News: Preggers Tops Mountain!

The single most firmly established family tradition at Christmas in Phoenix is the Camelback Mountain hike. Every Christmas day (this year on the 26th secondary to freakishly wet Phoenix weather), the most able-bodied of the cousins pack up and make the trek to the peak of Camelback. This year Rachel took the youngest of the family, our little girl in utero, on her inaugural hike. Maybe it took her a tad longer than normal, but overall a very impressive performance.

At the summit: the famous "Selle Bellies"

The smaller cadre of Camelback hikers this year at the summit, where local tradition involves some unknown person hiking a Christmas tree up every year, and then hikers bring up ornaments to decorate it.

Maybe next year we can take her to the top of Mt. Kenya for Christmas...