Birthday week

Well, it is Wikoff birthday week. Amanda's was the sixteenth, Craig's the eighteenth and Ben's the nineteenth (today). You can see Amanda and Craig sporting their new Life is Good shirts from Grammy. Ben was already in his pj's after having been at the hot springs earlier today--but he got one too.

We had a good time at Gilbert Ray campground and visiting the Arizona Sonoran Dessert Museum. Museum doesn't conjure up the right vision of this place. . . it had animals, reptiles, plants, and was all outdoors. Yesterday we hiked up to the top of Brown mountain--the kids led the way and took us all the way up. It was neat to see clear into the valley.

Today we left there, stopped at San Xavier Mission outside of Tucson. It is an amazing mission built at the end of the 1700s and is still a Catholic church that serves the Native Americans on their reservation. The 3 domed, cross shaped church was beautiful, filled with many symbols and statues and paintings. The symbolism is so interesting and to me has such meaning. There were sincere worshippers there seeking God and a bunch of tourist lookey lou's. I would consider myself in both of these catogories.

We continued east and a little north to a state campground with a natural hot spring. For those of you who know Craig well--hot springs are something he is always seeking. We didn't get a full hook up spot tonight so the generator is quietly (really) running so I can catch you up. We will try tomorrow morning to see who is leaving one those cushy spots and see if we can get it. It would also be a shorter walk to the hot springs. There is a lake here with lots of birds and they were really noisy until sunset and then they settled down and it is peaceful. I imagine when the sun is up they will be too.