Joanna & Rayne

 Joanna & Rayne moved in with us in January! They were in Sahuarita for a year while Joanna did a dietetics program and Rayne taught 7th grade social studies at Anza trail. They lived with Stephen & Claudia for half the year, then moved in with us after Breezy moved to Casa Johnson. It was fun having them around. Joanna had to travel for multi-week rotations in West Virginia and Utah, so we had a lot of quality Rayne time. We would watch shows with Joanna over video call and play board games with Rayne. 

After Joanna returned, we had a few weeks to do all the bucket list items before they left Arizona. Somehow, they aren't in ANY of the pictures I have, so here's some pictures of activities that you have to trust they did with us.

Camping at Chiricahua! It was crazy windy the next day as we hiked echo canyon grotto.

Seriously so windy

The Biosphere now has self guided tours on tablets you can check out or on a phone app. It's way better than how it was the last time we were there about 8 years ago! They have done a fair amount of upkeep on the area which is great to see. 

Tumacaccori and Tubac. Mimi and Grumpa joined in most of our "be a tourist in your own town" efforts. It's so nice having them around!

I've been putting off going to the Titan Missile Museum until I could go with my dad. He modeled nuclear warfare scenarios as one of his first jobs, and I knew he would have great commentary. The experience did not disappoint!

Annie volunteered to be one of the two key-turners to fire the nukes in the simulation. She nailed it and destroyed a big part of the planet- and was so joyful doing it! Also note Joanna and Rayne's heads. They were not our imaginary friends.

Us by the real (retired and disarmed) Titan missile!

Aaron picked a new restaurant called Taco Giro for his birthday lunch thanks to a great recommendation from Rayne

He picked baklava with soft serve ice cream in lieu of cake. 

We checked out a place called Parker Canyon Lake for the first time. It was once again a freakishly windy day, so much so that I was unable to paddle the canoe we rented out of the dock area and ended up having to wade through the ankle deep shore mud. The heavier paddle boats did kind of ok, but the wind would start pushing the boat around if we stopped paddling. We put half the group on the boat, and half of us walked on the shore to a beachy spot to spend the afternoon... but we decided to bail pretty quickly because the wind was just too much. 

Good thing these peddlers are buff

We rediscovered the hidden gem that is the Desert Meadows Garden in Green Valley. I tried to recreate this classic picture of Elliot there, but Felix was not feeling it.

We were unsuccessful in our attempt to convert Joanna and Rayne to becoming Arizonans, but we had a great time trying!