This last vacation post will be quick one.  The last full day we were there was a quiet one.  We took it slow in the morning… maybe did something else that I’m forgetting at the moment… then went to Amy’s house for the afternoon.  We swam and ate and had fun.  Alan and Ian bonded over World Cup soccer while Amy and I discussed daycares and family planning.  You know, the usual stuff.  Lex discovered their X-Box Knect and played some fun racing games.  We had pizza for dinner.  It was a great final day in Arizona!

We had fun with this little guy. Where’s the toy?

Eve regressed to her baby self. :)

Andrew loved Eve’s glasses. She thought it was hysterical that he kept pulling them off. :)

There’s the noodle pony picture I was looking for!

This was a total snapshot that ended up looking really cool!

Lex was feeling a little grumpy (not enough sleeping, perhaps?!) but cheered right up when he discovered they have an X-Box.

Monday finally arrived and with it came goodbyes and long flights.

All the animals say good bye.

Eve said the animals (Dolphy, Bamboo, and Jeesis) were all very sad to be leaving Arizona.

Long flights on a plane that had seat back screens!  Movies, TV, music, games, and more!  Alan watched TV, the kids played games, and I did enrichment activities!  Ha!  I played Bejeweled and read magazines while my kids were glued to the screen!  It was a great flight! :)

Ooohhh… screens on the seat back = happy children!

He sat upright in his seat for three hours playing games on the screen, and he was one happy flier!

This is my favorite part. Years ago when I flew to Europe they had one of these and I loved watching our path. This is the first plane I’ve been on since that had one. I wish all planes did!

What’s with the crazy circle fields below?!

We made it safely home.  Our flight arrived around 111:30pm.  The kids and I waited for baggage (which went awesome and smooth this entire trip!) while Alan hiked to long-term parking to get our car.  He’s a good man.  Then we made a stop at McD’s for a late-night snack that we all regretted and headed home!  It was very late when we finally rolled into our garage, but everyone was safe and happy.  We are an awesome traveling family!  We’d be a globe-trotting family if only it weren’t so darn expensive!

Up next… a vacation in Franklin!  Blog post coming soon! :)

We decided to extend our vacation through the weekend so we could go to the Grand Canyon together as a family, once Alan’s training was complete.  Every time we mentioned the trip to an Arizona local they said, “Oh, you have to go to Sedona too!”  Well, ok.  We left bright and early Saturday morning with the intent to drive the four hour drive to the Grand Canyon via Sedona (making it more like a five hour drive), stopping for lunch somewhere along the way.

Cacti!

More cacti. It was everywhere and we took a lot of pictures, but I won’t bore you with them all. :)

Approaching Sedona.  Sorry for all the car pictures.  The AZ DOT said the road north of Sedona, leading to the Grand Canyon, was impassible, so we had planned to have lunch in Sedona then go back the way we came to the highway, then on to the Grand Canyon.  My plan was to stop on the way back at a viewing area and take pictures, and let Eve out of the car to find the red rock she so desperately wanted.  However, when we got to Sedona a chipper young girl at the information booth swore the road was open and the view was amazing, so after lunch we proceeded north.  Sadly there were no more Sedona viewing areas from there and no more opportunities for red rock collection.  I owe Eve another trip to Sedona!

Nearing Sedona. The rocks became redder and much more impressive.

These kids are AWESOME travelers!

There were about five hundred (or so) rotaries on the road to Sedona. I thought at first my navigation was broken and repeating itself, then I realized there were just that many traffic circles!  They really DO NOT want you driving fast on that road!

Sedona rocks

More rocks.

Can you imagine this in your back yard?

Coming into Sedona. Sorry for all the car pictures.

We had lunch at a place called Wildflower. Basically a Panera-type restaurant. It was yummy. We ate on the deck and the view was fantastic!  I think maybe we were looking at Castle Rock on the left and Cathedral Rock on the right.  Maybe.

They had bagels, of course, but they were happy.

After lunch we followed the information girl’s advice and headed north through Oak Creek Canyon.  The roads were narrow and twisty, and the views were amazing!

Heading out of Sedona, towards Oak Creek Canyon.

The rocks and vegetation out here are just so different and so interesting. I wonder if AZ natives feel the same when they drive through VT?

