Arizona Vacation (Part 3)

Ok. This is my last vacation post. :)

We didn't do much on Sunday. We went to church in Flagstaff. We show up and no one is there! There's a banner that says they are having Pentecost mass at a local amphitheater. Remember how windy I told you it was? Well, the wind was about 50 mph this day! (Temp was about 50 too!) And we were at mass in an amphitheater. Of course, we didn't know about this ahead of time so we weren't dressed warm enough. It was a nice service and I would have really enjoyed it if it hadn't been so darn cold and windy!!

We actually went out that afternoon and bought warmer clothes for the Grand Canyon the next day. We also hung out at the cabin...that was what the kids wanted to do-just hang out at the cabin and explore the "woods". (And, of course, make some more s'mores!)

On Monday we got up early and drove to Williams. There we took the Grand Canyon Railway up to the Grand Canyon. It was fun and nice to just sit back and relax on the train. They started with a little shoot out western show before we boarded and also had entertainment on the train.





The Grand Canyon is amazing! I'd seen pictures, but they just don't capture the sheer vastness of it. It goes on as far as the eye can see. We ended up with nice weather while we were there...and no wind! Glad we had the warmer clothes though because it started out really cold that morning.







The squirrels there are extremely friendly. They want people food! Its against the law to feed them, but this one found an old bun or something on the ground. As long as it was eating it was happy and you could pet it. Claire got the biggest kick out of that!



We were only there for 3 hrs. and then we had to get back on the train. The train ride back was more fun than the one up there...

We encountered train robbers along the way!





But never fear...the sheriff was on board!



When we got off the train we ate dinner at a little route 66 diner/ice cream shop. We let the kids have whatever they wanted. They both got double dips. I still can't believe Claire ate that whole thing!





That night we told Claire we had to go home the next day. She was sad. She wanted to live at the cabin!



Even though we didn't go through Sedona on the way back to phoenix the drive was still pretty. I just loved all those saguaros!



So, that's the exciting adventures of our family vacation! We all had a really good time. I was worried that the kids might not like it because it didn't involve a Disney Theme park, but they loved it! We might even have to go back again we had so much fun!

Arizona Vacation (Part 2)

To continue my vacation story...

Our Cabin was in Flagstaff. It was a great cabin. We each had our own sleeping area and 2 bathrooms! Flagstaff was very nice and had lots of stuff to do.

On Saturday we went to the Lowell Observatory. Claire is very into outer space so she enjoyed this a lot. We bought a combo ticket and went back at night for planet viewing. We saw Venus and Saturn. Saturn was pretty cool. You could see the rings and even some of its moons.




After visiting Lowell in the morning we headed out to Sunset Crater National Monument. We had a picnic in the car because it was so windy! Flagstaff was having some kind of unusual wind while we were there. We had a great view of the lava fields from the car though...



When we finished with lunch we got out to look around. The first trail we saw was the lenox crater trail. Chris read the sign. It said it was a strenuous hike. 300 ft. Only hike it if you have proper footware, etc. My first thought is "strenuous?, no thank you!" Then Claire took off running and said "let's go". I look at Chris and say, "its only 300 ft. strenuous or not I can do 300 ft!" Well, let me tell you something I learned half way up the mountain...it was not 300 ft. long. It was a 300 ft. rise in elevation! We were already at 7000 ft! And did I mention the entire mountain we were climbing was covered in loose cinders? It was like hiking up a steep mountain of gravel! And Claire ran the whole way! I had to stop a few times because I just couldn't catch my breath. Back in college I had "exertion induced athsma" which meant I'd get winded easily when exerting myself. I hadn't been bothered by it for years. I thought I'd outgrown it or something. Well, that day, on that mountain, it came back!

Claire, of course, made it to the top first. We were yelling at her to come back. We didn't know if there was a drop off or anything. She wouldn't come. She just stood there taking pictures. When we made it to her we saw what she was taking pictures of. The view was amazing. I stood there and realized God was my favorite artist of all time! It was a breathtaking (literally) view of the San Francisco Peaks.




Now, it was just an incredible sight. The pictures don't do it justice. But remember I told you it was windy that day? Yes, well, up on this mountain the cold wind was blowing about 70 mph. I swear to you...I am not exaggerating. Claire had to hold on to someone to keep from blowing away!



But we all made it and we were all so glad we did. I think this was Nathan's favorite part of the whole trip. Notice the ground. All of that black is cinders and lava. It is very loose and crumbly!




Getting down was easier than getting up, but presented a new challenge...walk too fast and you will SLIDE down the mountain! Nathan and I did this for many, many yards. Just as I was yelling to him, "I don't think I can stop!" he wiped out! He said it was the only way he could stop. As I ran/slid past him he said, "I'm ok." I yelled back, "good, because I can't stop to help you!" Finally the slope evened out a little and I was able to stop running/sliding at full speed.

If you want to know more about Sunset Crater go here:
http://www.nps.gov/sucr/index.htm

This is what the website says about the hike we took:
The Lenox Crater Trail provides an opportunity to climb a cinder cone. This steep trail is 1-mile (1.6km) round trip and requires about 30 minutes up and 15 minutes down!

