Back at home!

Bed at Fort Huachuca

This was our first week of being home.   I'll share some photos about our trip home.  But  basically I woke up last Sunday and just knew it was time to go.  Our 7 week stint had come to an end.  I think I surprised Michael - but I was done trying to entertain 2 kids in a small town during monsoon season in a one bed motel room without a real kitchen. So we jumped in the car.  Said goodbye to this critter:

 it was bigger than it looks, at least in my imagination!

Said goodbye to Dad - we'll see you in 11 weeks :(

Headed for Vegas and the Golden Nugget Hotel and it's water slide through a shark tank.  It was a bit of a trial stopping every 30 minutes for bathroom breaks that the boys could never seem to coordinate. And then our experience trying to track down our reservation - was quite the experience (but I'll save that one for an in person recount - let's just say it was trying).

 They are looking at the fish under the water

 See that tube in the middle - the water slide goes through the shark tank.  Pretty cool. 

 I even went down it!

 Here comes Duncan out the other end!

We stopped in St. George to see Grandma and Grandpa Burns - it was so wonderful and fun to be with them.  We did some school shopping at the outlets.  Duncan decided to just skip size 6 altogether.  He was a 5 in May and now he is a 7/8.  He grew up fast this summer.

The picture is at Paradise Bakery 

We made it safely home through downpours of rain. My home has never felt so big or so wonderful.  And my bed... let's just say, it's nice to be home.  The rest of the week was filled with grocery shopping, cleaning the car - thank you to whoever the really nice neighbor men are that took the car top carrier off that the bishop sent over to help me.

It was also SO NICE to see friends, have playdates, cook real meals, buy a bountiful basket.  Really -- every family should do what we did -- it increases your gratitude for what you have.

This week I was called to be the Assistant Adviser to the Beehives (the 12 &13 year old girls) at church.  I have wanted this calling forever.  I'm so excited.  I started reading the church's magazine for the youth - the New Era.  There was a great article in their that talked about praying for blessings - things that we don't have.  Well I DO NOT have patience.  So I started praying for patience as a blessing - not as a learning experience.  But just as a pure gift from God.  It's helping allievate my guilt complex to just admit that I don't have it and pray for it.  Of course this was challenged by the indoor water fight that started to happen during last night's playdate.

In my scripture study I was reading in Alma 5 talking about the parable of the vineyard.

21 and it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: How comest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree? For behold, it was the poorest spot in all the land of thy vineyard.

 22 And the Lord of the vineyard said unto him: Counsel me not; I knew that it was a poor spot of ground; wherefore, I said unto thee, I have nourished it this long time, and thou beholdest that it hath brought forth much fruit.

and then in Chapter 6 we find the secret:

5 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and ^acleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his^barm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts.

So I feel better - even if our soil isn't the best we can still bring forth great fruit and vs. 5 tells us how to do it!  Love it!

We also went to our friends the Erwins daughter's baptism on Sat.  It was wonderful! These are our Hawaii friends the Erwins.  There is a group of three families - we all knew each other in Hawaii.  The Erwins + the Bucharts + the Burns = the Burchwins.  We get together when we can for Burchwin events/reunions.

2nd Week of July

I'm trying to remember all the things we did this week.  This week is a bit of a blur.  I already posted about our TH ghost town trip and I already posted about Monday's trip to Parker Lake.

Other really fun things this week:

Tuesday night we went to watch the Salt Lake Bees take on the Tucson Padres.  We really went for the fireworks.  Michael got us great seats near the Bees dug out - 3rd row.  The boys were bummed that the Bees mascot didn't come too. That's Jason Adamson on the other side of Michael.  He's down here for a training as well.

Wednesday for the 4th we had a BBQ and went swimming at one of Michael's classmates that is from Logan. He and his family are renting a place in town that has a nice pool and hot tube and outdoor grill.  There were about 10 of us.  It started to rain - but that didn't stop my boys from swimming. We spent the afternoon playing games and watching library movies.  The favorite was "That Darn Cat". Yep the old one from the library.  My boys are watching Herbie movies as I write this. We are discovering the joys of the movies from my childhood.

Thursday was the Ghosttown tour.

Friday we spent all day running around trying to change our ID's - Timon is 10 now and needs an ID; but as we are realizing that with all things military it took way too much work.  They had Michael's rank wrong in the computer and I have to come back with his commissioning letter.  In the middle of all that we have been working on Timon's Weblos requirements.  We worked on the artist ones at the ceramic shop.