Oak Creek Canyon

Alan held down the button and took about 20 pictures in a row, trying to get a nice family shot. It didn’t work, but looking through them all is hysterical. I won’t bother posting all of them, but this is probably the best one.

After watching us laughing hysterically trying to take a selfie, a nice couple passing by offered to take a picture for us. :)

The kids enjoyed the view. Lex said that Oak Creek Canyon make Quechee Gorge look small by comparison.

Yep, I think I’d agree with him!

Jeesis enjoyed the view. Bamboo is next to her on the left.  I was terrified Jeesis would go over the edge and that would be the end of our family vacation. Thankfully everyone survived the canyon!

See all those road switchbacks? Yep, we drove that road!

Now, finally, off to the Grand Canyon!

As we approached the Grand Canyon the terrain leveled out and became more scrubby.

The goal was to get to the Grand Canyon in the early afternoon, stay a few hours, have dinner there, then head home in the dark.  We got there a little late, but otherwise did ok.  I took a million pictures and it’s hard to pick the best ones….

So pretty.

Sometimes there were fences, sometimes there were no fences.

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

A family selfie at the Grand Canyon. We got a better one taken by a stranger, but it’s on my phone and may or may not make it to the blog.

The rock formations are just amazing.

We waited awhile to take a picture at this spot. We waited for a group of pretty young Italian (?) ladies to take 1001 Facebook photos. I think my kids are better than any of their photos! :)

Eve was apparently watching closely because she very much wanted a picture here without Lex. When he walked away, she whipped out this pose… just like the young ladies before us. Sigh.

See the people down on that ledge?! Thanks, but no thanks!

Another one, no fences, no fears! (and probably no kids!)

Grand Canyon

Alan and the kids. Hold on tight to those kiddos!

Here is Lex’s Facebook profile picture!! :) (He wasn’t really THAT close the edge, FYI.)

And Alan’s FB picture! :)

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

Last summer Lex had a pretty bad reaction to a bee sting and this year he is really jumpy around any flying, buzzy thing.  At one point we are standing on a ledge, overlooking the Grand Canyon, and a big bug buzzes right by.  Lex immediately starts spazzing out and trying to run away.  Alan and I of course freak out a bit, because he is jumping around and running on a ledge of the GRAND CANYON!  I got him calmed down, away from the ledge and the flying thing, and tried with all my terrified momma-heart to explain to him taht a) it was NOT a bee and b) a bee sting is better than falling off of the ledge into the GRAND CANYON!  He was not convinced and decided to play it a little safer and stay away from ledges and bugs, to the best of his ability.  Poor kiddo… but also a very smart kiddo!

Poor Lex. Do you see him up there?

It amazes me that such a wide variety of vegetation can grow along the side of a cliff.

Who holds the key to the future of the Grand Canyon?

Apparently Eve does!

Lex likes the science.

They brought their own money for gift shops on this trip. Eve bought a stuffed animal everywhere we went, including a humming bird from the Grand Canyon?! Lex was a little more thrifty with his money, but he bought a multi-purpose safari tool (compass, light, etc.) at the Grand Canyon.

We lasted about two hours before everyone was tired and ready to go.  Truthfully they were tired by the time we got there and Eve was in tears within the first 30 minutes.  Family vacations, ya know.  But we powered through and had a great time!  We stopped for pizza on the way out, then hit the road for a short, 4hr trip back to the hotel!  Eve conked right out, but Lex stayed awake for the whole trip and we all went to bed around midnight.

The second full day we were in Arizona started a touch later than the first day, but still pretty early.  The kids and I did some exploring around our hotel while we waited for the pool to open.  I had a phone interview that morning, so I wanted to stay close by until that was done.  Our hotel was neat because all of the doors opened to the outside (motel-like) and it had a very irregular layout.  It made for great exploring.

Here’s a view of the pool area from a few floors up. Our room was on the ground floor, right near the pool gate. It was perfect.

There were lime trees all around! I didn’t even notice they had limes on them until we got to an upper level and had a close-up view.

