As previously mentioned our clan spent a week in the beautiful red rock country of Sedona. We love Sedona! We stay at a nice kid friendly resort with swimming, mini golf, play ground and special activities. It is a nice home away from home, only with more stuff than our home has to offer, so really it is an awesome home away from home.
On Sunday we showed up for church to find an empty parking lot. Lucky for the kids I had my Gospel Doctrine manual and we could have a lesson in the grass. While we were there a very nice older couple also on vacation came and sat in the grass and had a little mini church meeting with us. They were so sweet and shared many wonderful stories and great knowledge with our family. We will always remember this experience and the impact they had on our family.
The thing we love the most about Sedona is hiking. It was warmer then we were hoping so we tried to go on hikes that stayed close to water. We went on five different hikes this trip and once again sealed our love for nature and Gods creations in our hearts and minds.
FYI: I know you know that the camera puts on about ten pounds well this particular one that I was using puts on an extra 12 1/2 pounds exactly. I have no idea what is wrong with the stupid camera, TUTT, TUTT.
Here are some high lights of our trip......
MY LB's sister Kosette and her friend Matt came to visit us. They are such a fun couple and the kids loved spending time with them.
Junior Rangers, any time you are at a national, state or county park you should ask about their Junior Ranger program. The kids have gone through the program in a few different places in Arizona and have had a great time doing it.
Submarine rock was the unplanned hike. We had one good over cast day and decided to make the best of it and go on a new hike that we hadn't tried before. Half way through the hike there was trail leading to Submarine Rock, as soon as Spencer saw it he said, "I am going to the top of it". So, that's what we did, it was a long hike and we didn't have a lot of water but the kid was determined. Thankfully, we traveled back from the hike via a Pink Jeep route, so there was a road straight to the truck in the parking lot. This hike is where we picked up our tadpoles, perfect for Maggie's life cycle studies.
We attended a free concert that was absolutely amazing. This man made flutes and produced beautiful music inspired by nature. Spencer really took to it and spent all of his summer reading money on a flute and music, he practices daily.
We also visit the Flagstaff Arboretum, it is a botanical garden of sorts, smack dab in the middle of the forest. We are studying plants for group science right now and man were we on our game. I think we had a few things that we could teach them. Matthew retains everything and knows everything so he makes tours extremely fun (not really). Spencer expressed a new interest in herbs and was very obsessive in the matter.
There was an animal encounter at the Arboretum, someone who works for the forest service and rescues hurt animals came with some critters to show us and talk about. Matthew has his mind set on being a Falconer and had many questions about the birds of prey. The best part had to be seeing my kids hold and pet a skunk like it was a cat. I could not believe it! This was as close as I have ever been to a skunk, the man received the skunk when it was 2 weeks old and domesticated it. It was not de-stinktified yet!
Our hikes took us to great heights this time around, we experienced many great and educational sights, found the best swimming hole ever, conquered Submarine Rock, dug a little bit deeper, pushed a lit bit harder and let nature fill us all the way to the brim with gratitude for this beautiful Earth the Lord has blessed us with.