Since we were still so high in elevation, it took me a while to really catch my breath after we got down. It was so worth it though! Chris and Claire both had new pairs of tennis shoes. They sure didn't look new when we came off that mountain! The cinders we were hiking on were black and dusty...so were are shoes when we were finished!



After that we drove through to Wupatki National Monument to visit some pueblo ruins. The kids really enjoyed this...especially when they could go inside one.




Found a gopher snake on the ruins...




A view from inside one of the rooms...






When we got back that night we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. The kids LOVED that!!



Claire was a little scared of the fire, but she didn't let that stop her from having a yummy, warm, gooey dessert!



I guess I'll have to post a part 3 later. I haven't even gotten to the grand canyon yet!

Arizona Vacation (Part 1)

We just had a wonderful vacation in Arizona. We flew into Phoenix and spent one night.

We explored downtown. We went to see the State Capitol building. The kids thought it was cool that we saw protestors there. They'd been hearing about them in the news.







We also went to the St. Mary's Bascillica. Its the oldest Catholic church in Phoenix. It was just beautiful!



We went to see a Diamondbacks game. It was a lot of fun...Chase field was really nice and it has a roof so the A/C felt really good in that 100 degree phoenix heat! We also got to see Lincecum pitch. That was cool...we didn't even realize we'd see him until we got there.





A funny story about the game... I had looked for weeks for discounts for tickets, but I never found any. I was planning to buy tickets at the box office for $15 each when we got there. (Actually, they were $16 each on game day.) We had a little streak of good luck. First of all, we got really close parking for only $5. When we were walking out of the lot the price went up to $10. On the back of the $10 sign was $15. I guess it goes up as you get closer to game time. Well, that was lucky for us! We talked to some scalpers. (It's legal in AZ) But they didn't have what we wanted in tickets. As we were at the ticket window some guy came up and gave us 4 free tickets! They were bleacher seats, but I didn't care if they were free! We actually had a really good view. Usually when we travel we have streaks of bad luck. It was nice to have a little good luck for a change!

The next day we drove to our cabin in Flagstaff. It sure was nice to get into cooler temperatures!!

We drove up through Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon. Both are just absolutely beautiful!

We stopped at Montezuma's Castle National Monument on the way to Sedona...






Red Rocks of Sedona:



Oak Creek Canyon. It was really cool and windy by the time we got up here. It felt really good!



Our Cabin...



The kids just LOVED staying in the cabin! They each had their own room/sleeping area in the loft. And they had the greatest time exploring the "woods" that surrounded it.

We did lots of stuff around Flagstaff and visited the grand canyon. I will have to post about those in a different post though. I don't have enough time right now.

Family Fridays

Now that I am back from vacation I hope I can blog a little more. I'm joining Family Friday today. This is a great meme, but I've been so busy lately I haven't had a chance to join in much.

My post today is about my grandma. The is her (and me when I was little).



She was a great cook. I loved going to her house to bake with her every Saturday. (That's what I'm doing in the picture.) She lived next door so I was over there a lot! One of the special memories I have of her was drinking Strawberry ice cream sodas. She always bought the Barq's strawberry soda in the glass bottles with the long necks. She'd make us ice cream sodas in her glass glasses. (at home I always drank out of a plastic cup so this really made me feel special!)

She passed away a few weeks after Chris and I were married. She had cancer and they had given her only a couple of months. I called her when I found out. While talking to her she told me she was ready to go, that she had had a great life, and she was happy she got to drink all those strawberry sodas with her grandkids! That has always stuck with me and I don't see a strawberry soda without thinking of her! On our vacation last week we ate at a little Route 66 diner in Williams, AZ and guess what was on their menu...that's right...Strawberry ice cream sodas! Of course I had one!




While I was drinking it I thought, "This one's for you, Grandma!"

Family Fridays is Hosted by Amy at Keeping up with the Schultz Family and Lori@ The Peterson Family. (I know my links aren't coming through. Sorry, I don't know how to fix it.)

Postcard Friendship Friday #49

We just got back from a wonderful vacation in Arizona. And I bought lots of postcards on our trip!! Here are 2 of them. I'll be posting more in the weeks to come for PFF. It was really a beautiful state!







Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted today by The Best Hearts Are Crunchy

Postcard Friendship Friday #48

We will be celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary on Monday so I thought I'd post a postcard of the church we were married in. Its the Corpus Christi Cathedral. It a very beautiful church!





Here's a snapshot of the altar...



I have a new printer/scanner so sorry about the pictures...I'm still learning how to use it.


Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted today by The Best Hearts Are Crunchy

Wordful Wednesday

Today I'm showcasing one of Claire's pictures.
She got a camera for Christmas and she LOVES it! She takes it everywhere. At first her pictures were really bad, but she is getting better. Here is one that she took on our last visit to the zoo. Pretty good for a 7 yr. old, I think. It was taken through glass so there is a little bit of a blur on it, but I love that she got the picture in mid-yawn!



Here it is after I cropped it...



To join in on wordful wednesday visit www.sevenclowncircus.com