Somewhere Fun to Go this weekend...

Okay, so I know it's tempting to just skim through these long blogs, but if you want to find out how I got pickle juice on my butt your just going to have to read the whole dang thing....

Sunday morning Tom and I woke up to the fresh fall air coming in through our windows. It's beautiful, this past weekend Fall arrived. Just like that, and just like that we woke up Sunday and decided to skip church and pack up the kids to head up to our favorite hang out in Sedona for some camping, hiking and family fun. An hour later we were on the road stuffed to the gills with sleeping bags, treats, tents and one of the neighbor kids. We picked out a camp site in Oak Creek Canyon at Manzanita Campground...right next to the creek. Then we were off to our favorite Sedona Playground...Crescent Moon Picnic Area. It was a little chilly, but only in the shade. Crescent Moon is an awesome place to spend the day. It's got all the good picnic area stuff, but even better is the hiking path along the creek. It's spectacular! The kids love to go exploring along the creek. There are a couple of rope swings for swimming...the water was FREEZING, but Levi and Lucas both braved the frigid waters for a swing into the creek. We all got wet one way or another and had a perfectly lovely afternoon. The view of Cathedral Rock along this hike is something you have to see..don't be like me and forget your camera! The temp last night was about 20 degrees in the canyon, but we all stayed cozy and warm while in our sleeping bags AND like the true campers we are, all were up this morning at 6 am headed to McDonalds for breakfast and Hot Choc just about as quick as we could zip out of our bags and jump in the heated car! (I'm not a big fan of freezing my touche off waiting for the fire to warm me up! Esp when I'm the one who has to start the said fire!) Sure we looked like a big homeless family, but we were the only ones in the restaurant. By the time we got back from breakfast it was warm enough to clean up camp and head home. My only complaint was the sticky stinky pickle juice someone spilt onto my chair which I sat in and soaked thru the seat of my only pair of pants. This I discovered as I was walking into McDonalds. I did what anyone would do in that situation and stuffed an extra tee shirt in my underware so I wouldn't feel the sticky cold stuff on my butt. That completed the homeless ensemble nicely.