Missy Conguered the Grand Canyon!

A battle is never a pretty thing to watch, but what's important in the end is that your still standing and have come out the winner!

That's what Missy went thru on Saturday. Missy and a group of friends went up to go camping @ the Grand Canyon over the holiday weekend and to go hiking to the bottom and back up in one day. Sal and her were the only two to make it down. The hike down took about 3 hours on the Kaibab trail. Down at the Colorado river they hung out for a short time before ascending up the Bright Angel trail. That's when the the battle began! It was a grueling 6 hour hike back up to the rim- cramping legs, blistered feet, sheer exhaustion and tears (tears were from Missy). God forbid if Sal had shed a tear. As it was, Missy was telling Sal that she was going to die down there and he was encouraging her on, saying that she wasn't going to die. So, if a tear did fall from Sal's eye, Missy would have known that her life was over!!!! Kudo's go out to Sal for encouraging her all the way back up. When you see Missy ask her about the trek up. It is hilarious to hear her talk about losing it! Once back up to the rim, she was thrilled by it all. My daughter has more "Chutzpah" than I would ever dream of having. She just needs to believe in herself more!

After her all day ordeal, she had no intention of sleeping on the hard ground in her tent, with no bath. When they got back to the campsite, Missy packed everything back up and headed back down the hill to Phoenix. When she makes her mind up, there is no reasoning with her! She got home about 4 hours later!

Hagop and Angela's Memorial Weekend Wedding

Saturday, Phil and I went to Jerry and Nadia's son Hagop's wedding. Jerry and Nadia are from Iraq but left some 20 years ago. They are part of a very close Armenian community out here. Many people at the wedding looked very familiar from other Armenian events that we've attended with them over the years. The wedding was in many ways very traditional but also very American. The wedding took place at the Armenian church and cultural center and most of the mass was done in Armenian. The reception was held at the Antiochian Orthodox reception center. My pics are a bit worse than normal. Missy took my camera to the Grand Canyon this weekend, so I took my pics with my cell phone.

The reception was done very nicely and upscale. There were lots of Armenian appetizers to try at all of the tables. Waiters also brought plenty of non-Armenian appetizers around as well. Dinner was steak or chicken breast.

Best Wishes go out to Hagop and Angela!

Misc Family Get Togethers After Herb's Passing

Here are some pics from different family get togethers during the week after Herb's passing. Most of the time, I had been camcording, but here are some still pics.

Monday Evening- Dinner at our house. From the hospice home, everyone came over here.

Tina and Julie (Phil's sisters) and Christine (Herb's wife)
Lindsay (Herb's son Eric's wife- expecting twins) and Tawana (Jenny's significant other)

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Thursday Evening, over to Chris and Pam's. Julie's employer, a local hospital, sent food over to the family. What a very nice gesture! More food was added to it and we had quite a feast!
Mike, Phil, Matt (Phil's brother), Debbie (brother John's wife), John (Phil's brother) and brother Gregg

Debbie and John

Christine's brother's wife and Pam (Phil's brother Chris's wife)
Christine, her brother and his daughter
Chris and Tina
Gregg, Tina, Chris and Matt
Julie (Phil's sister) and Tina
Pam and her granddaughter Addysen

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We were back to Chris and Pam's house Friday after the service. All of Friday, was camcorded. The following pics are from the next day, Saturday. We had everyone over for our final get together.


Old friends of ours, Jerry and Sandy. Jerry helped Herb get his job out here 21 years ago.
Julie's son- Justin, Matt and his wife- Dawn
Mike and his friend, Alisa




AJ ( father of Chris and Pam's granddaughter), Danielle (Chris and Pam's daughter), Addysen and Dawn

Godspeed Herb

Phil's brother Herb is now in God's loving hands. Herb was the eldest of 9 brothers and sisters. At age 61, he left us far too early. He was diagnosed with Stage 4 brain cancer a year ago, almost to the day. He will be dearly missed by his family. Herb and Christine's 40th wedding anniversary was the day before he passed away. They have two grown children Eric (wife Lindsay- expecting twins in June) and Jenny (significant other- Tawana). When death strikes a family, you truly begin to think of your own mortality.

Seven of the siblings were able to get together out here for Herb's funeral, along with spouses, nieces and nephews. Phil's folks, due to health reasons, were unable to make the trip, but brother Matt read his mom's eulogy at the service. I was able to keep my camcorder down low enough, so that Father Hoorman didn't see me and give me the evil eye for recording the eulogies during mass.

Herb brought us all together for the past week, as we shared tears and laughter together. The last of the family left yesterday. They came in from as far west as Oregon and as far east as South Carolina.

Some Pics in Time!

I've been kinda busy lately, so haven't posted for awhile. I thought that
I should take some time tonight to post some pics from the past few weeks.

Asia celebrated her birthday a few weeks ago. Missy took these pics at Don's house when she was opening up our gifts.



Phil had knee surgery. Right Knee Scope Medial Meniscectomy and Debridement. The surgeon was happy with his repair of the large tear in the cartilage. He also cleaned up some arthritis. He said that if Phil still has pain after he has healed it will be from the arthritis, and the only solution then, will be knee replacement. Phil will be recuperating for the next 3-6 weeks at home. He will also be seeing the surgeon next week for his shoulder- shot or surgery? He's just all "jacked" up! We just have to get him better!



I missed Lindsay's twin baby shower today. I talked to Julie and she said that it was very nice. Herb and Christine's daughter in law is expecting twins in June. A baby boy and girl! I made them baby quilts. I'm definitely not my mother's daughter when it comes to quilting, but all in all an okay job!


Today, Sharon and I helped Sadie celebrate her "75" birthday! Talk about a "hip"lady! She picked a great movie to see, "Back-Up Plan". I highly recommend it. We laughed our butts off! After the movie we went to lunch at Someburro's.