SEDONA with the girls

I think perhaps the last time I went out with the girls was in 1998 for a senior trip. Yup. I think so.
But my roommate Vanie is awesome at planning adventures, and also at recruiting new friends (I am not good at this).
So Vanie, Me, Molly, Mandy, Annette, and Gabby all headed out to Sedona last week. Sedona is a beautiful place about 2 hours from here. I had never been, but it's a place with a lot of yoga and rich hippies and beautiful red rocks and energy vortexes. We had so much fun.
Vanie had reserved us a fun little hotel with a kitchen and stuff. She had made delicious tamale casserole and brought water and treats and we decided she is a great trip mom. And I was dubbed the trip dad. As in the one who puts air in the tires and navigates the hikes and goes along with what mom says.
So we drove down on Friday night and slept and talked.
Saturday morning we all got up and ate at the Blue Moon Cafe and took pictures. This is Mandy eating her delicious tomatoes. Aren't we classy?



































Next we headed off to Grasshopper Point, a place of which I have almost no pictures of the beautiful water. We hiked through an incredibly beautiful creek where every once in awhile we would just stop and stare in awe.








Afterwards, I jumped. Off about an 8-foot high cliff. Like this:














It was awesome. And then Molly decided she wanted to do it, too. But only if I did it again and waited in the water for her. And, of course, I did. So much fun.
Afterwards, we debated for awhile shopping versus hiking. 3 of us wanted to hike (we are inside A LOT in Phoenix)- 2 of us wanted to shop. I looked up hikes on my cell phone. We drove by a hike-starting street. We hiked. Well, Mandy and Vanie decided NOT to hike about halfway through. This is them chillin' midway:


The hike really was beautiful. It was close to town and not too rugged, but it was good exercise (obviously) and had incredible views.

We hiked to the "7 sacred pools" which were more like the "7 icky green mosquito-growing pools." They were in a beautiful spot, though, and they were all in a row, which was cool.

Doesn't Annette look awesome here? To be fair, it was Vanie who brought the umbrella. And Annette was embarrassed wearing her swimsuit to hike 'cause she thought she looked like she was going to play tennis. And she kind of did :-)

I, on the other hand, just looked kinda dorky. But I was happy. And that's what matters :-)

After that, we all went home, showered and got ready for dinner on the town. I got a sweet shirt and sign for my room downtown, Mandy and I got these sweet sunglasses, I hugged a javelina, and we jumped in a pink jeep.




(In the jeep, from L to R, Me, Vanie, Molly, Mandy, Annette, Gabby)

Good trip. Amazing girls. Great friends.