It's 2016... Now What?

Hello friends and welcome to the year 2016! It appears the locals have grown restless with my blog hiatus. The two yahoo's pictured above within 5 minutes of each other had given me a hard time about not updating my blog, so I said smile, you're the front page, the above picture is what you get. 

You might be wondering what I have been up to since October, well here's the short version.

In Mid November we did the WipeOut Run...

December got busy...

On the same day that NiBo arrived in Arizona, that morning I did the Ugly Sweater Run, we had an ugly good time...

Then after that Tulip and I were hungry, and since we didn't make it up to our favorite little spot in Payson to see the fall colors, we decided we would go to see the snow.

The Crosswinds restaurant is a little place at the Payson airport and they have the most amazing Biscuits and Gravy.. seriously they are worth the drive in my opinion. Payson is a small little town and this restaurant is home of the million dollar view. It's right off the runway and small planes fly in to eat and then fly back out. It's net too because they play the communications with the tower over the speaker and you can hear the pilots talking as they make their way to the airport. Both times we've been we've got to see planes coming and going.

You may remember our next stop from my 2014 post 'In Search of Fall' 

We tried to take the same road we took last time to go to the edge of the rim, but it's not maintained during the winter and was closed. So we couldn't go as far as we wanted, but we made the best of it! 

Then that same night, NiBo arrived on the mainland from Hawaii! He has all kinds of interesting stories to tell about his adventures exploring the Island and tales from the Army. (I've tried to get him to guest post but he has declined)

NiBo hung out here in AZ for a few days and while he was here I had the terrible idea of us going hiking to the wave cave that I had heard so much about.

A little background, it's been cold (Arizona cold) for the past two months here. I blame El Nino for my higher than usual winter electric bills. The day we went hiking was really the only day that would work with our schedule and it wasn't the prettiest of days. It was overcast and a bit chilly, the first picture is actually the last picture. As we began our climb down from the cave it began to mist and the low clouds came in and made for a ominous picture.

The wave cave hike is listed as a 'moderate' hike. I don't know who decides what to rate these hikes but a more honest and helpful description might have been if you are out of shape at all, reconsider. I threatened to quit at least 5 times telling NiBo to go ahead and just leave me for dead on this nice rock. He declined and was annoyingly motivating. With my complaining on my end we made it to the cave. Normally you can see the mountains bathed in sunshine as the cave silhouettes you, but that was not the case this day.

You can see why they call it the wave cave! 

We did some shopping and saw all the pretty decorations...

Even the Chicago Airport was dressed in Holiday spirit.

NiBo and I flew into Chicago on Christmas Eve and rented a car to drive the few hours back to Central Illinois. We were not prepared for the lack of food options that late at night on Christmas Eve but at last, the golden arches of McDonald's shined brightly in the distance and we knew we would not starve, for 30 minutes later that Big Mac would be ours.

When we drove down our street and turned into the drive, I joked that mom would probably be sitting in the window watching for us. And sure enough like a little kid waiting for Santa to arrive with the pretty white candle lights in all the windows, there she was. She was so excited to have all three kids home for Christmas I was honestly surprised she wasn't in the middle of the street flagging us down. I mean just look at this tree and all the presents! 

The Monday after Christmas the whole family, mom, dad, A.Drama, Marvin, NiBo and me, went to see the new Star Wars movie at the IMAX theatre, and it was AWESOME! 

We spent the rest of our time at home visiting with friends and hanging with the family while we could. After dinner at our favorite local pizza place one night, NiBo and I went and saw Star Wars again for the second time.

Our time at home seemed both long and short at the same time. We flew back to Arizona on New Year's Day and NiBo flew back to his little island the morning of the 2nd. The kitties definitely missed me as proven in the picture where there isn't enough of me for all of us to be comfortable cuddling.

The first day back to work after a vacation that long is not fun. I'm glad I gave myself the two days of the weekend before I had to be back at work. Usually I don't give myself a break in between, but with this trip I was spoiled and might have to reevaluate my thought process on trips like that in the future.

I read an article and saw some posts on Instagram about this 52 hike challenge. Basically you pledge to complete 52 hikes this year and do just that I will.

My first hike was at the Lost Dutchman State Park on the treasure loop trail. This is the same trail that A.Drama, Marvin and myself completed last year for our first day hike. {you can take a trip down memory lane here}

I even bought myself an annual pass to the Arizona State Parks, so hopefully I will get to explore those this year too.

Howard the Travel Troll went hiking too! 

Be sure to give him a follow on Instagram @HowardsTravels

I also binged watched, on a Tuesday until 1:30am no less, Netflix's documentary show Making a Murderer. A classic tale of did he or didn't he.

That pretty much get's you all caught up on my exciting life. Not too much to tell, but I'll be sure to update more often (It's on my Resolutions list) If you missed the blog while I was on my end of year hiatus, thanks for hanging in there and checking back. I hope today you were pleasantly surprised to have some new content! Catch y'all later!