apAdventures

posted by arr

posted by arr

Wigilia (pronounced: “vee-GHEEL-yah”) is the traditional Christmas Eve vigil supper in Poland which has been carried on generation after generation by Paul’s family. This year Paul’s brother Mark was our chef. We had lentils and cabbage, peirogies, ham, chicken, salad, mashed potatoes, bread, pickles and gingerbread, pizzelles, nut and poppyseed rolls for dessert. Yum!

The Chef

Time to eat!

Cutie

Paul and his nephew Luke

Grandkids

The whole fam

posted by arr

posted by arr

Our decision is made. We’re going to do the whole drive back to Tucson in one day to maximize our time in the valley. We’re not leaving until tomorrow morning! Woohoo! So what to do with this last glorious full day? Well…

I’m not at all exaggerating when I say that the first time Silas saw Yosemite Falls he wanted to hike to the top of it. He made this very clear to us, each and every day of this trip.

“Can we hike to the top of the falls today?”
– No.
“How about today? It’s a rest day! Can we do the hike?”
– No.
“But I want to! Why can’t we?”
– It’s too far. It’s too steep. Maybe when you and your brother are a little bigger.
“Can we do it today? It’s Thanksgiving! Let’s do a Thanksgiving hike to the top of the falls!”
– NO! We said NO! NO MEANS NO!

We decide to make this last day a ‘kids day.’ We let them pick. Climbing? Sightseeing? A walk? And you can of course guess what they said (because at this point in the trip Silas has badgered us so much that he’s now got Ivan badgering us too! Grrr). Alright, alright. We all compromise by deciding to do a portion of the hike and then they can see how steep and strenuous it is and we’ll just turn around. Just a short out-and-back. Agreed? Agreed.

Meanwhile I throw lunch and some extra water in the pack and make everyone take along their down jackets. ….just in case. You all know where this is going, right? heh heh. 😉

Heading up…

We make it to the top of the lower falls (base of the upper falls). Kids are psyched and fresh as daisies.

Higher…

Higher still…

Yep. You guessed it. The top.

We did shoulder them a bit near the top, not because they were tired (they actually protested at this!), but because we wanted to ensure they didn’t GET tired with so much more to hike. For those not familiar with this classic trail, let me just share some stats straight from www.nps.gov:
Distance: 7.2 miles (11.6 km) round trip
Elevation: 2,700 ft (823 m) elevation gain
Difficulty: Strenuous
Typical Time: 6-8 hours round trip (It took us 5 hours. Bam!)

And now the boys are chatting about wanting to climb El Cap. Uh oh.

posted by arr

posted by arr

More from our garden:

posted by arr

Ivan and I have pretty much made it tradition that we make popcorn balls now for Halloween

My own recipe even!

The witch

Halloween parade at the library is not to be missed!

First ones here

(What on earth could he be thinking about here?)

Parade time

Silas the dog. And I have no idea why Ivan only has one sock on

No big party this year on account of the Bisbee wedding. We partied it family-style instead.

posted by arr

A couple weekends ago our dear friend Linda married a pretty special guy, Ty. They are without a doubt a perfect match. We’re so excited for them!

Silas testing his strength against Ty in an arm wresting match the evening before the big day

Show time! Boys in their fancy duds

At the ceremony site with good buddy Havoc

Havoc and Silas were given the honors of ring bearers. Silas took this responsibility VERY seriously (as you can see by how tightly clutched he has Ty’s ring! haha)

The rocks of Cochise Stronghold in the backdrop

Wedding guests

The bride with her dad

Tying the knot

Breathtakingly gorgeous spot for a marriage!

And now, party time in Bisbee! We helped with setup and shot this photo earlier in the day. We neglected to pull out the camera when the party was actually happening. A good sign of a GREAT party!

And our cozy accommodations in the San Ramon hotel. Linda and Ty were married on Halloween weekend, the wildest weekend in Bisbee…so we’re told. So after the reception we continued to stay up until all hours of the night, watching Halloween movie marathons on TV and people in wild costumes go by from our corner-street perch. Silas kept vigil of the good costumes from the bed by the window.
“Oh my goodness! Come quick! There’s a group of goblins out there now!! I’m not even kidding!!!!”

And we can’t possibly be involved in a Linda-and-Ty adventure without climbing a few rocks. A quick stop at Cochise on the way home. 🙂

posted by arr

posted by arr