Fall is here

Fall has finally arrived in Arizona, and temperatures are cooling down – at least somewhat. Since the new baby has still not arrived, we have been enjoying lots of extra time with the older kids while taking them on special outings.

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks:

Solomon’s birthday dinner at a local Mexican restaurant

Miriam fell asleep “reading” her New Testament

At the “Way out West Oktoberfest” in Tempe

Isaac always wears his shoes the wrong way like that.

A family trip to Tonto Natural Bridge State Park

I think this must be one of the most beautiful places in all of Arizona. The pictures on their website really do not do it any justice. We actually went here twice last week, in hopes that the change in elevation and the hiking would start my labor. No such luck, but we did have a lot of fun.

The first time, we hiked down into the canyon on a short but very steep trail. The second time I assumed that the other, longer trail to the bottom of the bridge (which we had never hiked before) would be less steep and therefore less strenuous, but boy, was I wrong! The trail descended into the canyon very quickly (200 foot drop in elevation in less than 1/4 mile), but left us about 1/2 mile up the canyon from the natural bridge and the waterfall that comes down over the bridge. Since this was in the bottom of a canyon, the trail ended and we were expected to hike through the creek bed, which was basically just a bunch of HUGE boulders and rocks. We did go on for another 10 minutes or so, but looking at the map I realized that we had probably twice as far still left to go, plus having to hike back out again, too. My husband was carrying Miriam the whole time, while the three older boys were managing pretty well on their own. The thing that really made me decide that it would be smart to turn around was when I went to put my hand on a big boulder for balance, when I saw a little critter scurry across where I was about to put my hand. I immediately recognized that it was a bark scorpion, the most poisonous kind we have here in Arizona. Though not necessarily always deadly, I wasn’t sure what we would have done with a 9 months pregnant woman and four little kids in the bottom of a canyon, stuck half-way in a dry creek bed. Since this was a weekday there were no other hikers, and of course we were light years from cell phone reception. We made it back up to the parking lot safely, and my husband and his friend who had come with us hiked back down again on their own while the kids and I stayed and played in the creek up at the top of the bridge. Later, I was watching a video clip my husband had recorded of the absolutely gigantic fire ants that were up there. One of them was carrying something – a dead bark scorpion! The guy in the gift shop said that they do have a lot of scorpions there, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. He has found a total of 8 in his bed over the years (he lives in a house at right there at the park), but he had never been stung by one. Afterward, we all went out for some pizza.

At the McCormick Stillman Railroad Park

I took the kids here today with a friend from church. We all had a great time.

Baking pretzels

Miriam playing with her baby doll