Our 30th Wedding Anniversary

Dear Tessa,
As you might recall, your dad & I did not celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary on our anniversary.  Instead we were at Sky Harbor airport watching our youngest board a plane and leave for the Peace Corps.  So on March 19th your dad & I finally got away to celebrate our anniversary.  I dare say that we are the only people in the world who celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary by spending the day in Oatman, the night at the Hualapai Mountain Resort and the following day "walking the sky" and accompanied by our replacement children: the long legged, rather patchy, black poodle and the short legged, somewhat piddly, wheaten terrier.  (I could be wrong, but I doubt it.)

So here we were, driving on the old Route 66 road, and we are alone on the road, maybe we saw one car driving the opposite direction.  We think we are the only ones making the trek to Oatman, and then we arrive in Oatman, where, lo and behold!  Oatman is full of tourists.  And not just local tourists, but foreign tourists, Japanese with cameras and Australians riding Harleys.  Amazing!  But I was so sad, I saw tourists, but no burros, only plastic replicas of burros.  And then I saw them!  Everywhere, in the street, on the sidewalk, taking a nap in a parking lot.

And then burros started coming up to us.  Apparently the dogs were as much of a novelty to them as they were to us.

We bought pellets of hay to feed the burros, but they weren't as interested in the pellets as they were the dogs. 

And then we saw the fuzzy baby burros.

Oh Tessa, they were so cute, but they had something stuck on their foreheads. 

   I got closer, and they had a post it note smack on their foreheads.

It said: STOP!  Do not feed me anything!  (Apparently the babies should still be nursing from their mothers and it spoils their appetites when they eat too many carrots.)

The babies really liked the dogs.

And Cole,

Manly dog that he is,

Hid behind your father.

The next day we went to the Grand Canyon Sky Walk.  Before we left, we learned that dogs could not accompany you on the sky walk.  (Apparently, they don't make booties for dog paws.)  So we went to the Kingman, AZ Petsmart, where the dogs' had a spa day and we continued on to the Sky Walk.

It was rather a long trek through an amazing Joshua Tree forest before we got to the west side of the Canyon and the Sky Walk.

Joshua Tree Forest

Big Joshua Tree

Did I mention that it was a really, really big Joshua Tree?

The Sky Walk

Although you may bring no objects with you on the Sky Walk (like cameras) there are authorized photographers available to take your picture.  And they pose you......

I'm not sure, but I think your dad is sleeping.

 The photographer told me to pretend to push Mark over.  I think he thought I was taking my role too seriously.

This is supposed to look like we are floating on air.

The End.

Love you lots, 

Mom

Bad Coyote!

The coyotes have returned to the neighborhood.  I haven't checked on the bunny rabbits but I fear the return of the coyotes doesn't bode well for them.  Still and all I am rather in awe of the coyotes; they are so familiar in their doglike way, yet so wild.  So when I was walking the dogs in the early morning, Margaret Stewart was walking Cinnamon.  Our dogs, of course, galloped over to her and begged a dog biscuit.  Cole and Yazzie were still chomping on the biscuit when a coyote silently loped by.  I was mesmerized by the coyote and not paying attention when Margaret's friend said, "Kelly watch Margaret!  Catch Margaret!!"  Margaret had Cinnamon's leash looped around her wrist and he was hell bent on chasing the coyote even if it meant taking Margaret with him.   Well, I didn't catch Margaret, she fell onto the blacktop and Cinnamon ran off.  We asked Margaret if she were okay and she replied, "No."  Luckily, this all happened in front of Posey Nash's house and of course Posey, who is aware of everything despite the early hour, came out and called 911 while the dogs and I went to retrieve the wayward Cinnamon who was now a half mile away and had been joined by a second coyote.  By this time, Cinnamon had bored of his new friends and came back easily with us, and was happy to meet and greet the EMT's who had bandaged Margaret's hand, taken her vitals and deemed that her friend could take her to the hospital.  Margaret wrote me an email a couple of days later letting me know that nothing was broken, but she did have to have a skin graft to repair her damaged hand and she said that she can't wash dishes which she considered to be not a bad thing.

