Can't Forget Aunt Stacie!

Our next stop was Flagstaff, AZ to visit Aunt Stacie. Anyone who knows Stacie, knows that we played and played all week long. I let Stacie be head photographer, and although we copied several of her pictures, they are on Eric's computer and he is out of town for the next six weeks, so I only have a few. Uncle Mark started the week off with some fourwheeler rides for our FHE activity. The boys loved it. Mark just took them up and down their street a couple of times, but it was just as exciting as if they'd been out at the sand dunes.

The middle of our week was filled with bike rides (Stacie nearly killed me when she failed to mention that the 6 mile round trip bike ride was uphill both ways! No wonder she offered to drive the little kids and sent me with Jordynn, Kailan, and Chase!), pilates, sewing, shopping, birthday party, painting, visiting, game playing, fort building, etc. The boys' favorite was fort building. Right behind their house is a national forest and the Moore kids had found a fallen down tree that they were transforming into a fort. We sent them up a couple of afternoons full of supplies ranging from scotch tape to toys. I guess they found their real building material in the woods? I got to visit with my best friend growing up, Tamra, for an afternoon and evening, which was really nice. We don't take as many opportunities to catch up as we should! Her and Jed had just purchased a shaved ice machine - big highlight - and she was so kind as to make me as many as I liked! I loved her house and Rhett is adorable.

I was a little interested to see how Ashlyn and Hallie (6 months older) would interact. I was sure we would be in for a few screaming matches. However, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought! :) Ashlyn told Hallie how it was going to be, and Hallie obeyed or else! I thought Hallie would be traumatized by the time we left, but apparently she can't stop talking about Ashlyn and misses her terribly. Go figure!

The big adventures began on Thursday. The first, being Carter's foot. Wednesday night I noticed that it was swollen to twice the size of his other foot, but I couldn't think of anything that would have happened to it. We quizzed all of the kids and no one remembered Carter hurting his foot. The next morning it was the same, if not more swollen, but luckily, Stacie had to take her girls in for their sports physicals, so she took Carter with her to see if we needed to be worried or not. While they were gone, I finally got a hold of Eric, and after I explained, the first thing he said was to get him in quick. Luckily, he was already on his way and the doctor agreed with Eric. Carter had cellulitis, which is an infection that is easily treated with antibiotics if it is caught soon enough, otherwise it goes systemic and results in a couple day (if not more) hospital stay. We were fortunate to get him in when we did, and thankfully he was on the mend by the next morning and enjoying the extra attention. Unfortunately, his Dr. appt, antibiotics, etc., put us back several hours for our REAL Thursday adventure. I probably would have called the whole thing off, but Stacie cannot be deterred, so we set out for the Lava Tubes at 7:00p that evening. I think that this was my highlight. A lava tube is a tunnel formed when the surface of a lava flow cools and solidifies, while the still-molten interior flows through and drains away. So basically, it's a big cave out in the middle of nowhere and the entrance is just a big hole in the ground. We had to hike over rocks to get in and around and it was a rough surface the whole way, but it was incredible! I want to take Eric back to see it and leave the kids so I have a chance to really look around. With the ground so rough, and it being pitch black, (we all had flashlights) you have to watch every step, or you trip and after a few trips, my boys were done. I carried Carter half of the way in and Carter and/or Isaac the whole way out. Jordynn thankfully stayed home with the babies! Isaac saw a couple of bats on the way out and was only one small bat away from full-blown hysteria when I was able to get him out. He can laugh about it now, but it was NOT funny then. Isn't it great what imaginations can do? I know this doesn't explain much of what it was, but it's something you just have to see for yourself. I loved it!

Friday we were finally reunited with Eric. Yeah! The kids were so happy to see him after a month and Ashlyn wouldn't let him go.

We met in Sedona at a place called Red Rocks. It was beautiful! There was a creek with natural water slides and big pools for swimming in. It was really slick, but we eventually got the hang of it. We almost lost our camera when Eric took a downer, but it survived - hooray! Oh, and Eric was okay, too! There were tons of crawdads for crawdad fishing and then later that day we headed further down the creek where there was a rope swing tied to a tree over a big rock. Isaac had no fears and flew out and let go like a pro! We never could really get Carter in the water at all. On the way back there were tons of wild blackberries that we picked and ate. They were delicious!

We weren't able to get in all that Stacie had planned, but we had a blast with what we did and the fun kept coming. Saturday morning the Moore's and us met Dad and Cindy, eventually, (we forgot Carter's antibiotic which added on at least an hour to the trip, plus had several roadside stops, etc.) at Roosevelt Lake for a day of fun on their boat. Isaac LOVED the tube. He rode it with me the first time and got a little nervous now and again, but he didn't hesitate to jump back on with Chase for some cousin wars. We had two tubes tied on back and Kailan and Brooklyn challenged Isaac and Chase to a duel, to see who could stay on the longest. Dad tried to be nice for a while, but just couldn't help himself, so pretty soon they were flying through the water. There were a couple of times that Isaac almost flew off, but he was so terrified of letting go, that I don't think anything could have pried his fingers off! The girls eventually flipped, followed closely by the boys. The first thing Isaac yelled when he surfaced was "Chase!" which I imagined was in a very panicked voice and was all set to jump in and save my baby from the terrors of the lake, but he soon followed with the biggest grin and "We won!!!". Eric and I both skied for the first time and I think we did pretty good for our first go at it. Stacie and Mark took some awesome pictures that they posted on their dropshots account if you want to see them. I think they're worth seeing! It's at www.dropshots.com/smmoore. They are at the beginning of August.

We loved every minute of it! Thanks Stacie!