Thursday afternoon: Departure. Head on down to Page, AZ for night #1. Just before we got into Page, we stopped off to have a look at the Glen Canyon Dam. Here begins the weekend of staring down massive drop-offs that seem to go down and down for miles. There really is some beautiful landscape, but with two itty bitty girls, Jacob and I found ourselves holding on tight. Really really tight. Can't blame us, check out these two little cuties!
Of course, even though there is a large man-made marvel to gaze at, the fountain in front of the information center is much more appealing when you're 4 and 2.
That night we got a pizza to take to a park that the girls loved. Go figure- the highlight of driving 2.5 hours is playing at the park. I suppose that's just how a vacation with preschoolers goes! After that we found the local bowling alley to end our evening with. Yep, it was your basic small town bowling alley full of questionable characters and plenty of booz. Jacob and I had a bit of hesitation, but we threw caution to the wind and decided to add a little "culture" to our trip. Of course my camera was in the hotel, but the girls loved it. I told them to come up with a silly name to enter in for their bowling names. Kenna was "Asker" and Allie was "Yidda One" (interpretation: 'little one'). Whatever, girls! Thanks to the scoring screen for having some major technical difficulties in our favor, so the girls got a pretty good score.Day 2: We finished up seeing sights around Page. First was a stop to get another view of the dam. But really, there's cool rocks to play on. Forget the dam, mom and dad.
Interject here with our first car issue: low tire. So we fill 'er up. To make a long story short, we bought a tire gauge that was worthless. Definitely didn't register the correct tire pressure. But, we find this out later. Stay tuned for car issues to come.
Next stop before we head out of Page is to look out at Horseshoe Bend which is another scenic look at the Colorado River. To get to the look out, you have to do a little bit of a hike. No big deal. Probably 1/2 mile roundtrip. Piece of cake. So we get started up the first little hill. I'm not halfway up when I seriously am feeling like a 400 pound woman who is absolutely huffing and puffing like I haven't walked more than 30 yards in ten years. What the heck!? Ridiculous! This pregnancy is giving me a run for my money! It doesn't help that Jacob is getting a heck of a good laugh out of me. I have to admit, I was laughing too- in between the huffs and puffs. He was even kind enough to let me know I was waddling. Ah, thank you dear husband. So then begins the lecture I give him about all the extra weight I'm carrying beside the baby itself. Extra blood volume, placenta, amniotic fluid, all that good stuff. Okay, actually I was trying to do everything to make me feel better about waddling and gasping for air, but it worked. Momentarily.
Finally we make it to the end of the hike where the scenic view is. Or rather, the sudden massive drop straight off the edge of the cliff leading down to certain death on the sharp rocks and the river which is down in the depths of Hades below. I was not expecting that! Let me give a bit of a background. At the first stop to see the outlook of the dam, there were fences and signs that warned you of sudden drop-offs and to use caution. So when we started toward this here Horseshoe Bend, I didn't see any of these signs, so I figured it would be a lookout from somewhat far-away. Uh, no. This is take-one-more-step-and-you-free-fall-for-9-miles-to-your-death. I was going to throw up. Thankfully Kenna was terrified and didn't want to get too close. Needless to say, we didn't stay long. I seriously couldn't look at the people who were out on the ledges, I had to turn around. Yes, beautiful scenery but major fear of heights came kicking in here. So after 5 minutes of mom's terror, we headed back to the car. At this point, the girls decided they needed a ride on mom and dad. Ha, mom can hardly carry herself! So by the end, Jacob was trucking up the hill with one girl on his shoulders and the other in his arms. As I chugged behind him, I gave him a reminder that I didn't want to hear a single word about him hiking uphill with an extra 60 pounds without breaking a sweat. At least he wasn't pregnant! That gem husband of mine stopped, turned around to look at me with a sweet smile, and so kindly said, "just remember, you've got that amniotic fluid." I admit, I had to laugh. Yes I do have extra amniotic fluid. At LEAST 60 pounds of it.
And here is Horseshoe Bend. Or rather the best picture I could get of it. The river comes up and around to make a horseshoe shape around the giant rock structure that is on the right side of the river.
Trying to get memories in. Do I look concerned? Na. Forget the edge of the cliff, it's just the sun in my eyes.
