Moved

My friends, sorry for the neglect. My blog has moved to www.hobofamily.com
Please visit us there


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Unexpected week of fun!

After a weekend of hanging out with friends i was ready to do a hike and get back to work. Things changed a little. Last Monday I woke early to hike The Grand Canyon with my buddy Lynn. We went 2 hours down to Phantom Ranch and the Colorado River. An hour lunch while soaking the feet in the cool Angel Creek. Then a 5 hour hike out. An excellent, fast, tough, 17 miles on Monday. Not bad for no prep hikes. Lynn was an animal and could have ran if I wasn't with him. After driving home Monday night and sleeping great all night, I woke up, unable to walk like a normal human. My calves were KILLING! I was not able to return to work Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday due to this ailment. By Friday I had done enough Yoga and other stretching to move like normal so I went to Holly's boot camp with her and had no issues.
My other buddy Nick wanted to go cat fishing. So we loaded the kayak on "The Super Pickle", packed some other gear and headed out to Canyon Lake where we spent the night fishing. Nick hauled in 4 nice cats, with the biggest being 23 inches.
A great week all in all!





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Our 13th Year Anniversary Party

I know, I know, I don't look like I've been married for 13 years. I like to follow that one up with "I don't look like I've had 5 kids either!" BTW (by the way) Holly doesn't either.
So here we are married, raising kids, growing up, and happy as can be.
I took Holly camping, and yes I know she deserves more than a campout but she just wanted a lot of time to chat and I just wanted... to build a fire.
In addition to camping we decided to live barefoot for the rest of our lives, like the Dual Survivor hippy. See pics below






We had breakfast burritos


We went on a hike, and decided to wear shoes again for the rest of our lives.





And yes, we did chat

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Fossil Springs

I have discovered many Arizona "Gems" over the years.  I have come to know that Arizona has a few more things to offer than barren desert, cactus, and a the big ditch. Fossil Springs is an oasis in the desert. As the temperatures cooked us for the last two weeks, we devised a plan to escape the inferno and went camping up the mountain near Strawberry. We broke away for a short trip on Saturday to enjoy the cool waters of Fossil Springs. Our Adventure Beast (Ford Excursion) took us down the narrow road that hangs over the cliffs edge the entire drive down the canyon, so we could take the shorter hike on the creek side trail with our 5 hooligans. We were also accompanied on our adventure by our Queen Creek friends The Ethingtons and my brother and sister in-law Jamie & Jennifer.

I did not jump off this waterfall... this time. I did not want any of the drunk people (standing around watching jumpers) to attempt to jump in and save my life.

Adventure Boy on rope swing

Re: Toby. It's in his blood to love adventure. We've bread him this way.  

In July we had a family reunion in the White Mountains of Arizona. The theme was to enjoy the small town and small town activities we did as kids. It's hard to let kids do what you did as a kid. However, I'm glad I was there with my kids to see how much fun they had!

Investing in good times and great kids

I sold our boat yesterday.  Calm down. Get control of your emotions and let me explain.

I want to preface this with FACT that you can't put a price on all the experience, memories and patients our boat kindly named "Hole in the Water" has afforded our family. Memories that will last a lifetime for our kids, friends and other boaters who have had to put up with her over the last 2 summers. Admittedly, I only got a fraction of the $1,000,000 asking price.

We raise our kids with adventure in mind. Constantly forcing them out of their box and comfort zone. And us out of ours. It build confidence. It builds character. It builds trust.

So by now your asking "then why sell out?"
To put it simple, our boating season is wrapping up this year as school has started for the kids, and we won't have the opportunity to go boating next year because..........

Were planning a 9 week super adventure for next summer!

Were planning to travel around the good ol' USA for 9 weeks in our Excursion, visiting family, friends, and once again shoving our kids (and ourselves) outside our box.

Were buying this "Truck top tent" for the Excursion.

To be able to afford a trip like this, were not going to be able to stay in hotels, eat out 3x a day, etc. So with our boat money were buying a truck top tent and other supplies needed for our journey that will again build character, confidence and.... you get the point.

Let us know what you think!

Reunion: an adventure success (click photo's for better clarity)

Many wonder what makes a family reunion successful. I have a list. #1) No lost limbs, bleeding that we can't stop, or death of a reunion attendee. #2) and a close second, attendees continue to "like" each other's facebook status on a regular basis when it's all said and done. #3) I will leave #3 up to you.



We celebrated this guy's 80th (not a typo) Birthday. He is a co-founder of The Allen Lemoyne Caldwell family. And he draws quite a crowd.

We did some adventuresome activities for 60+ (not a typo) people (all direct descendants of Mary Jean & Lemoyne)



We did some biking.



A 10 mile ride like we did as kids everyday to school and back



We played in the creek like we did as kids



We joked around like kids



We made fun of each other like we did when we were kids



We horsed around...



We talked like we never did as kids



And when its all said and done



We call it a great time and shine on.



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