Top 10 of our Trip- # 9

9. Extreme Flagstaff
Ziplines, rope crawls, and swinging from tree to tree is what this place was all about.  I sat this one out too, and the cousins had lots of fun cheering on their grandpa, uncles, and aunts!

Love this one of Aunt Becky!

Gabby watching Aunt Sarah

They hadn't seen each other in like, 15 minutes.  What a reunion.

Top 10 of our Trip- #7

7. Brother and Uncle Bonding
It just seems that there is not enough testosterone in our house.  Not that Chris is lacking ANY; but a mom, 2 girls and a female dog lead to a lot more My Little Pony, dress up, and tea parties than crazy boy stuff that I know Chris craves sometimes. He had been looking forward to doing an overnight trip with his brothers and Vince like last year.  Instead of an overnight, they decided to do an all day creek swim/walk.  With the dogs too.  First time that Daria went swimming, and Chris said she held her own pretty well next to Vince and Mikey's dogs.
Elia also flirted and played with her uncles all trip.  We have even had to call them on the phone so she could say hi since we got back.  Gianna, and of course Phoebe and Gabby, always enjoy their uncles too.

They found tiny frogs on their creek walk.

Elia told Danny he is her favorite, in front of Patrick who has put in a  LOT of time in Dallas.
He took it in stride though.

Here we are waiting to get into Salsa Brava, which is a DDD restaurant.

Top 10 of our Trip- # 3

3. Hikes.
I am in LOVE with mountains.  They are so beautiful and so fun to climb.  We started the climb up Mount Humphries, which is the left most peak in the picture that shows Uncle Dave's view from his porch.  The peak is at 12,000 feet, and we made it to 10,000.  Chris got altitude sickness so we had to get down, pronto.  The hike up and down the mountain is 10 miles round trip and we did 6 miles round trip.  Not bad for us being out of shape!
Later in the week some of us girls went into Sedona and climbed Bell Rock.  It is basically a huge rock in the shape of a bell.

A before Picture

One of the many beautiful views

Taking a break.  Our pup was a champ going up and down that mountain.

Before Picture

Everywhere we looked there was a beautiful view!

Last pic we took before we went down.
We were getting nervous about that storm rolling in- you can see it in the top left corner.

Camping in CO Photo Dump 2

The day before we left, we went on a hike near our campsite.  There was a trailhead just a 2 minute walk away.

Dead trees from that beetle

Elia being the trail leader.  That is definitely an action shot of me looking for
Poison Oak, which thank the good Lord we did not touch any!

Chis switched out little girls in the 1 backpack so they could go longer.

Near a beautiful waterfall.

My pretty pretty little girl.

I found a recipe on pinterest on how to make just 2 cupcakes and Grandma found a tutorial
online on how to bake cake in hollowed out oranges.  Happy Birthday to Chirs!

Chris ate one bite and the girls devoured the rest!

Leaving our camp, this is the view.  Gorgeous!

Boy's Overnight

Uncle Vince, Chris and the Rowles boys did a 24 mile hike while we were out in CO. There was a trailhead closeby so they set out early Wednesday morning and hiked 9 miles. They woke up early Thursday and hiked around and back another15 and back to meet us at camp around dusk. It rained most of the day on Thursday so they were super cold. They radioed us an hour before they got to camp so we could start to boil water for their showers. Although it was hard work, CHris had a fabulous time.

Aunt Jenny and Phoebe helped drop them off at the trailhead.

 

 

Some og these views are just breathtaking!

Camping in CO Photo Dump 1

This car was packed!

Hot chocolate, the only and best way to start the day!

Hanging with cousins

Watching for bears

Cousin Love

Probably my 2 fave action pics

Fishing

Telling scary stories!

Family Picture by the fire

Bug hunt in our jammies.

More to come...

Giant's Game

Chris and 3 of his brothers went to the game tonight. Before they left, we got a pic of them in their fan gear. The cousins were dressed too, even though they stayed away from the chilly San Fran air for the night.