Arizona Vacation - Day 3 (cacti adventures)

Day 3 (NOT my favorite day!)

we woke up, ate breakfast, packed up camp, did a couple short hikes, then hit the road to Flagstaff. Sounds easy enough eh?

The first problem of the morning was when Aaron ended up getting a huge cactus spike in his big toe. Apparently this type of needle (from a "teddy bear cactus" I believe)has a little barb on the end of it, so pulling it out was a big PAIN. (literally) (Aaron was trying to numb up his whole toe by sticking it ice water before pulling out)


We FINALLY got it out - with much weeping and wailing....

then we got back to the business of breakfast. Here I am in all my camping loveliness (and yes, I am aware that even though I blame my appearance on camping, it is pretty much how I look ALL the time...)





one of my favorite things about camping... Hot chocolate in the morning.



The next bit of "fun" was when we were ready to pull out the tent stakes but couldn't find the hammer. Apparently Bryan had been carrying it around while he and Katrina went on their morning walk about... SO the whole family got to stop and go on a "hammer treasure hunt." This shot is of Tim finding the "treasure." (after about 20 minutes of looking!)



As we were taking down camp, I kept telling the kids to STAY IN CAMP and help. Aaron wandered off again, with Bryan following this time, and somehow managed to have another run in with a teddy bear cactus. This time he got a big ball of it stuck to his sock/ankle area, right above his shoe. (so who knows exactly how many were actually poking into his skin and how many were stuck to the sock, but at one point I could identify at least 3 spines going into his skin...) At the same time, Bryan started screaming. HE ALSO fell on a cactus! I pulled a couple small barbs from his hand, but he was still screaming. I pulled down his pants to find two HUGE barbs (like the one's in Aaron's toe) in his BUM! One slid right out but the other was apparently another barbed on, and it was tough to pull. I held Bryan tightly and Tim yanked it out. After another couple minutes Bryan was fine and off and running again. Aaron on the other hand, was dragging the whole mess out. for 1 hour while we cleaned up, packed, and loaded everything else, he cried and whined and moaned and cried and whined and moaned and cried.... As we loaded the last stuff, we told him, "you have about 2 minutes before we are loaded and ready to leave. If you haven't pulled it out by then, we will just do with you what we did with Bryan. I will hold you and Dad will pull it out."

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!! he continued to carry on until he saw us coming, then he hurried and pulled the final barb out.

After this crazy morning, I was DONE camping with the kids and ready to go home! (luckily the rest of the camping nights went smoothly and the kids were actually semi-helpful, so our camping days can continue...)

Needless to say, Aaron decided that Cacti are STUPID, DUMB plants, and that he hates them! Regardless of his feelings toward the plants, I happen to love plants and nature, so we took the "native plant hike."

Kids with saguaro cactus






It was fun for me that so many of the cacti and wildflowers were in bloom



Kids and dad with susperstitions in the background


By the park entrance sign



After leaving Lost Dutchman, we went to Goldfield.



Personally, I could have happily skipped this stop. It was an unorganized, waste of time and money. I know that sounds harsh, and it probably wasn't all that bad, but I kind wish we had skipped it. We took a SLOW and boring train ride, Aaron got to pan for gold which was his favorite part, Tim and the kids went on the mine tour (I stayed up to "guard" Aaron's pan of gold cause he wasn't done yet...), and we went into the "mystery house" which is one of those places where they build everything crazy so it looks like water flows UP-hill etc... I don't do well in places like that... they make me really nauseous, but luckily it was short, and I did mostly ok and wasn't too sick afterward. The best part of goldfield for me was that Tim has pity on me and spent an exorbitant amount on a yummy ice cream waffle cone for the family to share. YUM!







See how boring this train ride was. If you ever go - SKIP the train!


From here we drove BACK to the hotel in Mesa (since I left my wallet there) then continued on up to Flagstaff where we checked into hotel #2. We then went to the Flagstaff aquatics center (no pictures, sorry) to swim. (can you tell my kids love to swim?) We went there instead of just the hotel pool cause they have water slides, lazy river, and kids play area with slides etc... It wasn't as great as it looked in the online pictures, but the kids still had a great time.

We had hoped to go to the Lowell Observatory and take the opportunity to look through the telescopes, but it was overcast that night so there wasn't much point. Instead we went out to eat (Sizzler, YUM) and then went back to the hotel where everyone just collapsed and fell instantly asleep.

Arizona Vacation - Day 2

So, on day 2 we got up and the kids went swimming again with Tim while I packed up and loaded the van. Tim had wanted to get to the zoo right when they opened at 9, but swimming was more important to the kids so that is what they did. (we got to zoo around 10). This picture was taken from up by our room, 3 floors above. I zoomed the camera to the max.



Here we are (in a very unflattering picture) at the zoo. (for speed in posting, the remainder of the photos are in no particular order...)



eating lunch...



My own precious "pearls"



The kids in "Sting Ray Bay"



Aaron is "King of the Wallaby"



can I just tell you... I hate being in pictures (look closely. we are in the monkey encounter and the monkey is climbing the trunk of the tree off to the side of us.)



Caleb and I on a camel ride.



We bought the kids the "wild pass" so they could have unlimited entrance to sting ray bay, and unlimited rides on the carousel, camel, and safari train. I dare say they got their money's worth
on the camel rides alone. They rode 4 or 5 times. They LOVED it.

