Dillon, CO our last full day of vacation

As I said in the last post, it was dark and late when we arrived.  However, we woke up to a beautiful sight:

Our hotel was across the street from a gorgeous lake.

The town had a really cool park (since the water was waaaay too cold to swim in!) that kept the girls busy so Chad could do some homework in the room in peace and quiet.

We spent most of the day in Dillon. We picked up some roasted chicken and potatoes and had a picnic on the beach.  I think we could have spent a week here! In the mid-afternoon we left for home. 

A few things about our drive home: 
1)  Miss Baby had another emergency bathroom stop and this time was not blessed with a port-o-potty from Heaven. 
2)  We tried out another Denny's in Nebraska for dinner and had an unfortunate experience that ended up with a free dinner for us.  Kudo's to the young manager who valued customer service and took responsibilty for his inept staff.  That experience put us home 2 hours later than we had hoped but we made it home in the middle of the night (3 or 4ish maybe?  I seemed to have blocked that from my memory, ha ha.) 
3)  This was a FANTASTIC road trip and as we were nearing home we were already planning our next one for summer of 2014. 

Arches (not of the golden fast food variety that we usually see)

After bidding the Grand Canyon farewell.  (with many backward glances) We drove on to Arches National Park. 

Since it was summer, the season of road construction, the road we drove through Utah was mostly two lane with no shoulders. 

In a particularly unpopulated stretch Miss Baby announced she needed to use the bathroom.  NOW.  Or more like 5 miles ago.  As moms we can gauge how desperate the situation is and I assure you this mom's radar was reading "beyond desperate, must stop immediately or clean up procedures will need to be activated."

Telling Chad we had to pull over "right now."  He asked me to look around and give him a suggestion as to where that could happen.  Hmmm, I see his point.  No shoulder on either side with construction markers keeping us in our one lane.  So he drove on and at the first intersecting gravel road he turned onto it and pulled over. 




A light shone down from Heaven and angels sang...

Yes, seriously.  A port-a-potty all fresh and clean (really, it was).  We proclaimed Miss Baby to lead a charmed life (at least in that moment).   Back on the road without any lessons in the art of "squatting."  Phew.

The Arches were very cool and well worth the stop.  Things to note:  We got there in the heat of the day (104 degrees) and after one short hike to see an arch from a distance and the kids were pretty much done. 

 

"Look girls, waaay in the distance, see the arch? Yep that's what you just hiked up here in the blazing sun to see"

A close up of the arch we were looking at, called the Delicate Arch and is the most famous of all the arches in the park.  Another side note:  my camera could not capture the true "redness" of the rocks surrounding us, bummer!  It was so pretty against the blue sky.

Taking a little breather.  A little red-faced!

A very nice man took our family picture, despite just getting done with the same hike we did and he was equally red-faced and sweaty!  Thanks man!

These two took one more hike with their mom while Chad waited back in the AC of the van with the two other girls who were overheated from the first hike. (side note: he would have LOVED to have taken the hike but allowed me to go instead, what a guy!)

 

On top of the world! :)

 After spending a couple hours here (and only seeing about a quarter of the park) we had to keep moving if we were going to make it to our hotel reservation for the night in Dillon, CO.

Onward and upward! But what a beautiful drive into the Rockies.  We were wishing we had daylight the whole way but by the time we got to Vail, CO it was dark.  A little further east was our destination and we crashed once we got to our hotel. 

Next up:  a day in the Rockies and our last day of vacation.  sigh....

Life is GRAND at the Grand Canyon

The trip home from Phoenix included some more sight seeing.  Shocking, I know.

With a brand new AC unit in our van we left after lunch and headed to the Grand Canyon. 

OH. MY.

Upon first sight it literally took my breath away.  Truly awesome and no picture or words can ever capture it.  It is an image that has etched itself in my mind (and I hope my kids' too!) that I pray I never forget. 

We took A LOT of pictures and not a single one comes close to portraying this amazing sight.  SO I will share a couple of my faves of the family and kids and call it a day ;)

Yes, we put a "leash" on Miss Baby (don't judge).  No guard rails in most areas made us a little nervous that our rambunctious 3 year old might slip over the edge.  She thought the monkey "backpack" was pretty cool and wore it willingly and gave us a little peace of mind.

 

Riding the shuttle between stops on the trail around the rim.  Amazing how many different languages we heard people speaking around us.

 

 

Walking back to our room, everyone was pretty tired, miss baby even fell asleep on the last stretch of the shuttle ride so Chad got the lucky job of carrying her back. 

Our room in one of the lodges.  Pretty basic but it was clean and it was nice to stay right in the park. 

 We went to back into the nearest town for dinner and saw an elk on the way out of the park.  Then it was early to bed.  A long day of travel was the plan for the next day and we wanted to get an early start.  The room didn't have AC and we figured it would cool down quickly once the sun went down.  We were wrong.  It was hot and stuffy with our family of 6 packed into a little space.  Not much sleep, but it motivated us to get going right away in the morning. 

We stopped along the rim on the way out again before heading back through the Navajo Reservation to Utah. 

I LOVE this shot of the eldest taking a selfie, ha ha.

Parting shots of the Canyon.  What a beautiful morning!
Praise God whose magnificent creation causes us to stop in wonder and awe at His almighty power.   

