A few weeks back we had some new friends over for dinner, Molly and James. The boys (and by boys I mean, our husbands) started talking about where we were from. The next thing Molly and I knew, our husbands had planned out a trip to Cottonwood! They are from back East and somewhere like Jerome and Sedona doesn't exist back there!
We left Friday around noon (right after our baking extravaganza) and finally made it to Cottonwood around 3. We fed babies and went straight to Jerome! The weather was perfect, it had just got done raining and was a cloudy, 80 degrees!
Our first stop.....
The House of Joy!
Yes, it is quite an interesting store, that's all I'll say!
The sign said it used to be a dentist's office?
This is the side yard of the building.
Only in Jerome will you find a stop light in the middle of someone's yard. Oh my...
Next we tracked down a magic shop. The owner has a daughter that I used to teach in ballet and gymnastics when we lived there. I always heard him talk about his shop up in Jerome so we had to check it out!
It was a really fun store. (and the owner was QUITE the character!) The boys, or Aaron I should say, had fun with a lighter that shocked people when they tried it. There were all kinds of weird things there! Tristan bought a parachute guy, a party pooper I know! Riley bought a bag, that when you opened it made some weird noise. I guess it was supposed to sound like a rattle snake. Aaron ended up buying the lighter! The owner put some fake cockroaches in the bag (which scared the life out of me later on!) and then filled the bag with smoke! {see picture below!}
Then it was picture taking time!
Aaron and I took pictures up in Jerome last year and we had one of us in this same spot.
Molly and James
You can't tell by the pictures because they're so close up, but here's the view we were looking at:
and this:
{The Mansion}
I snapped a few shots of the boys playing around too:
Then it was the girls' turn!
Sweet Raelynn.....
Our friends' daughter Lexi. I love how Raelynn looks like she wants to be just like her, so she copies everything Lexi does.
We were walking by an old building and saw there were open auditions for actors/actresses, interesting!
Oh ya, and a ghost was holding the sign? Weird town!
Tristan did NOT like the ghost, therefore he would NOT smile for me!
Our 3 musketeers
I took this picture on our way out, I love the red doors! Aaron wants to enlarge it and print it out for the house. I think it's gorgeous!
Day 2- Sedona
We set out the next morning to go hiking in Sedona. Some friends of mine went to a place called Red Rock Crossing so Molly and I looked it up online and it looked fun. Next time, I'll remember to get 1st person reviews. We were all geared to actually HIKE and we get there, pay a $10 entrance fee, and walk 100ft to the....lake? pond? river? mud??? Call it what you want!
They had to be so careful where they stepped. One second they were waist deep, the next, up to their necks!
She really did not like the water. I'm not sure why, she loves to swim. Maybe it just grossed it her out!
Emerson and I sat on the sidelines with Molly and her little baby Berkley.
He looks super chunky in this picture!
They all had fun throwing rocks, maybe not the best teaching moment....
{look close and you can see the HUGE rock in the air}
If you're familiar with the Verde Valley at all, you KNOW there's crawdad's in the water! After 10 years of living there, they still creep me out!
{I wish you could see Riley's face better, he was about to cry}
Aaron said this one was missing a leg? It wasn't moving very fast!
Once Riley saw it wasn't going to hurt him, he warmed up to the revolting thing....
Really Aaron?? Of course!
Anywhere you go in Sedona, you will get gorgeous views.
Right before we left, Aaron and Tristan found a strong current and a somewhat slippery ground...
they made it into a slide!
Go Tristan!
What is this?! They were everywhere!! I think they creep me out more than the crawdads!!
Remember how I said the man at the magic shop stuck a bunch of fake cockroaches in the bag? This is one of them. Riley put them all over the car before Aaron and Tristan got in. We thought we were so cool! We'd for sure scare them!.....NOPE! Tristan was like, "Oh cool!" and Aaron just shrugged when he saw them. Boo!
{^^there's the shocking lighter!!}
We went and had lunch after at Wildflower. My favorite place! Then the boys took all the kids (except Emerson) and let Molly and I shop in Sedona! Which lasted all of 40 minutes because everything there is SO overpriced!
We picked up food for dinner and let the boys go golfing. The kids got to swim in the pool and run around out back in Grandma's fun backyard! Such a fun weekend!!
