Driving home from our post-Bible study lunch, we spotted some very dark smoke. It looked close and, being the adventurous mama that I am, I decided to find it. We arrived on this street to see huge flames! Shortly after, the firemen closed the street. I saw someone retrieve two dogs which I assume lived there. It was a crazy fire. I’m sad for whomever owned that house. 😦
Jacob was very entertained on our long drive. 
He wanted to spell his cousin’s name using his favorite letter, x. 
Oatman
The 
We took a long-awaited trip to Northern Arizona and I was able to cross one thing off of my “bucket list”: I saw the Grand Canyon! Here are some pictures, in no particular order. 🙂
THIS IS IT.
The Grand Canyon is amazingly beautiful.
My family. 🙂
Jacob did NOT want pictures taken of him on this trip.
The red rocks of Sedona:Â 
On top of the AZ Snowbowl. We were at 11,000 feet elevation. Supposedly you can see the Grand Canyon from here, but we couldn’t make anything out.
The Grand Falls of the Little Colorado River. Also called the “Chocolate Niagara Falls.” It was ridiculously hard to find and in the middle of NOWHERE. Technically, in the middle of the Navajo Nation with no signage. 
Grand Canyon again:
We entered the park from the East Entrance, so the first viewpoint was the Watchtower. I was very glad happy that I had read some advice to enter from this side as it is MUCH less crowded and more enjoyable. The Watchtower, like Phantom Ranch and many other Grand Canyon National Park buildings was designed in the 1920s by Mary Elizabeth Coulter. She did extensive research of native building styles from the 900-year-old pueblo ruins, and used the same style so that the buildings would look as though they belonged there. Proud moment for women’s history–Coulter’s style of architecture would later be known as “National Park Style.” She is awesome! (See below for pictures of those very pueblos.)
Below is the view from Sitgreaves Pass above Oatman on Historic Route 66.
A motel and gas station built around 1920.
As you can see, I really enjoy the history of Route 66 and its motels and restaurants. 
The AZ Snowball Chair Lift:
Below is a Lava River Cave, or lava tube. It is formed when running lava cools and hardens on the outside, but the inside of the tube of lava is still hot and runs out of the formation, leaving a hollow space. We decided not to venture any further into this one because Josh (very intelligently) decided it was probably not a good idea. It stays 32 to 45 degrees in the cave all year. Just when we stepped onto these rocks, the temperature dropped 20 degrees. I had bought flashlights just for this cave, and they were awful (apparently cheap flashlights are not good). Also, it was dusk, and no one was around…I think Josh really made the right call. So we didn’t enter the pitch-black freezing cave full of bats. 🙂
A watertower in Leupp, AZ. 
The chocolate waters of Grand Falls:
The colorful horizon is the Painted Desert.
The Citadel:
These are the 900-year-old pueblos I referred to earlier. Simply amazing and beautiful. They have held up well due to their great design. The local volcanic stone looks so beautiful against the grassy plains of Arizona.
Why build on a hill? For defensive purposes? Or simply because it was a beautiful place to live?
Below: a sinkhole behind the Citadel. This happens often to limestone, apparently.
This road sign shows you how funny the interstate/old Route 66/current highway system is.
The very East side of the Grand Canyon. 
From inside the rotunda underneath the Watchtower:
Hiking in the Red Rocks of Sedona:
Apparently this cafe used to cook and serve anything you brought in…thus the name.
We were amused and stumped by these sets of roadside joke advertisements. 
We took a segue to Grand Canyon Caverns. Very much a cheesy, roadside Americana place, but still pretty cool!
A map showing where visitors had traveled from (their homes).
I’ve never seen more trains in my life than on this trip!
Not sure…
The end!!
I can only imagine the joy that Jacob must experience when he is able to do “his own” shopping. At Trader Joes he gets a cart just his size and carefully selects what he would like. He asks my permission for the most part, and he usually makes some pretty good choices, so i don’t mind. “Oh! We need some yogurt! Yummy!” He says as he darts carefully across the aisle. He asks for a sample of cheese and crackers “can I please have just a cracker please?” And then supplies his feedback: “those crackers are very good! Yum!” He takes a lot of pride in selecting his items, unloading them for the cashier, and then putting his cart away in the line of tiny shopping carts. While the cashier is ringing up our items he narrates them: “that cheese is my mommy’s. I don’t like it. This ice cream is for my daddy. It has peanut butter in it and he really loves that. I’m going to eat all these strawberries! This bread is good for dipping in the brown sauce.”
Tonight I held you close to my chest. You had been happily snuggled into my ring sling most of the evening. It was the only place you were happy, which is very unusual for you. I think you had a stomach ache, and you were fussy (and you are never fussy), but as soon as I put you into the ring sling, you were absolutely content. I get so used to your presence there. I am aware of you, and yet unaware somehow. I will stop and kiss your fuzzy round head or touch your soft, squishy feet, and surprise myself with your closeness. That you could be there, almost unnoticed, so beautiful and perfect–it’s hard to believe…That this small creature with working eyes and cherry-red lips who breathes and blinks and swivels his head from side to side is real. You are too precious, too marvelous and amazing and delicate and sweet to believe. The innocence in your sweet smile, the way it lights up your face…the beauty in the slow blink of your beautiful round eyes as you take me in…it’s almost too much beauty for me to handle. Tonight your grandmother held you and I saw you look for me, and saw your eyes lock onto my face when you found me, and I was taken aback. All at once the enormity of what it means to be your mother, your safe place, your home, it all came rushing to me and made my head spin. Am I that safe place? Could I be? On days when I feel so lost myself, the idea that I serve as an anchor for your small life seems overwhelming. I’m not sure I have grown up enough to be your adult, grown-up mother. I certainly don’t have it all figured out, which I don’t want you to know, because that seems very scary for a small child. So I live from minute to minute, trying to soak it all in.
I love you, my boy.
it was a beautiful morning, with some clouds clinging to the hillside. 
just a normal guy…watching football…:) 
My sweet baby, asleep in my rainbow wrap. 
Josh and Korey 
