Riders in Arizona

Hubby and I saw these riders right before Oatman, AZ last weekend. We had stopped to take a photo of the volcanic chute and ruins nearby. We enjoyed our trip to Arizona last weekend. Fortunately, this weekend I have a 4 day break from school, so I'll have lots of horse time!

A helper!

I was very pleased that our son, Hal, wanted to bring his son up to see the horses. Hal even offered to feed the horses, so I let him. It was also good for them to interact with somebody besides me and Cathy, the ranch owner! An extra set of hands is always welcome up at the ranch!!!

Oak Creek Canyon, AZ

Hubby and I headed over to Flagstaff from Kingman, AZ on Saturday. He wanted to see if any of the aspen outside of town still had any color on them. Nope...pretty much gone! We did drive out to Sunset Crater and there were a few aspen there still with colorful leaves. Then he suggested that we drive down Oak Creek Canyon. BINGO! Wow! The canyon was alive with all kinds of trees and yellow leaves! Some trees even had orange and red leaves, although they were few and far between. We spent over 2 hours in the canyon looking at all its beauty! If you ever want to visit this canyon, fall is the time to do so!

Burros, burros everywhere!!!

Hubby and I took a day off work Friday and drove over to Arizona for the weekend. We both needed a break from our jobs and stress! We drove up through Parker and then to Oatman, where burros wander the town freely! In fact, there's a place where you can buy "burro food" (alfalfa cubes) and the vendor has two large tubs of fresh water for the town's burros! They can be quite pushy, as you can see from the photos! One even joined the locals in their conversation on a storefront porch! Another few of them mobbed some guy who was trying to get into his car. It was fun watching them and there were several babies, including one who fell asleep right off the main street in town! Just "poof" and she was sound asleep! We enjoyed our short stop in Oatman and tomorrow we drive to Flagstaff.

Afternoon light

There's something almost magical about afternoon light, especially up in the mountains, as it filters through the pine trees.

Hal, Quad, and Sunni

Our son, Hal, is the younger of our two grown children. Our grandson, Ben, is his son. Hal has always loved animals and Sunni has always doted on Hal! I'm not sure if it is because Sunni recognizes Hal as my son? Does anybody have an idea about that? But, Sunni has always been very patient and gentle with him. He's checking out Hal's back pocket in the middle photo! Sunni was very eager and curious to see Hal and Ben! It was interesting to watch the horses' reactions to little Ben and Hal. I'm glad they were able to see the horses as it gave them all a little "mental" exercise and got them used to other people touching and petting them.

Ben's visit with the horses!

We had dinner Sunday night with our son and daughter and their families. Our son mentioned that little Ben (our grandson) would LOVE to go see the horses and since our son was off work yesterday, could we all go up on Monday afternoon? Well, golly gee, of course!!! So, I raced home from school and we packed the little guy into my car and waited for his mom to get off work and off we went! I LOVE travelling up to the mountains in the afternoons, but I rarely have a chance to do so, so I was looking forward to the trip. We immediately noticed the difference in the temps! It was 90 degrees down in the desert, but only in the 70's up at the ranch. I'll be posting pics of our visit for the rest of the week! Here are some from yesterday. It was interesting to watch the horses. They were ALL curious about the little human! Quad was very calm around him, but he's always a good boy!