Yay for weekends : )

We had a fantastic weekend. It was a little different having just the 2 of us for the 4th (we're used to spending the holiday with friends and family) but we made the best of it. I slept most of the day (after working the night before) and then we went out for pizza. Afterward we watched some beautiful fireworks from our grocery store parking lot. Sounds a little weird, I know, but our grocery store is on this huge hill surrounded by multi-million dollar homes. It's quite a view and made a great spot for watching fireworks. The only problem was that we couldn't hear the booms, pops, and sizzles of all of the beautiful pyrotechnics because they were too far away. It was like a silent movie - great, but could be better. So we abandoned that show and headed into Fountain Hills (the next town over from our house) to watch a different show up close. It was much better with sound :D Anyway, we enjoyed the show and had a good night.

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Sedona!

On Saturday, we headed up to Sedona. It is sooooooo beautiful. I've never really seen anything like it. The rocks are so red and so tall and so majestic. It's absolutely stunning. First we walked around town, taking it all in and poking around little shops, and I had my favorite treat ever: a chocolate frozen banana. Yum!

There was this amazing little area called Tlaquepaque with shops, restaurants, galleries, and even a chapel. It's apparently modeled after a Mexican villa - and it really does look authentic. It was beautiful and the weather up there is cooler so it made walking around quite pleasant.

Next we went on an adventure...a crazy off road jeep tour. It was a great way to get into nature, see and learn about the topography of the land, and to have some ridiculously insane fun. I have never been off-roading before - it's so much fun! Here we are on our way out of town and into the mountains: I didn't know Jeeps could do some of the amazing things we did - let alone with 8 passengers! There were a few points in the trip when I thought we had come to a dead end only to discover the we were actually on the right track and could just climb on up that huge slope. Here are a few shots of our redrock exploration:

What goes up, must come down...

It felt like we were going straight down!

Yes, we just came down that cliff.

They let me drive! (Okay, I at least got to sit in the driver's seat.)

There was only one close call - and luckily Casey was there to rescue me :D

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All of this exploring made us hungry, so we went out for a DELICIOUS meal. The restaurant looked pretty casual from the outside (we were still in our outdoor gear) but ended up being a little more fancy than we had anticipated. The food was fabulous, though, so we didn't care. And the chef sent out random little treats throughout the night for us to try. He had prepared a refreshing watermelon, papaya, and jalapeno gazpacho to start and a tequila lemon sorbet between our appetizer and main course. So tasty! I could go on and on about the food - it was amazing. If you ever make it up to Sedona, be sure to eat at Redstone Cabin. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm :D

What a great weekend. We had so much fun and will definitely be visiting Sedona again! (For more pics visit our album here. I hope to get the pics up tonight or tomorrow.)