An Unexpected Early Sunrise

 Two days two blogs, maybe what my Inuit friends are saying is true. The earth has shifted.

After Brenda's trip home to deal with her brother Brent's passing she was back down here getting ready for Christmas. She always like to do a lot of baking to get ready for the season, so that means I have to get out my tasting hat to make sure it is all OK to serve to company. As usual everything passed the taste tests and if company hurries there might even be some left to serve to them.

This is a big Christmas for us as early Christmas morning Santa is delivering our presents to the Sky Harbor airport in the form of our granddaughters Ella and Alle, oh yeah, and their parents too.

Ella, Alle and mom, Lacey along with Claytons legs

The weather was a little cooler than I was hoping for their visit but these are tough Canadian girls and were running around in sun dresses and shorts for most of the week while everyone around them was bundled up in their winter gear.

On Boxing Day or the day after Christmas for our American friends we just chilled at home. Ken and Verna Pohl came over in the afternoon with their wagon and Ben and Beauty and took the grandkids and I for a ride around the neighbourhood. The kids loved the big horses and enjoyed the ride.

I hadn't packed a helmet for the girls so riding the horses here at Dogpound South was going to be a non-starter, but luckily Santa Claus got that covered. They were sure happy with their upgrade as back home in the North Country they were wearing an old motorcycle helmet and this is definitely a more styling look.
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Gotta a little growing to do to fit those stirrups

 The day after Boxing Day we headed out to Goldfields for a little dancing and a look around.

That blurry look is natural for these girls, they never slow down.

Goldfields townsite

 The kids enjoyed the gunfight with the little one clapping enthusiastically when the shots were fired and the gunfighters were falling down. We even ventured out on the train ride, rumour had it that the local " Canadian Rubber Band Bandits" were out in the hills so it would be a safe journey. In fact those same rumours said a local hero was going to try to lead them out into the Superstitions and lose them in the dark out there so they would never again harass the peaceful citizens of Goldfields.

Keeping an eye out for bandits

The rest of the week was filled with eating out and hanging out at Dogpound South. I for one sure enjoyed the kids visit and marvelled daily at the amount of energy they had. They were up with the sun and went steady till long after it set.

This little fellow was watching the activities all fluffed up from the cold.

Meanwhile these Canadian girls had captured the ice cream truck for some treats

And a little tomfoolery

Sisters

 

They love our dirt

Walking the tightrope

Burning off some energy and helping Grandma get the dog hair off the beds and into the house.

But even the best holidays have a little computer work involved

Sadly New Years Eve I had to run them back into Phoenix to catch a plane home, and no matter how I tried I couldn't talk them into staying with us and letting their folks go home alone.

We haven't been doing much trail riding as Brenda's knee is still pretty painful. She has worked hard to get the flexibility that she needs back and has been successful at that, but the swelling just won't seem to go away so it is still difficult to build up the strength she needs to ride and control her horse properly.

And probably a good thing as over the last month or so both Blue and Willow have been on the injured reserve list so Brenda's Wink horse is our only sound mount right at the moment.

Back to the title of this entry. My Inuvialuit friends up Inuvik way tell me that the sun rose on January 4th this year. Doesn't sound all that odd to most southerners but as long as I can remember and that is a long, long time, I am sad to say, the sun has always risen on January 6th, after a month of no sun at all. In the summer though they get 56 days when the sun never sets at all so it seems a fair trade I guess. Kind of makes you wonder if this old earth is really spinning out of control or what.

Exciting Times

Thursday last week was an exciting day here at Dogpound South. Late in the evening Miss Ella and Alle Kitten along with their parents Clayton and Lacey arrived for a short visit. Ella started things off with a bang running through the crowds at the airport to jump into her Gramma’s arms.

She was pretty excited to be in Arizona but I think she was more excited to have been on an airplane for the first time, her little sister was more reserved, after all she had begun her flying career at a mere 3 hours of age, so this flying thing was old hat to her.

Friday we had plans to chill and then head down Tombstone way on Saturday but reality reared its head and we figured 6 hours of driving might be too much for the kids so we changed the plan and headed over to the Mesa Market on Friday for a look around. It seemed like the same folks were in the same places they were last time we were there, some selling and others buying. The clientele is pretty mature in this area so the kids were a bit of an oddity although there were a couple of other little ones, obviously also visiting their grandparents. You can tell the ghostly white skin of a northerner who hasn’t seen the sun since September. The rest of us are tanned and wrinkled like old leather.

Once we toured a bit of the market we headed back down the road to Dogpound South and just enjoyed the rest of the day in the sunshine.

Mom and Dad enjoying some of that cheap American beer and Ella playing with some of Gramma’s dirt.

Although we have had cool weather for a large part of this early winter the sun came out and we enjoyed mid 70F (24-26C) weather for the entire time the kids were here.

Saturday we loaded up in our borrowed van (thanks Mike and Kathy) and headed over to our neighbours pool (thanks Mike and Kathy) for a swim. Ella is a real little water bug and spent the best part of the afternoon in the pool. I was in there for about three hours myself as everytime I would go to get out I was met with “No Grandpa” and who could resist that little person wanting to play for just a little longer.

It was another beautiful day and the weather was just great for playing in the pool, although without my usual long sleeves and hat I did manage to get a little more sun than usual for me.

Sunday we loafed around in the morning and then headed up to the TACC arena for their 5D barrel race just after lunch. Lacey had a friend who was racing her horse there so we enjoyed hanging out there and Ella managed to convince Taylor to take her for a spin on “G” while she was there.

She had a great time helping me feed our own horses and making numerous trips out into the turnout to make sure they were all well petted.

After we got done with the horse stuff it was time to head off to the pool again for another swim. (thanks Mike and Kathy)

Then home for a rest on Meg’s bed while enjoying another great warm sunny day.

Sunday night we had a BBQ and Lacey’s friend, Sue and her husband Gregg, came over and joined us for dinner and some time spent around the campfire.

Monday was sadly a going home kind of day so once everything was all packed up we headed off to Sky Harbor to drop off our precious cargo and start them on their journey home to the land just north of summer. When we got home we found this reminder on the cement of our deck and it would probably be there when we sold the place if it weren’t for the wind and rain that will surely wash it off.

Thanks for coming for a visit kids and we can hardly wait until you return down the road to Dogpound South.