A Pleasantly Wet Fourth Of July Weekend

Independence Day is sometimes a hard holiday to celebrate in Arizona. Usually, it's either too hot, or else the monsoon season has started and all the celebrations get rained out. Or it's a combination of both of those things, making early July a humid, sweltering mess. Nobody here seems all that excited by parades, picnics, or fireworks shows. Maybe it's the part of Arizona in which I live; maybe it's a statewide malaise. Either way, we usually have to make our own fun.

Luckily, that has gotten somewhat easier in the last two years, since Nathan's brother Ryan and his family have traveled to Arizona for the last couple of summers. This year, they made it in time to celebrate the Fourth of July with the family. However, Ryan and his wife Judy also like to golf...something Nathan and I aren't all that interested in. So we decided to spend the morning of the Fourth of July hiking as a family.

We hadn't been to Madera Canyon in a long time; we missed it! We had originally contemplated going up there for our new family pictures, but when our plans changed, we decided to pack a picnic lunch and spend the morning of the Fourth there. The weather was warm but overcast (hinting at the imminent beginning of the monsoon season); however, we managed to complete our hike without incident.

We hiked the Amphitheater Trail; it's just under two miles long and is nicely scenic without being too steep. It's my favorite of the hiking trails we've tried out in Madera Canyon so far. We'd attempted the trail with our kids once before, a couple of years ago, but their whining eventually carried the day and we had to turn back early on. This time, we made the kids muscle through it, and we walked the whole hike! What's more, we hiked into the canyon, which meant we were traveling uphill most of the way. The girls still complained a little bit, but we'd brought several water bottles to tide them over, and by the time we realized we were over halfway there, Nathan and I were verbally encouraging them loudly and often.

Despite the grumbling, the girls seemed pleased to have accomplished the whole thing; hopefully, that bodes well for our family trying more advanced hikes together in the future. Lorelai even walked back down the road with Daddy to pick up our van, which we'd left at the trailhead! We had a delicious picnic lunch, wandered around the canyon a bit more, and got rained on a little (the rain hit the canyon before the rest of the valley, but at that point, a little wetness was very refreshing!). We drove back home in the early afternoon and lounged around for a few hours.

After Nathan picked up some KFC for our dinner (for some reason, I always want to eat KFC every Fourth of July, and then will completely scorn that restaurant for the rest of the year), we met up with Ryan and Judy. It had rained a bit that afternoon, but luckily not enough to disrupt any of the larger fireworks shows happening that night. We headed for downtown Tucson; we were going to try something different for our firework viewing this year!

Nathan's company, the Pima Association of Governments, moved from their old offices in downtown Tucson to a brand-new building, also in downtown Tucson but now with a great view of "A" Mountain from its conference room. Since there are "A" Mountain fireworks almost every Fourth of July, we decided to try watching the fireworks in dark, plushy, air-conditioned comfort. We arrived a little early, so the kids got restless waiting around, but they were still happy to sit in the big comfy chairs.

The view, as Nathan had guessed, was very good...

We had a very nice angle from which to see the whole show. I'm not sure we'd try this every year, though...sitting inside, it was almost impossible to hear the "pops" and "booms" of the fireworks, and that made the show feel a little distant and hard to engage with. Plus, it took us almost an hour to drive home; darn you, crazy late-night traffic heading out of downtown! At least the kids got some sleep in the car...

Nathan and I, of course, weren't able to rest until 11 pm that night. UGH! Oh well, it was still a fun trip overall.

The next morning we had to get up and get moving; Nathan had to fill up the baptismal font for our friend Sophie's baptism (Sophie's mother Rita is a friend of mine and served in the Primary presidency with me last year). It was very nice to attend her baptism, even if we were a bit tired from the night before. Immediately after the baptism was over, we rushed home, changed, and headed for the park to meet cousin Cameron again! The kids played outside for as long as was bearable (which wasn't too long; it was muggy and gross outside!), and then we all headed over to the local frozen yogurt shop for a small treat to cool off. After that, the kids bid Cameron farewell until the next day, when he would be coming over for a large family dinner.

After a lazy afternoon and a dinner at BrushFire Barbecue in Tucson (yummy, but not as good as Rudy's BBQ in Chandler), we went to the same place we visited last July 5th--Trail Dust Town, the Old West-style entertainment center in Tucson! Who knows...maybe we will go there every July 5th from now on!

We had fun riding the mini railroad train, just as we'd done on our last visit. Unfortunately, the other carnival rides were closed that night, due to the rain that never fully let up while we were there. The kids were disappointed, but there was nothing we could do about it. At least the gold panning was open for business!

This gold panning activity hadn't been opened on our last visit, and the girls mostly enjoyed it. Any gold "flecks" (pyrite, of course) they managed to extract from the stream were theirs to keep, and they each received a glass vial with a cork stopper in which to store their riches.

Celeste & Aurora got bored after just a few minutes, but Lorelai actually stayed at that stream for quite a while (probably because she knew there wasn't much else to do at Trail Dust Town that night?). She managed to fill her vial more than halfway full with "gold," thus gaining the jealousy of her sisters. (By the way, we have done several of these "gold-panning" activities at a variety of museums in three states, and I have to say that Trail Dust Town had the biggest "gold flecks" of any of the other locations! Congratulations Trail Dust Town, here's your No Prize.)

Thankfully, the rain didn't stop the Wild West Stunt Show from happening! However, we did get nice and wet watching it.

The girls love these shows (although the "gunfire" does make them jump a bit), and the actors clearly are having a lot of fun as well. The only hiccup in the performance was that a stick of "dynamite" failed to ignite because it was too wet from the rain. The actor shouted something about "using our imaginations," and all was forgiven. It was still great fun.

After our busy Friday & Saturday, we hoped for a little downtime on Sunday. We didn't get much, but we still had a nice time at church, and having a nice lunch with family afterwards. Ryan, Judy, and Cameron came over, as did Grandma & Grandpa Barrett. Everyone ate grilled hamburgers & hot dogs, goofed off, and visited for a few hours before it was time for Ryan & Judy to head back to Colorado.

 

Just after our family left, some good friends came to visit; the Ransoms and Brad Perry, all of whom we've known for many years now. Sadly, it was to be Gavin's last week in Arizona before he went to start his new job in Utah, so we had them stay a little while for dessert & games. It was great to see them all together; I snapped this shot of Nathan and two of his best buddies to preserve the happy memory.

And here was our dessert that capped the whole weekend off..

...mint brownies. Mmmmmm!! This was the recipe for the BYU brownies that the university serves at all their fancy catered functions, as well as in their food court. They are incredibly sinfully delicious, and I can't wait to make them again sometime soon in the future...when I'm not trying to lose weight. Aargh!

Now that our busy three-day Fourth of July weekend was over, we had an even more busy two-day trip to Phoenix planned. I'll write about that one soon. In all, it turned out to be a fun, eventful weekend. We haven't developed a lot of Fourth of July "traditions" while living here, but somehow we always manage to have a good time anyway.