Today in Tucson, Y'all!: Mt. Lemmon..and a little more..

Hey everyone!

Well, what a weekend it was! There were adventures and then the planning of some future adventures!

Here we go..

Saturday - Mt. Lemmon

On Saturday, the Pattison clan packed into the car and headed up to Mt. Lemmon which is (maybe) the tallest peak around Tucson standing at 9,159 feet of elevation. We went to the very end of the highway which ends in a lovely tiny mountain town, Summerhaven, and then did a quick four mile hike. The hike was amazing because the temperature was a good 20 degrees cooler than in the valley and we were able to see PINE TREES AND GRASS AND WATER! Of course Jackson pup went along and you would think the lad had never been in nature before. For most of the hike he would bolt around the trail with pure bliss on his face. We decided that, after playing fetch, hiking is his favorite thing in the world.

(lots of beautiful mountain flowers)

(there's Tucson down there!)

(we also ran into this grumpy guy)

(Jackson decided to go ahead and start working on his modeling career)

(they are truly the very best of friends. I'm just honored I was allowed to go along on the hike as photographer)

(a moment of bolting around the trail. Ben and I just stood there as he ran back and forth)

(personally I just wanted to set up a tent here and live. We've decided to come back to this general area when everything is changing for fall)

(at one point I had fallen behind, due to taking all of the pictures, so Ben said "where's mommy??" and this came barreling around the corner at me)

After hiking around Mt. Lemmon, we decided to check out the closest lake to where we live so Jackson could swim and play fetch. At first we thought that surely he would not have enough energy to play for long, but alas, he is part lab and he could have done this for days.

Once the sun began to set, we packed up and headed back down the mountain to Tucson and were stopped by this beautiful view.

Sunday - Lunar Eclipse

Thanks to living near the mountains (and monsoon season being over so there is a general lack of clouds) we were able to have an amazing view of the lunar eclipse.