Happy Birthday Timm!

WOW!  The big 50!  Happy birthday Timm, I hope you enjoy your special day. 

This is his birthday/Christmas present...an East Texas Smokers RK250.  He is loving the heck out of it.  He got it early since there isn't really a way to hide it or the money spent on it.  We'll be using it again New Year's weekend in California at a contest. 

Today's agenda:

Pancakes for breakfast...yummer.

Got called in for an emergency at work...bummer.

A day trip to Hoover Dam to walk the new bridge and get some really pictures of the dam.

Lunch at Grimaldi's for a free birthday pizza...and be honored with superior service by our sweet daughter-in-law.  Always a treat.

Take in a movie...maybe True Grit.

Dinner and some TLC.

Than Annual Christmas Tree Hunt

Once again, we hit the mountain for the annual hunt for the perfect tree.  It was a pretty, sunny day that made it a great day for tree hunting.  Lots of snow this year, more than last year even.  That being said, it was hard to hike into where the trees were off the road. 

I love Timm's hat!

The boys finally took the plunge and headed into snow to cut two trees.  The snow was deep.  I tried to go in only to get stuck, fall over and had the dangest time getting back up.  I was banned from further snow treking. 

Christy trekking in after the boys with a hand saw.  They got a couple of really nice trees. 

This year, Christy's mom was in town for Thanksgiving and she went with us the day after Thanksgiving. 

The dogs go with us every year.  They love to play in the snow.  Cassy and Roxy were pretty tuckered out and had a hard time climbing back up the snow bank,  they had a great time though.

Obviously, Zoey and Shelby had a wonderful time in the snow as well. 

The Gift of Lights

We headed out to the Gift of Lights this week. It was moved out the Las Vegas Motor Speedway this year from Sunset Park.  We've not been out to see it in years but since it's closer to home we thought...what the heck.  Troop 50 was still selling hot chocolate, Kenny was there as as Asst. Scoutmaster now.  It was nice to see him and catch up on what's going on.

Please excuse the antenna...I didn't even think about it when I was taking photos. 

The displays go under the grandstands, wrap around the entire NASCAR race track, up on Guchi row and more.  It's amazing! 

Here is part of the Christmas train display. 

I love this one!  It's so pretty. 

It was a great event to enjoy.  Light displays for everything.  Hannauka, Kwanza, Christmas, and more.  The display presented by the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay was full of fishes, dolphins, starfish and more.  There was an Elvis display...this is Vegas afterall.  The fire departments had displays too.  Christmas music on a special radio channel for the event and more.  It was awesome. 

A Quick Trip Over Hoover Dam

We made a quick trip out to the dam the other day.  I still can't get over how low the water level is in Lake Mead.  That first island in the photo used to be totally underwater.  So sad.  Could someone please let some water out of Lake Powell please.

This is the view was you cross over the new bridge.  Not much to see, I know...and we were in the truck.   The sidewalls are so tall, guess they need to be that high so people don't stop on the bridge...besides it's 900 feet to the river below. 

There are a couple of bridges actually, this is the one on the Arizona side heading back to the main road (US-93). 

There is a place for people to get out and walk onto the new bridge.  We didn't stop because we has Cassy with us and I doubt they allow dogs on the bridge since they don't allow them on the dam.  Anyway, I snagged this photo from our friend Chris' FB page.  It's quite a view for sure.  Obviously, you can see how high the water level used to be...that's quite a bath tub ring. 

Man, we need an outing!

The weather is getting nice and I'm itching to get out.  But alas, it will need to wait a bit.  I really want to get out and take a ride on my quad, it's been calling my name for a while now.  But the truck is down...the transmission went out.  :0(  A new one has finally been ordered and next week Scott should be putting it in for us...a benefit of putting your son through mechanics schooling.  Maybe after that we can get out and go somewhere.  Until then, an outing will have to wait.

