Over Riley’s fall break, I took the youngest north to Cottonwood, Arizona. We had been invited to stay at the Ocotillo Nature Home. It was the cutest AirBnB, directly across the street from a path that leads to the Verde River.

Cottonwood is only about a 90 minute drive. It is beautiful and green and much cooler, so we were all looking forward to it. The first evening, I decided to eat at a local Mexican restaurant with great reviews. I think I held my breath the entire time. The kids did great! Chips and salsa for the win.

We came back to the house and climbed into my bed. We watched the Jungle Book and attempted showers.

It had been a rough few weeks in sibling land, so this was a much welcome change of scenery.

The next morning, we had a few hours before check out, so we decided to go on a light hike down the path to the trail that meandered next to the Verde River.

The kids followed a frog and made sure he made it back safely to the river. I’m pretty sure the frog was trying to escape their attention, but all parties appeared pleased at the end of the adventure, so all ended well.

Sebastian has this amazing way of bringing a gentle presence to every situation. He may be the youngest, but he has inserted himself (literally) as the role of peacemaker in our family. It is a beautiful thing.

Mary Alice has been an absolute trooper with her electric green cast. If you watched her maneuver, you wouldn’t even notice her cast after about five minutes. She didn’t allow it to slow her down one bit.

Riley spent a lot of the time trying to skip rocks across the river. Sadly, I am the parent that is excellent at making sure the laundry is done. I’m not the parent that knows the expert ways of making a rock skip just right so that it looks like it has escaped gravity and decided to make a run for it. Next time, we will bring Brian so that he can school us on the finer arts of rock skipping.

I glanced down at my phone and realized we had been out there for two hours and 15 minutes. We had exactly seven minutes to get back to the house before the lock on the door automatically changed for the next visitor. Thankfully, the kids were incredibly compliant and even paused for one last picture before we sprinted back to the house.

I need to remember to take breaks like this more often. A little nature, a little water, a little singing, and a little snuggling can cure just about anything.