Our Trip to Arizona

To kill some time while Chris is gone we decided to go on a fun road trip to my mom's in Arizona. We did some sight-seeing on the way there. The first day, as soon as the kids were out of school, we drove 4 hours until we reached the town of Springdale, Utah (at the mouth of Zion National Park) where we stayed the night in a hotel. The next day was a six hour drive (plus all the stops we made, which made it about 8 or 9 hours on the road). Our first stop was beautiful Zion National Park. The kids loved it and were in awe. I really want to go camping there someday! It's beautiful!

About 30 minutes out of Zion's in the little town of Kanab, UT is Moqui Cave. I've driven past it on a couple of occassions when headed out to my mom's, but have never stopped there. This time we did. It was nice and cool inside and they had some pretty cool Indian artifacts. The kids each got to pick out one cool thing to buy. Of course Lauren and Elizabeth wanted candy. Zach picked rocks. lol.

Two hours before getting to my mom's house is Flagstaff, AZ. That's where my sister Dani, her hubby Adam, their dog, 3 cats, bird and 2 geckos live. It's a full house in a TINY 1-bedroom apartment. When I say tiny, I mean it. I think the apartment complex used to be a motel. Seriously.

We celebrated Lauren's 6th birthday while we were at my mom's house. We had cupcakes and home-made ice cream. Can I just say YUM! To start her birthday off I brought her Starbucks hot chocolate and a pastry. She's my little Starbucks buddy! Needless to say, she was stoked. Later that day my mom and I took her birthday shopping. This year Chris and I haven't bought the kids birthday presents. Instead, we thought it would be fun to take them shopping to pick something out on their own. So far they have loved it and it makes it so much easier for mom and dad! Happy Birthday, Lauren!!! I hope you had a fun day!

Zach ADORED my little sister, Chantelle. What's not to love? She's beautiful, sweet and funny!

Lauren had wanted to have a fire and roast hotdogs and marshmallows on her birthday. But since it rained that night, we did it the next night instead. We all had fun, even if it was a day late!

The kids needed to get out of the house one day so we packed a picnic lunch and went to a park near the lake. They had fun playing on the playground and feeding the ducks. I think the ducks were sick of bread, though, cause they refused to eat it. Can you blame 'em?

You might ask, "Is THIS the 12-year old that you're so ready to give away?" Yes, I must admit it is. I know, he looks so angelic here. But believe me, looks can be deceiving.

After the park we stopped for some delicious ice cream! The kids were super excited because mommy is never this nice. BTW, this happened to be the ONLY sunny day we were there. Good thing we chose that day to go to the park or it never would have happened.

We had a ton of fun hanging out with my mom, step-dad Doug and sister Chantelle. Thanks for letting us crash your pad for a week, Mom! We also had a visit one day from Dani and Adam. On our way home a week later we drove for 6 1/2 hours the 1st day. We drove a different way for part of the ride home. We drove over the tip of the Grand Canyon....which is SO incredibly deep. We also went through a town called Cave Dwellers. It had a bunch of HUGE boulders with caes carved out of them and cool rock formations.We also drove through a national forest that was such a beautiful drive. Sorry, no pictures of any of these places cause at this point I just wanted to be done with our trip. We stayed in the town of Hurricane, UT that night. The next day we only had 3 1/2 hours left on the road. It went by quickly. One town I must mention that we drove through is near Hurricane. It was the town of Toquerville. I want to live there someday...BEAUTIFUL!

It was a fun trip and I am SO glad we broke the trip up by staying in hotels!