walnut canyon

while we were at the family reunion (way back in june) we went on a hike through walnut canyon. a way cool place you should certainly see if you're in arizona (i hiked it pregnant with a kid on my back! if you know me you know that's a BIG deal, i am NOT physically fit, so you can totally do it too! they even had these great backpacks at the visitor center that we could use for free! so no excuses!) oh, p.s. i totally uploaded these on the wrong size...but there's a lot, and i really don't want to do it all over again...so yeah.

okay, so this plant is a prickly pear cactus plant. cool b/c my grandma takes the fruit off these and makes the best jam in existence. it's kinda a distant picture though since the plant was off the path and on a steep decline.

i just think this place looks cool. the rock formations are really neat.

i like pictures like this one (with my sister anja) b/c it shows you at least a little just how big it all is.

ander, my awesome little brother who carried around babe the whole way, despite her constant chimes of "mo' nack peas" translated as "more snacks please". he was such a trooper, way awesome.

this was kinda a leaning over the edge picture. it was seriously just cliffs going down. kinda scary, but way neat. the whole way my thoughts were 'wow!' and 'don't fall'.

my sister anja (in the pink) and my other little brother josiah (in the red).

yet another awesome little brother.

to the left is my mom, they're will be a better picture of her later. i'm so glad she was there. being completely not physically fit she was nice enough to hang back with me:)

i thought this was a cool tree, growing out of the rocks and all. i guess it's the purcell side coming out.

so i think these are way cool. it's where the native indians lived...in little cliff rooms they made...seriously, on the edge of a cliff! these were hardcore people.

another neat looking tree.

me and bub.

ander and babe.

okay, this lizard was totally cool. see how it's pushed up on it's legs? it would go up and down...this lizard was doing push-ups! it was the funniest thing. just up and down and up and down. it was great.

yay for mom!

So Anika picked these pictures out and had me (John) write about them. Don't hold your breath. Anyways, this is kinda a 4 generation picture. Dad's folks, Mom and Dad, us, and the kids. Anika was awfully amped for this picture. I was amped that our kids weren't crying anymore.

Trust me. Bubba was NOT happy.
Neither was Babe. In fact, this is as happy as she got.

Ander wanted to do the teeter totter with me.
So I did.

Ander's great with our kids. He know when to stay and when to run like mad. Here he's staying.



Bubba grew to love the slide, so this 1-year-old would climb up (with minimal assistance) and then fall/slide down. Babe was more graceful.


She also learned to go up backwards. Bubba got the hang of that, too, by the end of our few days.


Ander's a poser. He doesn't do cameras unless he's posing, generally.
So there. I helped. Yay, me!