Hiking

I started hiking again last week.

 

I went two days last week and yesterday I made it to the summit of this mountain ( not sure of the name of that mountain)

This is the view looking south east at Camelback mountain

Today I thought I would tackle another mountain, Piestewa Peak

See the beast?

That, my friend, is Piestewa Peak

Doesn't look too high from the ground 

On my way to the trail head I passed a guy who was carrying his daughter in a backpack

Easy enough...so I thought

I set out on my hike

Lots of stairs to climb

I'm huffing and puffing only a few hundred feet up

Is it bad to be breathing out of my mouth so soon?

That old lady who just passed me doesn't look out of breath

I can do this!
 

This mountain is like the stair master from hell

I see benches!

No, I can't stop yet

Some dude just ran past me

How the hell does someone run up this thing?

Now I'm really panting. Sweat dripping off my forehead running into my eyes, ah, the burn!

Some lady just told me I'm almost there

I continue on...

 

It took me about an hour but I made it!

By the way...the lady that told me I was almost there was very wrong. 

I think I was only half way up

The final accent was all stairs!

Some guy said there were about 50 or so. I think there was 100 

For future knowledge, there are a ton of little green bugs flying around up at the top. 

I wanted to sit and enjoy (and hopefully not fall off the edge) but the darn bugs!

A few quick pictures before heading down

 It was an amazing view from the top!

This was looking north into Scottsdale 

I'm still deciding which mountain I will hike tomorrow but I will come back to this one next week!

Superhero Ears

We have a friend of a cousin who's sister's brother's old girlfriends dad knew

Just kidding

It's a little boy who my friend watches

See this cute little guy with Bryson? 

Isn't he handsome? 

His name is Nate and you can read all about him here.

Long story short, he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma last year and we just found out that he is now cancer free!!!

Yippee!!

The only thing is all the treatments left him with some hearing loss

He just received his first pair of superhero ears on Monday 

So we got the boys together...along with Nate's older brother and younger sister to show off each others ears and so Nate could meet someone else with superhero ears

Bryson and Nate kicked it off right away. They are already planning on play dates at each others houses.

I think we will start with the park again next week

Here's to Superhero Ears!

First Communion

My little Sophie isn't so little anymore

She's 9 years old and in 4th grade

The church we attend celebrates 1st Communion with all 4th graders

You must first attend a 1st Communion class with your parents

and then there is a special service just for the 4th graders receiving their 1st Communion

Sophie's 1st Communion was this past Sunday

Grampa and Gramma came

and Nana and Papa

There were about 40 kids who were there receiving their 1st Communion

Sophie and our pastor

No pictures were allowed during the service so this is where Sophie received the communion with mom and dad on either side

Now, we are not Catholic. We are Lutheran. There was a discussion amongst my family in regards to this 1st Communion. Here's the story

There are different synods of the Lutheran church

Some synods are more strict than others

We attend an ELCA (The more watered down of the Lutheran churches)

Therefore, we celebrate 1st Communion in 4th grade and Confirmation in 8th grade

Other Lutheran churches only celebrate Confirmation at which time you receive your first communion

So there you have it

Not nearly as big of a deal as the Catholics make it so no veil or gloves for little Sophie

It was still a fun time had by all!