Five year anniversary trip to Sedona

SEDONA: Full of hikes we probably shouldn't have taken a 5 month old on!

Our five year anniversary happened to fall on the week that Brad had off of school, so we planned a two day trip to Sedona to celebrate! Most people don't take their kids on their anniversary trips, but we're poor and decided hey, why not.

We left early Tuesday morning and arrived in Sedona at our first hike just before 10am.

Tuesday, August 22nd

Fay Canyon Trail 
It was already pretty hot outside but Brad had done some research on different hikes and difficulty levels and this one was labeled as easy and shaded. My two favorite words when it comes to hiking!


We saw so many butterflies on this hike and Owen loved it!

About a quarter mile in, we ran into a group of hikers who told us they had just seen mountain lion tracks up ahead and to keep our little ones close, so that was super comforting! But we figured if we saw a cougar, we would just sing the BYU fight song and he'd probably just start dancing and doing back flips so we decided to keep on going. 

Cars is Owen's favorite movie currently so Brad had told Owen we were going to "Radiator Springs" because the Sedona scenery is so similar to that in the movie. What made it even better was a red sports car was parked right next to our hotel so Owen was psyched! (random side note: I only know how to spell psyched because of being a cheerleader. P-S-Y-C-H-E-D psyched is what we want to be, get psyched! Alright, alright, get psyched!) 

Even though it was hot, the reviews were correct and this path was pretty well shaded and not too difficult, so we had a lot of fun! Owen & Madden both did awesome! We rewarded ourselves afterwards with some Barbecue Chicken pizza for lunch. 

Famous Pizza 
I'm not sure if it was because we were starving or not, but this pizza was seriously delicious! Highly recommend. 

Chapel of the Holy Cross 

After lunch, we checked into the hotel and took some much needed naps! After nap time, we drove to the church on the hill. It wasn't what I was expecting at all but it was still really cool. We walked around, enjoyed the amazing views and let Owen light and burn his fingers on some candles. 

Swimming at the hotel

The hotel pool was awesome so we cooled off by swimming for a couple of hours. 

Brad with Owen & Madden in the pool  

Poor Madden was exhausted by this point. The picture on the right was purely for capturing the cuteness of his new swimsuit. I realize he looks miserable :)

Owen riding on Brad's back

Brad throwing Owen in the pool 

89Agave Cantina

After swimming, we got cleaned up and went out to dinner. We ate chips & queso and split a fajita burrito and it was delicious! Once again, highly recommend. 

Just ignore the goldfish crumb on Owen's lip. 

I realize taking a video at dinner isn't super exciting, but I loved the feel of this area and it was so nice to be outside and not feel miserably hot! 

Wednesday, August 23rd (Our anniversary!)

Broken Arrow trail
The next morning, we planned on using the boys as an alarm clock because they wake up between 6-6:30am everyday. But what happens when you actually want them to wake up early? They sleep in.

So our hike that should have started around 8am ended up starting around 9:30 and it was already 100 degrees. But that didn't stop these four adventurers! (It did, however, stop all other hikers because we were the only ones on the trail)

Here we are stopping for a water break oh about...5 minutes in.

This hike was also listed as easy but that wasn't super accurate, it was definitely more intermediate! Even though it was a little harder than we expected (and not shaded at all), the views were amazing and once again, both kids did really really well. Aside from seeing a couple jeeps doing tours a little distance away, we didn't see another soul on the trail the entire time which was a little unnerving. My thoughts the whole time were, "Wow! This is so pretty!" and "Why are we the only ones on the trail? Is there something we don't know?" I would also be lying if I said I wasn't constantly looking around hoping I didn't see any snakes, bears or mountain lions. 

Owen's been watching a lot of movies lately (I blame the Arizona heat) and another one of his current favorites is Kung Fu Panda. I had to include this video of him sitting on Brad's shoulders practicing "kung fu!"

The kids were seriously rock stars and did so well! The best part was Madden slept in the carrier for the first half of the hike. 

On the last stretch. We did it!!  

Fossil Creek 

After our hike, we grabbed some lunch and started driving to our final adventure, Fossil Creek. This place had been recommended to Brad a couple of times, and we really didn't know too much about it. But we decided to try it out anyway and hope for the best! 

We started doubting our decision about 3 miles in to the 16 mile rocky road we had to drive on in order to get to the trail head. This was probably the longest, bumpiest road either of us had ever been on and it took more than an hour to go 16 miles! 

I took a video of part of the drive, but it really doesn't portray just how bumpy this road was. What was most shocking of all is Owen & Madden both slept almost the entire way.  

Once we finally made it to the trail head, we threw on some swimsuits and started the hike. It was much more shaded than our hike from earlier that day, so that was a major plus! Other than some rocky areas that made it hard with a 5 month old strapped to me, the hike wasn't too bad. 

Hiking to Fossil Creek

And once we made it to the waterfall, we were pleasantly surprised! This place is really neat and the water is so pretty! Madden was by far the youngest kid there and I'd be lying if I said we didn't get a few strange looks from other waterfall dwellers as we approached. 

Video at Fossil Creek

The water was pretty cold but felt great once you got in. Even Owen was brave enough to get in all of the way! 

Brad swimming at Fossil Creek

After cooling off in the water and hanging out for a while, we made the hike back. As you can see, Madden enjoyed a nice nap along the way. The 16 mile drive out went by so much faster than the drive in so we were really happy about that! 

After our hike, we drove home with two sleeping babies in tow and talked about how much fun we had the last two days. I honestly couldn't have thought of a better way to spend our anniversary!