Ahhh, July.

I'm about a month behind in blogging, and it has been a month full of adventure! So I will start at the beginning and try to get through it all.

July 1st we headed up north for a ten day family vacation. Our first stop was Flagstaff, AZ where we camped and hiked for a night and day.
Elsa picked wildflowers everywhere we went, so we always had a beautiful bouquet for our table.

This picture makes me a little dizzy! Jesse is sitting on a cliff about 20 feet above a little pond.

The wild bee balm was scenting the woods all around the pond, and was very attractive to both the bees and Elsa.

Here's a view of the cliff from the bottom side. Lucy and Jesse both climbed up the rocks to the top. Robin gave it a worthy try, but about 5 feet from the top he got a bit nervous and had to go back down. Fine with me!

The rock formations were really amazing. But poor Jill was having a hard time noticing anything. Her emotions were still a twinge raw missing her missionary Jared...

We were very lucky with the weather, it was overcast and cool so the drive and hike were really wonderful. We camped in the woods, rough camping rather than a campground, so we were all alone. It was so quiet and peaceful - only the sounds of the birds and squirrels and the wind through the pine trees. We got rained on late in the night, but our tents kept the water out and we stayed cozy and warm.