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.

The Top 10 of our Trip- #6

6. Slide Rock
 This event was probably the most exciting for the family.  There is a state park called Slide Rock very close to Sedona.  There is a small river that runs through lots of rocks, creating some natural slides and lots of rock drop offs to jump from.  Water Shoes are a must.  Without them, you WILL slip and fall.  Even with them it is easy to fall.  Chris fell once and landed on his elbow.  He developed Bursitis from it and still has a HUGE bruise a week and a half later.  (we also spent a good portion of our anniversary at Urgent Care to get it checked out)  Besides the slipping and falling, everyone had a blast!

Sun Bathing.  The water was COLD!!

Sliding

Small Jumping

Tall Jumping

So proud of G here!

Elia and Chris jumped from the rock later, as did I.  It was scary, and COLD!  But so, so fun.

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...

Fun Weekend

Somehow weekends are even sweeter now that I'm back to work.  Its not that I didn't enjoy them before but we seem to squeeze in as much as possible these days.  Friday we went to Fuzzy's with my teacher friend Lindsey and her husband and baby (the one I subbed for last year, she is almost 1!).  Fuzzy's was having a one year celebration for being in business in Carrollton, and everythng was $1!  Everytime we drive by Fuzzy's the girls ask if we can go there so you can imagine their excitement over getting to go.

Saturday morning we went to our hiking park and ran errands.  Saturday night my cousin Meghan babysat the girls so Chris and I could go meet Sam and John to see a movie.  Girl with a Dragon Tattoo was sold out, so we went out to a bar instead.  Seriously fun!  Whenever we get together we always have our kids with us (which is fun!) but it was nice to get out and be adults together.

Then Sunday was the usual- cartoons, being lazy and then church.
 

 

Then Uncle Patrick, Matt and Sarah came over to watch the football game.  There was quite a lot of shouting and liveliness with the 49ers losing, and of course G and E thought it was a little scary but mostly hilarious.  We ended the weekend with some ice cream and whipped cream.  Yum!