"There is no Arizona, no painted desert, no Sedona*...".

Oh, but there is. We visited it this past weekend. I read an article in a newspaper about the natural pools and rock slides of Arizona and I got the strangest feeling. I wanted to go do something outdoor-sy. That is a VERY strange feeling because as many of my friend might know, I HATE the outdoors. I've been camping once in my married life and only a handful of times besides. We've never been on a hike while married. So you can imagine Tom's surprise when I organized everything and got everybody to move, move, move in order to get out the door and get going. We drove to an area just past Sedona. And maybe, just maybe, I can get into this outdoor beauty type of stuff. It was so gorgeous seeing that red rock and the mountains and everything. I was blown away. It was beautiful. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive both ways and that was hard but the kids were really good-I just don't like being in the car. Also, it's like 20 degrees cooler there so even though my sister Katie whined for a good hour of the way there she was also thrilled with how beautiful it was. Let me narrate some of the pictures for you:

Tommy pushing Eliza. He was perhaps the cutest on the hike. He just ran and ran. He loved the feeling of freedom in the great outdoors. It was worth it just to see him that happy.

On the bridge at the trail head. We're all ready to go in our hats.

This was really cool. This was the site of the hotel used in the movie "Call of the Country" (by Zane Gray) and hoity-toity 1920's people stayed there like the guy who played Rhett Butler. It burned down and here's the site. The kids are standing in front of this cave that they used as their "fridge" back in the day.

Livvie and Samantha in front of the stove for the same hotel.

The cute outdoorsmen.

Sitting on one of those log benches/fences on the trail. Perfect for photo ops.

We made it to the water. I hiked quite a way in the water. I was holding Eliza on my hip the whole time. I felt slightly precarious making it one of the not-so-smart things I've done. I fell twice but it was all pretty shallow and Eliza loved it. Plus, Tom and I commented that we're used to Utah mountain-fed streams that are only mildly tolerable in August. We were expecting to be freezing but the water was SO nice. No numbness of our feet or anything.

The kids (who we were doing this for) were total weenies about everything. When we got to a totally still part Olivia ended up liking it but Samantha never stopped throwing a fit the entire time. She liked the hiking though (which was I was nervous about-so go figure)

Another shot of the kids in the water.

A family picture. Our fun hike (nature walk) that we lived to tell about. I might even be looking forward to the family camping trip with Tom's family next week (but only a little bit)

*Those are lyrics from a song called "There is No Arizona" by Jamie O'Neal. The entire drive up Katie kept singing "My Sedona" (My Sherona) and Tom kept singing (from Route 66) "Flagstaff Arizona, don't forget Sedona" and NEITHER of those are the right lyrics. My song, however, does actually have the word Sedona in there.