Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Parks

We stopped for lunch on the way at Nurd Berger, in Globe, which in addition to good burgers and awesome Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and superhero decor, also has a Super Nintendo to play while you wait for your order. Colby was in heaven (especially since the game featured Donkey and Diddy Kong). The place was packed with elderly bikers, but they were more interested in talking than eating, so we snuck our order in before the crowd.

The drive with all the different rock formations and canyons was beautiful. We stopped at the Salt River Canyon to admire the view.

And a different set of elderly bikers took our picture (they really are nice).

Then we went to the visitors' center and stamped our National Parks Passport. We have officially visited all the National Parks in Arizona!

Digging for fossils 

And hiking around the Visitor's Center

Alice quote: "You don't want to fall down there or you have to be resurrected."

In front of Old Faithful, the biggest petrified tree in the park

Then we continued driving to our Airbnb

The kids loved the house and Alice immediately got to work organizing everything. For some reason Claire didn't sleep great that night. On her 5th time waking up, Alice went and calmed her down. She can be such a great helper.
The next morning we discovered a mouse had nibbled through our grocery bag and started munching on a bagel. He didn't eat much, just a couple tiny bites.  We like to think that one of Claire's nighttime howls saved our breakfast :)

Our first hike was the Painted Desert Rim trail. It was 32 degrees and we froze, but the views were amazing.

The hike ended at the Historic Painted Desert Inn. Robb ran back for the car while we endured Claire's first tantrum (she didn't want to wear her coat). By the time he got back, the Inn opened for tours and we got to peak inside.

It was filled with artwork from the 1930's  and had lots of little architectural details that made the whole building beautiful.  

Alice and Claire were both very interested in the old ice cream parlor

They also commissioned a local artist to build this kaleidoscope that you could rotate around to view rocks and pieces of petrified wood through different lenses.

Then we drove to Blue Mesa and somehow convinced the kids to go on another hike...maybe it was Robb promising to push them in stroller. The trail went down into the canyon and we got to admire the different colors of sediment up close

Or at least until Claire started on her second tantrum. Then Robb took our screaming bear-cat and I pushed the stroller (the older kids had to get out and walk once the trail started moving out of the canyon). Robb told me the tantrum was very similar to the time he had to give her a bath after she rubbed peanut butter all over her face and hair.

She immediately fell asleep on the way home

And we also passed over a section of Historic Route 66

November Little Things

• Colby 
• "Silly goosey"
• "You're not there at the cafeteria, so I get to eat what I want!"

Colby received the "something to hoot about" award for being the most improved. He is rocking this school year.

One of Colby's homework assignments was to disguise his turkey before Thanksgiving. Naturally Alice wanted to join in the fun. Their turkeys are pretending to be Angry Birds. 

• Alice
• Whenever she's excited about something she yells, "Wah-hoo!"

Alice's preschool art project (she's a rooster)

• Claire
• Came up this morning with the book, Corduroy, saying, "Is a puppy! Meow, meow!"
• "Bye! Bye!" --What Claire says when she wants me to leave so she can do something she's not supposed to do  

Someone learned a new trick

Alice decided we needed a spur of the moment tea party

I love how she sweetly reminds me to put away the to-do list to make time for fun 

Thanksgiving, Indian Bread Rocks, and Fort Bowie

We had another solo Thanksgiving this year.

But having my four favorite people around and really good food made up for it.

Continuing our new tradition, we went camping on Black Friday! The campsite was almost empty and we got there early enough to set up camp and explore the campsite. The kids wanted to tackle this:

It's steeper than it looks

Climbing with three kids, a camera, and my pregnant belly was harder than we expected, but we made it up by having Robb ferry the kids up one at time over the tricky places while I stayed behind with the rest. 

It leveled off at the top and our little mountain goats had fun exploring.

We started making dinner at 4:50, which was great considering all I had to do was cook spaghetti. But late camping dinners seem to be inevitable for us because it took 45 minutes to boil water and cook the pasta (Robb says I used the wrong kind of pot, I think it was pre-destination). 

Meanwhile we played several hands of Super Mario Uno and then the kids went off and played together on the rocks. I kept hearing Alice yell, "Don't worry, Colby! I'll help you!" and then see her grab his hand and pull him the rest of the way up. I love those two.

Robb started a campfire while I cleaned up dinner by moonlight (because by that point the sun was gone). He told me later that Colby and Alice were singing "Twinkle, Twinkle little Star" with Claire joining in with her own rendition.

We roasted marshmallows and made life changing s'mores (the secret is using Reeces Peanut Butter cups instead of the traditional Hershey's chocolate bar). Then we tucked the kids into bed after Robb told a "scary" (per Alice's request) story about three monkeys that were almost eaten by coyotes, but they stayed quiet in their tent and were safe...and several more stories along similar lines because the first was such a hit.

Robb and I sat out for another couple hours watching the stars, talking, and enjoying our fire before joining them. 

We woke up at 1:30 am when a group of drunk boys drove into the campground and started yelling (they realized the rock formations created an echo) and cursing at each other for a solid 30 minutes before going home. I almost went to talk to them, but Robb reminded me that if I went out there was a good chance they'd slash our tires, so I stayed put.

The kids let us sleep in until 6:00 which has to be a record for us and then Robb made us pancakes while I packed up.

We tried getting a National Park stamp at the Fort Bowie Historical site once before, but didn't realize there was a hike in to get it. Apparently, it's been haunting Robb since then.

It was hot and we made it the 1.5 miles, but we had to stop every 15 minutes and the kids were dragging along. Colby dubbed the first 1/4 mile the "slippy trail" because of all the loose gravel. There were things to look at along the way, but the kids weren't interested until we found water. That got us to the park station. We ate our lunch on a bench outside and patched up Colby's arm after a fall. A breeze started blowing and everyone seemed to perk up. The hike back was so much fun. Colby and Alice took turns being trail leader and we started "zooming" (running when the trail went downhill). We made great time and all three kids were laughing and the older two were cracking jokes.

 The kids became less and less impressed with the historical sites as hike went on.

 At the Fort

 My favorite part of the exhibit