Our Arizona Mini Vacation: Sedona

On Sunday we ventured about 45 minutes south of Flagstaff to Sedona, Arizona. Now let me just start by saying, wow. I know I mentioned this in my Grand Canyon post, but seriously, I had no idea how beautiful Arizona is. It is gorgeous! The pictures I took don't even come close to doing it justice. If you want to see a better example of it's beauty, just google "Sedona, AZ" and go to the images. Everything is this deep red color accented by full, green mountains. It was awesome.

What was cool about driving from Flagstaff to Sedona was that we went from an elevation of about 7,000 feet in Flagstaff to 4,500 feet in Sedona all in a matter of 45 minutes. How did we drop that elevation you might ask? Well down a curvy, windy road on the side of a mountain, of course! Okay, so I say this was "cool" because 1. Matt loved it and 2. The views were amazing. It was actually a little less cool, though, because I'm a big weenie when it comes to curvy, windy roads on the side of mountains (let's all think back to our honeymoon in Maui now). Fortunately, this road actually had two lanes and a guard rail, but other than that it was really similar to that fateful road in Maui.

Anyway, on our way to Sedona we stopped at Slide Rock State Park, which is this awesome park with a natural red-sandstone water slide you can actually ride down. Unfortunately, though, due to a recent forest fire the slide portion of the park was closed. :( So all we got to do was look at the creek. Pretty to look at? Sure. As much fun as sliding down the creek? Heck no. So we went, we took pictures and we headed on our merry little way.

That's the creek down in the right hand corner

After our uneventful trip to Slide Rock, we drove to a little downtown area of Sedona and got out to walk around. It was a cute area with restaurants and shops and amazing views, of course.

From there we kept driving through Sedona and appreciating the amazing red rock mesas that surrounded us everywhere we looked. I can only imagine what the hiking in Sedona is like, but with a two year old in tow, we stuck to the road and scenic pull off areas.

Chapel of the Holy Cross

Next we hit up the Oak Creek Brewery for a delicious lunch and from there headed back north to our hotel. And while Ethan and I snoozed in the car (I try really hard to stay awake when Matt has to be awake to drive, but sometimes I just can't fight the tired bug!), Matt stopped on his way back up that curvy, windy road on the side of the mountain and took some more pictures.

See the road?

Then after a little downtime in the hotel room we took Ethan out to a huge playground we found to let the little guy burn some energy and run around and just generally be a kid. He loved it and totally deserved it after all the car time we put him through earlier that day.

From there we visited the Lowell Observatory, which is actually where they discovered Pluto - cool! And we got to look at the sun through a telescope - also cool!

Checking out the sun

And finally, after the observatory, we went to Beaver Street Brewery, where Matt could have a quick sampler and then we ordered carry-out and very happily headed back to the hotel room to crash. Have I mentioned that traveling with a two year old is exhausting? Haha. :) I'll be sure to finish the "Our Arizona Mini Vacation" series soon with the last post for the Meteor Crater and finally making it home after 950+ miles in the car in four days. :)

Our Arizona Mini Vacation: The Grand Canyon

For the Labor Day weekend, we decided to get out of Albuquerque and head to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon. Neither Matt nor myself had ever seen the Grand Canyon and while Matt did visit Arizona once in high school, neither of us had ever really explored Arizona. So we packed up Friday and headed out around 5pm to Flagstaff, Arizona where we stayed all three nights. Flagstaff is about 4.5 hours from Albuquerque, but that ended up being about 5.5 hours for us once we added in a few stops for food/gas/restrooms/etc. So Friday merely consisted of driving, checking into our hotel room and sleeping. Much needed sleeping.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early (literally, bright and early because silly Arizona doesn't observe daylight savings so while our bodies were saying it was 7am, it was actually 6am in Arizona). Then we grabbed a quick breakfast and headed to the Grand Canyon! Yay! Another 1.5 hours in the car and one elk sighting later and we were there and it was amazing. Just amazing. Seriously. The Grand Canyon did not disappoint. It is just so... so... grand! Haha. Sounds silly to say, but it's so true. It's just overwhelming at times. And also hard to really soak in. Unfortunately, though, Ethan wasn't really in a "let's sit and soak it in" mood (let's be real, what 2 year old ever is?), so we didn't get to spend as much time as we would've liked there, but we still probably spent a good two hours wandering around taking pictures and appreciating all the glory of the Grand Canyon. Anyway, here are just a few things I learned while visiting the Grand Canyon:

- There are bugs at the Grand Canyon. Like these really annoying little no-see-ums and then big mosquitos. And they are everywhere and they like to land on you and eat you. Yuck!

- There are squirrels at the Grand Canyon. Really bold, unafraid squirrels. And they come right up to you (especially if you're a two year old in a stroller snacking on something like goldfish or an apple).

- My son is terrified of squirrels. Especially the kind that practically jump into your lap.

Now for some pictures of the Grand Canyon, of course! You knew I couldn't go all that way and not take hundreds of pictures, right?? But don't worry, I edited it down to just my favorites. :)

Somebody is excited and ready to go!

Gorgeous yellow fields - I had no idea how pretty Arizona is!

I'd like to say this is after we wore him out at the Grand Canyon, but nope, this is actually headed to the Grand Canyon. Just a little morning nap!

Oh just an elk. Chilling.

"Excuse me, sir, but may I have some of those delicious goldfish?" Cue Ethan's panic attack.

