Parent's visit

Once again I find myself woefully behind in updating this blog. I feel as if maybe the novelty has worn off a bit and with the lack of feedback I wonder if anyone checks here regularly.

Things are going well, Christmas came and went. I just started the 4th semester at NAU and the workload seems heavier than usual. I'll finish my classwork in May, then take a couple online classes over the summer for degree fulfillment. After that I start student teaching in August. I do that for four months and then I'm finished. Yay. I'm trying to get placed a local elementary school that has a pre-school program Matilda can attend. Griffin starts kindergarden, perhaps at that school, maybe another one, we don't know yet.

Mike and Joyce visited Tucson in early December again this year, here are some pictures:

Fake snow (duh) from downtown Christmas festival

Lightsaber battle in Wallgreens:

Grand Canyon Day 1

Here are the Grand Canyon pics! This is sunrise on our first day, we had car-camped on the rim the previous night and cooked breakfast and coffee at the trailhead before heading off. Me on the left, friend Brian in the middle and friend Kyle on the right

Kyle likes to eat honey out of the jar when camping. Took a few of these shots

About halfway down. We lost about 4700 feet of elevation the first day

Nearing the Colorado River:

I was so tired at this point of the day. Probably the only time on the trip I didn't feel great:

Messy campsite:

Grand Canyon Day 2

Got a late start on day 2, but had time to take some great photos:

Followed the River for the whole day, this was a nice rest stop before we gained a bunch more elevation and was far above the river:

Looking down on some river rafters. I want to do the canyon by river some time, I'll need three weeks to do it:

Brian dubbed this stretch the "Cliffs Of Insanity" very exposed:

Looking back on the cliffs we just hiked over (on the left):