Mt. Graham

After Lake Powell, we unhooked the boat, reloaded the suburban, hooked up the jeep and headed for the mountain - Mt. Graham that is. Every summer we spend some time at Michelle's grandmother's cabin in Columbine on Mt. Graham. The cabin sits at 9400 ft in elevation and is refreshingly cool after the monsoon heat. Lindsay and Boyd were able to join us for a couple of days, and Collin Porter came along too.



Here is a shot at the end of the trip to show off the new paint on the cabin. Michelle's cousin Valarie and her family had done most of the painting. We decided they chose green because they are the Greens! We did some finish painting on the balconies. It is quite a change from the natural wood color.

Luna decided she was a human on this trip. It was her first road trip, and luckily she did well. She loved holding her head out the window for the ride up the mountain. Michelle put Luna in her harness and kept a good hold on her. We also made the whole week without Luna meeting up with a skunk - Whew...

Here is the group at Webb Tower. It is a nice hike from Columbine. A climb to the top of the tower rewards hikers with a view of the Gila Valley. Webb Peak is at an elevation of 10,000 feet, and apparently just right for lady bugs. Lots and lots of lady bugs.

Here is a shot of everybody (including Luna) touching the benchmark at Webb Peak. Collin gathered a handful of lady bugs and sprinkled them around for the picture.

The jeep made the trip again. Here is the crew heading out for a ride to the Bible camp to ring the bell. It's a fun jeep ride.

On Tuesday, Boyd and Lindsay had left. Dan and the boys decided to take a quick jeep ride to "the rocks" to do some climbing. They had barely started their climb when a storm moved in, and lightning ended their fun. Rain hit before they could make it back to the cabin. Michelle met them on the porch with towels - they were drenched. They were grateful to make it back in the rain; soon the hail started. There was so much hail, the ground was covered and looked like snow. The lightning was popping all around us, and even struck a tree near one of the other cabins. There is nothing like a thunderstorm at the cabin!

The swinging tree is always a mainstay activity at the cabin. Here are a few shots of the fun.

Bryce making silly faces for the camera.

Now it's Adam's turn to make a crazy face.

Luna continuing with her "human" side. Given the opportunity, she would jump up on our bed and settle in for the night - something she never does at home. She was pretty sad when she was sent to her crate to sleep.

The boys spent time playing Nintendo DS upstairs. They were supposed to only play them if it rained - but they would sneak in some extra time too.

We played Uno, Monopoly (the only place you have enough time to play it to the finish), Parcheesi, Apples to Apples, and built a puzzle. All these were accompanied by hot chocolate and marshmallows. Bryce and Collin even took on the challenge of climbing several pine trees - not any easy task.

With the temperature averaging 65, it was a cool respite for a week.