February Fun

Usually, February tends to be my least favorite month of the whole year because it is usually the coldest, which causes all outdoor activity to cease. However, this year, that has not been the case! Though it has been a rough Winter for most of you back home in NY, NC, and TX, Yuma has been a consistent balmy 65-70 degrees and sunny! Don't be too jealous, because I am sure that in the middle of July we will be wishing for sub zero temperatures! I will also admit that we did have one frost that did freeze and kill all the lettuce crop around here, but that definitely hasn't been enough to keep us indoors or other good things from happening this month!

In regards to good things happening, we would first like to congratulate Matt and Beth for the newest addition to their family: Lilian Marie Wallace born earlier this month right in the middle of the big Dallas snowstorm. That makes for a total of 7 nieces and nephews for Bill and I! Hopefully, we can meet her soon!

 

Captain Howie

Also, speaking of family, Bill and I were FINALLY able to take some time and plan our family wedding ceremony in Hawaii!! We will be getting married (again) on Waimanelo Beach/Angel Bay on November 23rd, 2011 conducted by Captain Howie. Haha. It took some convincing on my part to get Bill to go along with Captain Howie as he seemed to come straight from the 1960's era. However, after researching some of the testimonials, making some phone calls, and promising Bill that I would not allow Captain Howie to wear a tie dye t-shirt on our special day, he was on board as well. Following our ceremony, we have booked a reception dinner followed by drinks out on the town of Waikiki! We are excited to finally do things right and celebrate with our immediate families in a tropical island paradise!

Here is a preview of Captain Howie AND Angel Bay: http://vimeo.com/12862785

Muggins Pk Sunset

 In regards to other adventures this month, Bill and I were able to explore Muggins Peak located right here in the Yuma area. This was a spontaneous decision, which caused us to get a late start. We got to the peak around 3pm and I don't think that either of us had a real intention of completing the whole hike considering the guide indicated that it would take at least a couple of hours to complete and we knew that sunset would be upon us soon. However, Bill and I like to challenge ourselves and we kept hiking and hiking until we were all the way around the other side of the peak. We eventually strayed off the trail only to find ourselves now going up and OVER the peak, where we eventually met back up with the trail. It was a fun hike as we were racing against daylight and got to exercise our teamwork skills to get us back to the truck before dark! We also go to see some amazing views from the top!



Sedona, AZ

Our other BIG adventure was Sedona, AZ, which Bill had planned for our Valentine's Day weekend. I had no idea what Sedona was all about, but all I can say is that after visiting, it was probably one of the most unique places that I have EVER visited. I fell in love immediately and would go back any day if I had the chance. The red rock, landscape, and trails were amazing! We landed in Sedona early on a Saturday morning, bought a hiking guide, and picked out the most strenuous trail we could find, which was Bear Mountain.   

Only 1/3 up Bear Mountain!

Bear Mountain seemed pretty reasonable upon first glance, but once we started up the trail we realized there there was alot more to it than our first impression. Everytime we got to the top (or what we thought was the top), we realized we had another summit to reach. This happened about three times. By the time we really reached the top, we were at 6,434 ft above sea level. The first summit that we had reached looked like an anthill at our feet! Once at the top, Bill and I found a cliff to sit on and enjoy our victory with some water and power bars. As we sat there, it was awesome to see small airplanes taking tours of the canyon and know that we were sitting higher than they were flying. It was even more satisfying knowing that we hiked to those heights with our own two feet. We also got to sit above the canyon birds and literally hear them soaring through the air since it was so quiet up there --it was very serene. Overall, this hike took us about 2 hours to climb to the top and about an hour to descend.

The View

The end of West Fork Trail

Our second day, we still chose to hike a lengthy trail, but one that was much less strenuous ( I was kind of sore after the previous day)! We hiked West Fork Trail, known as Sedona's most romantic trail. However, this trail is more famously known as the inspiration for Zane Grey's book Call of the Canyon, which became Sedona's first Western and was also made into a motion picture utilizing the natural beauty of this particular area. The trail was about 6 miles long and had it's own uniqueness. It had lots of streams that we had to cross, Bill's foot took a dip on one of the crossings. He wasn't too comfortable after this considering this trail was much cooler than Bear Mountain. In fact, most of the trail was ice/snow, which meant the water must have been pretty cold! I took a couple of falls myself and by the end of the trip, Bill and I decided that it is time to invest in some good hiking boots! Especially, since I also slipped and fell at the summit of Bear Mountain, which scared me pretty good as I thought I was going right over the edge! Fortunately, we both made it back in one piece!

West Fork Trail

This trip has only reaffirmed our desire to continue hiking. We love the exercise and we love being close to the natural beauty that surrounds us! In the future, we have already decided that we want to try out Yosemite's Half Dome Hike in May, we will let you know how that goes when we get around to it. That should be a pretty intense hike though!!!  Also, we definitely plan on the Grand Canyon at some point this summer!  

Crossing the Stream

Until then, we will both keep busy with our jobs. As we approach March, I know that my time with Bill will become less and less right on up through May as WTI approaches. However, I am slowly coming back around to my own roots and trying to get back into good shape. I have had some recent motivation to try biking and have started looking into picking up a bike so I can try a triathalon (something I should have done LONG ago, while I was in great shape!!). However, there seems to be no better time to start than now!!

Lastly, as we approach the end of February, we are happy to have Bill's parents out here visiting us for a few weeks. We have had a nice time chatting and catching up over the past couple of days. They have also been a great help in assisting us to get settled in our new home as Bill and I still have some odds and ends that we still haven't had a chance to get around to. We look forward to the rest of their visit and hope the weather continues to be great for their visit!