A few months ago, my brother sent me a link to an article and video in the news about a friend of ours from high school, Gene Hancock, being involved in restoring and renovating a pioneer site near Winslow AZ. It was part of the first LDS communities settled in Arizona in the 1870's. Here's the link .
Then this week, a friend in our ward stopped by to ask me to help with some lettering on a saddle banner for an event he was participating in. (Our stake was organized in 1954. It seems so young compared to the first stake in the state - 1878. That's 34 years before Arizona was even a state! )
Anyway, as we were talking about it, I started to realize this was connected to the same project in Winslow. He was traveling up to the Leupp/Winslow area to participate in the 25 mile memorial ride to the Brigham City Fort. There were representatives from about 80 stakes around the state, a fireside, a barbeque, artifacts, memorabilia, children in pioneer costumes and a play specially written for this event and performed the previous evenings. Not only was there a big 25 mile ride, but a large group of young men from the Winslow and Holbrook areas rode 150 miles over 6 days or so along the original pioneer trail from Lee's Ferry.
Anyway, as we were talking about it, I started to realize this was connected to the same project in Winslow. He was traveling up to the Leupp/Winslow area to participate in the 25 mile memorial ride to the Brigham City Fort. There were representatives from about 80 stakes around the state, a fireside, a barbeque, artifacts, memorabilia, children in pioneer costumes and a play specially written for this event and performed the previous evenings. Not only was there a big 25 mile ride, but a large group of young men from the Winslow and Holbrook areas rode 150 miles over 6 days or so along the original pioneer trail from Lee's Ferry. There was a similar event way back in 1976, the nation's bicentennial year. I remember my dad and brothers participating. Now this event also celebrates the 100th birthday of our state.
This article was in the Church News last week, but somehow I missed it. I hope there will be more articles with photos now that the event has taken place.
I wish I had been aware of the project earlier. I would have enjoyed attending some of the festivities. I have fond memories of Winslow and wish we still had some family connections there or more reasons or opportunities to go visit. (yes, Terri, I know I need to come visit you more often!)
We prepared our home for their visit. This beautiful young girl, Rocio, stayed with us. But as it turned out (and we should have known) they were so busy the whole time they were in town we hardly saw them at all. The group went to a spring training baseball game, shopping at Scottsdale Fashion Square, a day trip to Sedona for hiking and shopping, a slumber party at one of the girl's homes, out to lunch, a half day at school, a prom fashion show, etc etc. 
Our destination was Idyllwild, California. I think it's a new favorite vacation spot. A couple years ago we drove through randomly on another road trip when Dave was wanting to get off the I-10. We were driving in the ridiculous July heat, and drove up into the mountains just south of Palm Springs and found ourselves in a cool forest wonderland! We decided we had to go back and stay sometime. Dave gave me a weekend getaway for my birthday last fall and it has taken 6 months to find a few free days to go. We were at 2200 feet elevation on the desert floor . . . 
Then 24 miles later, we are at 5560 feet in elevation and looking at this out our cabin window:
It was about 20+ degrees cooler and we were in the snow! We enjoyed a fire in the fireplace every evening. It was fabulous.
Dave seems to check out the fire protection systems everywhere he goes. He wasn't sure about this little baby sized fire hydrant.
I called a few days before we left to ask someone about some hiking trails. I was told there were plenty of hiking trails, but there was also 10" of snow that just recently dropped on the mountain. We did end up finding a little 2 or 3 mile hike down in some lower elevations where it wasn't too icy. Actually it was just perfect. 
Dave is such a gentleman to hold up falling trees for me to safely pass.
We liked it so much, we even found a realtor to show us a cabin that was for sale. We can dream, can't we??
Melanie was sending some Valentine Conversation Hearts to her Tongan friend, but she realized they were in Spanish. However, she didn't know what all of them said and she was too lazy to go look up the phrases, so she started making up the translations for him: "I often like olives". 
"I love my fish tank. I'm kind of jealous of Kimbo's lifestyle." 
I asked Melanie to juice and freeze some lemons we had on the counter. This is what I found in the door of the freezer.
We tried to enjoy the wonderful centennial celebration of the birth of our great state of Arizona. But my niece burst my bubble with this comment: "I hate to trump this, but Columbus turned TWO hundred this week. And Ohio turned 100 like 109 years ago." 