Arizona Family Reunion

Holy Cow....I'm WAY late on this blog.....almost a month late.....lol But oh well. The story hasn't changed so it will be alright. :)
Anywho....4th of July weekend Warren and I flew to Arizona for his family reunion. It was really nice to see his family. They're such nice people and so caring. Sadly though not everyone could make it. Two of Warren's brothers who also live in Oregon couldn't make it and one brother from Utah couldn't make it. But thankfully we still got to see a bunch of the family. :)
The first day there I was actually a lil disappointed in the weather. I was expecting to get some good sun and it actually rained and wasn't much warmer than Oregon! Crazy! lol But it wasn't terrible and we spent some good quality family time with some craft activities. The first activity was for the men in the family and they had to make two different objects out of just newspaper and duct tape and the women had to judge them on how creative their object was and how recognizable their object was. Also, as you will see from the upcoming photos they also had to make a hat out of just aluminum foil and whoever did the best got a prize. I was proud to say that Warren got 2nd place! lol Not too shabby! :)

Man....he is such a goof! Lol But he made me laugh. :)

In this next photo, from the left to the right is War's brother-in-laws Randi and Kevin, his Dad Marshall, his brother Chantry (the winner of the hat contest), Wars other brother Brian and then of course Warren himself. (this group of guys are hilarious! )
Warren's group made the fishing boat, with it's accessories an oar and a fish, and yep. Proud to say his group won! Boo-yah!!! lol
The rest of that day was spent hiking at Cottonwood Wash, a place where water will run if it ever rains in Arizona.....lol but it was all dried out for our hike. :) I was just hoping we wouldn't have a flash flood while we were stuck in the middle of it. haha Of course since I'm not real used to taking pics still, I forgot to bring the camera......ugh.....there were some cool things there too!!! GAH!! At one point Warren and I went off hiking by ourselves and it was in Cougar country....I kept telling Warren not to turn his back and to stay close to me and to make lots of noise as we were walking along to hopefully scare any Cougars away....lol I bet we sounded like idiots to everyone else......haha But just as we were getting into the hiking mode, poor Warren was picking up cool rocks and totally stabbed his thumb on a lil cactus that was hiding under the rock......those things are like porcupine quills! They're hard to get out and they hurt!! Let's just say that ended our lil hiking adventure.......Speaking of cactus's, here was a cool looking one we found by his parent's house. Cool flowers on it.

That night when we got back from the hiking, Warren's oldest brother Brian offered to take War and I spotlighting (yes without guns...just a spotlight) cuz Warren and I had never done that before and we wanted to see some elk since we were in elk country! lol Man oh man did we get lucky! Brian said he had never had such good luck before! We saw at least 8 elk in like 2 hours time! And the last group we saw actually ran right along the road we were on like 10 yards away from us and it was really really neat. Up close and personal! lol We were so close we could see the velvet on the Bull's antlers!!! Neat!!! And no I don't think a picture would have turned out of that...just had to be there. :)
On the 4th of July we went to a massive rodeo. And I mean massive! Thousands and thousands of people there! WAY too crowded! But it was fun! Of course the bull riding is always my favorite and is always the most exciting for me, but this time was a first for me because one of the clowns actually got hurt. I've never seen one get hurt before! I mean I've seen em get knocked down before, but this clown actually got his leg broken.....crazy..... Then they played fireworks afterward of course and it was a good show! :) I was amazed at how a bunch of the rodeo horse riders were actually riding their horses around in the arena during the fireworks show! Too crazy! lol If I ever tried that on either one of the horses I used to own I would have been dead! lol They would have freaked! Those rodeo horses are used to everything I guess.....I guess if you're used to being close to a huge ass pissed off bull, then fireworks would be nothing to ya.....lol
But anywho.....it was a fun trip. Arizona is a purty place in it's own way. Too hot for my liking, but still pretty. :) Here are some photos from around Warren's parent's house. Wish us luck for next year because we are in charge of organizing it!!!!!!!!! AH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!