Humphreys

We finally hit the road for our month long summer road trip. Our first stop was to go to Arizona for Brad and Sharon's wedding. The wedding gave us a chance to stay with Aunt Kris and see some other family and friends. Kris was so excited to meet Zyla and took to her right away. Their personalities fit because they are both rather laid back. We got in later in the evening but Zyla did so well in the car, but was so tired and fell asleep. We were ready for some sleep too. The next day there was a lot of people coming by to meet Zyla. The first to show up were Steven and his girlfriend Amanda. Steve was good with babies since he was already an uncle. The problem was that Zyla would cry every time he would hold her. It was not his fault, though, she was just hungry often. We went for a walk around the neighborhood and played some euchre before Bob, Bobbi, and Tom showed up. Uncle Bob and Aunt Bobbi had picked up Grandpa Tom in Phoenix and drove up to see the baby. They were a lot of fun. Jacqueline was happy to ask Bobbie some questions about the baby since she used to be a nurse for many years. She gave Jacqueline a lot of good answers and I was glad that Jacqueline was smart enough to think of some questions. The boys came to, meaning the dogs Bailey and Jasper. They loved babies and went nuts whenever they saw Zyla. Zyla seemed pretty comfortable with Bob too. We all went out to dinner together in Cottonwood. It was a big table because we had to fit nine people at it for dinner. We had a good time and the food was good. Afterward it was back to Kris's house and everyone went their seperate ways. Bob and Bobbi went back to Phoenix, while Steve and Amanda also left. Tom stayed with us as he was going to travel with us up to Washington State to see where my parents live as they had invited him to come see Washington. We still had one more engagement, though, before we could accomplish that. We drove up to Flagstaff where the wedding was being held. Brad and Sharon met at college at NAU, so this was a perfect spot for them to chose to tie the knot. The wedding was in a big old church, but was short and sweet with a clergyman with a sense of humor. We were excited to see a bunch of our old friends from Zion there including Annette and Greg, Eric and Izzy, and Eric Richmond, along with Brad and Sharon. After the wedding we drove up to Snowbowl. We were able to stay out for a while because we had a couple of good babysitters back at Aunt Kris's place. The reception was fun, we did a little dancing and mainly just enjoying ourselves. Eric, Izzy, and I made plans to go up Mt. Humphreys the next day. Having to drive up from Cornville where Kris lived, I did not get there incredibly early in the morning, but was able to meet Eric and Izzy on the southern end of Flagstaff. They were both pretty tired because the place they were staying was not exactly well ventilated. Eric drove us up the rest of the way and we hit the trail a little after eight. It had been a long time for me since I had hiked the trail, probably about a dozen years. Still I had probably been up Mt. Humphreys a half dozen times, usually during winter or when it has snow on it to make it fun. The trail switchbacked quite a bit, but it was a gradual climb for a mountain. We were all equally in pretty decent shape, so we moved well being able to talk while hiking and not having to take a lot of breaks. It was fun to have some friends to hike with and it made all the uphill a lot easier. Before long, we were popping out above the trees and on to the ridge. There were so many people on the trail. I guess that is what happens when you have the one cool hike near a larger city. The views were awesome once we got on the ridge. It was fun to see all the places that I had hiked Mt. Humphreys from so many different sides and ridges. False summit after false summit finally led us to the top. There were a bunch of people and dogs on top so we found our own quiet little niche. There were all sorts of weird shells on top and I wondered if they were natural or if someone had planted them there. Either way, we stayed long enough to take some pictures and then were heading back down. Going down the trail took longer than necessary because of all the switchbacks. I proposed a law that if you saw a dog off of a leash on a trail, you could shoot it because it was a wild animal. I get so sick of people leaving their dogs off of a leash. I also saw someone with a baby just one month older than Zyla hiking with his baby. I asked him about it and knew she was on her way to doing interesting hikes soon. Well, we parted ways, but I hoped to do some hikes with Eric again soon. Tomorow it was north as our destination was Washington State on this trip.