Remembering Snow on the Rim

On October 4, 2018, we drove up to Payson after work. As we drove past the golf course by Green Valley Park, Chris asked me if I wanted to use the flashlight to look for wildlife. As soon as I turned on the light, I spotted a whole herd of elk! What great timing!

We had the whole Payson house to ourselves because Susie was house-sitting. We got to town too late to start camping, so we stayed there for the night. The next morning, we hit Rim Road, and found an amazing spot to camp right on the edge of the rim. There was this crazy cavern in the ground, like a sink hole. We kept looking in from all different vantages with flashlights to ensure nothing scary lived in there.

We set up camp and enjoyed the scenery and the quiet for awhile. It was so beautiful!

That afternoon we headed into Pine so that we could meet Mike and Edie and lead them back to camp. We stopped in the market for drinks and firewood. We were super impressed with the selection from such a teensy small-town market. They had such fancy beers too!

We were waiting in the truck and saw a little elk family across the street. The baby was SO cute! Then they just decided to cross the road and come toward the market. It was funny how the locals just reacted like this was just a totally normal thing to have elk hanging out in the parking lot. 

When M&E got there, we hit the road. When we pulled onto the forest road, a deer darted out right in front of our truck! That was really a close one. Edie was laughing about how a deer almost took us out! Haha!

We made some stops on the way to the campsite. There was a specific lookout M&E wanted to see. The views are just breathtaking on that road.

When we got to the campsite, they loved it! They set up their pop-up right next to the spooky cavern though, so Edie was a little nervous about creatures crawling out during the night.

Chris started a campfire near the edge, and it was so windy that we burned through almost all of the firewood we bought. Chris and I were telling stories about the Mogollon Monster, and we blamed every noise that came out of the forest on him. The Mogollon Monster is Big Foot, essentially. It's a big local lore. I guess the show Finding Bigfoot even came to the Rim area to look into the Mogollon Monster. Just scary enough to help scare our friends that decided to camp next to a cave in the ground. Haha!

The next morning, me and Chris had to run into Payson to help Susie with something. We saw some more nifty wildlife driving into town. 

Driving back to camp, we were able to spy our little camp spot from way far away-

The four of us had a wonderful time. The landscape was just amazing, and clouds kept rolling through changing the light. Gorgeous!

We had been watching the weather forcast and it was supposed to rain a little on our last day, but it was becoming clear that it was going to rain that night. We weren't worried though. We played games and hung out until the weather started to change. At that point, we decided to call it a night and head in for the night. 

AND THEN THE STORM CAME. Holy moly! It got freezing cold, and insane wing was blowing through. Chris barely slept at all. I would wake up, and he'd be all sweet and tell me everything was fine and to go back to sleep, but I finally figured out by his tone of voice that things were NOT fine. We went out and took the canvas off our easy up, and threw the generator in the back of the truck. The rain turned into snow. And more snow. And MORE snow.

We kept having to get up and shake the snow off the canvas of the pop-up because it was packing up and weighing it down. We were so exhausted, we tried to get a little sleep, but cold water started dripping on us from the snow above our bed. 

We gave up on sleep, and just started packing up instead. Chris had to help M&E get out of their popup because their awning had blown down and was holding the door closed.

Packing up the aftermath of the destroyed easy ups was hard work! We were all soaking wet and miserable. But once everything was packed, we could take a second and let it soak in how beautiful the forest looked. 

The road was a muddy mess, but the snow was so pretty. The clouds were touching the tops of the trees. It was a winter wonderland!

Chris was so tired, so once got out of the mud, I drove. We stopped just beyond Mount Ord, to give the dogs a little pit stop and found and interesting overpass with tons of graffiti on it. It was nice to just take a breather and count our blessing that we didn't blow off the side of a mountain.

 

Remembering The Cinders

On September 14, 2018, Chris picked me up from work. He had the doggies and the pop-up and we headed for Flagstaff.

We drove to NAU and picked up Veronica, and then headed off to O'Leary Group Campsite.

We joined Off-road Passport for their last annual Cinders trip. They had gone every year to Cinder Hill in Coconino County to drive into the volcano.

