Escaping the heat and heading out to Fossil Creek

Believe it or not..but it is still super hot in September...
We went camping with the Davis family (Brent's sisters family) a little north of Payson to  escape the heat and get a little closer to nature...It was nice and cool up there and we quite surprised how cool it got once the sun went down... It always seems silly packing up warmer clothing and sleeping bags when it's over 100 degrees and you're still sweating loading up the car.

We had to purchase a new tent this year, since our 16 year old one we bought when we first got married died at scout camp this summer. :(   While we were setting up the new 2 room tent, my nephew Hyrum started chatting with me....
"Aunt Anna...You and uncle Brent have a re--eeeally big tent and it has doors!" Hyrum says..
"Yup..it's pretty big Hyrum"  I say
"Aunt Anna....but ours is much better than yours, because we put ours up faster than you....did you need some help?"......
Awww...that little Hyrum....  :)


After packing up all of camping gear, we all headed up to Fossil Creek. Brent said it was a dirt road but that it wouldn't be too  bad.... wrong-o! It was one of the scariest roads I'd ever been on. I tried not looking over the edge and not panicking...It was my SUV's first time on a road like that and I'm sure it won't be it's last considering Brent's our ward Scoutmaster....


Once we arrived to our final destination and hiked for a bit...This was our reward!!!

The water was crystal clear and the rocks were fun to jump off of

Yikes! That water was cold...mind you...I like to swim in 80 degree water ;)

The Davis Family

Hiking down the river with Uncle John

My little man turned 12 this year....

Well...
Time flies and my kiddos are getting older...Joseph turned the magical age of 12 this year and is now a deacon in our church. Allison and her family came down to support him when he got ordained a deacon...It's an hour drive for them AND church starts at 8:30 AM for us...We feel extremely blessed to have them around.  :)

The night before he was to be ordained, I realized I didn't have a white shirt that fit him nor did I have Sunday slacks...So off we went to JC Penney's a few miles from our house...It's so strange to have to shop in the Men's department for my little man. He's now a 1/2" shorter than me...Soon I'll be the shortest one in the house.

Joseph asked for a green and orange cake....As you can see...my cake decorating skills need some serious improvement...The cake tasted yummy and there were no complaints.  :)

Joseph was ordained a Deacon

Alycia and Joseph

Brent and Joseph wearing their white shirts and ties

Ahh...The Smith family

 

 

 

Joseph with his cousins Hyrum and Alan

My (now) 14 year old ....

Alycia turned 14 this August....I can't believe she's in high school and can now go to church dances... Here are a few pics of her birthday celebration...

Alycia made these cupcakes for the party....We're so happy she chose to take a cooking class in Jr. high.

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My talented sister-in-law Allison made this amazing cake for Alycia a few days later...Cool huh?

A better adventure to New Mexico for the Smiths

Ahh....Finally....the indian ruins!
We visited the Aztec Ruins National Monument in New Mexico just outside of Farmington. It took about an hour to see if all. Cool place to visit!

We finally made to the Mesa Verde National Park...I never had the opportunity to hike up to an actual ancient Indian dwelling, until now... It was absolutely amazing! It was soo worth seeing!!!

Mesa Verde National Park

A better vacation for the Smiths...

Here are a few pictures of us on our vacation....

Joseph & Alycia a few miles outside of the Petrified Forest in Arizona...I think people can actually camp here.. Yikes!

Myself with the dino...we had to make our picture taking super quick...there were fire ants everywhere..Ouch!

Brent,Alycia, & Joseph in the Petrified Forest...that's an actual Petrified tree stump behind them

Brent,Alycia,the caterpillar, Joseph, and Anna

My kiddos...gotta Love that catapillar

Brent with the painted desert in the background

We visited the Petrified forest and the Painted desert on our way to New Mexico and it was amazing to see all the coolness of living in the desert. It was overcast and a bit chilly (well...what I think is chilly) in July.

I do have to confess to my ignorance though...When we stopped off at a gift shop outside of the Petrified forest park, I couldn't understand why Brent wanted to purchase pieces of petrified wood...I kept thinking...duh? they have plenty of them at the park we could pick up...right? Uh...NO!!!! My family members were horrified when I mentioned that to them..It's a criminal act to take anything from a National Park...duh? I should have known that...good thing I NEVER took anything...