After our walk I let the kids swim while I had my interview.  It seemed pretty perfect to me, but I didn’t get the job and therefore maybe not the best interview location.  At one point I lost my train of thought completely when Eve went under and didn’t come back.  Fortunately she did come back moments later and fortunately I was interviewing with people I knew, so it was easy to explain the temporary lose of attention.

Silly kids. They played all sorts of games, including karate ninja mermaids.

When the interview was over and the kids were thoroughly soggy (ha! like that ever happens!) we went back to the hotel room for a lunch of peanut butter crackers, yogurt, and fruit, then packed up for a trip to the Children’s Museum of Phoenix.  This place is AMAZING!  If we lived nearby I would totally have a membership!  One of the many, many, many things I loved about it was that each area had a theme, and each area had a baby sub-area that fit with the same theme.  Not that I needed it, but it was cool that you could bring big kids and little ones and everyone could have fun and still stick together.  Anyway, so many cool things about this place!

When you first walk in there is a giant, two-story climbing structure.

I love all the crazy details, so many are recycled craft projects too.

A bathtub with wings? Why not?! The ramp leads right into it as well, so the kids can play in there. Fun!!

I wish I had the panoramic feature that the iPhones have.  This would have made a good panorama picture instead of taking it in three shots.

A shoe rack, outside of a “socks only” area.

Noodle forest. Seriously cool.

A wrench xylophone. One of many hardware related musical instruments.

I love how they use so many common, every day items to make cool activities for the kids.

Balls roll down the ramps, bumping into the pots and pans and making different sounds. Each area also had “what are your kids learning” signs around for the parents to read.

Eve doing a little flower gardening.

A fort room with umbrellas and sleds on the ceiling. Of course.

Tons of common household items available to build forts.

A “car wash” with lots of different tricycles and scooters to ride through. Targeted a little more towards the younger kids, but everyone was having fun.

“Paint the Castle!” A big wooden (or cardboard?) castle that the kids can paint. Apparently a different color each day. When we were there it was pink. Kids were given smocks, a big paintbrush (like you’d use for a house, not for water colors on paper) and a big bucket of pink paint. The castle had lots of things stuck to it as well, giving it some texture and detail. Lex and Eve didn’t want to paint (they were wearing down by this point!) but I thought the idea was really cool.

We stopped for some arts and crafts. The theme that day was desert so we made snakes.

They have a little café with healthy snacks available. We sat by the window overlooking an outdoor play area that was way to hot to play on! We enjoyed the view though, and the snacks, and the break.

This is a full-wall activity with tubes that have air blowing through them. You put colored scarves in holes at the bottom and the air pushes the scarves through the tubes and shoots them out holes at the top. Then the kids jump and scramble to catch the scarves as they float down. This lady in stripes was grabbing them all first and handing them out to her group of kids. Not cool!

Legs hanging out of a boat. We ended up back at the climbing structure at the end of the day and this caught my eye. Kids peek their head out the top and legs hanging below (not real legs!). Pure fun.

The museum even had some covered parking (completely full by the time we got there) which I think every thing in Arizona should have!  They had solor panels on top and even had a few electric car charging stations.  I almost parked there, but then remembered I was driving a rental not our Nissan Leaf.  It was the last available spot under the awning and when we came out we found a huge pick-up truck parked there.  The thing didn’t even fit in the space!

That evening we had dinner again with Amy and Ian at the Mexican restaurant in the hotel.  Everyone was pretty tired so we turned in early… or at least vacation early, which of course is still later than regular non-vacation bedtime!  We had to rest up for our long trip to the Grand Canyon the next day!

I am very late with blog posts about two great trips we took recently.  Grab a cup of coffee and get comfy, this is going to be a long one…

In June, Alan’s company sent him to a training in Phoenix, AZ.  He doesn’t love to travel, but I do, and with a stroke of genius (my mom might have inspired it) we decided that the kids and I would join him in Phoenix and we’d turn work into a vacation.  He flew out ahead of us because we still had one day of school left, but we joined him on Wednesday.  That gave him time to get settled and us time to finish school properly!

Eager kiddos on the shuttle bus from long term parking to the terminal.

Never a dull moment with this two!

We got there pretty early (because I hate to be late!) so we had plenty of time to watch all the goings-on at the airport.

Eve was super excited to be flying again!!