We got to the site pretty late. We set up quickly, and ate dinner. By the time we got to the fire pit to socialize, everyone was heading off to bet. We hung out for little while anyway. A family with a ton of small children showed up to the firepit to make smores. They were quite entertaining! The littlest one kept catching their marshmallows on fire, and basically panicking. They were still delighted to eat their charred to a crisp smores though.

The next morning, we got up and got ready to hit the trail.

We were a little worried about views being obstructed, because there were two nearby wildfires- the Rhino Fire and Platypus Fire. You could see the smoke for miles and miles. When we got to Cinder Hills, the views were still amazing though!

We had 26 vehicles in our group, but when we stopped to take a group picture, there were 27 vehicles. I guess another Jeep saw us, and decided to join in. There were only 5 Toyotas out of the whole group- 3 4Runners, a Tacoma, and an FJ Cruiser. At one point we tried to all band together and stay together in line to unite against all the Jeeps. Haha!

We got to drive in this super fun figure 8. It was so cool! Then one by one, we all climbed a super steep hill. 

Chris was one of the first to go, so that he could take pictures from the top of all the other trucks.

The figure 8 and the hill were cool, but driving down into the bowl of the volcano was just the best! It was SO steep! I tried to take pictures, but none of them do justice to the crazy grade dropping into the bowl. 

We parked and had eat our picnic lunches with the gang. 

Back at camp, they had a raffle and a salsa competition. The salsa was so yummy! Me and Chris both won prizes in the raffle. I won a frisbee and a toolbox, and Chris won a $50 vehicle service and a t-shirt. 

Chris made carne asada tacos for dinner, and then he and Veronica went over to a ice cream social with the group. I stayed behind to write, but sure enjoyed listening to the bustle outside. There was a group of 9 boys staying at the next campsite over. I was listening to them play a game in which one boy constantly yells instructions for the game, and the other boys start to play, and in response, the bossy boy decides to change the whole game and shout new instructions. It was pretty funny. 

At the fire a very intense game of Jenga was going on. I kept hearing loud "OoooOOOOOOOoooh!"s and tons of laughter. 

The next morning, most of the campers got up extremely early to leave- but not US! The camp host came by in a golf cart and talked Chris's ear off. I could hear them talking about restaurants and he recommended a few places for us to try when we come to Flagstaff. We're supposed to try Fat Olives and The Place. He had a beautiful Collie names Bella. Chris was pretty excited that he got to pet her.

We headed into town and decided on NiMarco's for lunch, but we had to kill some time, so we went to Sportsman's and spent about an hour there. There was a mannequin wearing a camo top, camo hat, camo leggings and camo boots. Veronica said that if she ever started hunting, that that's the outfit she'd wear- so we picked out a little kid's cap gun for her to take hunting- haha! I let her know we'd be sure to get her her hunting outfit for Christmas. 

We had such a fun time camping and hanging out with Veronica!

Remembering Our Family Camping Trip

On September 7, 2018, Matthew and Dustin came to pick me, Chanel and Chloe up for camping. We got to White Spar Campground first. Mom and Dad would have beat us, but they got a flat tire in Wilhoit. A super sweet couple and their 14 year old son picked them up and just so happened to be headed to the same campground. What a blessing!

Joe and the kids arrived shortly after me and the boys. They drove the 4Runner up, and we got the popup unhooked in time to have the truck ready for Joe and Levi to drive dad to Discount Tire in Prescott. 

Bradley was an amazing help setting up the pop-up! He really wants to know how to do it all. Once it was up, Ella helped me decorate the inside. 

When Chris got there after work, we all sat down for yummy fiesta chowder and then triple chocolate cherry cake. So yummy! 

Bradley found a little snake friend: 

This was mom and dad's first camping trip in their new trailer. It looked awesome! I want to move in!

That night, the kids joined us for some games in our pop-up. Chris and Bradley played chess, and Chris taught him a three move checkmate. Later, we played Loaded Questions. One of my favorite moments is was when we asked what the most dangerous outdoor activity, and Bradley answered, "Sitting under a tree with a LOT of birds in it."