Southwest Vacation - It's warm in Phoenix in July

Our time in Phoenix, despite the bummer of the AC going out in our van, was super fun. 

We stayed at a resort type hotel called Gainey Suites Resort in Scottsdale.  Chad's family was all there and a few of his older sisters in-laws were also staying.  They had an amazing breakfast buffet every morning and also a managers reception each evening that included the standard chips and popcorn as well as some type of light meal, like pizza, sliders, tacos, etc... Our rooms had full kitchens so the first night we went to the grocery store and stocked up on some lunch foods and pretty much had all our meals covered rather than going out to eat all the time. 

Each night after the younger kids were put to bed we had a "family meeting" (in the courtyard where all our rooms had patios to) to decide plans for the next day.  Not always productive but entertaining to say the least, this time together was so very precious and relaxing.

So the low-down on our days in AZ...

1) pool time... felt like a warm bath, but still refreshing compared to the hot temps.

 

2) 4th of July: We went to see fireworks set over some water.  We sat on a little strip of lawn and the automatic sprinklers went off while we were waiting so we moved back off the curb, ha ha.

3) Graduation:  Chad's sis and family! Congrats to them :) We had a big party that evening at a beautiful home of a friend of theirs, sadly I took zero pictures that night.  (boo on me)

 4) Where Chad spent most of his time and his consolation prize ;)

5) The fastest family picture taking session EVER... (maybe we should always plan family pics when it is 110 out and half the family is needing to leave for a baseball game)

 

 

We had such a fantastic time there and look forward to visiting again sometime!

Road Trip 2013 - a rather warmish day

Day three of our road trip brought us to our destination.  First we made one more "touristy" stop at the Four Corners Monument. 

 

Out in the middle of the dessert, nothing else around it for miles and miles.  It was a quick stop, most of the vendors were not even there yet and we weren't there to shop anyway.  Just a quick photo op and we were on the road again.

strike a pose!

Later in the day the real excitement began.  Our AC in the van wasn't keeping up and we figured it was just too hot out.  Part way through the Navajo Reservation we heard a "pop" pulled over and saw a tube hanging down under the van.  (yikes)  Other than the AC not working inside the van everything else seemed fine and since we were no where near any towns we just decided to keep going.  111 degrees and we have our windows wide open trying to keep somewhat cool.  We had some relief when we went up into the mountains around Flagstaff and the temps dropped into the 80's.  By the time we arrived in Phoenix though the temps were back up to the 110's and the girls were all pretty lethargic and red faced.  They were troopers though and never once complained.  Driving through Phoenix with our windows wide open I am sure people thought we were quite silly or maybe just dumb tourists from Iowa?  ha ha.  Oh well.  We arrived at our hotel and basked in the AC of our room... ahhh. 

Next up: the hotel, 4th of July, Graduation, and the quickest family picture taking session ever :)

Southwest Vacation - Road Trip Day 2

We left the KOA after a good night of sleep pretty early in the morning.  Set the GPS on Chad's phone for Mesa Verde National Park, and off we went.  The GPS was not liking the route we had chosen and for hours it kept telling us to turn around.  SO annoying, ha ha. We drove the southern part of the Rockies which was a beautiful drive!  GPS doesn't know what it is missing ;)

In the mid-afternoon we arrived at Mesa Verde.  The cliff dwelling ruins were awesome and the girls did great with hiking.  We witnessed a thunderstorm roll through and a lightening strike started a fire.  So we watched as helicopters and emergency crews responded to put it out.  Exciting!

PICS from day 2:

 

love this picture of her!

 

this is the ruin that we hiked down to



inside one of the circular rooms that is thought to be used for religious purposes



the thunderstorm coming through

the fire

 

Playing Go Fish at the hotel in Cortez, CO.  After eating at a awesome Denny's that looked like an airstream trailer :)

Southwest Road Trip - 2013

Okey dokey, here we go. 

This summer we went on a fantastic road trip to Phoenix, AZ to visit Chad's sister and family.  She graduated from med school and is officially a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine.  SO awesome!  So VERY proud of her.

We left at night again since that worked so fantastically last summer and also scheduled our first stop at a KOA with deluxe cabins.   Again I sing the praises of KOA's deluxe cabins.  We stayed in Pueblo South, Colorado.  We over anticipated possible stops and hiccups so we ended up near our destination by early morning already.  This led us to stop for breakfast at the Garden of the Gods (rather than a parking lot of a truck stop... WAY better choice!!!)  It was so peaceful and gorgeous there.  Lots of birds singing their praises for a new day.  We loved spending some time there exploring.

our eldest is taking notes?? or something. and dd #2 is into photo bombing these days.

After we got our fill we went to KOA and true to our experience with KOA's have fantastic customer service they let us in our cabin waaaayyy before check-in time.  We had the whole day for Chad to sleep (since he was the rock star driver and drove the entire night) and for the girls and I to enjoy the playground and pool.  We even tried a game of mini-golf.  God smiled down on us and made it start raining so what would have been the longest game known to man was cut short.  (side note: 3 and 5 year olds do not exactly possess mini-golfing skills.  They cheat.  A lot.)

  

the cheater putting the ball in the hole with her hands

mom showing how it's done ;)

A great start to our trip.  Stay tuned for Day 2 (and NO I promise I will not have a post for each and every day...)