Sabino 2012

I take the kids up to Sabino canyon as often as I can. It's easily accessible, very pretty, and a simple hike. Again I let Tilda do the hike on her own, no riding in the backpack. I think we're finally done with that thing. I packed a nice lunch, carried all the water and whatnot, and the kids had fun. One of those perfect weather days where it's not too hot (yet) and not cold at all.

Water was flowing

Almost feels like autumn right here

It got a little chilly at the dam with the wind, so I made sure to layer them up. These pictures make it look like they should be modeling for the next REI catalog. maybe I'll look into that.

Griffin is reading so much these day! Whatever he can get his hands on. Here he is perusing the guide book. Tilda is eating another banana.

I took some pictures of other hikers with their camera, so they returned the favor.

It's amusing that Griffin got his hands on the camera and took a bunch of pictures as I gave the other hikers directions and spent some time chatting them up.

Fun playing in the sand

Griff taking pictures

He's wearing my hat. Looks better on him.

Winter Wonderland

We have a nice mountain range right to the north of us. Drive for 40 minutes and you can be at 7000 feet. There was a substantial snowfall. Thought it would be a swell treat to spend the afternoon with the kids

Who doesn't like to eat snow? We parked at a trailhead. There were some nice little hills and rocks to explore around.

The snowfall was just a few days old so the trees were still covered. I love this, reminds me so much of the Adirondacks in winter.

It looks like it was freezing cold, but it really wasn't. The sun was shining, and it was well above 40. Had a lot of fun with this old sled.

Griffin made a friend while Tilda took a break. I dug this old army shovel (from my military days) out of the back of the truck so they could make a fort.

I told Griffin, never to throw a snowball at me while I was taking a picture. He didn't listen.

Taking a break

Griffin takes some great pictures sometimes.

children of the corn

My landlord was nice enough to give us a handful of free passes to the local corn maze. Its quite extravagant if you like that sort of thing. 2 & half mile loop. It wasn't interesting enough to walk the whole thing, but they had maps and checkpoints with clues for the kids. It's rare to get that autumn feel in arizona, you have to grab these little moments when they present themselves

Ferris Wheel

There was this cheesy fair going on in town, every time we drove past on the way to the grocery store the kids would see the ferris wheel and inquire why we hadn't ridden it yet. It was there wasn't it? I can't argue with that logic, so we hit it up right before it packed itself up and grubbed money in another town

The dipshit running the ride wouldn't let us on because with smallish kids you need TWO adults with you. I contemplated finding a random homeless guy to ride with us, but it turns out I didn't have to because I bumped into a guy I knew from my last job, he was just bumming around the fair with his sister, it was his scene. He hates heights so I had to convince him. He was a good sport and even took the picture of the three of us. Griffin thought it was funny that his own hands were in the air the whole time, but my friend tim barely took his arms off the bar and refused to look down.