Hiking on South Mountain

We tried to take full advantage of the nice spring weather before the hot hot summer hit. One day while my mom was visiting we took the kids for a hike up South Mountain. Okay, more along South Mountain. We hiked along the foothills, but it was still pretty impressive that my five-year-old hiked so well for a couple of miles.

We really have a new appreciation for cacti. The saguaros were just starting to bloom. I loved it!

Ellie pointed out a heart cactus and a really tall skinny one.

See how far we came! When we got to the top of the rise, which was our hiking goal, we saw some more... desert!!

I was glad we made it back okay. I was nervous we didn't take enough water. Very stupid mistake, as we live in AZ! You have to take a lot more water than you think!


The last two photos show our very hot, tired hiking buddies. Let's go home and go swimming! :)

From my journal:

At the beginning of April, my mom came to visit. It was a longer visit, and we stayed pretty busy doing fun things. The first two days were General Conference. What a blessing that is! There were a lot of talks about discipleship. We played a game with the kids which worked out surprisingly well. We had jars of candy with common church topics displayed. When they heard one of the words they could get a piece of candy out of the corresponding jar. It was fun! They (particularly Eliza) listened really well. Candy motivates. :)

That Monday we went on a really long walk with the kids on South Mountain. It was fun but there was a point that I was wondering if we had gone too far and would need some help getting back. It was fun to see the cactuses start to bloom.