Adventures of the Urban Kind: In Search of The Great Water Fall!

In this episode of The Adventures of WHAW, we decided to venture out on an urban hike in search of The Great Water Fall. Instead of heading to the airport and taking our usual mode of transportation, we decided to mix things up a bit and hop a ride on the light rail. We watched them build this for many months and thought it would be fun to actually take it for a ride. So we did, and no they didn't let me drive...

We decided to bring our bikes along for the ride so that we could continue our journey away from the tracks in search of The Great Water Fall...

After reaching the trail head to The Great Water Fall, we rode a few minutes until we came to the river. After all, the part time tour guide on the train told us to head for the big river. Common sense would only suggest a great water fall be near...

When we got to the great river (I know I know, it looks more like a lake....)

The kids decided to climb the mountains to see if they could see The Great Water Fall at the top...Upon reaching the top of the mountain, they couldn't see The Great Water Fall so they decided to climb way up in to the top of the tree canopy to see if they could see anything from there....

Climbing to the top of the tree canopy proved to be a success. They spotted the water fall. But was this The Great Water Fall?

This was not The Great Water Fall, but sure looked like a lot of fun to slide down...Next time we are bringing the swim suits and towels! After all the mountain climbing, tree scaling, and water sliding, we needed to find food, and fast. Out of nowhere we heard the faint sound of an ice cream truck grow louder and louder until it pulled up beside us. The assortment of cold ice cream treats was plenty, just don't let Weston pick, if you know what I mean....

Watermelon bomber pops are the best source of energy if your ever on a search for The Great Water Fall!

Or Batman ice cream bars, they taste pretty good too...

Once we finished our ice cream, we hopped back on our bikes to continue our search for The Great Water Fall. We decided to follow the river to its end and past some sort of bridge. Possibly one the natives use to cross the river?

We rode on, past the local architecture and awed at its unusual lines and dazzling shapes.

When finally we found The Great Water Fall and stopped to take in its urban beauty...
We made it! We found The Great Water Fall and had a great urban adventure in the process!

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The storm damage is in...

We've been getting a lot of calls recently to see if we are ok after the big storm that passed through. The news reports are declaring it the worst storm in 17 years. Its taken us a day or two to dry out and assess the damage.

Here is a picture of our patio before the storm...

The storm reached its peak from 6-10pm Thursday, bringing high winds, heavy snow and rain that flooded parts of the state. There was a general Flood Warning for the Valley as rain water continued to move and work through the rivers, washes, and creeks of the Valley.

Here is a picture of the storm as it passed over Phoenix.

Two days later and its finally stopped raining and we are able to go outside and assess the damage.

Here is a picture of our patio after the storm.

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Cloudy days aren't so bad...

Somewhere over California...I think.

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Anyone up for a game of water polo?

So the neighborhood park just put in a new water polo field? Do you call it a field? That sounds better than a water polo court. The soccer players are a little mad. The fishermen are happy, although I haven't seen anyone catch a single fish yet. Now where can we rent some wave runners...

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Weston baby knows karate...

Weston wanted to make a movie about when he was a baby... So I told him the story about how he learned karate when he was a month old...

Press play at your own risk!

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Back in the day...

I came across an old disk of pictures and found this one that caught my attention. You know how the story always start...Back in the day...when things were simple, and the only thing you had to worry about was not letting the popsicle split down the middle...

Not only does this picture capture that moment, but it also shows just how fast time goes by...

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Global Warming...

December 29, 2009 - Shoveling the driveway at Grandma and Grandad's house...
December 30, 2009 - Mowing the lawn at our house...

The best part of coming home....Warm weather!

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The most wonderful time of the year...

Is December the most wonderful time of the year? Well it depends on who you ask? With 2 birthdays, holiday parties, a long vacation, numerous presents, and a ski vacation or two...it just might be the most wonderful time of year!

We kicked off December by celebrating Wynn's birthday with rib night...

Wynn went on a guys trip to go skiing....

Alea sang a few songs while Weston shook his maracas at Heidi's work holiday party...

Alea pretended to be an angel at the top of the christmas tree...

Weston learned to fly like buzz light year...

and Wynn and Heidi (patiently, ha ha) taught the kids to ski at Alta...

Then, Weston celebrated his birthday with 2 parties, one at Grandma's house in Utah...
and one at home with a helicopter cake made of ice cream sandwiches and a perfect landing...
Yep, it was the most wonderful time of the year...

May all the adventures continue in 2010!

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The Adventures Continued (Oct - Nov)

So it has been awhile since the last blog post....

Let's see...computer died, we got a new one, 3 months later and its 2010!

So to recap the last 3 months of the year (or as Wynn would say...4th quarter)

We ventured out on a few fun trips and did a lot of holiday things.

To start with, Heidi and the kids went camping up on the rim with her mom and dad during the fall break in early October.

We celebrated Halloween with the traditional costume and trick or treating along our annual route. 18 lbs of candy per kid really will last until January, trust me!

In November we went to Utah for Thanksgiving where Weston roto-tilled Grandad's garden.

Since we couldn't bring the turkey on the airplane we decided to go out and get one...

Unfortunately all we could find were clay pigeons so we went to Jena's house for turkey instead.

On the way home, we continued our "on the way home from the airport" tradition and stopped at In-N-Out. It was 11:00 at night, but Weston reassured me that it was never too late to eat!

Who knew an 11:00 pm hamburger and french fries would be the source of a sleepless night?

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