Fall festival and Inner Basin Hike

Flagstaff is always a beautiful city.... but I think that during fall it is at it's peak of beauty! And the weather is crisp and there are so many family activities hosted and around to do. Today we went to a local church's free fall festival activity. It was fun! Especially for being FREE!

First we did some crafts such as stamping a goodie bag, coloring a magnet, playing with bubbles and pumpkin spice smelling playdough, and coloring on pumpkins with markers.

Then we did the pumpkin walk which was a little trail around the church premises that was lined with pumpkins, scarecrows, leaves, wagons, etc. It was really cute! 

Here is Ember riding a horse in a little barn we found along the way.

Sitting with daddy with the "Big Pumpkin"

There was even some hay bales set up to read on with some fall themed books scattered around on them. And you know how much Ember loves books....

And at the very top of the walk was a picture spot with straw bales, pumpkins, and some little chairs and a volunteer to take your family picture!

Later that afternoon, God had a lesson to teach me on who is really in control! 

We have been trying to go on this Inner Basin hike with our friends for a few weekends now and the timing has just been conflicting with Ember's nap schedule. So, we told our friends we would come as quickly as we could after she woke up and hopefully meet them on their way down and hike the rest of the trail with them. Well, as soon as Ember woke up... we headed out but we didn't quite know the best way to get there and drove for almost 2 hours on a dirt road which huge ruts when it should have only taken 45 minutes. Ember was cranky because she didn't expect such a long drive and I was super frustrated too because it was already 4:30 by now and the sun is down at 6:30. About 5 minutes from the trail head we saw all our friends driving back down the road as they were all done hiking. 

We decided to hike it anyway... and man oh man... I am sure glad we did! 

God blessed our hiking at this time in various ways!

1) The crowds disappeared! In the first 15-20 minutes... it was pretty much a steady line of people hiking back down and it was stop and go and having to stand to the side to let people pass... etc. After that... we had the whole trail to ourselves! Ember got to walk some and Maci didn't have to be on her leash

2) We hiked during sunset and there is probably not much prettier than the sun setting on the Aspen trees in peak leaf changing season

3) We enjoyed silence! Taking in beautiful views when there is alot of background noise is still pretty but when you have time with your thoughts - it is even better! 

4) We were still able to do the whole 4 mile hike and made it back to our car seconds before it was pitch dark outside!!

I am doing a Women's Bible study and we are going through a book called "Wonderstruck" and I can confidently say that God had this whole afternoon planned perfectly and I was left WONDER STRUCK with God and His creation!

Here are some pictures which I promise do not do the beauty justice!