Slide Rock

My sister, her godson, and my niece and nephew are visiting this weekend, so Friday we went to Slide Rock State Park and Sedona. Pauly(our nephew), who is 17, wanted to jump off the cliff on the right. If you look closely, you can see a person sitting where we jumped from just to the left of the tree in that little patch of sunlight. Yes, I said WE. Pauly and I jumped from up there! I had no plans to jump when I went up there with him, but hey, life is short man. I have to say, it really was not that much fun, but it was quite an adrenaline rush.

The Girls

The chickens are officially "free range" now. They stay in the coop at night for safety reasons, and then roam around the yard during the day. They always travel in a pack(brood?), and if one gets separated, she makes a certain noise. I've had to go to the rescue more than a couple times:)
Usually in the afternoon, they hang out in front of the house, and peek in sometimes. I think they would like to come in, but they poop WAY too much for that. It's like a little mine field out there. Fortunately, the poop dries up pretty quickly, and I can sweep it into the grass. Good fertilizer.
They're pretty funny animals. One of them started crowing like a rooster(sort of), once in awhile. They are probably vying for dominance now.
They will come to me when I call them, because I usually have treats for them. One of their favs is the inside of peppers, but they also enjoy bread of any kind, apple cores, melon peels, almost anything.

sunset by the pool

On Sunday, we spent a good deal of the day in the pool. Had lunch and dinner outside. A couple neighbor kids came over after dinner for a swim. I still have to pinch myself sometimes.

Boys' View of Jerome

I sent the boys onto the streets of Jerome while I did my four hour shift at the Coop last Saturday. I figured the camera would keep them occupied. I like getting a little glimpse of how they see things :) Looks like they found a rock they liked in the above photo.

Always a ton of motorcycles in Jerome. I still haven't ridden up there yet. One of these days...

I thinke they were window shopping for awhile.

Their first stop was the candy store. they waited outside for it to open. mmmmm

What happened here? I'm not seeing a picture, but it may show up when I publish the post.

When I got my camera back, there was a huge sticky mark on the lens. you can kind of see it just to the left of Max's face. can you see his earring? I pierced his ear a few weeks ago.

I think this was their fave, aside from the candy store.

I'm collecting pictures of bark, so Doug got a few for me. thoughtful boy!

These are made by a local artist. He takes bottles and turns them into glasses. We've saved some cool bottles for him to transform for us.

In Jerome, there is a little vacant lot where artists set up tables, sell stuff, and do demos sometimes. This work is made by a guy who lampworks glass.

When they were finished exploring the streets, they came back to the Coop and kept us company.

weeds

I thought this was a native plant(weed) growing in a little spot next to the house, but when I noticed the buds, I figured I'd wait and see what it turned into. Not bad. Pretty sure it's a Hibiscus, probaby close to seven feet tall now. Lots of smaller plants around it, and tons more buds. I'm glad I didn't yank it.

Life is...

This bowl of cherries was all we got this year off of our little cherry tree. I didn't even know we had a cherry tree, so what a nice treat! They weren't quite ripe, but tasty nonetheless. Next up should be apricots.

zoo

Since we're on summer break, the question of the day is: "What should we do today?" If Max had it his way, we would go shopping every day, but we have to balance things out, right? Last week, we went to the Zoo in Prescott, then shopping. It's pretty small as zoos go, but it was nice and laid back, the way I like it!

I gave Doug the camera for the day. At first it was set on manual focus, so most of the pics were deleted. My bad. We enjoyed the Peacocks roaming around, like at the Milwaukee Zoo.

This was the view from the zoo parking lot. I don't know what the name of the lake is, but we will find out, and get a little beach time in! Not quite the same as Lake Michigan, but it will do.