Flagstaff in August

Jeremy's parents graciously allowed us to stay in their house in Flagstaff while they were in Montana in August. We so enjoyed the chance to get away from the Phoenix heat. Jeremy worked most days and I did some schoolwork with the kids, but we also took some time off for a day trip to the Grand Canyon, a long weekend camping trip, and early evening hikes. 

We spent lots of time in the backyard and got several afternoon monsoon showers! The kids and I went across to the forest several times, and we also hiked with Jeremy to Elden Springs, the Elden homestead site, the crack/gap, and on other trails. 

The kids love climbing the boulders--the more challenging, the better! Even Clara kept up well with the bigger kids and scaled many a steep rock face. Here she is "riding her horse":

Abby

The kids were thrilled to find some water trickling out at Elden Springs. They set to work to clear the streambed and redirect the water where it ran into obstruction.

We originally planned to go to Whitehorse Lake campground with some friends from Phoenix during our middle weekend in Flagstaff. But all the campgrounds seem to be booked and overly busy since the pandemic. So we took Scott and Dortha's advice and went out FR151 to a beautiful area sort of to the back of the peaks. The higher elevation meant much cooler weather--and lots more weather than we bargained for! We had monsoons every afternoon, and Saturday's monsoon turned into a thunderstorm that became a pounding hailstorm. We got hail and rain all afternoon; our shade structure leaked, everyone got wet and cold and dirty, and all the girls ended up half-frozen in our tent to change and cuddle up in sleeping bags til the weather cleared. It was such a difference from the 90-degree weather we'd been having in Flagstaff!

Bridget was a happy camper overall. She had a bit of trouble sleeping in her pack'n'play in the tent, of course, but that was to be expected. Poor baby got pretty cold at night. I tried to keep a hat on her and bundled her up as well as I could, but it's always a bit of a challenge to keep the baby warm. She enjoyed playing on our mat and thankfully hadn't quite taken off with crawling yet at this point, so she was slower to get to the dirt, leaves, and pine needles on the edge. 

As you can see from the succession of pictures below, Bridget is an active baby! Most of my pictures of her include some blurry appendage . . . 

Here she is bundled against the cold:

We drove out Thursday morning (and Jeremy had scouted and claimed a campsite on Wednesday night), and our friends joined us Friday afternoon. We camped on a slope that was heavily forested with lots of deadfalls and boulders nearby. The kids had a wonderful time making fort after fort with the logs and caves and boulders. 

We took some hikes around--one back into the trees, which was hard going (so many deadfalls)--and a few up the nearby trailhead through a meadow and onto a larger meadow where the trail met the Arizona Trail and also led to Bismarck Lake (not a lake, just a dry tank). There were still a few wildflowers--some late, dying lupine; Indian paintbrush; and others I didn't know. The kids were too loud for us to spot elk or deer, but we did see a red-tailed hawk up close and some birds, including mountain bluebirds and white-breasted nuthatches. I think I saw a red-breasted nuthatch, too.

I got a few pictures of all five kids together--unintentionally color-coordinated!--just before we left the campsite on Sunday:

One of the highlights of being in Flagstaff was getting to see the relatives! We spent an afternoon with all of them, and then separately time with Emily and her boys, and Anna and her girls (and got to see Justin, too). Sadly, we didn't see James. But we did get to spend time with the newest cousin, Mia (born in June)! She's a sweetie. The girls even got to hold her. Cedar and E wanted to hold Bridget, too. She wasn't as cooperative as Mia. She really doesn't prefer to be confined. 

Clara and Mia

Cedar and our Birdie-girl

Abby and Mia

Clara and Cedar

Especially with the opportunity to spend time with cousins, our kids didn't want to return to Phoenix. Lydia in particular cried about going home for a couple days leading up to our departure. They were sad to miss Pa and Grandma, too!

We took up most of our food so as not to have to do much shopping in Flagstaff. We kept meals simpler and did a few repeats (pesto pasta with chicken sausage one week, and with salmon one week; burritos a couple times; etc.). Dortha left a couple cast iron specialty pans for us to take if we wanted, so I tried them out while there. One was an abelskiver pan, but the other we had to look up. We discovered it's a plattar pan to make Swedish plattar pancakes, which are like tiny crepes. Here's a recipe I tried and liked: https://monasterykitchen.org/swedish-plattar-pancakes/ (minus the sugar, plus a teaspoon of cinnamon). The kids gobbled them up.