Flags and Camping

Since I was feeling especially patriotic after my trip to D.C  we headed out to Tempe town lake to see the healing field on 9/11.  I was blown away again and emotional about the horrific events that accrued that day. There are nearly 3000 flags placed on the field to represent the victims that lost theirs lives that day. Lilly seems to understands most of what happened but what I wanted them to understand more than anything is that we live a great country one that is free and  we need to be grateful for those that die for the cause of freedom.

The next day I got busy making preparations for our camping trip.  We teamed up with the McHenry's and off we went to Sedona.  Sedona is beautiful and oh the weather was lovely but now that we have been I'm not sure I have the need to camp up there again.  The campground was so busy it had too many people for my taste.  Next time we go I would love to stay in town and check out the quaint shops.  

We made it up there with just 30 mins before it was dark so we raced to get the tent up. We did it.

The McHenry's were in charge of dinner: hot dogs, brauts and pasta salad.  And for desert S'mores YUM-O

Oh goodness the boys and fire.  Quoting Ryleigh "more fire, more fun"

In the morning it was our turn to cook we had hot chocolate and I pre-made breakfast sandwiches to heat up on the morning fire.  I'm happy to report they turned out excellent, so I will have to do them again. These 2 little boys were a hoot to watch playing together in the dirt. It was apparent that they loved being dirty.

Oh the children just think camping is the coolest thing ever. They found a worm and a caterpillar.

Sadly the caterpillar experienced a premature death. This kids felt bad so they buried him.  They gave him a headstone and marked his grave with grasses and rocks. Lilly and Maggie at the grave site.

Then they found another caterpillar. This time it climbed up Max's shorts and he was freaking out.  It was pretty funny. I got the caterpillar out with out any harm. We broke camp and headed to slide rock.  Where most of them tried in part to go down the natural water slide.

Kevin and Brandon both jumped a little cliff.

Luke and I hung out on the side of the creek.  He didn't mind one bit. Micheal and him threw rocks and loved it.  

Lilly and Maggie explored and played around in the water. When it was time to go they were both pretty sad.

Before leaving Sedona we stopped at Wendy's for lunch and said good-bye to our friends. On the way home we listened to Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane and almost finished it but there was just one chapter left so we finished it Sunday afternoon. Add another great weekend for our family history books.  We had so much fun we will have to do again.