A & E's Adventures: Flagstaff: Evan's Favorite Place

We had a fantastic Father's Day celebration for Ed. We started at home with presents.

I totally failed and accidently let Ed see part of his present the day before (which may have induced a few tears from this tired and emotional mom). Still, he loved his gifts :).

I gave him these two pictures in frames (he saw the baseball one) as well as a baseball that we'll put Evan's handprint on (I realized trying to do that solo was just about impossible). The other frame I made at my breastfeeding group, which was a surprise at least.

Once we were done with presents, it was time for our first family roadtrip! Initially, I balked at the idea of traveling that far with Evan, but after a few more weeks of motherhood under my belt (and the never ending heat), I agreed with Ed that an escape to the mountains was a great idea. The drive went really well with one stop about an hour in for Evan to eat.

Once we got up there, we went to MartAnne's, a delicious (and popular) mexican breakfast place. Our 30 minute wait was in fact almost an hour, plus another 40 minute wait for the food, but Evan did great. Our wait time was filled with another feeding, diaper change and general looking around (which he is much more willing to do lately while in the wrap) and he fell asleep right as we got seated and stayed asleep until the very end of our meal.

The food was fantastic - we spoke to the owner and on her advice both got meals with the pork green chile, and were not disappointed.

Evan was unbelievable smiley on this trip - more than we have ever seen before (or honestly since). I think he liked that it wasn't so hot, and all of the trees :). We stayed at the very nice Comfort Inn, which was perfect.

After we got to the room, Evan and I tried to nap a little, but mostly just hung out so that Ed could go for a trail run (part of his Father's Day gift was this trip and the lovely trail access).

Once he got home, we headed to a nice gravel pathway and walked that to the NAU campus, Evan's second college visit, and the first one where he really got to walk around.

It was so nice to be walking outside as a family and be worried more about keeping Evan warm than keeping him cool.

This trip definitely showed us, though, that when we make a California visit, we will have to bring our good stroller. This one really struggled on any non paved surface :).

As we were walking, I commented to Ed that this is what I had always pictured for us once we had kids. Walking together in nature.

Evan fell asleep on the ride. He was obviously pretty content.

On the way home, we picked up a fantastic pizza, featuring ingredients like arugula, brie, dates, and bacon. It was fantastic.

We were pretty excited about getting to dress him in one of his pajama outfits, instead of just onsies.

I was worried about Evan crying and disturbing the other hotel guests, but he did a fantastic job. I also woke up to feed him at his first hunger sounds, so we were able to avoid full out crying altogether. He slept just like at home, going down around 9pm, and waking at 1am and 4am. Ed left at 6am for his big run, and Evan moved to my chest where he slept another hour.

Meanwhile, Ed was running up this:

For probably a year now (or maybe 2), Ed has been talking about running up Humphrey's peak.

He had such a fantastic time, despite the biting wind and high elevation.

His run started at 9,000 feet and climbed to over 11,000 by the end.

He found that he had to walk a lot more than he planned, due to the altitude.

He saw plenty of evidence of its volcanic history.

But, the views made it more than worth it.

He made it up to the saddle, where he was treated with spectacular vistas.

While he wanted to keep going, wind gusts up to 60 mph made him think twice. He told me that he thought about what I would have said, and decided to turn around since he wasn't sure about the trail conditions going forward and was already feeling a bit woozy from the altitude.

So, after soaking in the view a bit longer (including a little bit of snow still left over), he headed down.

It was such a gorgeous day and exactly what Ed had been missing.

What a happy dad.

Meanwhile, Evan and I had a lovely morning. After he woke up, we walked back to the NAU campus, with Evan in his wrap, to help him fall asleep. Then, we came back and I had breakfast. He stayed asleep long enough that I got a shower in, and then we hung out and got Ed a plate e of food, in case he got back too late. He happened to get back right after, and we spent some nice time together in the breakfast room.