Peyton's 8th Birthday

Peyton asked for a minecraft sleepover party for his 8th birthday party. We tried to book a professional sleepover party, but they were all sold out. His birthday was the Sunday after we got back from Arizona, so it was a little hectic pulling everything together. 

He had three friends sleepover on Friday night

He requested a minecraft creeper cake for his party. I was so last minute I had to make the cake myself.  I was pretty proud of how the cake turned out! 

He was really excited about the cake, so that made the extra few hours of decorating the cake worth it. 

He requested pizza and roasting s'mores by the fire.

We washed the sheets and left the set up for a couple more days so the siblings could enjoy the sleepover fun too!

We also celebrated him with a mexican dinner on Saturday night after baseball. 

On his actual birthday, he requested a steak dinner with the two grandfathers! 

He requested Zoe's chocolate cake for his birthday cake, which made my job so much easier!

It was a weekend full of celebrating Peyton and we had a lot of fun! I love you so much Peyton! 

Arizona Family Road Trip - Sedona Hiking (Part 8)

We set off for another morning of hiking. We decided to try Soldiers Pass to see the seven sacred pools, Devil's Kitchen Sinkhole and a secret cave. The day started out a little rough. We waited about 45 minutes for a parking spot and never found one. We had to hire a service to take us from a parking lot at a middle school to the trailhead so we could hike the trail. There is a lady who shuttles people back and forth for tips only. She was very kind and very busy! This was a very popular trail!

We easily made it to Devil's Kitchen Sinkhole and took a quick peek inside. 

Next were the seven sacred pools. They are always filled with water no matter how hot the desert becomes. I could only get three in the picture, but there are four more down below. 

We decided to try and hike to the secret cave. The total hike including the cave is about 3.5 miles. There is no pathway and just a tree that is marked cave. The hike upwards to the cave is more like climbing straight up a mountain with no trail! It was definitely more of a climb/scramble to get up there. Many people we passed on the hike were very surprised that our young children were able to finish it. Patrick and Peyton did okay, but Conor and Caitie struggled. I had to carry Caitie on my hip while trying to climb up myself. It was quite the challenge! 

We finally made it to the cave! It was so hard to climb up into the cave that we weren't able to get Caitie up there. Michael and I took turns going into the cave with the boys. Numerous other bystanders looked at the kids in awe and commented that they barely made it up themselves and were impressed by them. The kids were pretty happy about their compliments!

Peyton climbing to the opening inside the cave. 

Here's a picture of the inside of the cave. It made us a little nervous that one of the kids could fall straight down!

Waiting on brothers in the cave

The boys were really proud of making it to the cave!

Going back down the mountain was almost more challenging then going up. We all pretty much slid down and tried to avoid sharp rocks and cactus'. We took a family selfie at the bottom to celebrate! Phew we made it!

We walked around downtown Sedona after our hike trying to find somewhere to eat. Everywhere we tried was over an hour wait at 3pm! We finally found Beaver Creek Brewery and had a nice delicious meal!

We closed our our last day in Sedona by swimming at the pool and roasting s'mores by the fire.  The next morning we packed up all of our things and headed to one last meal before heading to the airport. We went to Mesa Grill for brunch. It's a cute little restaurant right next to the Sedona airport. It has really great views and also has planes arriving and taking off right outside the restaurant. It was fun for the kids to watch.

It was an amazing trip! We were all sad to leave Arizona! 

Arizona Family Road Trip- Sedona Hike/Pink Jeep Tour (Part 7)

On Saturday morning we hiked the Baldwin Loop Trail. It is a 3.3 mile hike with around Cathedral Rock with amazing views of Cathedral Rock. There is also a nice stream that runs through the center that was great for the kids. 

We stopped and threw rocks in the creek for about an hour. The kids loved skipping rocks.

There were gorgeous views everywhere we looked.

After the hike we went to the Chapel of the Holy Cross. It was gorgeous and really neat to see. 

Michael and the kids lit a candle. 

Everywhere we tried to go for lunch was showing as over an hour away to go 2.5 miles! The weekends in Sedona are extremely busy and we struggled to find places to eat. We went back to the hotel to eat lunch by the pool and swim before the pink jeep tour. 

Our pink jeep tour was right before sunset. We were all so excited to go. 

Caitie was so excited and screamed this is "soooo fun" and "weeee" the whole time. She loved every minute.

The first spot we went to was very windy. We could barely stand up. We had to hold Caitie because she might have blown away. 

There was a wedding ceremony at the top and Caitie kept yelling "oh, its a princess." I'm not sure if the bride heard her, but hopefully she did!

It was a little cloudy that night, but we got some great glimpses of the sun against the rocks. It was gorgeous!

The pink jeep tour was definitely a splurge, but it topped everyone's list as one of the best things we did. on our trip. The kids are still talking about it a month later. Our tour guide was amazing and we learned so much from him. The views were incredible and it was fun! It was really bumpy and I wouldn't have done it with a child younger than Caitie, but for our adventure loving crew it was perfect!

We walked over and ate at 89 Agave after the pink jeep tour and had a delicious dinner. 

We had such a great day in Sedona. Although it was unbearably crowded in town, we still made the best of it and had some wonderful memories!