We went down to Phoenix area to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa, Aunts and Uncles, and Cousins. Here is the run down. Sorry it is so long, but it really has a lot less pictures then I actually took.
Driving There.
Thank goodness for DVD players in the car. Phoenix is a long way away. We had a plan for surviving the long drive. We stopped and let the kids run around a lot. This makes it take longer to get there but we ended up having a lot of fun on our stops.
We stopped in Fillmore and had a great time. We went to a park that had a skateboard park. The kids had a lot of fun running and climbing and wishing they had their skateboards.
We also stopped in Kanab and explored a fabulous park. (Sorry, I left the camera in the car so no pictures) It had a fun play area but lots of other things to do. There was a little hike in the desert with lots of cacti. Alex found a tennis ball and we went to the courts and played tennis- just throwing the ball back and forth. The kids took off and when we were able to stop them we asked them where they were going. “We are going to climb that mountain.” It was a huge mountain with lots of cliffs. We were the most horrible parents for not letting them climb the mountain.
We got to Page about 7:00 at night and stayed in a hotel. My kids LOVE hotels. They don’t sleep well. But they love to explore and watch cable tv shows. The next morning we went to see the bridge and the dam that we crossed when it was dark. Besides worrying that we would fall off, or the building would fall, or the dam would break, they had fun. Then we went hiking to see the river/cliffs in that area.
"Yea, the dam and river is fine but look! What is that?" 
"A rock! That is amazing. Let me put it in my mouth."
We stopped in Flagstaff and found a cool area to hike around. The older boys climbed a “mountain”. This was completely different scenery then we had the rest of the trip- pine trees as opposed to cacti and red sand.
We had a really fun vacation before we even got to my brothers house. But then…
The first day we went to a fun indoor play place. Why would we do that when we went to the sun capitol of the world? Well, it RAINED. So we adjusted our plans and had a lot of fun anyway. We went to this place that has a huge fake tree house with tons of climby places and slides and everything.
The kids spent a lot of time in my brother’s hot tub. This was really fun especially at night- swimming in the dark. They also have a fireplace in their back yard. What is better than roasting marshmallows in your pajamas after swimming in the dark? Maybe eating the marshmallows on a hammock laughing hysterically with cousins. Our older boys spent every minute we were not out exploring Arizona on a computer or game system. Heaven for my children! The younger boys had fun with a whole bunch of different toys.
We went to a cool ghost town that is near Superstition Mountain. We went on a tour of a gold mine, saw the world biggest collection of venomous snakes (I took this picture for you Evan!), saw a wild west gun fight, and played on fun broken down cars and trucks.
My brother, two of my sisters, and Andre and I. 
Thanksgiving
Like I said before, it rained on Thanksgiving. So here is a picture to prove it. But it cleared up by the afternoon. We had great food and fun play time with cousins. Turkey is great and I have to say that along with green bean casserole, I have a new favorite side dish. Pretzel Jello salad- yum! I now have the recipe so I can attempt to make it.
We went to the park in the afternoon to play football and to get some energy. Turkey makes me tired. My boys loved the huddles where they made plans of how to score. The planning was more fun than the game to them.
Even Grandma rode a scooter!
That night the girls went to see the movie Twilight. It was fun to do a girls night thing. We invited the guys. Surprisingly, they said that they would rather stay home and get the kids to bed. They missed out!
Driving Home
Driving home was a little harder than driving down there. Maybe it was the week of no sleep for all of us, The fact that all of our toys and activities were old , or maybe it was just that we were going to boring old home. But we did have some fun.
The first day we drove to the Grand Canyon. We didn’t get there until about 3:30. The kids thought it was cool and did not stop talking about what would happen if something fell down the canyon, or how long it would take to hike down there, etc… We spent about an hour there and then Alex lost it. Tantrum time. So that is all we got. He was asleep in about 20 seconds after we got in the car. But we had to see the Grand Canyon! We were so close to it we did not want to drive right past it. We spent the night in Page again. We had a different hotel so we got to explore more. That is the best part of a hotel you know.
Right before the tantrum.
We stopped in Orderville on the way back. (Ya, I’d never heard of it either.) The kids were antsy and they wanted to climb on the mountains that we were seeing. Overheard… “My favorite kind of hiking is the kind that you use your feet and hands, so you are going up.” So Andre took the three boys up a mountain. This was near the Kane County High School. We parked in the parking lot. About half way up you may see some light blue and grey shirts. They were way up there.
We stopped in Fillmore again. The boys were so excited to play on the skateboard ramps. Then they got tired of that and we played at the playground. Their favorite part of that was that they had little rocks as the base of the playground. They put rocks everywhere, pockets, sleeves, shoes, etc... Even though we cleaned them out really good, I found rocks in the washer yesterday as I finished up the laundry.
We finally got home and it was nice to be out of the car. Alex had spent the last 6 days asking to “go home” every 15 minutes. We finally got home and ten minutes later he was asking to “go to park”.
Driving There.
Thank goodness for DVD players in the car. Phoenix is a long way away. We had a plan for surviving the long drive. We stopped and let the kids run around a lot. This makes it take longer to get there but we ended up having a lot of fun on our stops.
We stopped in Fillmore and had a great time. We went to a park that had a skateboard park. The kids had a lot of fun running and climbing and wishing they had their skateboards.
