Lovin' Fall in Sedona

I love Autumn. I love the crisp Fall air (which provides an excuse to wear cute coats and scarves), the bright colorful leaves, and I love that it means Christmas is just around the corner. I was a little depressed this year when the leaves weren't changing color, and the air was not feeling cool and crisp. Fall in Arizona is a little different down here in the valley, and it has made me homesick. One of Tyson's friends told him about a beautiful drive into Oak Creek Canyon, just past Sedona, which held all those beautiful Fall colors I've been longing for. Last weekend we took a day trip up there on a quest for a taste of Autumn. Sedona is a quaint little town. It's slightly old-fashioned and quirky, yet charming. The restaurant where we ate lunch went along well with the scene. It's called Oaxaca, and was the first health-concious Mexican restaurant I've ever eaten at. I wouldn't recommend it, unless you like food with no sodium and consequently no taste. Eating on the covered patio with a beautiful view of the red rock canyon, however, made up for the lack of flavor and made it a positive eating experience.

The highlight of the afternoon involving food, was sharing a Cookies n' Cream ice cream cone from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. It was delicious!

Sadly, most of the colorful Fall leaves were already on the ground, but there were a few bright yellow trees left for enjoyment.

Slide Rock was my favorite part of our little Sedona trip. I loved hiking along the red rock, and the little waterfall and creek were gorgeous. Colter loved the whole experience and took the liberty of picking up every stray rock small enough to fit his hand around and throwing it in the water. It was all I could do to keep him out of the water.

Thanks to my handsome husband for your willingness to drive five hours in one day just to give me a taste of Fall in Arizona. It just gives me one more reason to rant and rave about how you're the best husband ever!

The Kaibab and The Grand Canyon

Halloween weekend I got the opportunity to join my husband and head up to the Kaibab to join his family on Zach and Kylie's hunts. I've heard about the Kaibab pretty much since the day we met, so it was fun to finally see this place the Davis boys spend so much time each year during hunting season. Kylie shot a deer the morning we arrived, so unfortunately we were there for all the cutting and cleaning nastiness. To my dismay, Colter was more than interested in everything going on. Looks like I may have a future hunter on my hands, although I'm not quite ready to let him join in on the hunting masquerade yet. I have a hard time completely understanding the whole purpose of hunting. From what I've heard, you can't talk while you're out looking for the animals, you walk miles and miles and miles, you have to wear ugly clothes, and then you shoot poor Bambi when he least expects it. I guess I'll never understand it anymore than Tyson understands why I enjoy scrapbooking or shopping. Needless to say, I hung back and took care of Colt while Tyson put on his camo and tagged along on the hunt.

My personal favorite part of going anywhere in the mountains is taking Colter for rides on the rhino. He loves it. As soon as he saw the rhino when we arrived, he ran over to it and started climbing in. I swear I heard him say "i-no" a few times when he was jabbering in the rhino!

There was a little bit of snow on the ground. This was Colter's first time since he's been walking to experience the snow. He seemed a little reluctant about the snow when he first touched it, until he took a bite...then he was sure he liked it. Don't eat the yellow snow, kid!

The first day, I was excited that it was cold enough to try out his new beanie I got on sale at Wal-Mart last year. Surprisingly, he loved wearing it, and he looked so cute!

The Kaibab is right by the North rim of the Grand Canyon, so we went over there for a lovely afternoon to enjoy one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Once I got over the fear of taking a toddler who is impossible to keep still to a place with that many steep cliffs and void of fences in most places, it truly was awe-inspiring. This picture doesn't even begin to capture the majestic beauty of the Grand Canyon.

Tyson and Shane patiently hung on to the kiddos so Kylie and I could take pictures and enjoy the beauty. Nice face Tyson!

The group who tagged along for the hunt: Dad, Mom, Kylie, Jaycie, Shane, Samantha, Colby, Colter, Me, Tyson, and Zach.

Thanks to Mom and Dad Davis yet again for making another fun family memory possible.

Go Hawks!

The last couple weekends we got to join Tyson's mom at the Highland Hawks football games to watch Tyson's youngest sister, Lacey, cheer. It was slightly reminiscent of my old cheering days, and it actually made me miss high school for just a second! Lacey is a beautiful cheerleader with a radiant smile, and is so fun to watch because you can tell she enjoys cheering so much.

