Top 10 of our Trip- # 8

8. Bearizona
This place was just like Fossil Rim, but with carnivorous animals as well.  A baby white buffalo had been born that morning, so that was really fun to watch all the big buffalo help the little guy walk on wobbly legs.  Bearizona was also a huge hit with the kiddos.  Afterwards, there was a bird show where we got some great pictures.

New baby!

Love this action shot!

This is a great video of a bear taking a bath and then walking right past our car!

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.

Top 10 of our Trip- #5

5. Sedona

We went to Sedona 3 days in a row.  One to hike, one to do Slide Rock, and then Chris and I spent our anniversary there!  This part of Arizona is breathtaking, and I think it is my favorite of the whole trip.

Mansion with an amazing backyard 

Mother and Child Rock 

Our Anniversary, 7 years!  Bell Rock in the background

Top 10 of our Trip- #4

4. Spelunking
This was definitely not a top on my list, but the girls LOVED it, and after all this blog is for them, right?  We decided to do an all family hike, and Aunt Jenny found this "kid-friendly" hike that is about a mile round trip through a cave.  Ya'll, I am claustrophobic.  I've never really had a chance to get over my fear of small spaces because, well, I just don't go in caves, small places or even my beloved StL arch.  When we parked, I thought I could muster up the courage to go in there with the girls.  They were so excited about it, and kept talking about finding crystals etc.

This is the opening of the cave.  This picture does not lie.  Would you go in there?

Apparently, the entrance is the hardest part of the whole hike, and most of the cave was pretty open afterwards.  I could not go in.  I cried  tried, but I just couldn't do it!  So I sort of hiked around the area while my babies walked further and further into the death-trap cave.  They all came out safely and they loved it all!  So glad they could have fun.

Inside.  See?  Not scary!

Emerging.  Did I mention it was 30 degrees in there?

Later that day, I took Daria out for a run through my Uncle's gorgeous neighborhood and almost got mauled by 2 neighbor dogs.  I think that was just not my day.  But hey, I'll take one bad day among 9 glorious other days!!

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.

Top 10 of our Trip- #2

2. The Grand Canyon
It is so stinking beautiful.  Its a little different seeing it with kiddos, though.  Sometimes you just aren't so sure the railings are going to hold, or that they aren't going to run away and slip off!  But everyone made it safely back to their cars.

That is Chuck's finger up top.
G was holding me so tight in this pic!

My little poser.

Top 10 of our trip #1

So a little back story...
Back in January when I went to my dear grandfather's funeral, I was talking to my wonderful, eccentric uncle Dave.  He is the youngest brother of my mom, and of course was always the favorite uncle of ours.  A few years ago at Colleen's wedding he suggested the idea of house swapping and we talked about it again at the funeral.  We sort of came up with a plan for him to stay at my in-laws house in Napa while we all stayed at his house in Flagstaff!  So that will start off my list.

1. Uncle Dave's house.
Honestly, I think we got the better end of the deal.  He has a beautiful house with a porch that overlooks the mountains and 4 acres with a small zip-line, playground, sand box, and a small Frisbee golf course.  (not that my in-laws house isn't awesome, tho)

View from the porch

Backyard

Front of his house, with all of us crammed on the stairs!

Top 6 of Our StL Trip

I could probably make this into 3 or 4 posts, but I just don't have the time! Enjoy my top 6 of the wonderful trip we had!!

1. The Arch and the Zoo. I opted out of the arch field trip. Been there, done that. It is soooo claustrophobic. In fact, a few days after they went, one of the elevators got stuck in there for a few hours and there is NO A/C! Someone had a panic attack while they were stuck in there. But I'm glad Chris took Gianna with Megan and Craig. Afterwards, they met us at the zoo. Elia was hilarious. Everytime she saw a new animal, she would point to herself and say he wike me!! (as in, he likes me!)

"He wike me!!!!"

Grandparent love:

2. Cousin Love. Our visit overlapped with Megan and Craig for 4 days, so it was great seeing them again!

Always, always eating!

3. Hanging out with the marrieds. I don't have any pictures of the adults together, but I'll just say it was really fun to hang out with everyone. Ryan was away at camp, so it was the 4 couples together for a night at the bars, then after Megan and Craig left, the 3 couples went out to dinner sans kiddos, and then once Chris left, there was lots of me and ColleenandBobbyandTomandShannon time. So fun.

4. Road Trip to Milwaukee. My mom and I last minute decided to drive the 6 hours up there. My grandparents are in assisted living and I haven't seen them for 2 years, so it was absolutely wonderful to go up there and see them. Gianna and Elia were such a hit there, all of my grandparents friends just ogled and ogled.

We stopped at a McDs and took some random pics. The girl were obsessed with the double pay phone!

We met some of my cousins at my grandparents home. Here we all are!

On our way back, we randomly stopped because Elia was screaming "Crackers!! I want crackers!" over and over and we couldnt get her to stop screaming! We were 50 miles outside of StL and I wish we could have just kept going, but we didnt. We pulled up to a random hotel (that had a bar! with crackers!!!) and my mom freaked out because this was the same hotel she had stopped at 4 years ago on her way home from seeing her parents. She pulled over because I had called her that morning to tell her I was in labor and she wanted to check on me. So this was the hotel she had stopped at to hear the wonderful news that her first grand daughter was born!! Full circle, I tell you.

This was the only pic taken at the hotel courtyard.

5. Sleepover at Aunt Shanny's. Its always fun to hang out with Shan. But its even more fun when we get to sleep over and have pizza and cupcakes!

We went to Jilly's first to get the cupcakes.

And had lots of Elmo time:

We ended the night with Kung Fu Panda. This pic was hilariously posed!

6. Hanging out at my childhood home. Kirkwood, MO is seriously the best place to raise a family. We went to parks and the pool and hung out at my house for the rest of the week. My dad and Gianna filled up the bird feeder and bonded over the bird book. It was really sweet!

See ya'll next time! xoxo