Mingus Mountain

Anytime we have a three day weekend, I want to get us out and about to enjoy nature. There is so much to see and do around us.

Mingus Mountain is 20 minutes from us. We've been up there sledding, but we've never really checked out anymore than that. There is a campground there and hiking too. So, off we went. For some reason, I said let's take Rocko. He usually vomits in the car, so we don't take him. But, we took him this time.

I had just read a thing about the 30 best places to visit in the United States and five of them were in Arizona.  One commented on the beautiful blue skies we have.  I do have to admit, they are gorgeous.  I'm not sure why they seem more blue here, but it is some of the bluest skies. Maybe it's all our sunshine. We rarely have a cloudy day, so the sky just get's to shine in all it's glory.

We got to the top and there was this overlook with pretty views of Sedona, Cottonwood and Camp Verde.

Then, we started walking.

We quickly realized that it was straight down the mountain. We weren't prepared for that, so we came back up the mountain.

We headed off in another direction to go 'sploring. That's what we call exploring. Noah found a tree, but needed a boost.

This tree was super cool looking.

Here's another pretty outlook.

It looks like a big drop off, but it wasn't. 

Another good tree to climb.

On the way home, Rocko looked pooped.  But, he did good.

Then, he got home, drank water and puked all over our carpet.  

Better than in the car, but next time, he'll stay home.  

It was a beautiful day though, and I'm glad we got to go sploring.

Thanksgiving

A month ago, my Stepmom, Suzy, retired from hosting the holidays. Well, she's still doing Christmas. But, her back and the stress of hosting is a lot. So, I took the reins for Thanksgiving. And when I say I, I mean, my husband. Since he does about 80% of it.

The kids had Wednesday off, so I put them to work helping. The actually did pretty good and didn't complain the entire time. Emily did olives and pickles. Ben did salami. Ben and Noah did green beans. Emily and Noah did pumpkin muffins.

And, they only ate about half of everything.  For every one piece of salami Ben rolled, he ate one. Emily did the same thing with the olives.  

Thanksgiving rolled around, and we had a nice full house.  The kids had to sit at the island.  I had to put a heart on the fridge. I had our WIFI code and password on the fridge for guests since cell service is sketchy in our house.  So, I put on a heart on the pic to cover it up. 

And here's the whole table.  Let's see...my niece Tiffany and she brought her boyfriend, Triv.  They've been dating for 3 years and we finally got to meet him.  Then, Suzy, and her granddaughter Amanda. Suzy's daughter Nikki and her husband Mike.  Then, my Dad and my Mom and Russ, who works with David.  

It was a lovely day and we had a great time with family. 

We have so much to be thankful for.

Stranger Things

I always tell my kids that growing up in the 80's was the best.  We had some of the cool stuff, like Atari and projector TV's, and we used our imagination every day playing with the neighborhood kids.  I'm so thankful that I didn't grow up in an age where my childhood was spent looking at a screen.  Well, I did enjoy Three's Company, Love Boat and shows like that, but a few hours of TV a week is a far cry from what these kids watch.

David and I watched Stranger Things when it came out last year.  They just released season 2, so we started watching it last weekend after our marathon hike.  We had the volume up and the kids slowly trickled in and wanted to watch it.  We were three episodes in.  But, we stopped and started up with season 1, which was 8 episodes.  By Sunday night, we had watched all of season 1 an season 2. 

It was the first time my kids ever binged watched something.  I was so proud!  HA!  No really, at least it was a show I love.  After it ended, I could tell they would all agree, that the 80's were a magical time.  True, me and the kids in the hood didn't fight a Demogorgan, but we would've if one was  haunting us. 

If you haven't watched it, you must! 

Tonto Natural Bridge

We camp in Payson a lot, which is about 90 minutes from us. It's a lovely area of Arizona. Every time we drive there, we go by Tonto Natural Bridge State Park. I always say I want to go, but we are either getting to camping or too tired from camping and we never stop. Everyone had off today, and I said we are going on a little day trip.

And oh my gosh, can I just say that I can't believe that I haven't seen this hidden gem. It's kind of like Fossil Creek that we went to last year.  All of a sudden in the middle of pretty much nothing is this gorgeous area.  It's just wow! 

None of us have ever been, so we had no idea what to expect. I've seen some pictures, but they really don't do it justice.  This was the view from the top and the kids were instantly ecstatic.  Caves, water, rocks, they were all in.

We started the hike down and I thought the rocks across the way looked like a man's melting face.  Nice, huh?

It was steep. I think I said, "slow down", "don't run" about 100 times.  Ugh, these kids. It wasn't a place you want to fall. 

Emily was in her happy place climbing a tree.

Then, we turned the corner and WOW!  It's a waterfall.  It was gorgeous.

David rarely stayed on the path and took the road less traveled most often.  That must be where my boys get it from.

I mean....seriously. It's so pretty. We'd hike 20 feet and it would look different, so I stopped for a lot of photos.

The rocks are so slippery. Sometimes when the water level is high, you can't climb all the way through the cave.  Sometimes, you just had to take a seat and slide down a little. 

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The sides of the walls were amazing!

 

Again, those walls.  Amazing!

 

I wanted in a pic with my family. This works! 

The rocks looked gold and shiny in spots.  It was neat and very slippery.

Everyone was so nice.  At one point, a grandpa helped me down. A lady grabbed Noah and just helped him with a tricky spot.  David was helping us the whole time.  It was not easy and a little dangerous.  And about half way through the cave, water starts dropping on you in big fat rain drops.  Notice everyone is a little wet.

For future reference for myself.  Take our big backpack with lunch and lots of drinks and a blanket to sit on. Head down the Anna Mae Trail and eat lunch right were these girls are chillin'. The view is better going through that way and coming out the Gowan Trail.  Emily actually said she wants to come back on her birthday and eat lunch right at this spot. It was magical.

Me and my honey. It's our 14th wedding anniversary on Sunday. We've been together for 15 years. I love him so much. And I'm so grateful that we enjoy doing adventures together and taking our kids 'xploring as we call it. 

And here's the little tree and stream that flows under it that makes that gorgeous waterfall.

Notice this bridge. You'll see it from above at the end of this story.

Then, we had a yummy lunch of salami sandwiches, oranges and fruit.

And we went back out to explore the other half of the park.

The sound of nothing.  It's amazing.

The roots on this tree are the coolest!

My husband not staying on a trail.

Then, this trail tied in to the trail we started on and we had one last cave to explore.

The leaf was larger than Noah's head.

Here's that bridge we were on earlier.

Here's the view of the tree from the top.

 

Noah liked this grate as it had a huge drop below it. It would've been cool if they made it glass.

When we were all done, the kids were DONE.  They did so great though. But, they had David go get the car while we hung out. 

Then, about 10 minutes away is the town of Pine that has the best ice cream, coffee, fudge shop.  It was so good and the perfect ending to a wonderful day 'xploring.

That smiles says it all!

I love my little family.