Adventures in the Sun and Snow

Second weekend was all about the great outdoors. Gavin had a sleepover with his grandparents, and D and I headed north to Flagstaff to grab one last quick day on the slopes before the season wraps up and the snow disappears. It was actually a lot better than I thought it would be! The snow was a bit hard, and Snowbowl isn't the grandest of ski resorts, but the sun was out, and it wasn't very crowded considering it's spring break. We fit in a good amount of runs with our friend G (as in G from DBD not Baby G) and had a midday beer break with some pals. Dylan caught some footage on the GoPro, including my first fall in skis in about a decade. I don't even know what happened...I was barely moving, and then I was on my butt. Haha. The rest of the video is Dylan and G hauling butt down the mountain, leaving me in their snowdust. No friends on a bluebird day...I know the rule. We headed off the mountain shortly before the lifts closed and went back home to grab our Baby G before his bedtime.

Two hours to snow!

Balloons in Cave Creek on the way to Flagstaff

Our Wednesday began at swim school. Gavin is doing great in the water! He doesn't mind flipping to his back or being dunked. Next, we met our friend Ali at the Gateway Trailhead, and then Dylan drove us to the Tom's Thumb Trailhead on his way home. We hiked the 7.5 miles through the McDowells and back to our cars in about 3 hours. Ever since we hiked Tom's Thumb in January, we had hoped to do the trailhead-to-trailhead hike, and then we finally had the same week day off to do it. It was actually a little overcast and not nearly as hot as I thought it would be.

G's new flops that Nonna and Papa brought him back from Maui

Thumb's up!

Possibly getting a drink. {Gross.}

King of the mountain!

Picking the few flowers that remain.

Scowl.

The weather forecast tells me our outdoor activities may be wrapping up here a little sooner than expected. Ugh, summer. I shudder at the thought. Even Gavin goes immediately to the door to the backyard as soon as we get home and yells "SIDE!" for "outside." All he wants to do is play in the fountain, mosey around the yard, and pick flowers. What will we do when we're confined to the indoors? I am, however, rather pleased with the number of days I was able to saddle up on my bike or put snow under my skis this winter, and I can be thankful we weren't buried under snow for months like the eastern 2/3 of our country. Spring is a beautiful time of year, and I'm hoping we can hang onto it for a few more weeks...