Beautiful Flagstaff

I wanted to make sure I got our last couple Flagstaff trips down because they were so much fun!  I don't quite remember having the heat get to me this much with Connor, but then again, I didn't have Connor to run after all day, and if I didn't want to go outside, I didn't have to. Lucky for me, I am married to a man that absolutely DESPISES the summers here.  I am married to two men: a. winter Ryan-happy go lucky, smiley, positive Ryan.  Then there's b. Summer Ryan-miserable, sweaty, complaining, negative Ryan.  And I get it.  Especially right now where I have sweat dripping from everywhere.  I feel like I can't wear dresses for fear of someone thinking I just peed my pants with the amount of sweat dripping my down my legs.  I digress.  (that's for you Jen!)  Nonetheless, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather just a quick drive away.

Ryan's grandma lives in Munds Park, and it's one of his favorite places to be.  He literally wanted to get married on her deck when we were brainstorming spots for our wedding 6 years ago.  It's full of a million special memories for him with his grandparents, siblings, and cousins.  So we make it up there as often as we can to visit.  Lately, we haven't been very good about that-weekends are quickly filled up with chores.  A few weeks ago, Ryan's Aunt Sandy and partner Rhonda were there for a visit.  (These are two of my favorite people!  I'll have to save this for another post, but I'm sad we won't visit their place in California this year).  We dropped everything and went up for an overnight stay to join the party.  They saw Connor last in December, so he's changed since then!  We ate at La Fonda's (which I love because you get sopapillas at the end of your meal with honey...yum!), and spent hours upon hours out on the deck.  Connor hardly came inside from his bubbles, throwing the ball around, and watching the birds and squirrels.  We took our nightly walk around the neighborhood, and got the scoop about what all the neighbors are doing.  Then, after Connor went down for bed, we had yet another one of our great late-night discussions with Sandy and Rhonda.  It's another part of what I love about being with them.  We talk about anything from politics (yikes!) to education (they are both in education as well) to life in general.  Then we wake up to the cool morning air with the fresh smell of pine trees!  What a difference from here!  We could even play at the park without fear of 2nd degree burns!

 My little cutie pie-I adore that smile!

 The Morgan Line

 Swinging with Daddy!

Sliding down the slide-he had to have done this 50 times!

Then we drove back down to the valley, all depressed when we saw the dustbowl of dirt and brown...I mean home sweet home!  It didn't take long before we decided to take another trip back up to the cool country.  The last week of July seemed perfect-Ryan had that Friday off, so we loaded up and headed up north-for the entire weekend this time!  We stopped by Anthem to see Grandma Vicki and Grandpa Dave, and then went to Munds Park for the night.  Connor quickly remembered the deck and playing, so he got right to it.  We had an amazing dinner cooked by Ryan's Grandma, and all went to bed early after the long day. 





Daddy and Connor inside the cabin



Blowing bubbles in the morning!

Eating dinner sitting on a pillow! Big boy!

Before checking into our hotel at Little America Saturday night, we hit the Deer Farm near Williams.  We've been wanting to take Connor there for awhile now, and it seemed like the perfect day to go!  We had some time before his nap, and it's not a huge place so off we went.  We saw a storm coming, but thought we could beat the storm and a cranky pants tantrum.  We did fairly well!  When we got there, we got sprinkled on a little bit, but nothing we couldn't handle.  The deer were anxious and ready to get the food we bought!  Connor was waving to them all like crazy!  We walked around to the other animals too, many of which were hiding from the rain.  He did get to pet a miniature horse and got the hang of feeding the deer.  By the time we got back to the exit, the storm hit hard.  We ran out to the car, which wasn't far, but we were SOAKED by the time we got inside! 
I have to enter a little sidenote here...actually, a big MomFail.  Earlier in the week, I was too lazy to wash my car myself and decided to take my good ole Trailblazer through the carwash.  I thought "Hey, it'll be fast, and maybe Connor will think it's cool".  Umm...the EXTREME opposite happened.  My poor child freaked out in the back seat.  I put on baby Einstein, his music, gave him his blankie, and pretty much climbed in the backseat with him.  Every time that big scary machine inched its way close to him again, the panic attack started again.  I. Felt. Awful.  Vowed I would never do that to him again and gave him a sucker when we got home.
Why would I tell you this embarrasing story of such a failure?  Because when that storm hit while we driving back to Flagstaff, you would have thought we were in the carwash again.  The rain on the windshield must have triggered that scary moment for him again, because he freaked out!  I climbed in the back seat, we turned on his music, and I distracted him by singing the ABC's and any other song I could think of.  Poor guy. :(
Here are some pictures from the happier part of that experience!

Then we got back to Flagstaff and hit all of our favorite spots: Bun Huggers, Macy's Coffee Shop, Beaver St. Brewery, Lumberyard, Mike and Rhonda's, and our favorite shops.  Connor even took one of his naps in his stroller while we walked around, had coffee and ate some lunch!  We also went to see the first day of the Cardinal's Training Camp.  We put Connor in the hiking backpack, and he had the best view!  It was awesome to see them go through all their rotations.  You can tell they are a bit rusty, so let's hope some more practice will make these guys better!  

Practicing 1-2-3 JUMP!

Enjoying some Railhead Red-Ryan's fave!

Can you tell how much we love Flagstaff??  Who knows, maybe one of these days life will lead us out of the heat and into the trees!  Until then, we'll enjoy our family get-aways!