In Which Nancy Proves (again) that She's Kickawesome

Three day weekends are the best. We always enjoy them. On the last one we went and hiked up at Badger Springs, and today we went down to Tucson and did a couple canyons. They're right next to each other, and we were able to combine them in a bit of a loop, with easier navigation than I'd anticipated, which is never something to complain about. We went with our friend Sarah and had an awesome time. The first canyon we did was called La Milagrosa Canyon. One thing to note about these two canyons was that the main redeeming factor that they had when I was choosing them was that they were supposed to be completely dry. For whatever reason, it didn't turn out that way. Maybe Tucson has had rain recently. Phoenix certainly hasn't. Anyway, both of the canyons had a fair amount of flowing water in them. But, in the end, that made them much cooler, and a lot prettier, because they probably would have been kind of lame otherwise. Anyway, La Milagrosa was a short hike from where we parked, and lucky for those of us who didn't feel like getting wet, we were able to find ways to bypass both of the rappels, which would have been very much in the watercourse. It was actually a pretty warm day, but of course, clouds covered the sun the minute we got to the canyon. Here are some pictures from La Milagrosa Canyon:

On the way to the canyon.

Still hiking to the canyon. Tucson in the background.

At the top of the narrows of La Milagrosa. As I said, the water was a surprise.

Probably one of the coolest grottoes I've seen in a while.

So I took a selfie with it.

Climbing around one of the rappels.

Sarah said she looked like our awkward daughter.

Then this happened.

The second canyon was called Agua Caliente. That means "hot water" in Spanish. I'm going to go ahead and say that that as a huge lie. That water certainly wasn't warm. I know, because I went into it. It took a bit of a climb to get out of La Milagrosa and up the trail to the top of Agua Caliente, but it was worth it. Agua Caliente was beautiful, and did I mention that I got to jump? There was a sweet pool with about a 20 foot cliff above it, and I climbed down, swam out to check the depth, and then climbed back up (much easier than climbing down) and then JUMPED! It was awesome. I thought about doing it again, but elected against it, because as I previously stated, "Agua Caliente" is a boldfaced lie. It was still awesome. Here are pictures from that canyon, which actually had a mandatory rappel in it. Sarah and Nancy managed to stay mostly dry by some tricky boulder hopping. We were glad the canyon had a rappel, because it really added some legitimacy to this canyoneering outing, but for me, the jump made the whole trip worth it. Anyway, as I said, here are the pictures:

Gained the top of the ridge! It was a bit of a climb there for a few minutes.

The bottom of La Milagrosa Canyon

Climbing out of the water after checking the depth.

About to jump!

Sarah going down the rappel.

Nancy going down the rappel. 

Working our way down the canyon.

Sarah posing with some graffiti. I'm not a fan of canyon (or city, really) graffiti, but at least they made it cool.

Oh, and also Nancy did all of this business six months pregnant! That's pretty impressive, I have to say. Then it was off to In-N-Out for lunch and back up to Phoenix. It was a good trip with some awesome sights and some fun downclimbs and did I mention that I got to jump? We're doing awesome otherwise. The baby is doing great and we're looking forward to welcoming him here in about three more months!That's all I've got to say at the moment. This is Captain Danger out.

In Which We Go CANYONEERING! (Again!)

So, we've finally gotten to go canyoneering again. It's been a while, actually. We've been hiking and out of town, but not actually canyoneering. This canyon was called Minnow, and it was actually the third time we've tried it. The first time I made a mistake on what road we were supposed to walk on (there were two) and we ended up doing something else after we took about a two mile circle right back to where we had parked. The second time we drove out there and hiked to the right place, and we decided it was probably too icy (not usually a problem here), and after actually doing it, I think we were right. There were enough places that would have been really dicey if there had been snow on them. At any rate, I really enjoyed this canyon. There was a lot of fun downclimbing and some really cool cave-type stuff that was fun to go through. We went with our friends Dustin and Sarah. Here are some pictures:

View from the head of the canyon. The Superstition Mountains are awesome.

Nancy heading down the canyon. At this point I think we were mostly past all of the thorn bushes.

Sarah on an unnecessary downclimb (I walked around)

The first cave is in this picture

Nancy going into the first cave. It was the biggest one.

Everyone from inside of the cave.

This chamber was cool. It was better in real life.

Continuing down canyon

The end of this canyon had some awesome views.

Here's an even more awesome view!

Climbing down to the rappel.

Me at the top of the single rappel.

Nancy rappelling

Dustin rappelling. This was after he finally got the pull cord out of that stupid bush he's
next to.

Fish Creek!

The Fish Creek bridge.

So, then Dustin hitch hiked back to the car and we drove back to Phoenix. The people that picked him up actually made someone get out of the car and ride on the bumper to give Dustin a ride. That's what's cool about the people around here. They're really nice. I really liked this canyon and would happily do it again, and the great thing is that it's only about an hour and a half out of town. The only downside was the thorns, but that's the southern Arizona desert for you. So, another successful canyon descended, and for those keeping track at home, this was my 61st canyon and my 75th descent of a canyon, so, that's pretty cool. I'll have to make sure that my 100th descent is something special. At any rate, that's about all I've got to say about this. This is Captain Danger out.

Christmas Break

I can't believe it is already the last day of Christmas break but we had a great time spending Christmas with family, enjoying time off of school, and feeling the joy of the season. 

At The Nutcracker

We started break with a date night to The Nutcracker to see one of my students perform.  Cliff had never seen the show and I hadn't seen it since I was a kid.  It was fun to get in the spirit with the Christmas tradition.  Especially since nothing seemed to feel like it was almost Christmas with the weather being so warm and all.

 
Then on Saturday night we went to the Mesa temple to walk around the grounds and see the Christmas lights.  It was shortly after our first date 5 years ago that we first went to see the Salt Lake Temple lights together so it was really fun to do it again here in Arizona.  Walking around the temple grounds is always a great way to get into the real spirit of Christmas and remember what the whole season is really about.

A nice lady asked if we wanted a picture together.  I politely declined but Cliff took her up on it so here I am obviously begrudging. 

On Sunday, we had a little pre-Christmas separation dinner with our friends Sarah and Dustin and then we headed to the airport to fly to Reno.  This was our first time being in Reno for more than 12 hours for two years.  We stayed for a little over a week but it felt so short.  We got to spend Christmas with my parents, Tod, and Janet and the boys.  It was so fun spending Christmas there and watching CJ and Julien in all their innocence enjoying Christmas trees, lights, and presents.

CJ helped Cliff shovel the driveway after a big snow.

Cliff had fun helping the boys make a gingerbread house.

A day at the park. Julien loved spinning Cliff around in there.

We had a great time visiting with my family.  We even got to go eat an awful awful at the Little Nugget.  Last time we ate those was the day before our wedding!  We also did a session at the Reno temple, which is always special, I get to walk past the room we got sealed in on the way to the ladies' dressing room.  

On Wednesday morning, we boarded a New Year's Eve plane back to Phoenix.  We spent New Year's with our friends Erica and Nate from our ward and their new baby.  We didn't plan on staying up till midnight but somehow, we all ending up making it. 

We spent the last couple days of break relaxing and starting a few projects for baby boy.  Today, we went to the Superstitions to get a canyon in before the end of break but when we got there it was all snowy and icy.  So, we opted for a little hike around the snow frosted desert and headed back into town.  

All in all, it was a great break.  We are sad that it is about over and time to get back to jobs and responsibilities.