Easter Earthquake

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After enjoying a nice game of Bananagrams last night with Claire and Mark, we woke up to a beautiful Easter morning.  I have really been looking forward to Easter this year, mostly due to one of the last books we read in our reading group by N.T. Wright.  Although he has some odd theological views overall, this book focused on our views of the resurrection and heaven.  It also was very challenging about how we should celebrate Easter more than any other Christian holiday.  It should be met with great exuberance and joy.  This has really spurred me to dwell on the grandiose nature of the Resurrection.  It really is a beautiful and truly life-giving time.  After a great service we had some friends over for lunch.  Beth made a great spread of turkey, green beans, steamed broccoli, pasta, and some mixed fruit.  Ben and Lis brought a freshly picked salad, David brought some flowers from his yard (see below) and Karissa brought an awesome angel food/berries/whipped cream dessert.

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The oddest part of the day came about 3:30ish.  While we were all sitting around the couches, I noticed that the hanging light we have over our dining room table was swinging.  I asked whether anyone had bumped it, but it seemed that no one had gotten up in the past 20 minutes or so.  After some jokes about our house being haunted, we just wrote it off as odd.  Then, on our way out to Bret and Val’s for bible study, Micheal Eiting called and told me that there was an earthquake in Baja California, Mexico at 3:40 and that it had registered all the way in Tucson.  Although hard to believe, I took him at his word until I was able to get home and check it out.  Apparently there was a magnitude 7.2 earthquake followed by two 5 point aftershocks.  Beth then remembered that our friends are down in Rocky Point, Mexico for the weekend and that they probably got a really good shaking there.  We look forward to hearing some stories from them when they return.  It was an exciting evening and we can now say we survived our first earthquake.

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Hiking Picacho

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted and I have a lot to catch up on, but I’ll work my way back to that.  For now we’ll just live in the present…

Mark and Claire came to visit us for Easter and after an early night last night we decided to go hike Picacho Peak just north of Tucson.  It’s a pretty sad situation, as with the Arizona budget cuts, it and many other state parks are going to close on June 3rd.

Picacho peak is an outstanding short hike.  It is only 2 miles (~1400 vertical feet) to the summit.  The first half of the hike is just straight uphill, but after the saddle the hike gets really good.  There are many spots that feature some technical climbing (as shown later) and there are awesome views from this true Arizona “sky island.”

Beth and I have both done this hike previously.  This is most likely what gave us the confidence to bring Walcott with us.  He really enjoyed the hike and got a nice ride on my pack on the difficult parts.

Walcott takes a ride

With all this work, Walcott joined what I expect is a VERY exclusive club of dogs that have made it to the summit.  We got many comments along the way, as well as many pictures and “Hey look at that guy carrying the dog”.

Beth and Walcott at the Summit

We also got back in time to catch Butler winning their Final Four game.  I’m looking forward to a nice night of recovering and watching the other Final Four game of Duke and West Virginia (I know we’ll have at least one big Duke fan in the house).