We made a trip to AZ after the beginning of the year.
We left on Saturday, January 4th.
Packed the car, with 3 dogs, and 3 kids and all our luggage. We actually asked my parents if we could use the car top carrier but it turns out we didn't need it. (It would take us like 3 months to get the carrier back to them.) My mom made them snack bags, with snacks and coloring stuff in them. The kids did pretty good on the trip down to Cane Beds.
This was our "Christmas" trip. We drove down to Cane Beds and stayed with Rhian. Walt and Alison and the kids were staying with Jake's Grandpa and Grandma (Butch and Becky) so we went and visited them. It was the first time in years that we got to see them.
January 5th: We got to visit Walt and Alison and Kiera and Loreli, and Wyatt, and Butch and Becky, and even got to see Wes for a minutes. It was a really good visit. All the kids got a long well. Sydney and Kiera got along and spent a lot of time drawing together. Lizzy and Loreli and Wyatt spent time exploring, while William tortured the dogs who were chained up to a tree. Butch and Becky were at church during the first half of our visit, so when they finally got home we headed into their house to chat for a bit. And of course Becky had to feed the kiddos. Wes came over to say hi. And we left shortly after that. We left around 3 pm to finish our drive to Phoenix. The drive was still really long, but the sun setting over the landscape made for really pretty views. The hardest part is the girls couldn't see to read or draw for that part of the drive. Going from Cane Beds down to Flagstaff felt like it took forever. We avoided going past Jacobs Lake since that was in the mountains with snow. So the detour felt like it took forever. Plus there was construction. We stopped in Flagstaff for some food and to let the dogs go to the bathroom. The kids and I ended up going inside a restaurant to order food while Jake walked the dogs. Oh and of course we all needed a bathroom break. It was pretty late when we got to Lydia's after over 8 hrs of driving. The kids were loving on Nana and Josh while Jake and I loaded everything into her trailer that we were sleeping in. The girls got the bunk beds in the back, and William got the couch bed. It was actually really hard to get him to sleep that night. Jake and I had the master bedroom, which the bed was so short, MY feet were falling off the bed, not to mention Jake's.
Here are the pics from my camera.
January 6th: We started off with a lazy morning. Lydia took the kids inside while Jake and I slept a little longer. Of course when I got into the house I found William out playing in the dirt in the backyard-of course because where else would he be. Kid loves the dirt!
After breakfast we opened up Nana and Papa's Presents. And they opened up the ones from us. William got a firetruck and tractor. The girls got Barbie play-dough sets and bead sets.
After everyone opened their gifts.
We headed to the Phoenix Zoo. The kids (at least I like to think so) were excited. They were running around looking at everything. The last time we were at the zoo Lizzy was about 15 months old.
The first thing we saw were the giraffes. And then we kind of meandered around. The kids got to ride the camel. We actually fit Sydney, Josh, William, and Lizzy on the camel. I kind of felt bad for the camel, but I know they can carry more weight than that. I'm also glad none of them fell off. It was fun for them, or at least my kiddos. Josh is pretty old (in teen years) so who knows whats fun to him. We spent over 30 minutes waiting to see the elephants, and everyone was so bored. We almost left the area a couple times, but then some worker would come out and prep something and we'd watch, getting all hyped up again, only to be left waiting some more. The kids also got to see a bunch of animal statues and they even had a farmer park for little kids area. Overall we spent a good 4-5 hours at the zoo and it was long, and exhausting, but fun. At least for the kids (ok for everyone but Jake and Josh). (Also my camera died half way through the animal statues, so I ended up having to use my cell phone to take pics for the rest of the evening.)
below: William fell and scrapped up his arm. He was hurt, and crying.
January 7th:
We woke up. Had a slow morning. Making breakfast, finding something that each of my kids would eat. Then we got ready to go to a park that Lydia found when she moved to her new neighborhood.
The park was about a 30 minute drive from her house. It had a "lake/pond" with a water feature and a million ducks. The kids really loved chasing the ducks. I was really worried William was going to get bitten. The girls would just run through or towards the ducks and they would fly away, but William ran straight at a couple of the geese that were there and ya...
The park was fun. It had a music section with all kinds of different instruments. the kids had a lot of fun banging on all the different drums, and blowing in all the pipe instruments.
The first thing the girls did when we got to the park was go to the water and chase the ducks. William wanted to be pushed on the swing. So Jake and Lydia pushed William on the swing, while I followed the girls around chasing ducks. Eventually the girls ended up clear on the other side of the pond. Eventually we made our way back to the park. The kids all played for a while, and then right before we were leaving, William decided it was his turn to chase the ducks.
