Camping July 09

We went camping last weekend on Mt Lemmon. Camping during monsoon makes life interesting! Mt Lemmon is at 8000 feet. So when it rains, it does other interesting things! Kim, Katie, Collin and I went up Thursday night. We set tents up in the drizzel then Kim cooked dinner. During dinner, there was a loud clap of thunder and it started raining hard then the hail started! Collin said he didn't remember ever seeing it rain icecubes before! It was really exciting and fun to watch! From a nice warm shelter, that is!

This is one of those popup shades and we bought the side curtains for it to block wind and sun. But with all four sides up and a nice lantern on the picnic table, you can stay dry and reasonably warm during a hail storm! Wow were WE ever thankful! The rain and hail promptly put out our fire!

This is Collin's tent after the storm. Little did we know, until bedtime, that his little rain cover is mostly for looks! Everything in his tent was wet. Thankfully, Aunt Kim let him use her extra bag (since the 'menfolk' weren't there yet) and he slept in a big tent with his mom for the night. Daddy brought up another tent when he came Friday night. It had warmed up enough during the day to dry is bag and all his clothes and books.

The next day, Kim and Collin brought this downed tree up a big hill so we would have firewood! It was quite away from camp and all up hill but they stuck with it! Collin was the only man in camp, so he took his job seriously!

Here he is getting a lesson on sawing wood from Grammy.

We had this really colorful bright green beetle come to visit us one evening. His tummy was bright gold! He was really cool, but not too impressed with the photo shoot!

We spent the whole weekend doing nothing but enjoying each other's company. We were really glad when Dellas, Terry and Jason got there late Friday night. Heidi and Shawn and family were on their way to Chicago. We really missed them. But we had a good time even with all the interesting weather and bugs. And chipmunks and grey squirrels stealing dog food! Reading, playing with a lonely grandson, playing games and just being family. That's what it's all about!

REALLY BIG WINDS

Monsoons not only pack a wallop with rain, they sometimes bring heavy winds. They don't last long, but they can really cause trouble. This is an ocotillo (ok-oh-teeo) that WAS growing in our neighbor's yard. They are on vacation. Won't THEY be surprised! It is about 20+ feet high - or was. It sure had a shallow root system.

Another casualty of the wind storm. This is around the corner from our house and was one of two really big trees that blew over. They sure don't have much root system either. I was really surprised. People plant trees right next to side walks and they don't disturb the sidewalks. I assumed it was because the roots went really deep....but I guess not. Thankfully no one was hurt and there was no property damage. Except for the trees, of course. We lost power for a bit because the wind also whipped around some power poles (6 in our area). The poles are still leaning some but the power came back on fairly quickly.

We were at Heidi & Shawn's place helping them get things ready for their big move to Chicago. It rained there, and they had a bit of wind but nothing like what we had around our place! So we missed all the excitement. The lightening was spectacular.