Sunday: left after church and headed to the Fillmore hot springs. The kids slept most of the way to Fillmore. The kids loved using googles to explore and find glow sticks. And Rachel loved to splash. We spent about 2 hours there. It was fun to get in the but oh so freezing and hard getting out. It was very windy, cold and overcast. Fun way to break up the drive though. Drove another 2 hours to get to my parents house in St. George. We got to see Heidi's family for about an hour and have dinner. Then we stayed up late talking with my parents and watching they're videos from Australia/New Zealand.
Monday:
Had German pancakes for breakfast at my parents. Then we packed up and headed out. It was a two hour drive to Red Rock Canyon.
We went to the visitors center first. We had two different people loudly proclaim how many kids we had and one worker yell at the kids twice. Like really rudely. It was really embarrassing. Then we did a short little hike with some zebra like red Rock. And then on a scenic drive we came across a woman who had flipped off her bike and was hurt. We tracked down the bikes that were with her but ahead of her waited with her until the ambulance came. Then we did a hike to Lost Creek which was a mile hike to a waterfall. It had a fun crawl through cave that the kids loved too. It was a fun hike! We saw a few unimpressive lookouts on the way out. Then we headed to our hotel (longhorn casino and hotel) which was 40 minutes away. The first room we were in was next to 100 degrees. No joke. We were all sweating and after having the AC on for over an hour with next to no difference we called down to get a different room and switched. We put the kids to bed and they went down really well. So grateful. We were craving a cold drink and Darrin sweetly made a 11pm slurpee run for us ❤️!!
Tuesday: we all slept through the night! Such a blessing. Had instant oatmeal for breakfast, got ready, packed up and headed to Hoover dam at about 9am. We stopped at the lake Mead visitors center which was fun. We watched a movie there and colored. Then we went to the Hoover dam which was SUPER crowded. We got lucky finding a parking spot. It was really neat though despite the crowds. We were going to do the tour but they were cancelled because the elevators were broken. Then we did a little hike to walk on top of the bridge which was really cool. After that we headed to a Lake Mead overlook and had a picnic there which was fun. We started the long 4 hour drive to Phoenix and stopped just over an hour in to feed Rachel and go potty. The boys got to climb a tree and jump off some big rocks before we headed back out. Went to Coffinger park in Wickenburg which was a great time. Then had dinner at screamer drive in which was good. We drove to our hotel-Travelodge Phoenix North. Not the greatest hotel. Pretty dirty, ghetto, broken faucet, not enough towels and small.
Wednesday- woke up, got ready and headed to breakfast with a breakfast Nazi monitoring your every move. They had bead, two kinds of cereal, and mini muffins which were hidden in the back room and rationed out one per person. We then headed to Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale. Very pricey but was really cool. They had a cool 3-D 15 minute movie about monarch butterfly's migration to Texas every year. Then they had a hatchery where we saw a butterfly emerging from it's cacoon. Then we got to go to the conservatory where there were thousands of butterfly's and they land on you! So many different kinds-so fun! After that we went to a mountain view park for our picnic lunch. Mccormick Stillman railroad was up next. They had a couple really cool playgrounds, a really cool museum with tons of train towns where you could start the trains yourself. The kids really liked it. They also had train rides and a carosel ride but we didn't have time. We picked up Carl's Jr for dinner and headed to the Mesa Peagant to save seats. We got there 2 hours early but had fun waiting and chatting with Brent and Kat's family. The Peagant was incredible-SO well done! Live animals, a huge cast, really powerful. Loved it! Then we headed back to a hotel where they hadn't cleaned the room, or replaced dirty towels or shampoo/conditioner. We complained but the lady was really rude and not apologetic. So we'll be switching hotels for the next two nights rather than stay here.
Thursday: Kat was so sweet and made us breakfast so we wouldn't have to eat breakfast at our ghetto hotel again. Then we headed to wildlife world zoo with Brent and his girls. Highlights included feeding the parrots apples twice, petting the stingrays, seeing some animals we've never seen such as the Mexican walking fish, snake neck turtles, a huge lobster, etc, seeing 22 day old BABY mountain lions, and getting to be so up close and personal with kangaroos and Joey's in their pouches that kept peeking out!!!!! She even let Melissa and I pet a kangaroo!! After the zoo we had bean burritos at Brent and Kat's, then headed to our new days inn hotel which is 100 times better than the last. Nice and big room. Then swimming in the pool which was pretty cold but Darrin made lots of progress with Parker on teaching him freestyle. Then bed.
