So, Thanksgiving has come and gone once again. Now back to the old, depressing life I vacationed from. Thanksgiving is huge for my family, one might even say it is larger then our Christmas, which is debatably larger than most. On Thanksgiving, a huge chunk of our family come to visit, raiding the grandparents' house and home until the white flag is waved; indeed, it takes more patience than one can dream of to tolerate a house assaulted by only the closest of family. Thankfully, it's Grandma to the rescue. Months of preparation seems much too little when compared to the quantity of noisy kids, chatty women, and even more daunting, teenagers. Grandma is not intimidated, not even by Joey, the most mischievous of the bunch.
Day one appeared like any Sunday. We stubbornly woke up, and got ready for Church. This Sunday was only slightly different. Yes, it was merely the start of the Thanksgiving weekend. More importantly, the cousins were coming. The cousins whom we see the least often. Anyone could see the excitement among the children. It was the beginning of the most fun, most hectic week 2008 has yet to bring. Only Thanksgiving can bring fun and hectic together in a sentence.
Soon after church, the great bus (also known as our family van) pulled up into the congested driveway, swollen with cars. We gr eeted each other, and you'll never guess what the Texans' said. You guessed it, there was not a single family member from Texas that did not acknowledge my height. After all, I was a whole foot shorter last time I saw them. What we did afterwards was considerably straightforward. We did not do anything special - just hung out at Grandma's house. That night, I asked my uncle what we would do tomorrow. He informed me that we would go hiking. Okay, hiking's fun, I only do it a million times a year, but the location of the hike was far different from anything I've tackled. It was called Picacho Peak. A small, very skinny mountain located about halfway between Tucson and Phoenix. I have heard about the adventures experienced there, but never had I had a fancy to climb it. The Texans did. I think they overlooked the energy it takes to climb it, for they seemed as if it would be fun, and easy from their expression. Perhaps they thought it was more of a 'hill', rather than 3000 foot tall mountain, right smack-dab in the middle of nowhere. I thought it would be fun. Hard, but fun, so I came along, curious to see the expressions on the girls' faces once it was clear how tall it was.
I woke up early the next day, getting psyched for the climb, something I do whenever I am faced with an enduring challenge. After some preparation for the hike, my mom takes me over to Grandma's house, the unofficial headquarters for family. After some more preparati on there, we soon head off. After a mere hour of driving, we arrive at Picacho Peak, which has resently been dubbed a national monument. Not to anyone's surprise, Corey says her stomach feels sick. I laugh, and take a very unenthusiastic picture of her as we arrive at a gas station for supplies. Because it would be dumb to climb a mountain without bringing food, we stock up on some snacks. Those silly girls got nothing but chips and other various outdoor snacks. I pity them, and pick out some Poptarts and a SlimJim from the aisle, a combination with the effects similar to steroids, and it doesn't taste much better either. I guess there's always a catch.
We were soon on our way to the top of the mountain, or hill as the Texans referred it as. After a few minutes of hiking, I unwisely start snacking on my SlimJim, which soon brought a nasty little surprise along with it. Not taking much interest in the flavor I bought, it seems almost a law that my luck would choose a spicy SlimJim for me, and it most certainly did.
Picacho Peak, according to the men of the family, is broken up into two parts: the hard part, and the fun part. The first half of the mountain is known as the 'hard part'. It is simply a trail, only at an angle, making it very tedious. The hard part almost emeadeadly took effect on some of the more unfit members of our group. Uncle Mark, I'm looking at you, for the quantity20of sweat on your body versus the amount of time we've hiked was truly disappointing. Grandpa, being some 70 years old, was taking the trail very slowly, so we often had to wait a few minutes so he could catch up, which turned into some good picture-opportunities. After around 45 minutes, we reach the halfway point. Just astern of the halfway point, there is one single bench, and a downhill descent that screams 'do I have to go down that?' to any challenger. We take some pictures. One particular picture was quite humorous; the girls wanted a picture of themselves on the bench, so they get Uncle Mark to take one for them. Apparently, they don't make phones like they used to, as Uncle Mark was taking a picture of himself, and lucky for me, I got a memorial picture of it. We started the 'fun part', which was surprisingly hard, especially since I began eating my Poptart. Eh, live and learn. Next time I hope my life won't be in danger when I'm learning a life lesson, but oh well.
After the descent, I felt as if all the work I put into the 'hard part' was seemingly wasted, seeing as we were right back to the elevation we began at. I soon had to resent that. It was clear that the fun would soon begin. (In case you were wondering, no, I did not think the descent was fun by any stretch of the imagination.) Everywhere you looked the re was a steep-ascent, one after another. Each one included a metal wire... somet hing to hold on to. Yes, the assents were that steep, and took a fair amount of energy to overcome. Note: if you are afraid of heights, to not attempt to climb Picacho Peak. One after another, we slowly tackle each abrupt assent. It was difficult, but the fun outweighed all of that. Soon, I found myself at the top of Picacho Peak. I notice that I was alone up there, so I take the moment to snap some shots from atop. It was short lived, as I soon saw the Texans inch there way to the top. The view was more magnificent than I expected, and can't be described by pictures. (Especially those from my camera...) We take a rest, snack for a while, and head back down. We quickly realize the so called 'fun part' wasn't so fun climbing down, but we make it down about as fast as we got up, regardless.
Thus ending another glorious adventure with the cousins. We drive back to Grandma's house exhausted as ever, but hey, at least we made it! The rest of the day was easily compared to the day before. Just hanging out. Playing War with the kids, along with some home-made guns Grandpa created. It was simple, yet fun. (The rest of the Thanksgiving jam will be posted on my next Blog... eventually.)