend!

This weekend was also enjoyable...we're on a roll so far! Nate and I, and the pups of course, headed up north towards Heber to spend the weekend with Nate's parents at his Grandma's cabin.

This is Gunther serving as our GPS on the way there ("Continue Northbound")...either that or doing his best impression of Nate, one of the two

And this is Gunther saying, "Not now mom! I'm navigating!"

When we got there we headed out on the quads for some 'splorin'! While out on our ride we saw some pretty neat Petroglyph-ish drawings on the wall of a canyon, a rattlesnake, a cave on the side of the mountain, and Carl got stuck in the sand. And they say for every negative, there's a positive: so while Carl was temporarily immobilized by the soft-as-powder sand, he got to use his new tow straps! Score! And don't worry, Sherri and I were there to help...take pictures.

 

This is what I like to call the dirty face club. Carl was not a member, ahem, because he lead all day. 

Tryin' to catch me ridin' diiirty

Ready to head back down the mountain we loaded up these goons, and seriously, could they BE any cuter??

On our way home we made a couple pit stops courtesy of Nathan I-know-every-nook-and-cranny-of-Arizona Townsend. These included a turn-off that let us hike down to the creek to let the dogs cool off, and the fish hatchery.

Maycee's diggin' the summer air

...and what Maycee does, there too shall be Gunther

Ahh, Arizona

Go easy on us this year would ya?

Here's to a good summer!