Stranger Thingsgiving in Sedona

Stranger Things, Vortexes, and all the Sedona weird energy!
Sunday
We had another incredible Cornell family Thanksgiving in a beautiful location. This time it was Sedona. Blake, Rusty, and I flew into the itty-bitty Prescott Airport on a very rainy day. We were in charge of the Costco shopping, and we might have gone a little overboard in the snack department, judging from the 3 boxes of food we sent home with Nat and Michael in their car. 

While we were waiting for the rest of the gang to arrive, Rusty and Blake were madly trying to finish Season 4 of Stranger Things so they’d be ready for the long-awaited premiere of Season 5 later in the week. 

Schofield kids found us in our room. I brought some little 3D printed animals for them. They squealed and screamed and I felt like Santa Clause himself! They are the cutest. 

That night once everyone was here, we ate Costco tacos and sent the kids to the pool. They swam every single day. 

Monday
The next morning we had oatmeal at Carlie’s (we all had to bring our own dishes 😂) and then loaded up the car for our sightseeing adventure. Us and about 10,000 other people. The sites were crowded, but that’s ok, we got to practice being patient. First stop was Chapel of the Holy Cross. On the walk up Cyrus came running down the trail saying, “Mom! Jack just told me Wombats have square poops! And he learned it from Halle. She’s in college so it must be true. Jack, have you ever sawn a Wombat’s butthole? Can we Google that to find a picture?” Carlie said absolutely not. 😂 Then we decided that it couldn’t be a butthole, it had to be a buttsquare. We had a great time the rest of the trip calling each other buttsquare. 

We made a drive by stop to Bell Rock to avoid parking, then got a family group shot at the Sedona sign. 

We ate lunch the Cornell way—turkey sandwiches while sitting on some rocks. Then we wandered around the very unique Son Silver West Gallery and stopped at the Vortex. It made my feet and legs tingly, Nat’a lips tingly, and Blake felt a ton of pressure in the roof of his mouth. Everyone else said they couldn’t feel anything. I asked Leo if he felt tingly and he said, “no more tingly than usual—it’s just that now I’m focusing on it.” Touché, Leo. 

Cathedral Rock was our big hike of the day. We had to take a shuttle to get to the trailhead and it did take quite awhile to even find a parking spot in the shuttle lot! Only one car found a spot. The rest of us parked forever away and walked to the trailhead. 

On the way up, Carlie, Mave and I played the ABC game and it made the time go so quickly. Cyrus was a little mountain goat, practically sprinting up that entire, very steep climb. Blake also beat us to the top by a mile. Grandma called it quits once the scrambling began, but Papa made it all the way to the top! #goals

The view from the top was so worth it. There is just something so special about those red rocks. On the way down, Blake gave me one of his AirPods so we could listen to music together. I also got to hear all of Cadence’s texts come through. Those two are adorable. Blake also showed off his calisthenic skills. Once we got to the bottom, I piggybacked Cyrus the entire mile down the road back to our cars. That was a workout! 

We stopped in Uptown for a little souvenir shopping and Mave found a terantula stuffie she just had to have. She didn’t want to spend all her souvenir money, so I told her I’d go halfsies with her. It had blue fangs and Blake said it looked like the spider had one too many ring pops. So Mave named it Terri Pop. Terri for either terantula, or Tara. Take your pick. I went halfsies on a cute Sedona hoodie with Gwen too. 

While the rest of us were shopping, Rusty and Dan picked up Pizza and we all met back at the condos for dinner. Then, surprise surprise, more swimming. This time the adults went to a pool where the kids were not and had a nice long soak and great conversation in the hot tub. 

Tuesday
Tuesday we hiked to Devil’s Bridge. And this time Grandma made it all the way to the top! Near the end is a steep little scramble that isn’t easy, but we all made it. Then, it was Rusty’s worst nightmare—LINES for pictures in NATURE. ha ha, just teasing, Rust. But really…the line was long. Since we are a family full of type-A personalities, we organized ourselves very efficiently and got those pictures done.  It is such a beautiful arch. Now we were ready to shake the crowds, so back to the bottom we went. 

We went to the very unique Tlaquepaque for some more fun shopping. The kids tried out the big waterfall pool while we cooked lasagne for dinner. Grandma and grandpa brought a fun bingo game that we had fun playing after dinner. 

Rusty and I got to go to Flagstaff to pick up Halle and Josh. Yippee! We were so excited for them to finally get to us! They flew in late, and we stopped in the canyon on the way home to stargaze. Those dark sky cities are just magic. We could see the whole Milky Way. It was breathtaking. And my heart was so happy to have my whole family together again. 

Blake said he was going to tell Halle and Josh that he farted in the bed all night long so they wouldn’t want to kick him out. And that little stink got away with it for like 2 more days! Josh and Halle each had a pullout couch. 

Wed 
Wednesday we had to drag Josh from his bed kicking and screaming. I had to pull off his sleep mask and take out his earplugs 😂. That poor kid is so tired. He is juggling so much. We drove to Montezuma Castle, and then got fry bread. Rusty always had the frisbee with him and whenever there was any open space we could be sure to find Rusty and Leo throwing the frisbee. Mave always rode with us in our car, and I loved it when it was my turn to sit in the backseat with her. She’s just the best. We stopped at Tuzigoot, then on to Jerome. Jerome was such a fun little shopping town. We browsed around for about an hour while we waited for our table to be ready at the Haunted Hamburger. It was yummy—my favorite part was the taco queso dip appetizer.  

