Memorial Day in Flagstaff

twisted pinon and juniper trees on red mountain

Last weekend we headed west to Flagstaff. Two parents and four children, if you count Colonel the dog as a kid. Don't. That's dumb, and totally not true. He might be as much work as our other kids, but you can't put them outside when they're bad, darnit.
We got to Flagstaff Thursday night, in time to enjoy the stars and put our kids to bed in Clay and GrandMary's downstairs room. We then got to chat with Clay and Mary while admiring Clay's matted spot on the carpet where he falls asleep in front of the TV every night.
I love Clay and Mary!
On Friday we hung out with Amy's kids, fixed them crepes, introduced Colonel to Luke's tshirt, welcomed Tyler and Gina when they arrived, talked about food, made food, ate food, talked some more, welcomed my Mom and Dad, and took the kids to the climbing wall at the aquaplex, saw Amy every three hours, and went home exhausted.
We decided to be more productive on Saturday.
We went garage sailing (I can spell it like that if I want to), went on a hike to Red Mountain, ditched the kids with a bewildered teenager so we could go eat lunch at Salsa Brava, went thrift store shopping, skipped dinner, decorated for a fiesta, ate Tyler's three layer Banana cake that was for Gina's birthday, ate smores with Grandpa, went back to Clay and Mary's, gave our kids a three minute bath because they were both screaming bloody murder for some reason (Bekah stayed with Sarah the whole time, lucky girl!), put them in bed, talked with Clay and Mary, and went to bed.
Phew.
On Sunday I was determined to not miss Tyler's pancakes like I had the day before. Buttermilk pancakes with sliced bananas, brown sugar and butter that all turned caramely on the skillet. Oh my yum. Tyler totally has a thing going with bananas...a good thing. We dawdled around until church startedat one (passing time by going to the park and rescuing Luke and his shirt again from Colonel). You know how it is just so fun to have grumpy tired kids, and then dress them up in their finest clothes (whilst crying) and then take them to church! Yay! It actually wasn't too bad, especially after the kids found that Grandpa's pockets were loaded with m&ms and Beau napped through one of the talks. My kids even went to their classes, all of them! All kids in all classes! (That means Beau went to nursery. Be excited for me.)
Sunday night Amy and Mike outdid themselves by grilling us some yumma chicken, boilin' some 16cent corn on the cob, making vanilla custard ice cream, and making a fresh blueberry pie. Eating is essential, so make it good. Right? That is totally my family's motto. And Chick-fil-a's.
We went to bed that night exhausted and full.
On Monday I stretched Rus to the full extent of his manly limits by taking him to Savers (the thrift store...notice a trend?) for its mega half off sale. Sixteen bucks can buy you a lot, but don't be surprised if your hubby winds up in the van with all the kids half way through and demands a Dr. Pepper after that. We made it back to Amy's in time to load up tons of goodies, say bye to Tyler and Gina, load up Colonel, and head out to Lake Mary for some water fun and hot dogs. Really our purpose was to completely exhaust our kids and Colonel for the drive home.
It worked...too well actually, I was tired too and it has taken me days to recover from the entire weekend. But it was completely memorable and fun and I LOVE my family!