Friday night Ty finished his swimming requirements for Weblos.  He even "rescued" Duncan.  He is very proud about it. Now he's starting to work on his athlete requirements.

Saturday we went the Saguaro Harvest Festival at a nearby state park.  Apparently they harvested the fruit a couple of weeks ago - but they were making syrup and had lots of kids activities. From wikipedia: The ruby red fruit ripen in June. Each fruit contains around 2000 seeds plus sweet fleshy connective tissue. The fruits are highly edible and prized by local people. The O'odham tribes have a long and rich history of saguaro fruit use.^[3] The Tohono O’odham tribes celebrate the beginning of their summer growing season with a ceremony using a fermented drink made from the bright red fruit to summon rains, vital for the crops.

Here is a guy making arrow heads

 we are coloring native american pot pictures

 For some reason they have a fun house mirror from the world fair - ???

 Making stick calendars

 Creating paintbrushes out of Yuka

 Grinding meal

 Holding a snake

Since we were close to Tucson. We headed over to the Titan Missile Museum.  It was really cool.  But my kids were pretty spent and made it very difficult to concentrate on what they were saying.  I recommend it without kids. 

 It's hard to see but Ty is standing by the pale green and black door which is wider than he is.

 Command Central

Since the kids were done - we just drove by the mission San Xavier on the Tohono O'odham Indian reservation, it's the oldest European Building in Arizona. The current church dates from the late 1700's, when Southern Arizona was part of New Spain. In 1783, Franciscan missionary Fr. Juan Bautista Velderrain was able to begin construction on the present structure using money borrowed from a Sonoran rancher. He hired an architect, Ignacio Gaona, and a large workforce of O'odham to create the present church.

Following Mexican independence in 1821, San Xavier became part of Mexico. The last resident Franciscan of the 19th Century departed in 1837. With the Gadsden Purchase of 1854, the Mission joined the United States. In 1859 San Xavier became part of the Diocese of Santa Fe. In 1866 Tucson became an incipient diocese and regular services were held at the Mission once again. Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet opened a school at the Mission in 1872. Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity now teach at the school and reside in the convent.

The Franciscans returned to the Mission in 1913. Recently, Mission San Xavier became a seperate nonprofit entity.

Ghost Town Tours

Michael was in charge of the adventure on TH on his day off.

This sign is a pretty good hint at what we spent our day doing.

We started just out of town at Brunckow's Cabin.  The bloodiest cabin in Arizona history.  Bronckow, a German immigrant and employee of a regional mining company, established a claim in the late 1850's  just south of what would later become Tombstone. Allegedly Mexican laborers working the mine attacked the crew. Just over 20 years since the slaughter of Brunkckow and his companions, an additional seventeen men met their fates on the property.  Today it is said to be haunted.

or at least visited by these good looking guys

and the mine.

Didn't realize when in said animals next 7 miles that we were probably on somebody's ranch.

Then we saw this sign - had to take a picture

Then we saw this one and knew we had to stop by.

rattlesnake headband anyone?  Should've got it - I'd have won the white elephant party this year.

For April, our fav. photographer.

In honor of the drink Michael keeps giving up.

Back on the trail - we found the 1910 Jail in Gleeson, AZ.  Gleeson and the hills at the southern end of the Dragoon Mountains had long been mined by the Indians for turquoise.  White men came in the 1870's and found copper, lead, and silver. Gleeson changed the name from Turquoise to Gleeson.  He sold out in 1914, but it continued to provide copper until after WWI when prices fell.

and its wagon outside

what's left of the school - guess not much has changed = we spend more money on our prisons than on our schools.

I think this is Courtland, AZ - it is the only community on the Ghost Town Trail that is completely deserted.  It has only spase remnants.

another well built jail.

Last stop: Pearce, AZ and it's famous cemetary.  It's named for Jimmie Pearce, he and his wife saved up and bourhg a piece of the great outdoors.  One day he found free gold on the side of hill.  The town grew at the base of his mine.  He sold the Commonwealth for $250,000.  His wife remembering harder times included a clause that allowed her to run a boarding house until 1930. There is still a mercantile - it's for sale if anyone is interested.

The reason for the soldiers buried here is because this was the Middlemarch Road, a trail across the Dragoon Mountains taken by soldiers trekking between Fort Bowie and Fort Huachuca in the 1870's and 80's.