Arizona Trip (Wordless Wednesday)

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Landscapes of Arizona

We just got back from a fun escape-the-winter trip to Sedona, Arizona. It was lovely. We went hiking nearly every day, visited an old mining town, and relaxed. With the weather in the low 50s, it was perfect for hiking, a bit chilly for our swimming (we did it anyway), and so refreshing.

Sedona's a bit of a strange town, with artsy folks mixing with new age spiritualists. I don't think most of them knew what to make of a family our size, but they were nice to us anyway. On one popular hike, with DH carrying Harmony in the backpack and taking the lead, and myself following as the caboose, we got quite a few comments from every single hiker that passed. I reassured them, "this is the last of us" as their mouths gaped open and they started asking me, "How many? Where are you from?" and "Do you ever sleep?"

With my new camera in tow, I got some awesome photos. And for once, I wasn't the only one taking photos. Lillian and especially Joseph both carried our old digital cameras, snapping up photos left and right. Some of them are pretty good, and I'm cheering inside because I know that for once I might be included in a photo or two from our trip.

I still need to get all the photos on my computer, and I'll post some of our family later, but in the meantime, here are some lovely landscapes from Arizona's red rock country:

Hiking at Red Rock Crossing near sunset was so beautiful.
The trees and river made me feel like I was in a fairy land:

One great thing about Sedona is that the town is set right in the middle of the most beautiful scenery, with beautiful views all over town. Yet just minutes away, you can take a hike and leave it all behind. Though a couple of the trails we chose were crowded, others were nearly deserted.

We stopped at Glen Canyon dam and got a great view of Lake Powell on the way down:

And went to the Grand Canyon on the way back:

Without visiting, it's really hard to get a feel for just how huge this canyon is. I think this photo puts it in perspective.

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The Desert in Bloom (nearly Wordless Wednesday)

It was hot in Arizona, though the locals told us we were blessed to come during a "cooler week." Every day the temperature reached 100 degrees. We planned well, doing our activities and hiking in the mornings, resting in the afternoons, and swimming in the evenings.

Before we went, I really questioned if I wanted to go hang out in the heat. But afterwards, I'm just so thankful that I didn't miss the desert in bloom. I was amazed everywhere by all the flowers. I hadn’t realized cactus plants could bloom so prolifically or so beautifully. The saguaro blooms were particularly stunning, and even somewhat odd -- many of the blooms made the cactus look like Gumby with gnarly hair.

I also enjoyed the dramatic skies against the desert landscape.

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Arizona Vacation, part 1

Now that I've dug myself out of some of the mess around here, and at least one room in my house is clean, and I'm no longer about to pounce on anyone who uses the "v" word, I'm sure you're dying to hear a blow-by-blow account of our trip.

Things like:

the beautiful drive down,

the sunset view in Page, Arizona the first night

the beautiful Indian ruins at Wupatki,
the beauty of Sunset Crater

how grateful I am for those nifty pull-down DVD screens in our clunker of a van (we watched Care Bears: Big Wish movie at least 3 times, to the delight of three little girls and the groans of 3 older kids. We know the songs by heart now.)


how some of the kids were so rotten at the Challengar Space Center that we considered selling them on Ebay (totally kidding! well, at least about Ebay, we'd probably get more interest on Craigslist.).

how all of the kids were so well-behaved at an Italian pizza restaurant that the server told us they were the best kids he'd ever seen.

the day we had lunch at Costco and created quite a stir, with the people around us staring and nodding their heads counting our children. The lady next to me said it made her so happy to see us, because she'd been so sad about Jon and Kate splitting up and there we were, a happy family. She watched us like we were our own reality show as we tossed hot dogs, churros and pizza at all the kids.

And of course, how we were MUCH more successful at hunting rocks than hunting lizards, despite our best efforts. The rocks ended up in our rock garden, while the lizards are still laughing at us back in Arizona.


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There were, of course, many other great memories, including an amazing story involving a blogging friend, but I need to go make dinner for the kids and get some more cleaning done. Stay tuned!

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