Sedona, AZ – 12.17.14

-Our kitchen is slowly becoming a greenhouse.

-You would never guess that Dan is Jewish.

-Our very own muppet!

-Cathedral Rock hike.

-Exploring downtown Cottonwood. This town loves antiques…which means we love this town.

-One of the best impulse decisions we’ve made in awhile. So fun!

-We’ve been painting lately!

-Merry Christmas!

-Snow on Christmas?! In Arizona?! We’ll take it.

-Explored Red Rock Crossing on Christmas Day.

-Holiday presents from mama!

-Dan photographed “Bear”, our new friends’ Wolf/Husky Hybrid. He’s so handsome!

-Devil’s Bridge hike with Marisol and Lissette.

-Three musketeers ready to kick some butt.

 

Where do we start? Our photos from Sedona don’t even compare to what this place looks like in real life. We stayed in Cottonwood, just a ten minute drive from downtown Sedona. Our first afternoon there we decided to do a little drive into town to see what it was all about. First thing we see? A huge double rainbow curving over jumbo red rocks lining the highway. We immediately knew we were gonna like this place. We spent our time decorating the Toaster for Christmas, eating crazy vegan pizza down the street, exploring old downtown Cottonwood in all of it’s antique glory, hiking huge rock formations, fawning over Native American stores and trading posts, and actually enjoying our first taste of cold weather since we left in August.

There was snow in Sedona! We couldn’t believe it! We took Willow to the dog park on Christmas morning and had to bundle up because there was actually snow! And much to our surprise, it stuck to the ground. We actually enjoyed the surprising weather here. It snowed mostly at night and around 1pm, it was sunny and sweater weather. The snow stuck to the tops of the mountains making everywhere we went perfectly picturesque.

We rented 4×4 off-road buggies one weekend and headed out to the back trails of Sedona. Our butts were sore as heck after spending five hours driving a vintage TomCar over rocks and hills, but we can’t remember the last time we smiled so much or screamed from pure excitement. We were ten again.

We convinced our friends Marisol and Lissette to take a three hour road trip to come see us for a day. Toni went on a terribly dangerous five mile hike with them that was covered in snow and ice. Willow ran and dove into every pile of snow she could find. It’s the little things, for dogs. Then we all went to Jerome, an old copper mining town that has been converted for current residents, stores, and restaurants. We ate dinner at the Haunted Hamburger and then headed back to the Toaster for wine and games. Cards Against Humanity never fails. One glass led to another and next thing we knew Dan was driving everyone to go bowling at the local casino. We bowled our little hearts out, stopped at Sonic on the way home for slushes and snacks, and then crashed into our beds for a long night’s sleep. We love having friends sleep at the Toaster, they get a real feel for the lifestyle.

We stayed in Sedona longer than we have stayed anywhere else so far. Three weeks. Partly because Dan was getting myofascial treatments done on his back and partly because we couldn’t get enough of the good energy. If you haven’t been to this town, it’s time.

-D&T