Family Bonding

More than any of the views from or of Sedona, my favorite scenes from our vacation are the ones of my family.

Just Walkin' Around Town

Somehow, just walking around at home doesn't have the same impact as just walking around this beautiful town.

My favorite place ever!  Tlaquepaque

Built in the 1970's, this little boutique village was fashioned after a little village in Guadalupe.  It's gorgeous!!!!!

I went back to Tlaquepaque quite a few times (it was actually on our resort's grounds) because there were all kinds of little doorways that led to hidden courtyards.  

On one of my walks, I ducked into a little doorway and gate and I stumbled across this beautiful little chapel.

We also visited Main Street

the views were beautiful, we all enjoyed them.

And sunset was breathtaking... this picture doesn't even come close to doing the Sedona sky justice.

A Little More Internet Window Shopping

I'm reading through Parents magazine while the kids nap and I found both of these cute things.  Thought I'd share.
I love these little Babushkas.

These bright little "babushkas" Russian nesting doll glasses make me reminiscent of my Nana

And these little Ruffle Butts are just adorable!

A Sunset Like No Other

We went up to the airport to catch a little known secret among the locals (well, a secret that all of the tour guides share... ha).  There is a view of the sunset up there that is like no other.  I didn't get any pictures of the actual sun setting, but we took some pictures before.

                                                  The boys looking out into the distance

My little family

Daddy's girls

Taking in the view (well, I am at least)

A Little Interruption

I know I'm in the middle of posting about our vacation to Arizona, but I just stumbled across my new favorite Etsy shop:
Plum Pretty Sugar

  

If you haven't perused this shop before, take a moment (or 29 if you're like me) to look around HERE.  It is absolutely beautiful!!!!

Making Ourselves At Home In Sedona

It wasn't hard to cozy right up to this beautiful little town in Arizona.   This is the view when you come into Sedona from highway 17. (All of our pictures were taken from our new iPhone 4's.  We were pretty impressed by the quality they took.  Our movies were taken from them also.... in HD!!!!  Wow!)

I can't even describe the feeling that comes over you when you turn through the curve and this becomes your new view.
From the kiddie perspective, Drew thought we were in Radiator Springs from the Cars movie...haha

This is the poster that Ron and Lisa gave to Drew and it is hanging in his room, so you can see why he thought such a thing.
The next step was to get a bite to eat at Javalinas.  This is a restaurant named after these little (well, actually not-so-little) pigs that reside in this area.  This is not a picture from the restaurant, it's actually from a walk around main street later in the trip, but I thought I'd show you the size of these critters compared to Drew and Emma.

Then it was off to the resort to get moved-in.  Los Abrigados was beautiful and we had a wonderful 2 bedroom suite called The Winner's Circle II.  It was perfect for the kids (once I got past the 2 tile steps into the kitchen that Emma LOVED to play on of course).

This is the entrance to the resort

This was our room.  The little covered porch to the side with the red awning ended up being our favorite spot where we could just let the kids play and there were beautiful views of the red rock.

This was our view from that porch.

After getting settled in our room, we went to explore a little bit of the resort.  We found a great kids' play area with a playground, lots of games and mazes, and miniature golf.  

Drew walked the entire Peace Walk without crossing over the grass.

We also found a little spot by Oak Creek that was absolutely beautiful!  There were lots of artists sitting out by the creek drawing, photographing, and painting.  I can certainly see why they chose to come to this resort for inspiration.

This was a nice little spot that faced the creek

This was a spot after a bend in the creek.  I thought it was amazing that this tree was situated on rocks with it's roots intertwined like that.

Then was had a little walk-about to look at the rest of the resort.

This upstairs room was the room that Colin's parents had last time they were in Sedona.  They said it was so peaceful and they slept with the window open to listen to the fountain all night.

We were really looking forward to spending our week here.  We were falling in love already.

Sedona

"God made The Grand Canyon, but He lives in Sedona"
That's what they say.....

..... I believe it!
It's going to take some time to get it all out. For such a small place on this earth, there was a lot to take in and I wanted to capture every moment of it.

Drew's 3!!!!

What a great day!
We woke the birthday boy up with the Happy Birthday Song and he was so happy!  He was so excited to be 3.  We went through our morning routine and had our breakfast all while celebrating, singing, and smiling.
But then my smile disappeared, but only for a short while, when I realized that I had recorded the wrong PBS channel.  I didn't record the PBS channel that had Sprout's Sunny Side Up Show!!!!!  That means I missed Drew's birthday announcement on television!  I was devastated for about 15 minutes.  But after posting something on Facebook about it and hearing stories from other moms (wonderful ones that I admire) and how they had moments of this superficial type of heartbreak and their "oh I feel like Mother-Of-The-Year...NOT!" moments, I felt better.  We all make mistakes, and this was a little one.  We'll all live.
We played some more and celebrated by singing.
Then it was time for the birthday lunch!!!!  It was a very 3-year-old lunch.... PB&J!  With a cupcake of course.

I don't think you should have to wait until after dinner on your birthday to have everyone sing to you, so I make cupcakes for birthday lunches.  This also solves my issue of LOVING cupcakes but not being able to give up the tradition of having a birthday cake.  This works particularly well since both of my kids have birthdays that will probably never be school days.
Drew found something out about me that I think all of my family will take advantage of while having his birthday cupcakes... I am a softy for birthdays, so I will let you celebrate it as many times as you want on your special day.  By this, I mean that I will light that candle and sing to you  as many times as you want me to.
Drew kept on eating the top off of his cupcake and then asking for more "fire" and singing.  It may be that he figured out that each time he got a new candle, he got more icing too.

Candle #2

Candle #3

Candle #4!!!!

Anyways, after 4 candles and a cupcake that ended up being less than in inch tall Drew finally felt satisfied with his lunch celebrations.
Then Mama and Drew ran a few errands.  It was a horrible day as far as the weather went.  I think we even had a couple of tornado warnings, but we had to go pick up the birthday cake!!!!  What was I to do!?!  So we went.
Then it was back home and time to get ready for the party.
More details on that later!

Happy Birthday, Drew!