Cassy enjoys time with her mom

Well, she always enjoys time with me.  lol  Last weekend we went to the Old Capital Arts Festival to sell BBQ and we stayed with Jim and Irene.  (you can check the BBQ blog for more on that subject)  Lucy is Cassy's momma and it's amazing...they look identical in almost every way. 

We took the dogs for a walk before we left on Sunday.  They all had a great time and you know how dogs will do...they covered 3-4 times the ground we did.  Seriously, you couldn't tell Cassy from Lucy on the walk...the both even have the same wiggle.

Cassy loves to bark at cows, and she got her chance.  Apparently, they were interested in what she had to say.

This is Joey, Lucy and Bosco after the walk.  It was only 20 minutes but by the look of those tongues you'd think they'd been out for hours.  I should've gotten a photo of just Lucy and Cassy but I didn't think of it until afterwards...oh well, next time.

Adventures Around Williams, AZ...Part One

Wow, it's taken me a while to get these posts up lately...stupid computer.  Anyway, it's about time.  After our BBQ competition (you can read all about it on the Trailhound Smokers BBQ blog) we stuck around the Williams area for five days and enjoyed an imprompto vacation. 

We rode the train in Williams.  The Cateract Creek Rambler was running for the holiday weekend.  Did you know it runs on recyled vegetable oil?  Seriously...I'm all for saving our planet but this is just a little wierd for me.  I like the steam engines better.   It was Christy's first time to ride a train and she enjoyed it.  As for the rest of us Martin's, we all enjoy trains so I'm glad she did too.

After the kids and my parents left the BBQ, we took a day and headed to Sedona and Jerome...after dropping the truck off at the Ford dealer in Flagstaff.  We had the transimission serviced since the warning light came on outside of Kingman...at least we didn't buy a new truck on this vacation.  lol  Yes, we did that one time if you must know, and we didn't regret it either.

We left Flagstaff, which is a beautiful place, and headed to Sedona via Oak Creek Canyon.  That is one beautiful drive along the creek, I can only imagine how gourgeous it must be in the fall.  Not a lot of places to pull off and enjoy the area though without paying to park.  As we got closer to the bottom of the canyon there were more places and they were full of cars and people carrying ice chests, chairs, and stuff as they made their way to the creek.  It's quite a popular place.  We only drove through Sedona, but it was full of upscale art type shops, tourists running amuck...and Pink Jeep Tours vehicles. 

Our real destination was Jerome so that's where we headed.  It is really is built on the side of mountain with narrow, winding streets.  It reminded me of Virgina City, in fact. I'm glad we had the Trailblazer because parking is at a real premium there.  At the end of town, there is an interesting little 'ghost town' full of old buildings and a huge selection of old trucks and cars...over a hundred of them. 

Chris and Scott, especially Scott would have been here all day checking each and every one of them out.  Man you could take a million pictures there...if only I had me a uber cool digital camera...hint, hint.

Cassy toured the 'town' with us, and even tried to make friends with the goats..well sorta. They didn't like her very much.  Had it been a cooler day we would have spent more time there but Cassy was getting pretty warm.

Another day was spent at Grand Canyon.  It's been so long since we were there, and it still takes my breath away everytime I see it. We hiked along the rim trail and a little more.  Cassy was great at first but as time went by she was on the hunt for shade every chance she got.  We hiked about 2 miles that day so I think she did really well.  We took the shuttle bus back to the car...she was thankful for the cool air in the bus and her service vest...as were we.

How do you like Timm's shirt?  It's just one of many sayings on the shirts you can get from Sin City Smokers.  It's BBQ people...what were you thinking?

Since we were all pretty much done walking, we drove out to the east enterance to the Watch Tower.  I don't recall ever going out there.  It's a long way but the drive is relaxing, full of trees and viewpoints.  The road is right at the edge of the canyon at many points.  There is reconstructive work being done on the tower so no great photos of it because of the scafolding and a boom lift. The canyon view is amazing though.  The river turns at that point and the views in all directions is incredible. The river is visible for a long distance.   We even saw 3 cow elk near the campground...and the road.  They could care less about people.