Vacation - Part 2

Sunday evening, we packed up and drove out to Yuma. The kids slept most of the way to Yuma, where we arrived around 8pm. We hung out with Jessi, Tyrel, Mackie and Lexi. Jessi fed us Pork Tacos and we stayed up late talking. Since the kids slept so much in the car, they didn’t go to bed until about 9. 

How Brayden slept a lot of the time.

We woke up in the morning and went to a place called “Jump Up.” It is a gymnastics center, aimed towards little kids. There were trampolines, rope swings, a foam pit, and huge blocks for the kids to play with. We were there for an hour and the kids loved it. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any good pictures because I couldn’t find the camera before I left. We took some from Sean’s phone so the quality isn’t as good. 

Anyway, we had a blast in Yuma! We left right after Jump Up to head to Gilbert. The kids slept for almost the entire drive. It was so good for them to burn some energy. It was a really pleasant drive! 

On our way to Uncle Rick and Aunt Cassie’s house, we stopped by Uncle Rick’s work so we could see his clinic. He is the Physician’s Assistant at Pepsi in Phoenix. It was fun to see where he worked and the kids had fun playing with all of his samples and paperwork. We followed Uncle Rick to his house, then Rick, Cassie took us out to lunch at Some Burros. Janelle, Morgan, Masey, Madison, Julianne, Connor, Syrus and Alix all met us there too. It was fun to see almost all of my AZ cousins as soon as we got to Gilbert! Oh, I forgot to mention that on our way to Gilbert from Yuma, we realized that the air conditioning in our car didn’t work. It sucked. Since it was a brand new car, we didn’t even think to check it before we left.

Tuesday morning, after breakfast, we got back in the car and drove an hour to Glendale, where my friend Claire lives!! It was SOOO fun to meet her in person, and hang out with her and her two daughters. Cecelia had gotten a new pool for her birthday so we got it out and filled it up. Brayden and Celia had fun playing in the giraffe pool. 

After they were done we hung out for a little bit, then Sean was craving In n Out Burger. So we loaded the kids back into the car and went out to eat. Brayden and Celia had so much fun together. We got some pretty cute pictures, if I do say so myself! 

After stopping by the grocery store we headed back to Claire’s where we hung out more. Scott got home from work, and we made dinner which was delicious! We had a lot of fun just relaxing and watching the kids play while hanging out. Overall it was a really nice day! Good friends, good food, good fun :).  I think I need to schedule a vacation to JUST go hang out with Claire. This wasn't enough! On our way back to Uncle Rick’s, we drove right past the Phoenix Airport. We stopped at Alamo and asked them about our air conditioning not working. With no questions asked, she let us upgrade to a Full size vehicle. We got a 2010 Chevy Impala with 8237 miles on it. It didn’t get as good gas mileage as the Cobalt, but it was significantly bigger, which was extremely convenient since now we were traveling with the kids! In fact, we see it as a hidden blessing that our AC didn’t work, since it allowed this upgrade. This transition was completely flawless. The lady at Alamo didn’t even make us fill our gas tank before we switched cars. It was awesome!

Wednesday morning we headed out to the Mesa Temple. Claire and her girls met us there, which was awesome! It was fun to see them 2 days in a row. When Sean, the boys, and I first got there, we started walking towards the Visitor’s center. There was a guy out on a lawn tractor doing landscaping. He walked over towards us and motioned for Brayden to “come here.” Brayden looked at me and with my approval, he walked over to the guy. The guy handed Brayden a freshly picked flower and said “Go give this to your mom and tell her you love her.” Brayden beamed and grabbed the flower. He ran over to me and said “I love you Mom!” It was adorable. It was so sweet of that guy to stop his work and what he was doing to provide that moment for us. 

After Claire and her girls got there, we stopped for a few minutes in the Visitor’s Center. Brayden loved seeing the Christus. I pointed out the nails in His hands and feet and explained the atonement to him in 2 year old terms. I asked him if he understood and he said “Yeah! Jesus died and if I make mistakes I can make them better and I’ll live with my brother, Jesus!” It was beautiful to see his enthusiasm and my heart swelled with the witness of his budding testimony. After watching a video of “Tonstin S Monstin” we walked around the grounds and watched the kids run around. B and C had a lot of fun looking in the reflection pool and looking at their reflections. (We had a real intrigue with the cacti, if you couldn't tell from our photos!)