 

It's like "Where's Waldo?" but instead it's "Where's Matt?" See him? He's there. And yes, he's crazy for climbing down there.

We stopped at the airport to watch some of the Grand Canyon helicopter tours take off - Ethan, of course, loved it. :)

Gorgeous views during our drive home

Seriously, I thought Arizona was a desert, I had no idea it was so lush and green!

So after all that fun at the Grand Canyon on Saturday, we went back to Flagstaff and just relaxed for the evening. We walked around Old Town Flagstaff and had dinner at a local brewery - the first of three we stopped at, of course. :) All-in-all our first full day in Arizona was definitely a success and I think enough for one blog post. I'll be sure to follow-up with "Our Arizona Mini Vacation: Sedona" soon! :)

Ethan's Birthday Party

So this past Saturday we threw a little Mickey-themed birthday party for Ethan. We went to the big park on base and just grilled hot dogs and then had cupcakes. It was a really simple party, but I think everyone had a nice time. Matt and I made Mickey cupcakes and then we had Mickey balloons and all the favors for the kids were Mickey-themed. Ethan loved it - especially the balloons. That kid loves balloons, so balloons with Mickey Mouse on them were just amazing. He didn't tear up his cupcake this year, but that's okay, he had fun running around the playground and playing with his friends and getting to open up his presents. It was so fun to see his reactions to all the gifts and just the party in general - he was just so happy, which in turn always makes me happy. :)

Mickey Mouse cupcakes

Mickey!

Ethan and his friend, Paxton

Love my handsome baby boy (and yes, he picked off the Oreos and didn't eat them)

Blowing out his candle

After the party, we gave Ethan his big gift from us - a Radio Flyer balance bike! Matt brought it in from outside and I took pictures of Ethan's reaction to seeing the bike. Love love love his little eyes glowing in the first one - he was SO excited. Too bad the bike is just a little too big for him right now. :( His toes just barely touch the ground. Oh well, something to grow into! :)

A place to call home

Saturday night we hopped in the car and drove to Clovis. It was my second trip and Matt's first. It was about 2 hours into the 3+ hour trip we both decided we never ever needed to make the trip at night ever again, just for fear of breaking down in the really really REALLY dark desert with no cell service and no other cars in sight. I mean, that's the stuff horror films are made of! Fortunately, though, we did not break down - whew! So Saturday night we stayed on base and then Sunday morning we woke up bright and early to go check out another potential house.

I found the house on Monday after a VERY unfortunate debacle with a Remax house for rent - they said they accepted cats, we paid $100 to apply for the house, they said, oops we don't accept cats, we fought for our $100 back, which they didn't want to give us - fruuuustrating, but as usual, I digress. Oh, and we did eventually get our $100 back. But back to the verbena! So Monday around 2pm I found this cute house in a great neighborhood right in our budget - and best of all?? It was pet friendly! Hooray! Turns out the owner was renting it herself and had listed it at 10am that day! I was the first one to reach out and she was so nice she agreed to hold the house for us until we could come view it over the weekend - awesome! So off we went to Clovis!

Fortunately, the house looked as good in person as it did in the pictures, so we said yes! It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms with a great outdoor space. Nice flat green grass perfect for Ethan to run around barefoot. It has a fireplace, two car garage and pretty granite counter tops. It's nothing luxurious, but it is exactly what we need for the next three years. Oh and the owner isn't moving out until mid-September so our lease doesn't start until October 1st, which is just fantastic because at the rate Matt's training is going we probably won't be out of here until October 1st at the earliest and that means we don't have to pay for an empty house in Clovis that we're not even living in. Yay yay yay! It really did work out great for us and we're excited to have one more box checked off in preparation for our move to Clovis. :)

Where we'll call home for the next three years

Happy birthday, Ethan!

Today is our baby boy's 2nd birthday. Two years. Wow. Sometimes it doesn't seem possible that two years have passed by since we were blessed with our little amazing Ethan John. What an amazing two years they have been, too. Watching him grow from a little infant to the strong, smiley, full-of-personality little boy he is today has been the most amazing experience of my life. Not a day goes by that he doesn't surprise me with a new skill or talent, a new strength, a new word he's learned, a new understanding he's grasped. Have I said amazing too much? Because he is just that - amazing. I feel blessed every day of my life for him and can't wait to see what he will learn next, or better yet, what he will teach me.

My jugglers

As most of you know, Matt juggles. It's a pretty sweet talent and one that I've known of since the first time we hung out (8.5 years ago - yikes!) since he brought juggling balls with him and proceeded to juggle for me in my college apartment. Ahh, memories. Anyway, fast forward to today and as you can imagine, Ethan loooves when his Daddy juggles for him. The word "juggle" was in his vocabulary before the word "banana." Well, technically, he still won't say banana, but that's neither here nor there. The point is, Ethan loves to watch Matt juggle. It took him awhile to figure out Mommy can't juggle, as he used to bring balls to me (when Matt wasn't home) and say, "Mommy juggle!" To which I had to sadly explain, Mommy isn't as cool as Daddy and can't juggle.

So the other day we took Ethan to the playground and Matt decided to take his juggling stuff and juggle for Ethan. Of course, the little guy loved it and was running around picking up balls and clubs and throwing them in the air saying, "Juggle!" trying to be like his Daddy. I'm guessing it's only a matter of time before Matt is actually teaching Ethan to juggle, but for now, the throwing things into the air works just fine for Ethan.

I looove this picture :)