Arizona turns 100 years old today. I love living here. I grew up in northern Arizona - I have good memories of Winslow. I've been in Phoenix much much longer than I ever lived in Winslow though. I love this city. I LOVE ARIZONA!!! Happy Birthday!
Last Friday, Suzanne planned a hiking day in Aravaipa Canyon. She and I have been there several times before, but not so early in the year. We were a bit worried as we arrived at the canyon before 9 am and the air was a bit cold. This hike requires a lot of walking through the water, the trail criss-crosses the creek as it winds through the canyon. We were worried it would be too cold as we got wet. It was quite cold on our feet on the first pass, and I thought we would need to shorten our planned hike because of the discomfort, but as the day progressed, it warmed up and was quite pleasant. We have seen quite a bit of wildlife on previous hikes and much more greenery. I missed the green in the canyon that is so brilliant later in the spring. We hiked 2 hours in and had a picnic lunch, then hiked 2 hours out. The only problem is that we had a few spills. Suzanne's foot slid out from under her literally 2 steps into our hike. That's a bad omen for the day. Her niece Keegan took a spill in the water that knocked her onto her knees as her foot hit a rock wrong. Sadly, the worst fall was me. I stepped into the water to cross on the rocky creek bed, but my foot hit some slick mud under the water instead of rocks. As my foot was slipping, I tried to steady myself with my other foot which also slipped on the mud and I went completely onto my back into the water. Had it been in May, I would have welcomed the cool water soaking my clothes, but the day's temperatures disagreed with swimming. After I got up, I had to find a spot to get back in the water to wash off the mud. 
It was fun to see the runners - there were groups with wigs, costumes, tutus and even one gal wearing a wedding dress.
As the run progresses, there are stations of colored chalk tossed at the runners. Here is a before and after picture of the girls:
At the end of the race, every runner was given another bag of chalk. Then they all gathered and tossed the colors at the same time. There were 6000 runners so there was A LOT of color being tossed around. I had places to go after this event. I was afraid I'd have a blob of pink in my hair for the rest of the day. I was kind of amazed that I got out of there with only a spot of color on my elbows as I brushed by people in the crowd, and a dusting of color along the hem of my pants. I'm not sure how these thousands of people got in their cars to go home.
The run was a breeze for Roxanne, but now I think she if a fan of the charitable "fun runs". There were flyers being handed out for mud runs, obstacle runs, night runs etc. Keep running Roxanne - I'll be your #1fan! 
There was some yummy food, and some adventurous eating.
They ran across Moroni.
