Sedona with the Dries kids

A beginning-of-summer trip at the end of May took us to Flagstaff. Amy was only weeks away from having a baby, but she was still working, and her kids had just gotten out of school. We headed over to provide entertainment, food, and transportation. We enjoyed watching American Ninja Warrior (Dries-Style - exercising for the duration of each commercial), fell in love with Mike's pizza from his recently built outdoor adobe pizza oven (Mmm...), made cookie bars and no bake cookies and enchiladas, went swimming at the Aquaplex...

The most exciting part of the week was when we went to Red River Crossing in Sedona. It was a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL place, with enough crawdads inhabiting the river to completely occupy our half-day visit.

Here is Bekah with her first catch:

Luke and Joshua were definitely the experts.

The river in this spot was shallow, with red rock at the base, making for smooth, easy traversing and playing. Look at that scenery! It felt a little like paradise!

After a while we moved a little farther up river to a spot that was much deeper. There was still a lot of crawdad hunting in addition to swimming and sea shell collecting.

The highlight of Joshua's day was when he successfully found, tracked, and caught this snake! It was, and I quote, "the best day of my life," according to Joshua.

The whole crew a few minutes before we left. The bucket Jacob is holding contained a few choice crawdads that the kids were determined to take home and cook. Which we did. They did not "scream" like lobster, (Bekah was disappointed), and only a few kids were brave enough to actually try them. (I think it was just me, Luke, and Joshua.) 

Camping in Water Canyon

Rus and I have a goal to take our kids backpacking at least twice this summer. We want to do actual backpacking - where the kids each have their own pack with their own sleeping bag and supplies, and we hike in 1-2 miles to camp. We realize we have to build up to this, so we were happy to try out the packs and tents and new supplies we've acquired on an overnight car-camping trip. We were especially happy to go when our friends the Winter family asked if we would camp with them. After much consideration (based on weather), we decided on the Water Canyon campground south west of Socorro. It took under 2 hours to get to, it was beautiful, and while it was slightly windy, it didn't get too cold. We brought dinner and the Winters brought breakfast. We were sad Tim's wife and their youngest daughter weren't able to come because the daughter was sick, but we were grateful that Tim was still up for bringing his other two kids. Madelyn is 12 and is very patient and sweet with Bekah, and Andrew is Jacob's age and is a goofy, smart, loud, fun kid. Jacob has a great time with him. We also brought Colonel and the Winters brought their dog Bauer. (Jack Bauer).

 Of course we had to have a fire. Jacob was eager to light it himself, and he did well.

 We had hot dogs and bratwurst and chips and watermelon, with pineapple upside down cake in the dutch oven for dessert. Then Tim brought smores stuff and scotcheroos and we were totally set.
Bekah and Beau slept in a little two man tent, Rus, Marianne and I slept in our new three man dome tent, and Jacob slept out under the stars in a bivvy sack. Tim brought the Taj Mahal - a 10 man tent that could have fit all the other tents inside of it. He and Madi slept there, and Andrew slept out with Jacob. Marianne woke up in the night needing to pee but was overwhelmed by the wind and refused to go. She slept okay the rest of the night; I just had to occasionally pull her back up to the top of her sleeping bag because she would get lost down inside of it. Beau went to bed nervous about bears, and he must have had a bad dream because he woke up at one point screaming that he had heard a bear. It was not the quietest night. But my mattress pad - a new inflatable REI "Flash" pad was terrific and I slept warm and happy. Our tent was great too - no built up moisture but not cold or drafty. And it held up in the wind just fine.
Thankfully Tim is a morning person and he got after breakfast in the morning...potatoes, sausage, eggs, tortillas, and even hot cocoa. Rus and I tried out our new jet boil stove and we were super impressed - boiling water in under 2 minutes!
We ate, explored, built an ax with Jacob, and then later with Beau, packed up our stuff, and headed a short ways down the road for a hike up the canyon. Here is Jacob, so happy with his ax!

 Beau was the most impressively geared kid. He brought his explorer vest and then loaded it down with his canteen, survival kit, and ax. He is also wearing his plastic "Fun Police" helmet that his teacher gave him, which was a permanent fixture on his head the entire trip.

 Water canyon actually had water running down it! Yay!

The kids really enjoyed clambering up rocks onto steep looking ledges. Can you spy Jacob and Andrew?

