Butterflies, Beer and my Beloved

We've been busy lately, including a 9 mile hiking day.  We split that day up into mini hikes and didn't do it all at once. Our pedometers are always attached to keep us honest and moving forward with life. On average we walk five miles a day.

Biosphere rain forest in drought conditions

The sun was shining, but at 3000 feet and a hefty wind, I was cold  

In the past couple of weeks, we have visited Biosphere 2 in Oracle, AZ,  Butterfly World in Phoenix, Casa Grande Ruins in Coolidge ,and way too many restaurants, which explains my five pound weight gain.

Ted seems to have stayed about the same weight, which isn't easy to do when you are on a daily dose of prednisone, and a variety of other life sustaining drugs.  His oncologist once told him that ALL of her brain cancer patience had trouble with weight gain.

Ted posing at Biosphere

When he was first diagnosed, he was 175 lbs, a weight he had been most of his life.  He is six feet three inches tall, so he was pretty thin at 175 lbs.  Since his diagnosis in 2006, he has put on weight .  At one point, he gained almost 40 pounds.  He's lost 20 of that and tries to keep healthy food as a focus, but it's those evil donuts that keep finding their way into his mouth that cause weighty issues sometimes.

Lots of food events with family and friends have added to the waistline!

It's been a wonderful trip to Arizona.  We also visited Casa Grande ruins in a little town called Coolidge, Az.  I used to work across the street from these ruins as a caseworker for child protective services, but I never bothered to visit.  Oh YOUTH!

We plan to take our pack to Carlsbad, CA to celebrate our 18 year anniversary in the Carlsbad Flower Fields where we were married. My philosophy is to keep moving forward.  It keeps the bogeyman on the run.

Ted leaving a room at the ruins