We made it back to Sedona just in time for sunset, and these are hands down the best pictures of the trip. Dan found an amazing reflecting shot where we all had to get some photos. But why is the very best pic the one where the kids are holding Dan?? Hilarious.

All day in the car or whenever we were waiting around, Rusty and Blake had Stranger Things playing. I was all caught up because I rewatched Season 4 while I was sewing many many fish extenders this month. 

We tried several pools in order to find an empty one, but they all had other people. So….we snuck everyone into the 21 and older pool and we all piled in the hot tub.

Finally the moment arrived—time for Season 5! All the big kids and me, Rusty and Michael piled in our living room and watched 2 episodes. It didn’t disappoint! Love sharing these fun moments with my kids and my cute nieces and nephews. 

Thursday 

Thanksgiving morning arrived before any of us were ready to wake up. We had to majorly rush out the door to make it to the Turkey Trot on time. This is our first Turkey Trot outside of Colorado and it was so fun to continue the tradition. It was a spectacular run, with lots of big ups and downs. Michael was, once again, the family winner. He edged out Blake by several minutes. 

We went home, showered and started working on our Thanksgiving feast! I love easy Thanksgiving dinner. I put together a charcuterie board with the help of Nat, Michael and Rusty. We also made the traditional Raspberry Pretzel Jello and cornbread. 

Carlie made a very delicious kale salad with apples, pomegranates, feta and slivered almonds. 

Mom and Dad warmed up our mountain of mashed potatoes, and the guys cooked the meat. We got Costco Tri tip steak and then Carlie marinated the chicken. I meant to get one pack of chicken at Costco and somehow ended up with two. Needless to say, we could have fed a small army with that amount of meat. 

After we had a little time to digest we hit the pickleball courts. That was a ton of fun. Nat and I played with Simon, Jack, and Mave, and Rusty, Leo, Michael, and Blake played on the court next to us. At the very end, Rusty and I played Josh and Blake and they pulled out a 13-11 win. 

Now it was time for Wicked part 2 at the Harkins theater. Which we decided looks a lot like Hawkins. Most everyone went to Wicked, but Dan, Cy, Josh and Blake went to Zootopia 2. I think I liked part one a little better, but “No Good Deed goes Unpunished” and “For Good” were just amazing. 

We had our Costco desserts at Mom and Dad’s condo. We had tuxedo mousse cake and cheesecake with fresh strawberries on top. Mom gave all the grandkids their $25 to spend on giving to another person or organization this holiday season. And look at this cute little candy bar wrapper she found to put it in. 

We ended the night with another episode of Stranger Things. 

Friday
Sleep in day! Finally! Schofields had a super early flight and Cornell’s had an early afternoon. We said goodbye to everyone last night and they loaded all the food back to our place. And it was a lot! 

Rusty made us all German Pancakes for breakfast and we made ourselves sandwiches on rolls with some of our leftover chicken and steak to pack for lunch.

Birds were staying an extra day too. We hiked to the subway cave. Another beautiful view and the cave was so unique! On the way back down we stopped at a Vortex and the kids climbed to the top of one of the spire rocks. A local man came walking up the trail and he told us that one spire was the divine feminine, and one was the divine masculine. He then climbed up on the same rock as the children and started playing his wooden flute. It was quite a surreal and peaceful experience. We are our lunch at a picnic table in the parking lot, then went to sunset park to, well, watch the sunset. That was a bust. There was zero view of the sunset from sunset park. 

We went and checked into the Arabella and hit the hot tub. Simon has latched on to me the last few days trying to make Nat jealous. It’s hilarious. He’ll climb on my lap and just start glaring at his mom. Then I baby talk him and tell him how cute and wonderful he is. After showers, we were ready for our “snack dinner.” Basically we were trying to eat up as much of our leftover food as we could. Natalie found an amazing giant fire pit and we all sat around talking and laughing, eating salad straight from the bag, and meat from a sack. You can imagine how many meat sack jokes we had to endure. It was so much fun. 

Rusty saved the day by finding us some utensils and cups. We had to make do with sharing the 4 paper plates that were left from our stash. 

We pulled out our leftover dessert only to discover that our ice bags had melted a bit and infiltrated the dessert packaging. So….we ate wet cake in a cup. Yum. 

And then I bet you can’t guess how we ended the night. Yep, the last episode of Stranger Things until Christmas. Josh and I got a good snuggle on the bed. I don’t want to leave him again! 

Saturday 

Birds left to drive home this morning. We packed up our car and went to rent ATVs at Sedona ATV. Everyone loved this. We had a ton of fun zooming on the dirt trails, climbing up rocks, and going through mud puddles. The kids were all natural drivers! Halle and I were in one ATV, and Josh, Blake and Rusty in the other. We did the Outlaw Trail which was a fun warm up, and then we went to Diamond Back Gulch. Woah! That was crazy! We were going up and down some super steep hills! Halle was fearless—driving right over the edge of rocks and gunning it on the hills. Josh was super speedy, and they had speakers in their ATV so they could blast music. We even let Blake have a turn (shhhh, don’t tell). He said it was a trip highlight for sure. 

We ate a yummy Mexican food lunch and then made the drive back to Prescott where we were the only plane at the airport. 

We just touched down in Denver and I already want to go back. And I really, really don’t want to leave Josh here to get on a flight to SLC. Boooooooo. Me no likey. 

I feel so very grateful this Thanksgiving for a family that I love, beautiful nature to enjoy and sunshine on my face.