The best part of the hike was when we came to the prettiest spot and all of the kids took to building dams in the small stream. We had dams, water filtration systems, small villages, and even a few sail boats.

 

The men were able to relax in the shade, the kids played, and I played too, making my own little dam and village that the Winter's dog Jack Bauer later destroyed. (Ironic, no?)

When it was time to start hiking again we gave all of the kids dum dums to get them going again. Can you believe they have crazy new mystery flavors? Andrew was ecstatic to get one that was bacon flavored, while Madi was disappointed multiple times by buttered popcorn flavors.

When we got back to the vans we drove a short ways to a day use area with picnic tables. It was a beautiful area again with huge trees, a meadow, and a shaded picnic table. Bauer caught, killed, and mangled a skink and the boys were happy to do a little forensic science. We ate, played mad libs, quoted "So I married an axe murderer" and old rock songs, finished the scotcheroos, and finally decided it was time to get back on the road. I enjoyed the warm sun and losing sense of time and track of my cell phone. It was a great departure from regular life. We were so happy that the Winter family came with us!

Rus turns 96

Rus had a birthday a couple of weeks ago. He planned to go for a bike ride, but the weather was kind of nasty - windy, cloudy, imminent rain. Instead we went shopping and he got a bunch of stuff for biking. He was planning to start riding a portion of the continental divide trail the next weekend with his brother and brother in law, so he needed some gear for that. (He has wanted to traverse the continental divide trail for a very long time!)

He wanted to have a low key birthday at home and invite his brother Jacob and his family over for dinner. And he wanted me to make him ribs, which I have never attempted before. He tasked Jacob with the near impossible task of finding Henry Weinhart root beer. He came through and even brought cream soda. The ribs turned out okay - I would have liked them to be more tender, but Rus liked them. I made him a sourdough chocolate birthday cake, and it was actually really good! (No sourdough flavor at all.) Marianne really wanted to put number candles on his cake and these were the only ones we had...so Rus turned 96!

 o

He looks really good for an old guy!

We ate, we talked, we told stories and laughed...Rus got spoiled and fed. I love this bearded man. I want another fifty birthdays with him, at least.
He is, after all, my favorite.

Bearizona

Amy had passes to Bearizona, which incidentally is not "Bareizona," which I think would make a great name for an Arizonan nudist colony.

Anyway. We were super excited to go check out the wildlife at Bearizona.

 We got to ride in a big bus with large open windows. Many of the animals could come right up to the bus. Here is Mikey and Marianne looking out at...something.

There was a bear cub village with at least a half a dozen bear cubs. They were adorable to watch climb around.

 I really loved seeing the white buffalo because there was a baby buffalo. It was interesting to see the adult buffalo protect the baby. The adults formed a line to keep the baby away from the bus. The driver said that when the momma was having her baby, she actually labored in the middle of the road. The other adults made sure no person or vehicle got close.

 I love the curl on this ram.

 After the drive, we sat down for a bird show. Bekah and Sarah somehow wrangled seats on the front row. When Amy and I saw them sitting up there, Amy said, "They ask for a volunteer for this show. I bet they'll pick Bekah." And they did! She had to sit up front, pretending to be a mouse, blindfolded, and squeak if she heard the great horned owl fly over. The owl has supposedly silent flight, but Bekah heard it before it landed. I knew she had supersonic (albeit selective) hearing!

 I loved the bird show! There was a part of the show where the birds would fly right over head to perches behind the audience. I think it was the hawk that loved flying super low. If you crouched down to avoid it, it would crouch even lower. I loved the look on Jacob's face when a wing brushed the top of his head. He was elated!

It was a great adventure! Thank you Amy!

Petrified Forest

On our way to Flagstaff awhile ago, we drove through the Petrified Forest National Park. It was WINDY. But it was also beautiful, and not cold, so we endured the wind.

Here are the kids in front of the painted desert.

 And here is proof that I was with them...We were on a trail that took us through what would have once been a grand forest. Now there is a sea of petrified tree trunk remains.

 Don't these children look like best friends? Like they never fight? Like they all want to be in the same picture together and no one has to be first to see the next cool log/rock/whatever?
Oh how pictures can lie...and honestly I'm grateful they do sometimes.

 I don't remember why Beau is making a face here. But checkout the size of that log!