***for some reason these pictures kept uploading backwards. so the first picture you see is the last picture I took at the park, and the first picture I took is at the very bottom of this "day" in the post.***
below: Its hard to see because she's so small int he picture, but Sydney is in the middle of that group of ducks across the pond chasing them. I wish I had captured the next shot of all of the ducks flying into the air. It was pretty cool to see in person.
I made tacos for dinner that night. I am glad Lizzy ate them.
below: while Lizzy was on the other side of the pond, she wanted to take pictures with my camera.
below: this is what we were doing before we left for the park.
January 8th:
We stayed ate the house today. We just relaxed. Let the kids play with their toys. Dig in the dirt.
We gave William a hair cut. He hates hair cuts. Lots of screaming and crying. He hates the feel of all the little hairs on his neck. My poor bud, has to be held down in order to get all around his ears.
Yes we even got to ride the 4 wheelers! that was a ton of fun. The kids LOVED it. I even got a turn to drive one.
Josh works for a guy how has a couple horses, so Lydia talked to him and asked if my kiddos could ride the horses. so Josh walked the horse with the leash, while my kiddos were riding it around the ring. The kids loved it. William and Lizzy rode together. Josh even started having the horse trot for a moment. Sydney was curious and loved it and watched everything Josh was doing. Then I got to ride the horse, and then Jake got to ride. And then Josh showed us his riding skills.
After we got back from horse riding we started playing the new game we got Lydia for Christmas. Pictionary Air. So we connected the phone to the TV and then it came with a pen that we could draw in the air with and it would show up on the TV. It was fun, funny, and even the kids got into it.
**the photos are back to normal. uploaded in the correct order**
cell phone pics:
below: we were playing that new game we gave Lydia for Christmas.
January 9th:
***Once again, the pics were uploaded last to first. So the pics at the top were taken at the end of the day. And the pics at the bottom were taken at the beginning of the day.***
Today was a lazy day. With some prep in the afternoon because we were having a big "Christmas" dinner (which Jake and I cooked)...yes in January, since we weren't able to come down in December, with everyone. Ashley and John, Aaron, and Lyndsey and Aaron all came.
We did a family photo shoot (we were worried we would have to do it inside because everyone was getting here so late, but it ended up working beautifully outside) since this was the first we had all seen each other in months.
My day started at 6 am when Jake woke me up because I wanted to photograph the sunrise. So we set up my tripod in the back of Scott's truck and stood out there for two hours. The sun never "rose" because of the clouds. But I was out there taking pictures for two hours, and editing all of them was so hard...because I had to pick and choose which ones I wanted to keep and which ones not to keep.
Because I was awake so early, I was really tired for most of the day. I even took a little nap. But I hate napping while were visiting, because I never know what I am missing out on seeing the kids experience.
We also road the 4 wheeler's again. That was a lot of fun. I sincerely enjoy riding and even driving them. I got to go super fast.
^^ Cell phone pics
Camera photos
(Jake took these photos of Josh and they ended up being submitted to the Shoot and Share photo contest and this photo (directly below) ended up being in the top 30% of teen photos).
January 10th:
**Pics uploaded in correct order**
Today is the day were are driving home. Jake left me to pack all of our stuff in the trailer while he got the kids dressed and fed inside the house. Then he was the one to pack the car with all of our stuff.
As we were packing the car, Josh took Sydney and William for a ride on the 4 wheeler.
It was a long drive home. 12 hrs + breaks. We made a stop in Vegas, and then in Fillmore and then home. The kids were restless and bored; like their tablets couldn't keep them entertained, and they kept losing their crayons and other things. We also tried to limit snack and drinking so that there were less potty breaks. The dogs were restless too.
When we stopped off in Vegas, we also stopped off at the Hoover Dam. We were hoping to be able to walk across the top of it, but that turns out is drive, and took too much time. So we ended up finding this look out to look over Lake Powell. But Jake was stressed, and the kids were running away (which was dangerous because there was nothing to keep them from falling over the short wall and down a steep hill), excited to see everything and be out of the car and he ended up yelling at them and I yelled at him and we ended up in a fight, and that didn't get resolved until we were out of Vegas.
But we got home. We unloaded, but didn't unpack everything. The kids were glad for a chance to stretch their legs, unfortunately it was bed time for them.
Pictures from Camera
No comments:
Post a Comment