Sedona portion of Summer 2022 trip

Little ice cream spot in downtown Sedona (that was really a liqueur store with a bit of ice cream)

Early on, on the first hike, the first day. Note we are refreshed and happy.

Three brave souls on Devils Bridge. They do it for the gram.... They did it for me! This supposably1.8 mi round trip hike (so says the internet) at 6000 ft elevation to get to Devils Bridge for this death-defying photo opportunity turned out to be 5.6 mi in 95 F heat.  We made it to the car with one swig of water left.... Robert and I had white salt/sweat marks on our t-shirts!  It took hours, and my kids didn't want to hear the word hike the rest of the trip. 

We refueled this kid often, I do believe he was on some sort of growth spurt.

Day two, we pivoted and instead of doing a couple more hikes I had planned, we rented a Jeep to off road, climb rocks, get to said hikes and photo opportunities with a cooler full of gatorade in the back and air conditioning.  Totally worth the money. Robert loved driving. We did two trails, a moderate and adventure and skipped the beginner trails. 

Look, I still got the photos I wanted, we still saw all the red rocks and the holes, but with a fun Jeep! We covered so much ground. It was so fun!

Cow pie rocks in the back ground, kids were standing on the Merry-go-round rock.

The landscapes were breathtaking, God's creation is amazing. 

 We rented from Barlow Jeep Rental in Sedona. Dallas is posing with the truck Rutledge Wood used on an episode of Top Gear. He spotted it right away in the parking lot, it is one of his favorite episodes. Robert has actually met Rutledge so we had to get a picture. It turns out that Barlow Jeep did all the outfitting for that episode of Top Gear when they went off roading, the gal running the shop was quite impressed we had seen it.

We hit one more thing on my list of things to do in Sedona, Slide Rock State Park. It was originally an apple orchard. The homesteader used the water running through Oak Creek Canyon to irrigate apple trees and other crops. The canyon reminds me a lot of Ledges. There were natural "rock slides" that were smooth that you could sit and slide down. It was probably 7-10% decline. It was cool mountain water and refreshing. There was also a small "cliff" you could jump, and some deeper pool areas that were at least over 6ft. We did two of the longer slides, 80ft. It is smooth, worn down sandstone. It was fun. I wish there was less people, just like Ledges it was busy.

Phoenix part of our Summer 2022 trip

We started and ended our trip in Phoenix as we flew in to PDX. We landed by 8:30 am, Arizona is in mountain time zone, but does not observe DST (except for Navajo reservations), needless to say it was early for us, we left Ames in the dark and needed to feed the hollow teenage boy. Our connection in Denver did not allow for a food stop and United did not give him the little package of cookies he was expecting!

Big breakfast for all. I think Dallas ordered Lemon Poppy Seed pancakes that came topped with ice cream, plus sausage, plus and ice coffee he made Emily order but then drank most of it. 

After breakfast we found a theater to see the new Minons movie. It was Robert's goal to see this and the new Thor movie while on vacation. We succeeded! 

I am skipping to our last day of vaca, which landed us back in Phoenix. It was 115F when we drove into Robert's high school friends driveway. I had meet him 1-2x, but never met his wife or kids. They entertained us with this VR rig, made us dinner and we questioned how anyone can go outside in the summer. 

Stahmer and Kibbe family

We spent one night at a really nice DoubleTree resort hotel in Phoenix before flying home in the morning. We swam at 9pm and it was still 105F!