Flagstaff Retreat

We stayed in Flagstaff last weekend in a cabin with all of Ben's family.  We had so much fun!

Scout's 1st birthday was the first day we arrived at the cabin, so we had presents and cake.  I love first birthdays...

Scout loved her cake - she ate it all :)

We went caving at Lava River Cave...

Jake did NOT like being in the cave...

But Claire loved it - I guess you can't tell by her face here, but she was very happy being in the dark cool cave...

I love these babies so much

Dirty babies are happy babies...

Caroline...

Scout...

Goofy kids in a hot tub...

Prepping for night games... can you spot the ninja Ben?

The highlight of the weekend for me was completing the Flagstaff  Extreme Adventure Course.  It was amazing!  We all agreed it would be worth the drive from Phoenix just to go to it.  Emma and Adam did the kids course, and did awesome.  Here's Emma hooking up her safety lines all on her own...

 

Ben and I, along with Emily, Ben Lee, Peter, and Lacy all worked our way through the adult course.  There were 4  different courses, that progressively increased in height and difficulty.  It was challenging and crazy, but so exciting!  We had a brief training at the beginning to show us how to use our equipment.  Once we were up in the trees, we were on our own to hook up our own safety lines and hook up to the ziplines.  The guides were watching us from below and would shout up instructions if we needed it.  I had never done anything like this before, but it makes me a little more interested in trying out rock climbing...

 
 
I'm almost too embarrassed to post this video, as you get to watch my bum for over a minute, but this was also the hardest obstacle for me, and I was proud that I did it - I was getting really nervous at this point, because we were about 50 feet off the ground and I really had to trust my safety lines...

On the last day we stopped at Slide Rock before heading home.  This is always a favorite...

Claire going in for a drink...

We learned from Emily and Ben and there is a unique cafe just north of Phoenix that sells wonderful pies.  They had brought one up to the cabin at the start of the weekend, and it was eaten all up so quick.  We couldn't resist stopping on the way home to get a pie for ourselves.  Yum...

Alright - that officially finishes off the vacation posts.  It was a lot of vacation in a short amount of time - it was awesome, but now I'm so happy to be back home and getting into a more normal routine for the remainder of the summer.