.

I added this one after I realized it actually has all five of us in it...



and now a FEW of the carousel pictures...










In "The Land of the Dragon's"



Aaron "milking" a cow. it was pretty cool. they filled up the "utter" with water and the kids could try milking. It was pretty realistic as far as it went.



brushing the goats in the petting farm









a fun video clip of the kids cooling off... (i love Caleb's little laugh...)



Leaving the zoo.



So after the zoo, we headed out to Lost Dutchman State Park to set up camp. I had rather hoped to get to our next stop by 4:00, cause that's when they had a recreation "gun fight" at the nearby goldfield ghost town, but we didn't leave the zoo until 3:30... so it was a no go. No worries, it wasn't a priority, the priority was getting our money's worth at the zoo, which I believe we did.

So here is Bryan climbing a tree in our camp, with the beautiful superstition mountains int he background.



and here I am, making dinner. Don't ya just love all the swimsuits hanging in the tree trying to get dry?

Arizona Vacation - Day 1

Life seems so crazy for me right now. I feel like I just run from one thing to the next, never really accomplishing anything at all!

2 weeks ago was the kid's spring break, and it coincided with General Conference Weekend, (meaning I wouldn't need to get a sub for primary) so we decided (rather on the spur of the moment - two weeks ahead is all) to take off for the week on this year's family vacation. I have been trying to sit down and blog about the vacation all week. I decided this moring that if I just do ONE post per day... I CAN do it! (and maybe once I get started, I'll feel inspired to get it done faster) Be forewarned that I took a KAZILLION pictures on this vacation. literally! so don't feel obligated to look at them all or even read every entry. Just know that this is my "vacation scrapbook" - so read and view only as it interests you...

DAY 1 -

We left bright and early (4:00am) and started the drive to Mesa, Arizona. As crazy as it may seem, we like leaving early so the kids sleep for the first chunk of the drive. I actually prefer to leave closer to 3am, but since we were up until after 11 the night before, finalizing everything, we moved the start time until 4 so I didn't have to get up until 3:30. First stop was in Kanab. (not really necessary yet, but we filled up the gas tank and let the kids use the restroom and stretch their legs now that they were awake. Since they have a "K" on the mountain, we also took the time to take a picture of Katrina with "her letter"



And of course, if Katrina gets to sit in the old rickety buggy, so does everyone else!



We took the "scenic route," down through Fredonia, and I'm so glad we did. We saw lots of really awesome things things.

The first place we stopped (both for the scenic view and also for "sickness" considerations) was an overlook that we think was called Vermillion Cliffs overlook. We were hoping to see some of the California Condors that live in the area, but no such luck.




Katrina and I are missing firm these pictures because Katrina had just thrown up and was resting by the van, and I was cleaning up the carseat that Caleb had just thrown up in... (Apparently several of my kids, Katrina especially, inherited my car-sickness gene - I have much more empathy for my poor parents who had to deal with me on family vacations. Thank heavens for ziploc baggies. NEVER leave home without them!)

Not too much further down the road was the "Cliff Dwellers" stop. (I though it was SUPER cool.) There were these massive sandstone rocks that had holes etc... carved out by erosion, which early dwellers in the area utilized to make their houses. It was really amazing to me.

notice how they built the wall up to the ROCK and then use the rock as the roof and back wall of the house.. (not that you can see the back or anything...) It was REALLY neat! I loved it!

Talk about some painful splinters...

Soon after the Cliff Dwellers was Navajo Bridge. We stopped there to take a few pictures and walk out over the river.


The last stop before the hotel was Sunset Crater. We ate (a late) lunch here, checked out the visitors center where the kids favorite activity was where they could jump and see what their vibrations registered on a Richter scale, and then we hiked around the lava flows. It was pretty neat. There was more we (Tim and I) wanted to do there, (more hiking and some ruins to explore, but it was getting late and the kids REALLY wanted to have have time to swim.




Taking the scenic route meant that we stopped a LOT more than we planned to, so we didn't arrive at the hotel until 5:15 - 5:30 ish. (I was thinking we'd get in around 3, but I factored in ONLY gas/restroom adn a lunch stop.) This meant we got less time to swim in the hotel pool before heading out to the Mesa Temple pageant. but it was all good.

Here is the family in the pool (the water was a delightful temp and the weather was beautiful!) before we raced off to the pageant -



and here we are at the temple.

We ended up getting lost on the way (we had the directions printed out, but due to construction road closures we had to do a bit of extra "exploring." Only Aaron got to have pictures with the actors because be the time he and Tim got back to us and I took Katrina and Bryan out, it was time to start and the actors all left.


The pageant was GREAT! I really really liked it. Originally we were planning a much shorter trip to the grand canyon, but when I realized that if we left 2 days earlier, I could catch the final performance for this year. I have wanted to see this pageant for years, so I was thrilled to be able to finally see it. My only regret? (well, two actually, I wish we had been able to get there earlier and get closer to the front so the kids could see better, and I wish that it hadn't been such a LONG day. The kids all fell asleep by the end. I don't think any of them - maybe Aaron? got to see the very end when Jesus "rises up above everything. It was really amazing. Guess we'll just have to go again eh?

(I know this is not a good picture, but it is the best the camera could do. You can still get the general idea of the final scene where Jesus rises above everyone else into heaven.)

Then back to the hotel and instantly asleep!