It was a warm one today!

The temps reached 81 degrees F today in the Scottsdale area! Guess where we were hiking today? Yup! You got it!

Arizona has had an exceptionally warm January with average daytime temps of 72. 

I look at how tanned Mr.O is getting and keep hoping I will get a little colour, but I just get more freckles! It's just not fair!

All this sunshine has more blossoms opening up. We saw some lovely red flowering bushes today, and this is one of my favourite desert plants. The Ocotillo

I left the camera at home, so these shots were takn with my phone.

Such a unique looking plant. This one stands 8-10 feet tall but these long thin stems can reach 25'. The trunk is covered with needles and small oval leaflets. Brilliant red flowers occur at the tips of the branches.and are very pretty when they start to blossom.

This one was just starting to flower and it was taken with the zoom on my phone so it really doesnt do it justice, but hopefully in the next week or two I will have some better shots.

We started out to hike about 6k but ended up adding to it and by the end we had hiked over 8 km over some pretty rocky terraine to an elevation of a couple thousand feet( i think; i have a hard time remembering all the elevation numbers from day to day)

If you look at the bottom of the map beside the blue bar inside the circle, that is where we started. Now follow the red line keeping left almost to the top of the page to the red star, that is where we hiked to. From there we backtracked down a bit to where the trail goes to the right and looped down to the next star almost in the middle of the map. From there we continued down until we met up with our original trail and continued on to our car in the parking lot at the bottom star. Over 8km. My foot and ankle was killing me and I was hot and dusty and ready to rest!

I had packed pb&j sandwiches but I was more interested in water than food today, and when we arrived home I made up a big jug of homemade lemonade.

Mr O had one glass and I pretty much polished off the rest. When lemons are selling at 20 lemons for $1.00 homemade is the way to go...no McCains frozen lemonade happening here!

Yesterday was our oldest grand daughter's 19th birthday and our daughter had a surprise party for her and just look at the cake she made for her!

This......

Turned....

Into this and then .....

Into THIS!

With the help of KitKat bars, mini Reeses and Smarties! 

It was part of the tablescape for the party and here's the birthday girl...

Happy Birthday Savannah! We love you!

" Let them eat cake." 

                               Marie Antoinette