We also stopped in Kanab and explored a fabulous park. (Sorry, I left the camera in the car so no pictures) It had a fun play area but lots of other things to do. There was a little hike in the desert with lots of cacti. Alex found a tennis ball and we went to the courts and played tennis- just throwing the ball back and forth. The kids took off and when we were able to stop them we asked them where they were going. “We are going to climb that mountain.” It was a huge mountain with lots of cliffs. We were the most horrible parents for not letting them climb the mountain.
We got to Page about 7:00 at night and stayed in a hotel. My kids LOVE hotels. They don’t sleep well. But they love to explore and watch cable tv shows. The next morning we went to see the bridge and the dam that we crossed when it was dark. Besides worrying that we would fall off, or the building would fall, or the dam would break, they had fun. Then we went hiking to see the river/cliffs in that area.
"Yea, the dam and river is fine but look! What is that?" "A rock! That is amazing. Let me put it in my mouth." We stopped in Flagstaff and found a cool area to hike around. The older boys climbed a “mountain”. This was completely different scenery then we had the rest of the trip- pine trees as opposed to cacti and red sand.
We had a really fun vacation before we even got to my brothers house. But then…
Cousins!
There were seven boys ages 11 to 0 and two dogs in this house and it was fun. No one got bored with so many things to do. The 5 older boys had four fun sleepovers in the living room because all the adults took the bedrooms. My brother lives right by tons of parks and walking paths.
The first day we went to a fun indoor play place. Why would we do that when we went to the sun capitol of the world? Well, it RAINED. So we adjusted our plans and had a lot of fun anyway. We went to this place that has a huge fake tree house with tons of climby places and slides and everything.
The kids spent a lot of time in my brother’s hot tub. This was really fun especially at night- swimming in the dark. They also have a fireplace in their back yard. What is better than roasting marshmallows in your pajamas after swimming in the dark? Maybe eating the marshmallows on a hammock laughing hysterically with cousins. Our older boys spent every minute we were not out exploring Arizona on a computer or game system. Heaven for my children! The younger boys had fun with a whole bunch of different toys.
We went to a cool ghost town that is near Superstition Mountain. We went on a tour of a gold mine, saw the world biggest collection of venomous snakes (I took this picture for you Evan!), saw a wild west gun fight, and played on fun broken down cars and trucks.
My brother, two of my sisters, and Andre and I. Thanksgiving
Like I said before, it rained on Thanksgiving. So here is a picture to prove it. But it cleared up by the afternoon. We had great food and fun play time with cousins. Turkey is great and I have to say that along with green bean casserole, I have a new favorite side dish. Pretzel Jello salad- yum! I now have the recipe so I can attempt to make it.
We went to the park in the afternoon to play football and to get some energy. Turkey makes me tired. My boys loved the huddles where they made plans of how to score. The planning was more fun than the game to them.
Even Grandma rode a scooter!That night the girls went to see the movie Twilight. It was fun to do a girls night thing. We invited the guys. Surprisingly, they said that they would rather stay home and get the kids to bed. They missed out!
Driving Home
Driving home was a little harder than driving down there. Maybe it was the week of no sleep for all of us, The fact that all of our toys and activities were old , or maybe it was just that we were going to boring old home. But we did have some fun.
The first day we drove to the Grand Canyon. We didn’t get there until about 3:30. The kids thought it was cool and did not stop talking about what would happen if something fell down the canyon, or how long it would take to hike down there, etc… We spent about an hour there and then Alex lost it. Tantrum time. So that is all we got. He was asleep in about 20 seconds after we got in the car. But we had to see the Grand Canyon! We were so close to it we did not want to drive right past it. We spent the night in Page again. We had a different hotel so we got to explore more. That is the best part of a hotel you know.
Right before the tantrum.We stopped in Orderville on the way back. (Ya, I’d never heard of it either.) The kids were antsy and they wanted to climb on the mountains that we were seeing. Overheard… “My favorite kind of hiking is the kind that you use your feet and hands, so you are going up.” So Andre took the three boys up a mountain. This was near the Kane County High School. We parked in the parking lot. About half way up you may see some light blue and grey shirts. They were way up there.
We stopped in Fillmore again. The boys were so excited to play on the skateboard ramps. Then they got tired of that and we played at the playground. Their favorite part of that was that they had little rocks as the base of the playground. They put rocks everywhere, pockets, sleeves, shoes, etc... Even though we cleaned them out really good, I found rocks in the washer yesterday as I finished up the laundry.
We finally got home and it was nice to be out of the car. Alex had spent the last 6 days asking to “go home” every 15 minutes. We finally got home and ten minutes later he was asking to “go to park”.
Thanks for the fun time!
5 comments:
Thanks for the great pictures of your Thanksgiving. It reminds me of the big family Thanksgivings we used to have at Grandma Jamison's house, with the tables all decorated and color coordinated. Did your mom make that pumpkin pie? Looks like the boys had a great time!
That looked like quite the adventure, but a lot of fun. It seems like your boys played at parks or were hiking the whole time, I bet that you and Andre are exhausted! I am impressed that you got your mom on a scooter! And I love that you got to have a GNO to Twilight! Too fun!
Sounds like a great vacation. What wonderful parents you are to take the trip slow & let the boys explore.
Nine boys?!?! Wow!
Wow! That was a great post about the visit. It was really fun to have you guys down here. You really are great parents, and your boys are lucky to have you!
What a fabulous vacation! I love Thanksgiving. I can still remember either visiting my cousins in California or having them come up to Utah each year. Your kids are lucky to have you!
I thought I had your email, but I don't. I think I have your dad's, however, so I will ask him to send on my address to you!
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