3rd annual Flagstaff trip

We left for Flagstaff Saturday morning and unfortunately, due to traffic, we didn't get there until late afternoon.  We went straight to Sunset Crater to go on a little hike.

If you ever wonder what in the world it means when I say "soak it up", this is what it looks like:

I'm lagging behind, watching the kids enjoy being outside and listening them talk to their daddy and taking in the glorious views and soaking it all up.

After checking into our hotel and grabbing some dinner, we spent the evening at our favorite park.

We started Sunday with a hike at Fat Man's Loop.  I had read a great recommendation for this hike...I thought I read that this trail had lots of toads and I told the kids that we were going to catch some (seeing creatures motivates them to go farther on hikes)...we talked about and looked for toads the entire time and it wasn't until we were back at the car that I realized that I had the wrong trail.  Oops. We still had a great time and saw a snake!

Flagstaff was all over the place in temperature; it would swing from 50's to 80's.  We started the hike off chilly, but quickly the sun came out and the hike was much steeper than we thought and we began to sweat.  Desperate times means the boys took off their shirts.

We didn't make it around the loop, which is a bummer.  It was a little more challenging than we were anticipating and a storm was rolling in, so we stopped midway for a picnic lunch in the shade and then headed back down.

We listened to it thunder the whole way down, but managed to escape the rain.

Then we drove back towards Sunset Crater and had to stop when we saw this:

We thought it was snow!  But when we got out and looked closely, we found that it was hail.  I cannot image being in that hail storm!

This was Colin's favorite part and he said later, "Isn't this the best trip of your life?!"

Then we went to Wupatuki National Monument.

This was Alison's favorite :)

As we were driving out, Ben saw this citadel that he had to explore.  Eli was done walking for the day, so we hung out by the car while Alison, Colin and Ben went up.  

This was Ben's favorite.  I'm pretty sure he would have built himself a house right there if he could have.

We picked up some ice cream and headed back to the park.  It was a full, amazing day.