How would Oprah say it?

There is just so much explaining to do on this blog post!

I will explain the title a little later, if you can stand to make it through this post!

We are running a half marathon this Saturday.  We are supposed to "taper" the week before the race, so we decided we would head down to Phoenix, and just relax in the sunny weather.  We got here Monday night, and Tuesday morning we got up at 5 am to run.  We had to get up that early to beat the heat.  Dean and Braden ran 20 miles, I did just over 5.  (I'm no dummy, I know how to taper!)  We spent lots of time on Monday in the hot tub and the pool.

Dean and Braden both do this annoying thing where they squirt water at each other.  I thought a nice picture of this weird behavior would be nice to have so I can remember how great it is when they are not doing it.

This was how that picture was supposed to look.

 Next morning, we get up at 5:30 am so we can go on this little hike before it gets too hot, and Braden has to go to school.

Erika, Jared (Braden's roommate), Braden and Dean all head out for Flat Iron.

 The trail head to Siphon Draw.  The arrow below points to Flat Iron, which is our destination.  Here we go!

 This is Siphon Draw.  If we would have quit here, it would have been a lovely hike......but no!  We have to hike all the way to the top of Flat Iron. (that's Flat Iron in the background)

We hiked and hiked, and it seemed like we never made any progress to the top!

We decided this was the "stair-stepper from Hell!"  After leaving Siphon Draw, this was pretty much what the rest of the hike was like until you got up on top of Flat Iron.

 So just maybe, after hiking for a couple hours, Braden and Erika got a little "punchy".  Some how a conversation calling Jared a sherpa morphed into "how would Oprah say it".  For some reason, that was REALLY funny up on the mountain.  I promised Braden I would call this post "How would Oprah say it"....maybe you had to have been there.

There were some amazing rock formations

Finally, our goal was within reach!  The two little spots in the picture are Erika and Dean

We thought this lizard was pretty cool with his bright yellow feet.

 The view from the top was AWESOME!  So worth the climb.

Dean, Erika, Braden, and Jared

Another cool looking lizard.  The color on this guy was amazing.

 I couldn't just take a picture of the pretty flowers and the cool looking lizard, for some reason, Braden thought it would make a much better picture if his head was also in the picture.

 We did it!  (5 hours later) That was an awesome hike!

So far, this has not been a real relaxing vacation, tomorrow we are supposed to do a bike ride on the green belt trail.  I think Dean and I have different ideas of what a relaxing vacation is!  (I'm having a blast, but don't tell him!)