Grand Canyon

After arriving in Williams, Arizona a tiny little town next to the Grand Canyon we went to explore the historic town. The kids enjoyed the gift shops.

We liked seeing all the fun places and signs along the famous Route 66. After exploring the town the kids enjoyed the indoor pool at our hotel with Grandma while I spent some time doing homework.

The next morning bright and early we went to the train station where we watched a shootout before boarding our train that would take us to the Grand Canyon. The ride was long but we had live entertainment on the train to help pass the time.We finally arrived to see the Grand Canyon. There were breathtaking views but I was suprised to find that there were so many places with no rails. I am not afraid of heights but that changes when I am resposible for children. There were a few places that made my heart beat fast and I am glad I have pictures to enjoy the scenery later after the kids were away from the edges.(yikes) I was telling them the whole time that they were close enough.After my nerves were frazzled from kids being next to a very long drop we stopped to see the Hopi house where we enjoyed watching the Native American dancers.Soon it was time to get back on the train for the ride home where we were told that there was the possibility of being stopped by train robbers. The kids were pretty excited about the train robbers and my cute nephew Morgan dug deep into his pocket and found a penny and he announced that "I think I will be alright". He held onto that penny until the train robbers came.
Here came the train robbers and Morgan was still holding onto his penny and when the train robber came by he told him "give me that". He took the penny but Morgan still had a happy smile on his face and kept exclaiming that the train robber had taken his penny. What a funny kid we sure enjoyed the trip with cousins and grandma.

Floating the Colorado River

Here we are at the bottom of Glen Canyon Dam, to get down there we had got to take a bus through a man made tunnell through the walls of this rock. Very cool because there is no public access to this road. Since 9/11 this dam has been under high security.

What a fun trip. The kids loved it and it took 5 hours where we started from the dam and our trip ended at the very beginning of the Grand Canyon. Halen liked chasing the lizards when we stopped for lunch and to see the petroglyphs. The kids liked playing in the river except that it was absolutely freezing, I think our guide said that it was 40 something degrees. I got a mini geology tour on this trip which was fun since I happen to be right in the middle of geology class.

This trip has been so much fun, my mom and I have gotten many stares with 7 kids trailing behind us. Tommorrow I will try and post more because we are going to the Grand Canyon!

Antelope Canyon

Antelope Canyon is a "slot canyon" just big enough for people to fit through. The red sandstone is beautiful and the canyon is owned by the Navojo tribe. My mom happened to score a discount to get in because she works with some of the tribe members. I had no idea how awesome it would be.

You just disapear into a crack, and here is where it begins.




After Antelope Canyon we went to the Glen Canyon Dam to see our next destination. There was a neat view of Lake Powell. From here we could see the Colorado river and the tiny little rafts from up above. We were so excited about our next day of rafting.

Camping Diamond Fork

We had so much fun camping at Diamond Fork. We haved planned this trip for a year with our friends Brian and Kristi and Ty's brother Skip. We had 11 kids total and 5 adults. The kids got along so great we almost didn't know they were around. Brian and Kristi's kids are Savannah, Judd, Gabe, Shelby and the other little one is Cameron who belongs to Skip. Wyatt is missing in this photo.

We had such a great spot with a small stream running nearby and lots of trails for the kids to explore. The kids discovered a large snake in a tree next to a birds nest and birds were trying to attack it to keep it out of the nest.One of the highlights of our trip was when Skip brought his paintball gun and Ty and Skip stood up on the hill and let me shoot at them. I had mixed feelings about this because I knew I would feel bad if I hit them and I didn't think they would ever let me live this down. But they were egging me on to hit them, I was laughing so hard I thought I would pee my pants. After a few shots and unsuccessful I handed the gun over to Kristi to let her shoot at them. She got them, and they have a few welts to show for it. Crazy guys. It was good entertainment.

Skip brought his target for his bow and arrow. Titan was not too happy about the foam creature being in our camp.

Our new niece

We were able to go to our niece's baby blessing. We haven't had a new baby girl born in our families since Sadie. We are lucky to have Kennedy in our family.We were lucky to get to have our cousins Peyton, Mkaul, and Britt come in from Arizona. We have missed them.

Girlies

Sadie and Aubrie did so well at their dance recital. Grandparents and Aunt Tamsen and Uncle Jason made it to see them as well.