Friday:
Had breakfast one adult at a time since they only gave us two vouchers per day. Then picked up Papa Murphy's for lunch and headed to Brent and Kat's for swimming. We spent all day out at the pool. The adults took breaks or would swim for a short time but the kids were in swim heaven! Almost 7 hours straight swimming with only a quick lunch break! Such a blast. Then Brent and Kat made us a delicious BBQ chicken dinner.
Saturday:
woke up at 6:45 to get ready and pack up to make it to an Easter egg hunt on time. It's Spencer's birthday today so just he and I went to breakfast together which was fun. We packed up and headed out to Cottonwood City which is where the Easter egg hunt was. It was an hour and 45 minute drive to get there. We got there just in time and they had the egg hunts broken down into age groups starting with Rachel 😁. They each we're in their own age groups. We encouraged them to get eggs which hear either coupons or numbers inside to claim for prizes. Spencer won a full on Easter basket and Parker won a few DVDs. Not to mention they got loads of candy! They also got to meet the Easter Bunny and get pictures. Fun time! Then we met Brady and Melissa at the Montezuma Castle national Park. It was really neat to see this Castle that was built over 700 years ago high up on the cliff. There were two cliff dwellings here and then we went onto Montezuma Well where there were more along with a natural huge well that came from underground and continuously flows. We then drove to our hotel in Flagstaff-super 8 on lucky Lane. It's a really nice room. Dinner at village inn was good. We also stopped by Walmart to get some groceries for tomorrow.
Sunday:
Breakfast. Watched some Mormon. Org Easter videos, and listened to conference on our way to Lava River cave. The cave was INCREDIBLE! Almost a mile long of walking through the deep dark cave made from a lava River. We had bought headlamps yesterday for it. It was about 35 degrees. We turned off all the light a few times to take in the darkness. Brady even brought a blacklight which was neat. At the end of the hike there was actually a lot of good in the dark graffiti we were able to see with the blacklight. The kids all did so great! Thea really wasn't loving it so Melissa turned around early with her. But all the rest of the kids did so great and loved every minute of it. It was in the deep green forest which is where we had a picnic lunch afterwards. After lunch we headed to sunset crater. We did a few short hikes with lava rock all around of all sizes. It was neat! Then we went to
Monday:
Woke up early to drive an hour and a half to the Grand canyon. It was breathtaking. Just incredible. We loved all the viewpoints and the desert view watchtower was awesome! Such a great day! Then we had to make a decision about Where to stay the night and what to do. We put home in the GPS and headed that direction while searching for a hotel. I don't hours looking up hotels and calling. Everywhere was booked except a few really expensive options. So we're finally decided to stay in St. George at my parents. If we didn't we wouldn't have gotten home until after 2am. On the way I noticed the stars were amazing so Darrin pulled over on the side of the road and we just have at the stars, saw the big Dipper, the milky way and several shooting stars. It was pure wonderful. Such peace-I love the stars! We got to my parents at about 11:15pm.
Tuesday: went to Tanaquin park for a couple hours which was a blast! The boys even did the waterfalls which were freezing cold. After that we grabbed Little Cesar's and ate it at a park while we finished listening to our audio book, A Wrinkle in Time. Next stop was the Washington community center. The pool wasn't open yet so we played basketball until it was. We went swimming for a couple hours. It's a fantastic pool with a really cool lazy River and waterslide. Then we played a bit more basketball and headed to the movie theater to meet my parents to watch the movie A Wrinkle in Time. I actually really liked it. We went to black bear diner for dinner and had awful terrible service. Didn't get our dinner for an hour and it was cold. Not even apologetic. But it was a great day!
Wednesday:
Got an easy start to the day and took our time packing up. Stopped in Beaver at McDonald's for lunch and the playplace. Watched jumanji after the kids were in bed and loved it.
Thursday: went on a family bike ride on the parkway and to Arctic Circle. We had a great time. Then we came home only to find out we were locked out. We planned on going to classic skating but after being locked out for 2.5 hours and finally having to call a locksmith there was no time. We went to dinner at Oh Mai with Brady and Melissa and then hung out here after.
Friday: went to Trafalga, Cafe Rio for dinner, and then went to Brady and Melissa's house and the adults watched Justice League while the kids watched pj masks
Saturday: Home Depot workshop to make birdhouses.
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