Crazy Spring Break 2012

This was one of the craziest spring breaks in regards to weather! We started out our spring break by going as a family to a little lake near Flagstaff to go fishing with the kids. After the lake Dustin decided he wanted to go drive around and look for elk in an area that we hadn't really been to before. It happened the way in always does -- Dustin said we would just drive for a little ways and then turn around and go home -- that didn't happen. We drove for a ways and then Dustin said, "lets just go a little further". Before we knew it, we were so far into our drive that we decided it would probably be silly to turn around and go back the way we came so we would just find another way out of the mountains. It didn't really dawn on us until after we had already made the decision to just keep going that we realized the way we were going to come out of the mountains may not work for us because it was still spring and the forest service roads were probably gated off to the highway. I will admit that panic set in with me a little bit as we had been in the car all day with 3 little children, it was dinner time and all we had in the car was cheese and crackers (thank goodness we had something), and it was getting dark. The ride became so long for Hollis that about every 30 seconds for a while he said he had to go potty just so he could get out of the car. After it was dark we could see the highway and the road out straight ahead of us and we were just praying the gate wouldn't be closed because it was several hours back home the other way in the dark on dirt roads. Well as luck would have it the gate was closed and we could see all the cars on the highway headed into Flagstaff but we were stuck on the other side of the fence. Dustin got out of the car thinking there has to be a way out of here. He just so happened to follow the fence line down a little bit off the road and found a opening in the fence line just big enough for our car to fit through -- thank goodness! We got out of the mountains and headed back into Flagstaff. Making memories!

The next day of our spring break Coe and his friend, Jake, came to visit us and we decided that we were going to go to the mountains to build a campfire and do dinner. Before dinner we took the kids on a little hike up the mountain to look for elk sheds but all we found were some bones. Hollis was really slowing everyone else down because he likes to pick up all the sticks and throw them in the air. I decided to head back down the mountain with the little kids to get the campfire started while the older boys finished their hike. That was the longest, slowest hike back down the mountain with two pokey children and carrying Emily in a pack. I think we only made it back down the mountain 5 or 10 minutes before the older boys got back. So much for getting back earlier to get the campfire going. At this point, Jamon and Kristen came to join us with their kids and we cooked dinner over the campfire together. It was a really fun time.

The next day of our spring break we woke up to piles and piles of snow -- it dumped! I just remember thinking how crazy that was to spend two whole days outside having fun in the sun and then have the complete opposite the next day. The snow was just as fun though! That is one thing I really liked about Flagstaff -- the snow was so pretty and it would just dump but then not stay around very long. It always would look so beautiful and it was great for the kids to play in. These pictures were all taken right outside our apartment door. We were lucky to live right in the mountains and could go sledding right outside our door.