Cole and Yazzie miss seeing Cinnamon (and Margaret's biscuits) on their walks and so they sent Cinnamon this card:

Happy Birthday!

      Twenty-three years ago today, the world became a better place because you were born.  Happy Birthday dear Tessa!  
     With much love, Mom

Your Grandpa is Fine

Your grandfather Bob had surgery today to take off multiple skin cancers from his face.  Of all the surgeries he has undergone, cutting on his face rather unnerves him.  Who can blame him?  It freaks me out too.  The skin cancers presented as small bumps starting below his left eyebrow circling down to the top of his left cheekbone.  I went to the hospital with Karolyn.  I dislike most everything about a hospital, the confusing corridors, the crowded waiting rooms with the too loud TV, and the cafeteria food.  (Now really, how can a hospital hold itself out to be an institution committed to health and serve such patently unhealthy, tasteless food?!?  I mean really, when your lunch choices are a greasy hamburger with white wonder bread bun or equally greasy fries or a limp, doughy pizza how can they say they have your health as a foremost concern?  Do they even know how good, thoughtful food can elevate your mood?  And really, how hard would it be to get a restaurant to take over the cafeteria?  Just think how wonderful it would be to have La Grande Orange take it over!  But I digress. Sigh.)  The important thing is that your grandfather did really well and Karolyn & I brought him home late this afternoon.  You would probably be fascinated by his surgeon's work.  It doesn't look so bad though his left eye looks as if he had his left eye "done" and he has a rather impressive bandage that is apparently sewn onto his skin allowing him to take a shower.  This is my rendition of him:

 Your dad says Grandpa looks as if he is 19 yrs. old.  (He does rather; apparently I have a hard time drawing wrinkles.)  I'm glad Grandpa is doing well, but remember this happened in part because he grew up in Phoenix before the invention of sun screen.  Make your mother happy and remember to use your sun screen.  :)
Much love, Mom

Snow!

i luv snow!!!  it iz my best vacation.  i roll in it; i hide in it.  i jump in it.  i eat it up.  it is wonderful.  i do not understand why the humans do not play in the snow with me.  they stayed inside where it iz warm and drank wine.  i wuld look my cutest to try to get thm to play with me, but they did not, they jst said arent you cold?  time to come inside, but i wuld not.  at least cole & shelby wuld play with me.  now i am home.  i miss snow and tessa.  where is tessa?  i cannot find her.....
yazzie

here i am with my friends

i eat snow

i made a hole and sitz 

i roll in snow

Bon Voyage Tessa!

Off you go on your adventure.  We love you so!

Jump!

     When we were little my dad would take us climbing on the big boulders around our summer cabin.  He taught my brother, sister and me how to climb these rocks: how to look only at the boulder in front of us instead of looking at the whole daunting climb looming before us, and how to calm ourselves by "sitting down where our feet were."
     Once we were 8 or 9 years old we would beg him to let us do "The Jump."   As jumps go this one was fairly tame, it was only 3 or so feet and had the advantage of jumping from a slightly higher elevation to a slightly lower one.  The scary part about this jump was that it had no visible bottom.  Dad would assess us instantly and say "Of course you can do it.  Jump!"  And we did.  I thought we were very brave.  It wasn't until I took my own children climbing, and until they asked me whether they could do "The Jump" that I realized it was my father who was the brave one.  I wasn't so brave; I waffled, knowing that while they could make the jump fearing what would happen if they didn't.
     So now my daughter is in her room packing.  She is going to spend the next 27 months in Nicaragua volunteering for the Peace Corps.  I am proud of her; I am excited for her; I am scared for her her; I will miss her, but I've learned my lesson, so I say, "Of course you can do it.  Jump!"