Finishing our time in Surprise with Family & Friends

Surprise, Arizona
Happy Trails RV Park


The last half of February kept us very busy.  We took a little break before family arrived for the memorial service and we went to see the Disney movie, Coco.  It was cute and entertaining and a nice distraction.

 I liked the effect the purple lights had on the palm trees outside the theater at night.

 

Curt and Glenda brought their new home over for us to see the next day.  They traded their nice Big Horn 5er for this really nice Winnebago. 

 Congrats on the new rig!

 

Steve's Dad's memorial service would take place on Saturday, the 17th. Our son Shane would fly in on Thursday and our other 3 kids would fly in on Friday as well as Steve's two brothers and Bunny's granddaughter and her husband.  Thankfully all of them Ubered over so we didn't have to spend all day and night picking them up from the airport.

Steve's stepmom, Bunny.  She's been a wreck all month so we've been helping out as much as we can with arrangements.

 Hurley on the other hand was quite content with all the company.

Brennan, Ryan, Shane, Mickey, Steve, Jeff, Kaylee and I.

Unfortunately this was the only family picture we took.  Good thing Shane thought to take a selfie.  I had intended to take several family photos as we were all dressed up and it would be a long time before Steve and his brothers would be together again.  It's also rare to get all our kids in the same place and I would've loved a nice family picture too.  I completely forgot about it. The memorial service started out with a Military Presentation of the Flag and Taps.  Not a dry eye in the place.  The rest of the service was nice and went smoothly.  Curt and Glenda even drove up from Gold Canyon.

Steve and his brothers.

 We all changed into more comfy clothes and had a family BBQ after the service.

 Robert, Kaylee, Bunny, April and Marty.

 Our boys playing some Frisbee.

 I really like this picture of the kids.

 It was a long day that ended with a beautiful sunset.

The next day we all got together for lunch at the Texas Roadhouse before everyone flew out.  Minus Shane.  He had to leave early.

 With the service over and the holiday here, Steve and I spent the day geocaching with Jeff and Mickey.  It was Mickey's first time and he loved it.

 Mickey's first geocache.

The cold front really kicked in and it was a very cold and very windy day.  We finally were able to finish the day off with our 3900th find!  Now, off to dinner for some pizza and wings.  I wish they could've stayed longer.  We had such a great time with the brothers. With Mickey and Jeff now back in Virginia, we had just a few days before we left Surprise and headed to the Parker/Lake Havasu area.

Posing with Jon Taffer of the Bar Rescue TV Show.

 

You may remember on my last post that Steve and I wanted to hike to the 2000 year old Juniper Tree that was in Prescott with some friends.  All week the weather was threatening to snow on Friday.  And that it did.  I don't mind hiking in the snow or the cold, but it had been very windy too.  That's not a combo I like.  The windchill was horrible.  So instead we met Skip and Tammy for lunch at  Chilleens on 17 in Black Canyon City for BBQ.

Tammy is a retired firefighter from Prescott and Skip is a retired firefighter from Phoenix.  We had all just seen the movie, Only the Brave, about the Granite Mountain Hotshots and they thought they did a really good job with it.  Tammy had worked with many of them in Prescott and they both knew the Steinbrinks well.

 

We didn't get to do the hike, but we had a great lunch and talked for hours.  Steve even won a squeaky pig out of one of those claw grabber games.  We'll make a geocache out of it somewhere.  We said our goodbyes and hope to spend more time with them next year once they finish their new house.

One of our last outings was an 8 mile hike in the Sonoran Desert Preserve.  I've hiked here before and love the trails.  We were invited out by Faye and Dave.  Curt and Glenda joined us as well.

 Curt finding one of many geocaches along the way.

 I tried to capture the moon but it just didn't show up as bright in the picture.

 We shared the trail with some 4-legged hikers.

 

This was an easy hike on the Apache Wash Trail.  Towards the end we spotted this Saguaro whose arms drooped making it look sort of like a Christmas Tree.

Of course we ended up back at Fay and Dave's for some of Dave's famous BBQ.  He brined a pork butt overnight, dry rubbed it in his own special seasonings then smoked it all day while we hiked.

Faye made a delicious grape salad that I'd never had, but loved.  Glenda made a green salad as well as some appetizers and we brought the desert.

What a great way to wrap up our month in Surprise.  We won't see Fay and Dave for a while as they will spend the rest of this year in Colorado and then on to the East Coast.  We will see Curt and Glenda as they spend a couple of days in Placerville on their way up to Oregon and I'm sure we'll cross paths with them while we're in Oregon too.  Funny how we run into someone no matter where we travel.  I love that part!