The painted desert was really neat to see also...It seemed almost alien to visit it...If you ever make to Arizona...I highly recommend checking these places out....

Adventures in New Mexico.....

This has to be the MOST stressful vacation I've ever been in....
Brent calls it our "stress-cation".....

Last month we planned on a most anticipated and cooler vacation...to escape the wicked heat of Arizona and relax in the coolness of Colorado, but making a pit stop in New Mexico to see the amazing Indian ruins at Mesa Verde National park and another park near Farmington (where we stayed)...

The drive went well until our 2003 Honda Odyssey's "check engine" light made it's appearance...Aww...it must be the gas cap..we thought... Per the owner's manual, it will take 3 trips for it to disappear. We arrive to Farmington and the light is still on...grrr....We drive to O'Reilly auto parts store and check to see what the problem might be...(they do free checks there)... it gave us a message that we then googled and it said it had to do with the transmission. Ahhhhh!!!! We take it to the Honda dealership...yes...they actually had a dealership in this small town...We waited for 3-4 hours for the results... It needs a new transmission we're told. "Umm...how is much is this going to cost???" I say...yet my heart is racing...
"With parts and labor...$5000" He cooly says...
"Are you SERIOUS???? The car isn't even worth that!!!"
I then ask Brent to chat with the mechanic...
Nope...no quick fixes can be made..

We then decided to leave early and go back to Arizona..drop off the van at home and drive up to Colorado to Brent's reunion in his Altima...50miles outside of Shiprock, New Mexico the transmission starts slipping in the middle of nowhere...on the reservation...no cell towers in sight...

Shiprock, New Mexico

Middle of nowhere New Mexico

Our van being unloaded from the 70 mile journey back to our hotel in Farmington, New Mexico

Once we arrived to our at around midnight, the hunt was on to find a car rental to get us OUT of Farmington....Believe it or not....the ONLY car rental agency willing to do a one-way rental to the Phoenix area was Budget. I will forever be grateful for Budget and will a loyal customer...I too need to make a plug for our cell carrier Sprint....I had a decent signal from the middle of nowhere New Mexico to place a call to AAA to get a tow truck dispatched to our location...I also had data connection...so I was able to pinpoint our location to AAA. Way to go Sprint and Budget for helping us in our time of need!!! AAA...hmm...that's another story....but I do want to say something regarding AAA...If you travel a lot in your vehicle...I highly recommend you getting the "deluxe membership"...they'll tow you for 100 miles...We, of course didn't upgrade....which I'm kicking myself for not doing so.. grrr....

We weren't sure what to do with the van...should we salvage it or get it fixed? One salvage yard offered $500..
."Are you freaking joking?!!!!" was my response...is freaking a bad word??? :/
Another offered $800-1200....but this salvage yard said they could fix it for $2200. That sounded like a reasonable price to have it fixed. We would have to leave it there and drive back to pick it up on our way home from Colorado...

After picking up the van at the repair/salvage yard, we made our drive back to the deserts of Arizona...

This is where Charcoal was fixed..

About 50 miles outside of Heber, Arizona the "D" drive light began to flicker....uhh...not good...turns out it was another transmission issue!!! :((((((((

We said a prayer as a family that we'd make it home okay...I had to drive carefully and NOT rev the engine...That was sooooo difficult for me.... I felt like a grandma driver... please don't take any offense to those grandma's that may be reading my blog.. :)))) Brent followed behind me in the Altima and we made home fine...The van didn't give me any problems and drove well, but we decided to purchase another vehicle and trade-in Charcoal...She was a great van and we've had many great memories, but I'm now the owner of new Nissan Pathfinder and I LOVE it!!!



If you follow me on FB...this was the story behind the pics and our adventure....I'll post pics of our more happier trip to New Mexico soon...

Driving and taking pics aren't too safe...but I had to take a pic of the "Welcome to Arizona" after our stress-cation out to New Mexico.....I love you Arizona!!!!