After running around in the grass for awhile, it was too cold to hang out any longer. We packed the kids back in the car and we all headed back to Uncle Rick and Aunt Cassie’s. We had plans to go swimming but it was cold and dreary, so we just hung out instead. Sean made us delicious quesadillas, and the kids played while the adults talked. While Claire and I were talking the day prior, we learned that her parents live only a few houses away from my grandparents in Provo. It is definitely a small world! After Claire left, Uncle Rick and Aunt Cassie took Sean, the boys, and I out to Logan’s Roadhouse. It is a peanut shells on the floor type of place, but it had amazing rolls, and their stake was incredible as well. Oh, and the desserts were delicious too. Man, we definitely got spoiled. Asher was so tired by the time we got to Logan’s he was so tired that he fell asleep with his head on the table before we even ordered our food. It was hilarious. Our waiter, as well as a couple other people kept coming by to look at him because it was so dang adorable. Wednesday night I went to a CPR class with Uncle Rick. I have been wanting to get my CPR certification for awhile now so it was cool to be able to do it for free! 

Thursday Morning was beautiful. Uncle Rick and I went for a 10 mile bike ride. It was fun riding along the canals and seeing some more of Gilbert. After we got back from the ride, we took the kids to the “Riparian Preserve.” It is a place by the Gilbert Library that has 7 large ponds. They stock the ponds with fish and turtles, and the birds and ducks hang out there. They have a sand box with dinosaur bones that you can dig for, and lots of walking paths and trails. The kids loved it, and Brayden really didn’t want to leave. 

After we got back from the Preserve, we had a family barbecue. Most of my cousins and their kids in the area came over for dinner. We had hamburgers, homemade pico de gallo, and homemade pasta salad. It was fantastic! (Yes, I’m realizing that 80% of this post is me describing our food. I’m pretty sure 80% of our trip was us consuming food.)

Friday morning we woke up at 5am. We were on the road by 6am, and we headed to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Our destination was Provo, but we couldn’t drive and be only 2 hours out of the way of the Grand Canyon and not stop. I got a ticket on the way because I wasn’t paying attention. It was kinda frustrating but I deserved it. Shortly after I got the ticket was when we entered the park. We didn’t know beforehand that there was a $25 entrance fee into the park. As we pulled up to the window to pay, I was already frustrated that I got a ticket and then had to pay to go see the canyon. As I handed the guy my debit card he said “You actually don’t owe me anything. It’s free National Park week.” It was awesome!! It totally made my day. I made sure he know I appreciated it, then we were on our way!

After we parked, we bundled up the kids and walked to the lookout. 

 

We kept stopping at different places to take pictures and at one spot, a guy asked if we wanted him to take our family picture for us. We accepted, then at the next look out spot, we realized that the guy that took our picture was with a huge group of bikers. He asked me if I wouldn’t mind taking a picture of their group. I definitely agreed and asked if there was anyone else in their group that wanted me to take a picture with their camera. They all said “Are you sure?” then handed me their camera. I think I had about 15 cameras on my arms. They were laughing really hard and they thought it was so great that I was willing to do that for them. It definitely was fun for me! Haha, I loved getting that much attention from a hog gang. 

Anyway, the original guy that took our picture said “hey, do you want a ride on a Harley?” Uh…Yes!! So after we got back to the parking lot, the girls brought me their gloves and jackets and helmets and after getting Sean’s permission, I was on my way! We were only gone for about 7 minutes, but we rode right along the grand canyon. It was SOOO rad being on a Harley, riding along the grand canyon. Oh man, I LOVED it! The Harley was brand new, with only 1200 miles on it. (The gang was from San Diego so most of the miles were from this cross country trip of theirs.) It was a really nice bike, that he told me he paid about $22,000 for. It was awesome! I totally want one of those someday…k Sean? ;) When we first got to the bikers in the parking lot, we left the kids in the car watching a movie. When Irv, the guy that took me for a ride, asked where the kids were, we told him they were watching “The Incredibles” in the car. We mentioned that that was Brayden’s favorite movie and he said “Really? Check this out!” He pulled out his leather vest from his saddle bags and on it was a Mr. Incredible patch. His nametag said “Mr. Incredible – Irv Goldstein.” It was his favorite movie too. We went and got the kids out of the car and showed Brayden the vest. He loved it! He wanted to put it on so we stuck it on him then stuck him on a bike. He was beaming. He was having so much fun.

After that, we figured we needed to start heading up to Provo. We got the kids back in the car and they were asleep before we left the parking lot. As we were driving away, there were literally dozens of viewpoints that had breathtaking views of the canyon. Sean and I stopped at several of them and took more pictures. The Grand Canyon definitely exceeded my expectations. It was way better than I had anticipated. I was really glad that we had made the detour to go check it out.