Colter loves going to football games. He claps when the crowd cheers, lifts his arms up and lets out a little "woo" every now and then, and he was so funny when Tyson's mom pointed out Aunt Lacey, he kept sticking his little neck out as far as he could trying to see her!
Colt usually goes to bed right around 8:00pm on the dot, so I was a little worried he wouldn't last very long at the game. To my pleasant surprise, he fell right asleep in Daddy's arms, dreaming of the day when he will be wearing pads out on the field (or is that Daddy's dream?).

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Mesa Temple Grounds

Before taking Dani, John, Travis, and Naomi to the airport, we stopped by the Mesa temple to show them the beautiful temple grounds.

Me, Colter, and Tyson

John, Travis, Naomi, and Dani
We tried to get a good picture of the three cousins together, but Naomi was less than thrilled to have to sit for another picture. It still made for a cute picture! Colter sure loves his cousins. We miss you guys already and can't wait for you to come back!

Arizona State Fair

While my sister and her family were in town, we spent an afternoon at the Arizona State Fair. We had a lot of fun, but ended the evening a little earlier than planned because it was a freakishly cold day. It was the coldest I've ever been in Arizona! I was worried that Colt wouldn't cooperate at the fair, but I was sorely mistaken. He LOVED it! The first ride we went on with Travis and Naomi was a little car ride, which seemed harmless.

However, I was sorely mistaken. Once it started moving, the bouncing up and down was a little more forceful than I realized and scared Colter to death. He cried almost the entire length of the ride. I felt so bad!

His favorite ride seemed to be this little colorful train ride. I convinced Tyson to go on it with him because I thought there was more leg room than most of the other kid rides.

Turns out it still wasn't big enough for my 6'4" husband, but it was hilarious to see him folding himself in half trying to get in and out! Tyson was such a good sport!

The kids loved feeding the farm animals and going into the petting zoo.

I was pretty excited to see a real kangaroo for my first time. She even had a baby in her pouch. It was so cute!
We went on a classic ride around the carousel.

And enjoyed fair food. I love fair food. For some reason to me, going to the fair = an excuse to eat really unhealthy fried food. We ate the yummiest navajo taco on frybread and devoured a delicious funnel cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Here is me with my beautiful older sister Dani, happy after our funnel cake, and yet freezing to death.

We were so excited my cousin Suzanne, Colby and Julia were able to join us at the fair.

Before leaving, Tyson paid a quarter for one of the vibrating foot massage machines, and it made his night! Colter was pretty happy too. Like father like son! Even though it was freezing and we didn't go on as many rides as we would have liked, it was a fun evening and we can't wait for the fair to come again next year. Thanks Dani and John for taking us to the fair!

Fall Festivities

While Dani and her family were in town, we took the kids to the pumpkin patch. It was a nice, warm afternoon and the kids had loads of fun. Since I'm married to the Halloween grinch who doesn't like to spend any money on the holiday, we didn't get Halloween costumes this year. I don't think I realized how rare it was that I got him to dress up a few years ago. I was a little depressed about not dressing Colter up at all, but Dani saved the day and brought one of Travis' old BSU jerseys so the boys would be dressed up at the patch. Colter was a pretty cute little football player! The pumpkin patch consisted of everything you'd expect of a little pumpkin patch. Lots of pumpkins...

...a blow up jumper (which scared Colt half to death)...

...farm animals to feed...

...a mini haybale maze for the kids... ...and a hayride.

I wish I could say that Colter is waving at me in the picture below, but really there's a giant tractor driving behind me while I was taking the picture. Nonetheless it made for a cute picture.

Colter got to pick out his very own little pumpkin. He then proceeded to practice his football throwing skills and decided to see how far he could throw the pumpkins. I think he'll make a great quarterback someday.

That night we carved pumpkins for the first time since we've been married. Since Tyson thinks carving pumpkins is a waste of time, he was the photographer while I did the dirty work. I was hoping Colter would help me clean the pumpkin out, but he wanted nothing more than to be a spectator.

The finished products. Happy Halloween!