Weekend in Phoenix

 

Craig and I were wanting do a quick get-a-way this fall and hoping to go somewhere warm.  After looking at flights we landed on heading to Arizona and catching a few games.  We found a weekend when we could hit up a Phoenix Suns, ASU, and Cardinals game.  We got the kids all ready to stay with Craig's parents, who were so kind to watch the kids and get Brooklyn to all of her soccer games and freeze in the rain watching her.  We flew in Thursday evening and got up Friday morning to hit up a few hikes.  What would be a vacation for us without a hike or two.  My brother, Tucker, served his mission in the Phoenix area so he told us about a couple fun hikes that he had done.  First we hiked up Camel Back and then headed over to Squaw Peak.  Both hikes were busy with other tourist like us, but still a fun way to see the city and get some exercise.  We then went to grab some lunch at a restaurant our brother-in-law recommended.  After heading back to the hotel for a shower we were off to the Phoenix Sun's game.  It was a fun game that came down to a last second shot.  The Sun's lost and we may have spent way too much on food, but it was a super fun game.

On Saturday Craig had booked a tour to see Antelope Canyon, which he thought was in Sedona (2 hours north of Phoenix).  Well, Friday night when we were looking up how long it would take for us to drive there, we realized that Antelope Canyon was actually almost to the Utah border (4 1/2 hours), so we didn't have time to go that far and get back in time for the ASU football game.  So instead Saturday morning we got a workout in and grabbed a yummy breakfast and then decided to hit up a few museums instead.  I ended up with a migraine so it actually was probably ok that our plans changed.  We first went to the Fire Fighter museum, the kids would have loved it there were a ton of old fire engines.  After that and some more caffeine we went to the Natural History museum.  Again, the kids would have loved it.  We still had some time so then we decided to go check out the Mesa temple and walk around the grounds.  It was a beautiful temple and had wonderful grounds that they were getting ready for Christmas. By this point it was time for dinner.  We found a fun brewery/grill.  It was super yummy and it had a ton of T.V.s so Craig could watch all the college football and world series that his heart desired.  He even suggested I get a dessert so that we could stay there longer to watch the games, no argument from me.  Once we finally left, we headed to the ASU football game.  They have such a cool stadium, literally built into the mountain.  ASU got killed by UCLA, but still fun to be there.

Sunday morning we grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and then got ready to head to the Cardinal's game.  This was the first NFL game either of us had been to so we were pretty excited.  The stadium was awesome and luckily the food and drinks were way cheaper than at the Sun's game.  I did end up having to buy a hat though because I thought the dome was closed so I didn't bring my sunglasses, but they had it open because they did a flyover.  Our tickets were right in the sun, but by the end of the first quarter the sun had gone down enough so we were no longer sweating.  They played the Seahawks and their fans were definitely louder than the Cardinal fans.  The atmosphere was great.  After the game we grabbed a quick dinner before heading back to the hotel to get backed up and ready to fly back home the next morning.

The flights were super easy. The kids did great with Nana and Pops.  But as always it was good to get back home.  Pretty soon we are going to have to start bringing the kids along when we do trips to go see games.  Brooklyn was pretty bummed to miss out.  Now Craig wants to make this an annual tradition of finding a game or two to go to each fall.  You won't find me complaining.  Until next year then.

Quick Trip to SunValley

 Craig had a conference in Sun Valley the first weekend in October, so we headed up there Wednesday after work.  The kids stayed home with a babysitter the first 2 nights and then with my mom the next 2 nights.  McKay had a soccer game and Brooklyn had a soccer tournament that my Mom kindly took care of getting the kids to and from.  We got to the Lodge just before the power went out in the whole city for some routine maintenance stuff, luckily we knew before hand and they had flashlights ready for everyone.  Luckily the power was back on by the time we woke up Thursday morning.  After a quick breakfast in our super awesome suite, we headed into the Sawtooth's to hike up to Goat Lake.  It was a beautiful hike into a beautiful lake.  The water was a gorgeous teal color, probably one of the prettiest lakes we have ever hiked into.  It was about 9 miles round trip and worth every mile.  We went out to dinner and then sat in the hot tub to relax those muscles afterwards.

On Friday Craig needed to go to classes for his CE credits, so I took the day to myself.  I headed to the gym, walked around the village and got a giant dark chocolate peanut butter cup from the candy store, read my book by the fire pit, took a nap and then that evening we headed out to dinner with a few of our optometry friends and their wives.  It's always fun to get together with them, which happens once a year at this annual conference. 

On Saturday we were up and ready for our next hike.  This time it was just outside of Hailey.  The plan was to hike to Hyndman's Peak (one of the 9 peaks in Idaho above 12,000ft).  Well we hiked for about 11 miles, but never made it to the top of the peak.  We didn't have great directions for the hike, but thought it would be pretty self explanatory, find the tall peak and hike to it.  Well it wasn't quite that simple, there were 3 different peaks that all looked about the same height and we ran out of trail about 3 miles in.  Eventually I made Craig turn around and we bushwacked our way all the way back down.  We were both covered in goat heads and thorns by the time we got back down. We were both super confused and it took a lot of research on Craig's part when we got home to figure out what went wrong.  Well come to find out it was pretty simple, we started at the wrong trail.  We all know that we will be going back to do it again.  By the time we got back and showered, we were both pretty tired.  We grabbed a quick dinner and then watched a little football and then headed to bed early.