 And I was super impressed with how LONG and intact this trunk was. It made a great bridge for Marianne to walk on.

It was a good little hike. The kids really were good, and I'm grateful we were able to take this detour.

Grand Falls

When we were in Flagstaff over a month ago visiting Amy, she took us to see Grand Falls, a truly hidden gem. There are no signs to Grand Falls. It's on the reservation and I would think that they didn't want anyone to see it if it weren't for the few scattered picnic tables nearby. 

Amy showed me pictures of Grand Falls a few years ago: powerful, wide, muddy water falls that looked somewhat "grand" yet in my mind I only pictured them being dozens of feet high. 

Imagine my surprise to see how truly Grand they are. I write this, knowing that you won't understand from these pictures the scale. Because I didn't.

Grand Falls are only "grand" and "falling" twice a year during spring runoff or monsoon season. The rest of the year they are a dry wash. They were running a few weeks before we got there, but by the time we made the trip the water had trickled down so it was pooled in muddy puddles with only a small stream actually making it down and over the ledge.

We approached the Falls from the top, which meant some resourceful searching for solid ground in a semi-dry riverbed while avoiding the sticky squelching mud that was everywhere.

Sometimes we weren't successful. Like when the mud ate Beau's shoe and I had to rescue it for him.

As I said, I didn't understand that the falls were NOT just a few dozen feet high. They were actually a couple of hundred feet high. So I didn't understand Amy's concern that the boys (Luke, Joshua and Jacob), had gone ahead to the top of the falls - they were basically hiking to the edge of a cliff. I finally grasped this when I looked ahead and saw the boys scaling a wall to the left of the river bed. From my vantage point, it looked like they were climbing a wall that hung precariously over a vast drop off. I snatched up Marianne and carefully - because the riverbed looked like this:

ran ahead to make sure the boys weren't going to fall and die.

It turned out that the wall they were on was not over the edge of the falls, and I was grateful for their safety as well as my own heightened awareness of how high up we really were. 

Here is my view from the top of the falls:

And if you were to stand across the canyon and look at the falls, this is what you would see: See the picnic table on the top of the black ledge on the right of the picture? We were on the ledge in the center of the picture.

The kids enjoyed playing around the various pools of water.

I was worried about Marianne until she decided to sit and make a mud cake with Amy. They sat there for the duration of our visit and I was free to keep an eye on the other kids and take pictures.

Beau joined in her efforts, too, bringing her mud for her cake.

Beau found a cool "bridge" that went across two pools.

Beau and Luke enjoyed finding long sticks and using them to measure the depths of the pools. Some were only a few feet deep and some were seemingly bottomless. I irrationally worried about them falling into the deep ones, as though the depth had anything to do with their ability to swim to the top. Luckily we never had to test the theory and everyone remained relatively dry.

Except Bekah. 

Bekah always immerses herself fully in any experience. If she is painting, she'll have paint from head to toe. If she is baking, she and the kitchen will be dusted with flour. If she is watering plants, she'll be wet, and if there is mud on the ground it will also be all over her. I don't think she can help herself.

See?

"Joshua! Jump over this pool so I can get a picture!"

When we were done playing we hiked back up the riverbed to the van and then we drove around to the opposite side of the canyon. Amy stayed with some of the kids while Joshua, Luke, Beau and I hiked to the bottom of the canyon, the base of the falls. Can you see us?

When we got back to the top we loaded up and headed home. They side of the dirt road we were on had these whoop-de-whoops that the ManVan just had to conquer. The kids loved them. Amy opted to get out of the van to take pictures of us. She might have said that I was the worst driver ever and if I were Mike she would have punched me. But all of the kids objected and said I wasn't bad at all.

I thought these little hills were great fun! Forwards, reverse, fast and slow, we did it all!

Thank you for a Grand adventure, Amy!

Tea Party with Cutesy and Grandad!

My mom got the cutest dishes from IKea for a tea party. She's had them for a few months, and all it took was letting the girls get a glimpse of them, and suddenly a tea party was in the works. Mom and Marianne and Bekah went to Walmart and picked up delicious sweets like animal cookies, sherbet, mangoes and strawberries, whipped cream and mini Reese's cups. And of course there was orange juice and Gatorade for the tea cups. It was the most adorable table I've ever seen.