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.

 

Thanksgiving in Flagstaff

We drove up to Flagstaff the Wednesday before Thanksgiving for our usual Thanksgiving festivities with the Neuman side. The kids eagerly anticipated the time spent with cousins, aunts, uncles, and Pa and Grandma. We knew lots of snow was predicted, so of course, they were very excited about that, too!

A little snow falling on Mt. Elden on Thursday--but it didn't come down to us

Because Anna had to work on Thanksgiving day, we pushed our celebration to Friday. That left Thursday for prep work, baking pies, playing, and hiking. The predicted snow didn't materialize on Thursday, but the kids still had fun . . .

Clara carrying a big stick

Josiah

Lydia

Abby

Anna came up with and brought supplies for some fun crafts over the weekend. The kids loved making pom-pom pine cone ornaments and stained-glass-style paper stars to hang in the windows. The girls all really got into the crafting! (The twins have caught the crafting bug and regularly love to pull out supplies to make things here at home. Recently it's been potholder looms and Swedish paper cutting [scherenschnitte].)

Abby and Lydia with the pom-pom pine cones

Cutie-pie Willow

Crafting cousins

The snow finally came Thursday night. We woke up to more than a foot--and it was beautiful--and cold! The kids were so eager to don snow gear and head outside, where they tramped and made snowballs (mostly Josiah) and ate fresh snow and attempted sledding in Grandma and Pa's cul-de-sac. It ended up not being steep enough--and the snow was a bit too powdery. So they pulled each other around or roped Jer into pulling them when he wasn't trying to shovel the cars out.

Clara keeps up with the big kids pretty well these days!

Abby

You gotta watch out for this guy around snow

Jeremy shoveling

 

Lydia just lay in the snow and ate it straight from the drifts

Lydia

Workhorse Daddy

 

Abby and Lydia trying out the sleds

Josiah pulled Clara around a bit

 

Coated with snow and headed in for hot chocolate

We had a late, big breakfast together with Jer's home-smoked bacon and Justin's sourdough waffles. The kids ate . . . and ate . . . and ate. I think Elias and Josiah had close to 10 pieces of bacon each. They enjoyed their feast together:

Between breakfast and Thanksgiving dinner, the kids read books, crafted, played, got a little wild, and tried some sledding on the Pipeline trail. The sledding was only half successful, but they had fun. The wind and snow picked up and drove some of us back to indoors and warmth earlier than others. Jer and Justin stuck it out with Kezi, Lydia, and Abby for a bit longer.

Willow and Clara

Beautiful Elden

 

Abby climbing the sledding hill, and Josiah headed back home through the trees. Doesn't it look like Narnia?!

Pa and Grandma with their brood of grandkids--all 8 (until January)!

I'm so glad to be mama to these four--soon to be five!

We all pitched in to help make the Thanksgiving feast of turkey, bread, salads, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce, followed (of course) by pies and whipped cream. Clara discovered that she actually does like mashed potatoes, and Josiah about ate his weight in multiple servings of them--and still had room for pie!

After the dinner, we kept up our tradition--begun by Justin and drawn from his family's Thanksgiving celebration--of folk dancing. This semester during our homeschool co-op I taught our kids the Virginia reel, so they were eager to do that one with the relatives. Justin also found another couple dances that he taught us and everyone enjoyed. It was chaotic but so much fun!

Unfortunately Clara ended Friday night by throwing up. Evidently she picked up the stomach bug the cousins had had earlier that week. So she and I stayed back on Saturday when the rest of them trekked out to the Kaibab forest to find and cut down a Christmas tree. They reported that it was sunny and cold, with lots of deep drifts of snow. But they were all successful in finding and cutting down trees, and when we got back to Phoenix, we set ours up in the usual corner and wound it 'round with lights. We'll wait til a little later in Advent to decorate it. Currently it has a lone pom-pom pine cone hanging from a branch.

Poor sickie

Clara was on the mend by Sunday and feeling well enough to eat, play, and even go out in the snow for a bit. We stayed in Flagstaff through Monday and headed down the mountain around noon, managing to avoid the holiday traffic. Life at home is always a bit of a let-down after holiday with relatives, and there were many tears that first night at home. 

This was our last planned trip out of town before the baby arrives. We'll have a quieter Christmas here in Phoenix with Pa and Grandma from Flagstaff, and then my mom will come around New Year's to wait for the baby with us. 

Abby decided one day last week that she doesn't really want a baby to come, because it will be "so much work" for her. Then she decided it would be okay as long as the baby is a boy (we haven't found out gender, and I think this caveat is only because it means a boy won't crowd the girls' room more). But I think she's back to being reconciled now to the reality of the baby coming and the goodness of welcoming it. I am glad I have some older kids who are much better helpers than they were at ages 4 and 2.75 when Clara was born! I'm more excited about them enjoying the baby with us than just doing all the work, though, of course. :)