Cool Pines!

Tim and I had a crazy 4th of July week. Tim was working like mad! He only had that Monday before off for the holiday, so by the end of his work week we were both pretty burnt out! I tried to get him to call in sick on Sunday, justifying that he really was sick ... sick of work! No such luck. Monday finally came to bring some relief. We woke up and were wondering what we should do for our weekend? There isn't much to do around here (but clean house) so I asked Tim if he would feel up to going to Pinetop? We thought it would be fun to see his family. They miss Abbey up there a lot! Plus it would be a lot cooler, literally! Later that afternoon we started up the canyon. I always like driving with Tim. We get to talk with one another seeing that there is no TV to watch. Driving up to Pinetop is partly to blame for making us fall in love (that was our second date!). I also enjoy seeing if anything has changed in Show Low all the way up to Pinetop. It's easy to pick them out since there isn't much change (and we always guess what the buildings will be... usually some parts store). There are a lot of memories in the mountains for both Tim and me. In fact on our way home I made the point that even though Tim's family is living there, my heritage is just as strong and maybe even before his up in the mountains! (his family is originally from St. David) Once we arrived it was fun to surprise Tricia at the door, they had no idea we were on our way up. Abbey had lots of fun being showered with attention and playing outside. That evening we went to dinner at a Chinese Buffet and took a walk around Woodland Lake after. That for me was the highlight of the trip. The sun was going down so it was nice and cool. Our bellies were full and we were just enjoying being outside with family. We got to see people with dogs, bunnies in the brush, ducks in the lake and to my surprise a family of horses that were loose and turned wild! That was cool to see them walking around with their little babies, relaxed and grazing. Plus we went to the park to let Abbey and Bode play. They both had so much fun going on the slide and swings. Abbey really has gotten the hang of walking up the stairs by herself and going down the slide! Bode isn't far behind Abbey. He was trying his best to keep up and did a pretty good job too. When we decided to head back to the house, Abbey protested. She was having too much fun outside, but it was getting dark! On Tuesday we took it easy. Tim let me sleep in... I have a head cold from allergies. And later we took a drive around the back roads. We took David and Tricia to lunch at El Rancho (that was always one my families favorites). It's funny how everywhere you go there is always someone there you know. The night before we saw Uncle Darwin at the Chinese place. David and Tricia knew a lady with her daughter, who was in love with Tim back in the day, at El Rancho! That was a fun story to hear on the way home! After lunch we headed home, back to the heat. It was a nice get away. We hopefully will be doing those more often. Tim was a little depressed to have to go back to work on Wednesday. Sometimes weekends just aren't long enough! We're looking forward to our two week vacation in August, hopefully we will be begging to get back to the normal day to day routine (probably not).