We had a wonderful time with Dale and Carol last weekend. One of the things we saw was the Western town of Rawhide which is not too far from where we live. When we pulled up there were a lot of cars but no one in the town so we dubbed it a "Ghost Town". As we were walking in we could hear the loudspeaker playing Frankie Layne's rendition of Rawhide - see the words -------->
Coming home from work I witnessed just a little taste of our Heavenly Father's artistic talent! I was stopped at a red light for the first picture and then hurried out of my car at the library to take the next two pictures. The last one was taken after I came out of the library - just a few minutes made a world of difference, don't you think? If you double click on the photos you can see them a little more clearly. Too bad the photos don't do the color justice!!!
Today was another gorgeous day in our neck of the woods. Good opportunity to take Duchess to Pacana Park and watch the birds and people. We have a little bench we always stop to drink a little water adn rest for a few minutes. Then we were off to the water to sit and watch the beautiful water and enjoy the weather.
So we took the rainfly off and crawled in the tent, snuggled up in our sleeping bags, and looked up at the spectacular view of all those stars. It was so nice and warm we really didn't need our sleeping bags. Dinner was roast, potatoes, carrots and onions cooked in the dutch oven. Dessert was a Snickers bar. While dinner was cooking we decided to take a walk. Right after we started out I realized we didn't have any doggy bags so I gave Larry Duchess and just as I was doing that she jumped off the trail and before we knew it she had attacked a cholla cactus. Let me tell you - you never win when attacking any kind of cactus. I know from personal experience. Duchess had a cactus ball the size of a baseball stuck to the front of her mouth. Larry hustled back to camp and brought our tongs, leather gloves, and a dish rag. Before he left we got the "ball" off her with my flip flops. Then we proceeded to get the barbs off her with the tongs and rag. There were probalby 20 on her and it took about five minutes to get them off. Poor thing. I had to hold her mouth the whole time so she wouldn't put her tongue on them. They were NOT easy to remove. I am hoping we got all of them - she looks good and doesn't show any sign of lasting effects. Needless to say, there are no pictures of this ordeal! After we removed them we continued our walk around the campground, then had dinner and watched the stars. Everytime I woke up I would look up and follow where the Little Dipper had gone. 
Rowen was blessed today. We had a wonderful day together and are so thankful for our family. 
Having three new temples coming to Arizona is such a blessing! The one closest to us will be in Gilbert, Arizona. The permits are being secured and building will start once that is completed. We are looking forward to this sacred building being erected, dedicated to the Lord, and used to bless others!
back row: Chris, Lori, Sara, Dr. DeMark, Brandy, Jaimie, Yhony
Saying 
Carrie came to visit at the perfect time to fine tune the puppy training!
There are times when Duchess goes berserk. I finally caught her on video. Mostly she's just a streak of white but you'll get the idea.
Okay, we look pretty innocent, don't we??? Our church had a pool party/barbeque at one of the developments in our ward. I was amazed that the sign said "871 maximum capacity" by the pool. We had no where near that many! There were also a lot of people there not of our church. We hung out at the pool for a little while and then mosied (that's what us old folks do) over to get a hot dog and salad. I turned to see Larry talking to a lady who was demanding to know what group we were and who gave us permission to be in the pool. He thought she was joking at first thinking she was a member of our church that he didn't know. She was getting more upset by the minute so I told her who we were with and that didn't seem to calm her down. We have about 12-15 families from our ward who live in that development but she was upset because there were so many of us there. Our group was only scheduled to be there from 5-7 p.m. and by this time it was already after 6 p.m. We apologized to her and she left. About 40 minutes later the police came - yep two patrol cars. They kind of cased us out before actually coming over to talk to us. Our bishop was ready as he approached one of the officers with a water balloon - that's when we left. As we passed by them we saw everyone laughing and at ease so we think things are under control. Guess we'll find out tomorrow at church - if the bishop isn't there we'll know it wasn't.
I have to say that the stadium is fantastic - with airconditioning that kept the temp at a very comfortable level! There is a sliding roof that stays closed most days in the summer!
Thinking our seats wouldn't be THAT great we were pleasantly surprised to see that we were three rows up from the DBacks bull pen!
Baxter is the mascot - not really sure what he is or why they chose him but he seemed to have a great rapport with the crowd.
