The Blue Eyed House: The Great Big Flagstaff Post that was never finished...until now

Middle October, 2011

So last week we were in beautiful Flagstaff, Arizona. It was nice to excape the 100 degree heat that decided to show it's big face again. Especially with a broken AC.

Each trip, Ryan likes to set a time for departure. He likes to be prompt. The time is usually based on needed arrival time, traffic conditions, child conditions, etc. No matter how fast I go, I'm usually 10 minutes behind the set time, which gets me angry eyes from Ryan. (If you think Ryan is a turd, I'm sorry, he's not, he's just prompt.) So this time, in order to motivate me to be on time, Ryan made me a deal: for every minute we leave early, I get that many minutes in a back rub. For every minute we are late, he gets that many minutes in a back rub. Scheduled departure time was 9:00 AM Friday, October 14th, 2011.

So, the test was on. I worked tiresly. I stayed up till 1:00 AM (surprisingly, not an all nighter) washing every last piece of laundry. I tackled the big pile of clothes to be hung up. I packed 4 kids and myself. I cleaned, I decorated the front door for Halloween (cause that is important before you leave town). I watered the yard, I got everything ready to leave the cat. I got the house put back together after falling apart during the week....all with a cold. I was out to prove that I could leave at 8:00 AM and get my hours worth of back rub, which my aching body so needed.

We left at 9:10. I was so ticked. It was a fair game, and although I totally worked harder, I lost. Oh well. We came home to a clean house and after a week, I still owe Ryan 5 more minutes of a back rug so maybe he'll forget....oh shoot, he reads my blog....maybe not.

We made it to Flagstaff. We didn't leave Leta on the side of the road :)

We headed straight to Snowbowl. We enjoyed the lift ride, though I did wish it went faster. Annie was ready to hop off just a few minutes into it. The colors were beautiful, the view amazing...but...Lucy and Elsa didn't like that we made them hike a little bit to the very top of the mountain for a better view. Everyone was tired and cranky. They just wanted to go to the hotel. If you haven't noticed, Lucy and Elsa are all about hotels. Forget tourist destinations, just give them the hotel.

Don't let the Annie smile fool you. After this, she would have preferred to fall 30 feet. I preferred to keep her alive.

"Oh, mommmm, do we have tooooo?"

After much complaining from the little Melzers, we headed to the Hotel.

Leta and Annie loved their cribs - they are very much into having a place that is all their own. I joked with Ryan that if we just added a few more of these metal white cribs we could look like an orphanage. He laughed cause he knew I would love to add a few more babies to the mix.

Each time we left and came back to the hotel, we had to pass by an open conference room.

Both Ryan and I thought the conference room full of college student council groups was pretty interesting. Ryan's favorite part was when he walked past and the speaker was getting choked up about the privileged of paying....taxes. Let's just say that Ryan doesn't share the same sentiment about taxes (maybe if they were more simple, fair and used more wisely). I thought it was interesting just because here I was, totting past these business class type with my 4 treasures and an elephant, and being a mother was probably the farthest thing from the minds of those college student council girls. I wouldn't trade my lot in life for any amount of professional success.

On Friday evening, we took the girls out to eat which always proves interesting with the youngers. We may have had some crawling around under the table time and a few temper tantrums. Note to waiters and waitresses - you will get a decent tip if you don't leave the table with 4 little kids wondering where you disappeared to. You will get a BIG tip if you take our order promptly, check back often, and don't make us wait for the check.

After dinner we went to Lowell Observatory. Not highly recommended for the young crowd. But, I was pretty excited that we were there when the international space station flew over and the girls were able to see it. Other than that, and a few minutes walking around and then looking through the small interactive display, I felt that it was not worth the money for our type of family. We didn't even look through a telescope because long lines just don't mix with 2 year olds.

To finish off the night we stopped by the grocery store to get breakfast for the morning and then headed back to the hotel.

Lucy and Elsa loved going to the indoor jacuzzi with me at the end of the night while Ryan stayed back with the youngers to get them to sleep. I did have to lecture Lucy and Elsa on not splashing and swimming around while people were in there with us. But despite my constant nagging reminders, the time in the jacuzzi that night and the next morning was their favorite part of the trip.

On Saturday after hanging out at the hotel and swimming, we went to play at a park, then stopped at the grocery store to purchase our picnic lunch and headed to Sunset Crater. It was a good call to go with the picnic lunch and not a restaurant again.

Elsa chose for the picnic one of her favorites: California rolls (the wimpy version of sushi).

We walked around Sunset Crater, Leta had ~~some~~ melt down, Annie insisted on using the potty several times and then we headed over to Wupatki Ruins. By the time our crying car got there, Annie and Leta were in full melt down mode so Ryan took Lucy and Elsa down to the ruins and I stayed back in the visitors center with the littles. I would have liked to be there with Lucy and Elsa because I loved going to this place when I was a kid and playing around the blow-hole, but it worked out best to divide and conquer.

After the ruins we headed back to Mesa. Ryan was very irritated at the backed up traffic for no apparent reason, and Leta and Annie were ready to be out of their confinement, but we made it home, we made some good memories and we look forward to the next trip.