Sunday morning we just got up and packed up and started back for home.  We listened to General Conference on our way back home and then got back to my Mom's house and watched the afternoon session their before taking the kids back home.  It was a fun quick get away, but as always it was great to get back to the kiddos.  We love Sun Valley and are so grateful that we were able to make this happen with the help of others.

Every Good Thing Must Come to and End

 

As always, we had a super fun summer and were sad to see it end, but we were all ready for the routine of the school year to be back.  We of course spent a lot of time outside in the backyard playing football or soccer, at the park or splash pad, at grandma's or Nana and Pop's pool, at the lake or up hiking in the mountains.  We really did live our best lives this summer.  With the kids getting older we were able to let them stay up later and have more adventures.  It was a very hot summer (the most 100 plus degree days ever) so we spent a lot of time in water of some form.  We swam so much this summer, that by the end of the summer the kids were kind of done with it.  They of course always had more fun if cousins or friends were involved in our activities.  They got along so well all summer long, they had very few arguments and played so well together.  McKay spent most of the summer with his shirt off and was disappointed when we made him put one on, like for church, but he was always very obedient.  The kids also had some sports camps throughout the summer.  They went to a soccer camp, basketball camp, and a multi-sports camp.  I also taught a couple of weeks of swim lessons at my Mom's pool.  I always have fun teaching.  A lot of popsicles and snow cones were eaten and McKay took a lot of power naps in the car.  We took the kids up to Starlight Mountain Theatre to see The Little Mermaid.  We love going up there but this was the first time we took the kids and they absolutely loved it.  As always they did such a great job with the performance and the kids were already asking if we can go again next summer.  My nephew Mason also went through the temple in preparation for his mission to Argentina.  It was so nice to have a lot of my Dad's side of the family there with us.  It is always nice to be in the temple with family.

We got up to McCall as often as possible and each time we were up there we tried to do a hike and go play at the lake.  I got a paddle board for Christmas and we had a lot of fun getting that out onto the lake.  Brooklyn was a natural at it, McKay was a little indifferent but would get on every once in a while.  Brooklyn learned how to water ski this summer.  I helped her the first few times but she would pop right up and each time she was able to go a little bit farther.  We didn't get as many hikes in as usual but still got some good ones in.  The first one of the season was the Boulder/Louie Lake Loop.  We had done each lake separately but decided the kids could do the whole loop (almost 7 miles).  Being the first hike of the season, there was still a decent amount of snow which made it a little tricky to follow the trail, but we made it through.  The poor kids feet were soaking wet by the time we were down, I felt terrible, but they didn't complain.

Luckily the next hike didn't have any snow.  We headed into Crystal Lake with the kiddos.  It really was quite gorgeous and as always the kids did great.  It was only just over 5 miles total but had quite the elevation gain, but it was totally worth it.

Craig and I then did 20 mile lakes just the two of us.  The boys in the ward were doing the hike for High Adventure and Craig volunteered us to scout it out.  Luckily it wasn't a 20 mile long hike, only about 14 round trip.  We did have quite the excitement though on our way in, Craig finally got to see a bear.  It was a bear cub hiding in the brush and that scared me even more because that means momma bear is usually close by.  Craig quickly grabbed out his gun and I quickly let a few choice words out and then the bear cub started running down the mountain.  After that we made sure to make a lot of noise while we were hiking.  We got up to the first lake and found a few camp sites and then checked out 2 more lakes that were near by before we headed back.  It really was quite a pretty hike, our adrenaline was just a little higher than usual.

Our final hike of the summer was quite the adventure, to put it kindly.  We headed into Deep Lake, which we had done before and was a pretty easy hike with lots of huckleberries, but after we got to Deep Lake Craig decided that it would be fun to finish it out as a loop instead of just heading back to the car.  So we started heading off trail to 2 other lakes, Trail Lake and Frog Lake.  Well we eventually made it to the other lakes after passing by quite a few bear poop piles.  Once we got to the last lake we then had to hike down one side of a ravine and back up the other to get back to the truck.  This is where my patience really left me.  I ended up sliding down a chunk of the mountain on my back side (it hurt to sit for a few days).  We literally had to hand the kids down parts of the mountain between Craig and I.  We eventually made it back to the truck and I decided it would be best to keep a few words to myself, but we made it was for the most part all put together and safe.  Needless to say I will never do that hike again.

Luckily a lot of these hikes were finished off with a stop at Ice Cream Alley!  Ice cream makes everything better.  We did a lot of fires and smores.  Took the four wheelers out around the neighborhood and played a lot of yard games, the kids were introduced to Crotchet and did pretty good with it.  We sure love McCall and all the time we get to spend up there and the memories that we get to make as a family.