The next morning, we had a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs with sausage. There were also hashbrowns, bagels, and banana muffins! 

Joey went for a seven mile hike/run. The rest of us looked at some catalogs, played cards and Bradley taught Matthew to play chess. He was so thrilled to finally beat someone. He tried to teach Levi how to play too, but Levi was being and terrorist and acting awful. He told me wanted to document that he won the game--- Levi in fact did NOT win, but I love him, so I wrote it. Bradley wanted me to document that Levi definitely did not win. Haha! Levi, Ella and Bradley all drew me fun pictures for my journal, and mom wrote me a little note. I love these little treasures. 

The next day we went to town. We stopped in Trax Records, Figgy's, and Fancy That. We stopped at a little ice cream shop and Chris got chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick. Basically, heaven for him!

Me and Chris took the kids to Dick's Sporting Goods so they could run on the ellipticals- which is basically heaven for those weirdos. Haha!

Matthew walked away from the campsite for a few minutes. Someone asked where he was. We looked up and he was walking back briskly holding a big stew pot. We joked that he had stolen a stew from another campsite. Just then, a police SUV pulled up behind him- which was pretty hilarious timing. 

We started playing Loaded Questions as a whole family. Some of the highlights (which are probably only funny if you were there...):

1. Mom read the question, "What's your favorite activity when riding on a motorboat?". Matthew answered, "Ride on a motorboat."

2. I asked "What's a strange activity to do while riding a horse?". Someone answered, "Ride on a motorboat."

Levi had 42 "confirmed kills" for the weekend. He's a bug assassin. He saw one inside our pop-up that he wanted to kill, but I told him I didn't want a bunch of dead flies in our bed, but he couldn't resist. He whacked it from the outside, and hit it so hard that the fly hit me in the lip and died on impact. So disgusting! BUT, it did grant me one assist to the total confirmed kill count. So I guess that's some consolation. RIP fly. 

I asked Chris what his favorite part of the camping trip was and he said he liked playing games with the kids in our pop-up at night. That really was a hoot! Our last night there, we played Loaded Questions again and one of the questions was "What trophy would you most NOT want to win?". Levi answered, "2018's longest fart." Inevitably that same answer resurfaced several times throughout the game. For instance- "What do you wish you could stuff your face with right now?" The answer of course, "2018's longest fart". That's some real high brow comedy. Haha!

The last morning, Levi made pancakes for everyone. :) So cute!

We started packing up. Ella helped me take down our decorations. I asked Bradley to draw a picture for me, and he drew mom and dad's trailer, and it turned out great! 

Remembering Our Bear Canyon Lake Trip

August 24-26, 2018

Chris and I headed up north to the Mogollon Rim to meet Mike and Edie for camping near Bear Canyon Lake. It was so rainy out! For some of the drive, we were driving into the clouds, and it looks so cool!

By the time we got to Woods Canyon Lake, the rain had died down, and we saw a beautiful double rainbow. When we got to camp, M&E had already been there awhile and were all set up. They said we missed a hail storm!

The next morning, it down poured! Their easy-up started to break, and Edie and I got soaked trying to save the canopy. Chris and I ran to our pop-up for cover and ate breakfast- but something about the weather and the altitude gave me a killer headache. Chris let me get some rest, and went to M&E's pop-up to watch The Bourne Identity and play Sequence. 

When the sun finally came out, the three of them headed off to the lake. 

I woke up some, and read How to Rate a Soulmate- a book that Chris's Aunt Diana wrote. It was a fun read, a romantic comedy. 

I started feeling better in the afternoon, and we all played corn hole. Edie and Chris were on fire! They played super well. Luckily Edie carried me through the game, because I'm absolutely dismal at it. I kept accidentally throwing the beanbags in the ditch we were playing near. The only time I did well, Chris always did especially well, and stole all my points. What a punk! Haha!

Chris and I walked around in the woods for a bit. We found lots of mushrooms. It's good that the forest got so much moisture during the monsoon season! 

When we left the last day, we took Rim Road. It was awesome! We scoped out some campsites right on the rim. We also got to see some wildlife. We saw a herd of wild turkeys and some elk.