Since several of our kids are adults now, it is a rare thing when the whole clan of 13 gets to go on an adventure together. Saturday was one of those blessed times! Paul made the plan, but kept the details to himself (he does love to surprise his people!) so all we knew was that if we wanted to avoid the worst heat of the day, we were going to have to get up at 5am. Hear me loud and clear: I am a woman of a certain age, and avoiding heat is my paramount concern. So I was super-enthusiastic about our early departure, even if I didn’t know where we were headed. We got everyone dressed, found shoes even, and packed a cooler with some drinks and snacks and off we went.
Our drive across the valley was slick at that time of day on a Saturday, and we arrived at our destination a little before 7am, which you would think would be early enough. Here’s the thing though, it’s monsoon season in Phoenix. That means lower temperatures – yayyy!! It also means higher humidity – Boooo!! It all adds up to equal a hot day in Minnesota – minus the mosquitoes, thank goodness, or it would have been literally intolerable. What am I trying to say? Everything about the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch was gorgeous – the scenery, the cloud cover, the birds, the water, the green, green, green – but I have this problem where if sweat is streaming into my eyes, I spend more time wiping it away than on looking through my camera to take a decent photo.
Being hot made me a cranky mess. Then, when my thundering herd of children kept rampaging through the underbrush scaring the wildlife I was trying to photograph (“BUNNY!!!! THERE’S A BUNNY!! LET’S CATCH IT!!!”), I lost what little patience I had left. Paul saw my chill was gone in every possible way, and kindly sent me off on my own trail, with Jacob alongside as my assistant carrying the camera bag, while he took the littles a different direction, and I got a slight reprieve – at least from the noise if not the heat.
It was seriously lovely, and I plan to go back when the weather is more suitable when I can take my time and really capture more of the wildlife. Here’s a glimpse of what I saw through the stinging sweat in my eyes.
