This is the view as we drive from my parents' home in Sonoita, AZ into town (Tucson).
There is a theater in Tucson called the Gaslight Theater. They perform original comedies and the night we went we saw "Space Wars" which was a spoof of Star Wars. This was a lot of fun and we still quote lines from the play. Here is a picture of the kids w/ some of the actors dressed up as characters from Beauty and the Beast since they had a third act of the show that included different scenes from different children's stories.
Another fun thing we did was take a tour of an underground copper mine. The Queen Mine is located in Bisbee, AZ. Once you're dressed the part, there is a mine train that takes you into the middle of the mountain where there underground tunnels dug out to mine for copper. There are over 200 miles of tunnels in Bisbee.
This is a picture of the mountain in which the Queen Mine is inside.
This is our tour guide who used to work in this mine. He had a lot of interesting stories. Here he is showing how they would put sticks of dynamite into the rock to dig further on. If you're ever in Bisbee, I would highly recommend this tour. It doesn't hurt that its also 47 degrees in the mine year-round. I think that's a big selling point during the summer months.
This is a picture of an open-pit copper mine in Bisbee. When I was a kid, my dad worked in a mine like this before he entered college/seminary in good ol' Dallas.
We were blessed to visit with Grandpa and Grandma Larkin, my mom's parents, while we were in town. Grandpa looked really good and we thought it was funny that he was convinced that he knew Ozzie from some sports team they were on together. He told Ozzie "you had a lot of potential!" Grandma is still amazing and we enjoyed visiting with her. How many people can see they are Facebook Friends with their grandma - she's the greatest!
The kids had turns driving the riding mower. Kailee especially enjoyed her turn behind the wheel and found it more special when it dark enough to need the headlight.
Below are pictures of each of the kids driving the boat we rented at the lake. Let's just say this was definitely not a speed boat and rumor has it that it ate the dust of the paddle boat we also rented.
Ozzie and the kids had a blast in the water. They invented new ways of splashing each other such as the Texas Tornado and Hawaii Hurricane.
If you've already read my previous post, then you know that there was a huge hail storm on the second night we were there. Ozzie got a great shot of the lightning once the 45 minute barrage of hail was over.
The following are some pictures showing the effects of the storm. The one below is a before picture of my parents' garden. You can see it blooming in the background behind Benjamin.
Here is the garden after the storm. The other day when Benjamin was reading about the plague of hailstones, I had a new respect for the damage that hail can do especially to vegetation. There was really nothing left of their garden.
We're not sure why, but after the storm most of the fish/frogs/tadpoles in the pond died. We know that the pond became more of a rushing river the night of the storm, so we're not sure if something from upstream came in and killed everything or if it was just the power of the water upsetting the little ecosystem of the pond. Whatever the cause, we found this huge dead frog the first morning after the storm.
Below is what was left of the frog the next day after the vultures had their little snack. I think its neat that God thought of everything when He created animals and how these ugly birds are really a vital help to man since they dispose of carrion that would otherwise be a breeding ground for disease.
Below is a picture of "Turtle Mountain" (the little peak shaped like a turtle on the left side of the picture). Whenever the kids see Turtle Mountain, they know we are getting close to Nana's and Tata's house.
I guess there is treasure at the end of the rainbow: wonderful time with our family. Even our dog had fun!
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