Lex and I were pretty exited too! :)

Our flight out of Manchester was delayed an hour, but Delta sent me a text that morning and everything went well.  I was worried about our layover, but that was fine too.  Plenty of time.  In fact, we even had enough time to ride the train thing in the airport, just for fun.  A train in an airport.  Craziness! :)

Waiting for the airport train in Detroit.

We got off the train when we saw this cool fountain, conveniently located right next to a Starbucks. :) The kids played, I caffeinated, life is good.

Pretty

On the train, heading back to our gate.

We got back to our gate just as the skies turned greenish black and the thunder rolled in!  Needless to say, there was a delay as we waited for the storm to pass.  I was very grateful we hadn’t boarded yet!  The storm rumbled and lightning flashed, we played Uno and got a snack, then the storm passed and we boarded.  The delay was just long enough to be exciting, but not so long that it was annoying.

Playing Uno

Glad we brought the cards!

Once we took to the skies it was beautiful, as usual!

Blue skies! I love the horizontal striped look.

I love airplane pictures!

Looking out the window made me realize that I don’t know my geography very well. We should have looked at a map before we left.

I was telling the kids that AZ is desert and very flat, but then these appeared!

Urban sprawl, as seen from the air.

On the flight into Phoenix Lex had to sit one seat ahead of me and Eve. I was a little nervous at first (always am), but he ended up between a nice young guy and a 8yr old girl traveling on her own. Lex and the girl shared crayons and books, the guy was patient with Lex’s many trips to the bathroom, and all went well.

Looks kids, a cactus! Eve touched it, of course, and ended up with tiny spikes in her finger. She was sad. This was also about 8pm in Phoenix (11pm our time) after a long day of travel!

It was very late when we finally got to the hotel in Phoenix.  Very late.  But everyone did a great job of keeping it together.  Thanks to the 3hr time difference the next morning started very early!  The kids were awake shortly after 3am!  Ugh.  We snuggled in bed for a bit, but we were all up well before we should have been.

I love these two! Cuddling before breakfast.

Apparently this is how it’s done in the warm states.

They were ready for the pool when it opened at 7am!

When Alan was ready for work we all walked to his office together.  It was a short walk down the street.  His training was in the tallest building in the area so it had a great view. The place was swanky, with comfy furniture, free food, TV and video games, and an upside down Christmas tree decorated for the 4th of July.

A view from the office Alan spent the week at.

We got free food from Alan’s office then settled by the fountain out front for morning snack. Not to be confused with the fountain out back. They are fountain happy in AZ!

After we left Alan to work, the kids and I headed to a local mall that had an indoor aquarium.  We met Amy and Andrew there.  It was cool, but we went through quickly.  The kids were given a scavenger hunt activity at the beginning so they powered through the whole museum trying to find the answers, leaving little time for me to read signs.

Sea stars. We got to touch them too. They are hardish, but kind of rubbery.

The aquarium had several of these pop-up bubbles. They are cool to stand in, but hard to take pictures of. I love Eve’s face in this one. :)

I think this is a white lobster, with red claws.

After the aquarium we were all feeling hungry so we went down the hall to the Rainforest Cafe.  We sat near the monkeys.  The kids loved it.

Lunch with the monkeys

After lunch we had frozen yogurt, because why not, then headed back to the hotel for  rest.  Only one of us took a nap, the other two jumped on the bed like wild hooligans.

When Alan got back from work we headed to Amy and Ian’s house for dinner and more swimming.  It’s good to start and end each day in the pool.  That’s how you know you’re really on vacation! :)

Eve, chillin’ in Amy’s pool.

I tried to get a picture of both of them on their “ponies” but it didn’t happen. I got lots of this instead. :)

Happy boy in the water.

Andrew was pretty happy about that ice cream for dessert!

This is a terrible picture, but I’m going to post it anyway. Going around the table is Eve, Amy, baby Andrew, daddy Ian, Jarrett (also a friend from SU), and Alan. Lex was there somewhere too. We had a great evening.

Someone was very tired from this long day! She feel asleep pretty quickly after we got in the car.

Well, I made it through two days and this post is already long.  I take a lot of pictures.  Have you noticed?  I have to go get the kiddos from camp now, so I’m going to write more in another post.  Stay tuned.