Marley and the boy

This is Marley and the boy.

See Marley and the boy play dress up.

See the boy feed Marley.

See Marley and the boy sleep.

Death March 2009 - To the top in 30 minutes

Everyone in my family loves going to San Diego. During these trips, there were many conversations and topics that would take place. One of these conversations would be between my dad and I during the last 20 minutes or so of the return to Yuma. This conversation centered around a mountain. I would tell my dad that I could make it to the top of that mountain in 30 minutes, no problem. My dad would smile, laugh and offer to drop me off with a stop watch.


So fast forward about 20 years and this is the conversation that I'm having with my son every time we drive past Picacho Peak every other weekend, which is about 20 minutes from Marana. "Mom, I bet you and I could make it to the top of that mountain in 30 minutes." I chuckle, "Sure Ryland, remember Mom is getting older." Ryland, "Whatever Mom, you might not be able to, but I can."




This is the peak. So, I decide to do the thing that my dad never did because he was smart. I take Ryland and we hike it.




This is us before the hike, important to note how happy we are. It's 9:45 a.m.








These are some pictures from the first part of the hike.





So we get about 2 miles into the hike and we hit the main part of the peak. Well, I had forgotten that to get to the top the last mile is basically cables. If you fall underneath the cables you fall off the peak. We make it through the first 2-3 sets of cables, the picture above is the first cables (which I took after coming down off the peak). Notice there are no pictures of the other cables because by the time we hit them I was nervous. When we hit the last cables about 5 minutes from the top, several people had stopped us to tell me that Ry was probably too little to make the steps over the large crevices with the help of the last cables. After about a 30 second conversation, I decided to turn us back around.



This is after the hike...not so chipper anymore, but, Ry did walk the whole ~6 miles by himself.
It's now 2:45 p.m, so much for to the top in 30 minutes.

There's a monkey loose!

Ryland loves to climb and usually it's on my furniture. So today I decided to take him down to a rock climbing place. He did a super job and climbed some pretty high walls.

Trick or treat

Ryland really had the whole vampire act down. He'd walk up to a door, stand like the first picture and then scare the people handing out candy. He really wanted to make it back home in time to hand out candy, but by the time we got home everyone had already come.

Pumpkin fun

Ryland picked out the first dracula stencil. After approximately 2 hours of cutting it out and trying to tape it on the pumpkin, Ryland announced he was bored and probably would not stick around for the cutting of the pumpkin if we chose to continue with the pattern. We decided to switch to this easier pattern.

The three pumpkins all carved. Dracula, a spider and Ryland's very own creation.

Has anyone seen the tooth fairy?

Ryland has published his Christmas list for this year and in the number one slot is......his two front teeth.

Life question #1 - Does free equal good?

So I've now worked for Carondelet Hospital for about 4 years and every year they throw this party at the water park here in Tucson. This year I decided that maybe I should take advantage and go with Ryland. Or maybe not? It somehow reminded me of a mix between the open swim days at Kennedy and Marcus pools and a 2nd ward potluck. Once again I'm reminded that free does not always equal good.

This perhaps was the most exciting thing to Ryland as evidenced by "jumpy." He was fascinated with the trash guy's forceps that he used to gather trash. Ryland would follow him around just to show him where trash was.

This is Ryland eating his corn on the cob, which is interesting because he won't eat frozen or canned corn; he has totally convinced himself that they are two different things. If you notice, he's gingerly eating this corn with his side teeth because his two front teeth are very loose.

This is what happens when Ryland tries his "serious" dance moves on the wooden stairs up to the slides. Notice the bloody leg wounds. He sat on the steps sobbing, "Will you get me some help, I can't move?"

Ryland had fun on the slides and in the wave pool.