Flagstaff High Altitude Campout

We made it up to Flagstaff for the bus convention.  We had a very scary storm coming into town and were glad we made it driving through the flooded streets.

Painted and ready!

While we were there, a guy pulled up to us in a parking lot.  This was the conversation.

Man:  I really like that bus.

Anya:  Thanks

Man:  You wanna' sell it?

Anya:  [shaking her head no, this being the third person wanting to buy it in the last few days]

Man:  Do you think you can find me one of those nice ones with all the windows in it.

Adam:  Fully restored they cost about $30-40K

Man:  I just bought a $420K car!  I don't care about expensive!  Here's my number if you're interested.

 

No money can buy these kind of memories.

John and a Thing.

Hayride time!

Buses here and there.

More hayride time.  It rained 4 days straight.  But we were so glad to GET AWAY FROM IT ALL.

Sunday we went to church (4 Barrys getting read for church in the bus was so funny!)  In between laughing and pushing each other, we finally made it to the 9am sacrament meeting smelling like campfire.  John and Ella LOVED going to church on vacation...something we will continue.  It really made the trip better.  Then we came back to camp for delicious food!

John and Ella played with other camper kids and John learned how to make friends!!!

I think we used maybe 200 matches to get this fire going.  We just kept laughing.

Wowsers!!

The rain let up a bit so we went for a hike on Monday.  Um...ok, we went for a trek.

Excuse these stretchy running pants.  The hike was 2 miles to Elden summit and two miles back.  2,400 feet above east Flagstaff (altitude over 12,000 ft).  I could not believe John and little Ella trudged up this trail. 

It started to rain and we got scared.  Flash floods are nothing to mess around with.  Coming down the rocks was slippery and Adam and I were nervous.  At church, the people had been talking about flooded homes from the monsoon rainfall.  There was no place to take shelter and I was worried about mudslides.  A family of elk were heading up the mountain next to us and the clouds were rolling down the mountain right behind us.  But we made it safely back, soggy and with minds full of memories.  John had us beat.  He was ahead the whole time. 

We drove through Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon on the way home...then I got grumpy because of the continued rain.  I wanted blue skies.  The next day we went to the water park to enjoy the sun again!  We had a blast going down the water slides!  John kept smiling with his cute front teeth and Ella screamed on the family slide.  Overall, we learned and bonded SO much.  Our family is closer and we found strength in each other.