Okay, next we head down toward the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The first stop is a little area called Desert View with a watchtower lookout spot and a few little shops. It was really beautiful, and thankfully despite the major drop-offs of this natural wonder, there were fences in appropriate places! Perhaps one of the perks for getting a big belly is having a little perch for your 2 year old.
Shortly after this we hop back into the car to drive just a bit further to make it to the actual Visitor's Center of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. As we start to head out of the parking lot, the car makes a horrible whining sound whenever we turn the wheels. Nice. We're out of power steering fluid. Just got that fixed a few weeks ago, by the way, and when we had the oil changed just before we left out of town the shop was supposed to have done a double check at that. Lo and behold, they obviously didn't. Problem A: we have a power steering fluid leak and it is pretty much empty. Problem B: we don't have any extra power steering fluid. Well, we searched around this little area and discovered they did indeed have a bottle of the stuff we needed in the little locked Chevron store just yards away, but no one was willing to go in the store and open it for us because you see, it doesn't officially open until April 1st. Even though they had the key, and we had a bit of an emergency, and we were only 5 days away from the 1st of April. They told us we'd just have to drive 30 miles in the winding canyon with no power steering fluid until we got to the Visitor's Center. Slightly disgusted. BUT, we won't let this ruin our vacation! NO! So, we finally discover the next best thing is automatic transmission fluid (which they did have in the unlocked store) and then are able to work our way to the Visitor's Center. Note to self: when my children are unable to obtain their GED and are looking for employment with few credentials, I will refer them to being a Park Ranger.Fortunately, the alternate fluid worked and we were on our way to the Visitor's Center. This was a fun area with some shops and different information booths. After walking around a bit we decided to take one of their little bus tours of the area. It was a hit with the girls- they thought the bus ride was pretty darn cool. We even got in a good verse or two of "The Wheels on the Bus." Once again, forget the scenery and one of the finest natural wonders of the world, the bus ride is better! We didn't venture out too long from the bus ride. The wind and cold got the best of us, but it was still a fun way to spend our final half hour at the Grand Canyon.
Behold, Le Bus.
Okay, moving on. After the canyon, we work our way down to Prescott Valley, AZ where we stayed the second night. Before getting a start on the vacation agenda the next morning, we first had to address the tire issue. Again. It was low. Again. Thanks to nice fellas at Discount Tire in Prescott, Arizona, we got our tire repaired and the little teeny nail was removed. Remember the tire gauge issue? Ya, we had a bit too much air in the tires. We practically floated in to Prescott. But thankfully we didn't blow ourselves up. And, thanks to killing time while waiting for our turn at the tire shop, we got to take a little tour of the area. It was actually a really pretty area which has 4 seasons similar to ours. It was fun to get a look at it for a while. Maybe someday we can make it back there, we really liked it.
Well, with the tire fixed, we are off to our next destination: Jerome, Arizona. This town was once a big mining town. As we drove up and then down through an incredibly crazy winding canyon, we all of the sudden ran into this crazy little town that is literally set along the side of the mountain. It was the weirdest thing, and I just sat gawking at the little streets where people actually live and have houses with backyards that slide down the hill. Hmm. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. This picture doesn't even near do it justice, and doesn't even take in the main part of the city. But, hey, at least I got a photo.
After the brief jaunt through Jerome, we worked our way over to Sedona. Sedona is a beautiful city. Tourist haven, yes, but still a fun little area. One of the major tourist attractions there are the jeep tours they offer of the area. The girls would have loved it, I'm sure, but the price was less than loveable. They have some Native American artifact sites and cliff-dwellings in the area that we really wanted to get too, but we only had a hour or two left in the afternoon, so we got off the beaten path a bit and settled for a little hike. It was fun to enjoy the blue sky and red sand and do a little hiking for a bit. Someday I would love to go back and spend a day or two in Sedona. Another great little Arizona town.
Well, we made our way out of Sedona and headed on down to our final destination of Mesa. The ride wasn't too bad down, and before we knew it we had made it to my cousin's house. I finally got to see her cute little baby boy and give him some snuggles. The girls loved having a little baby to hold as well. We sent the dads off to get some hamburgers, and were just enjoying our visit catching up on all the cousin happenings. After a bit, Allie started to complain of a tummy ache, which she usually does when she's hungry, so I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary. She was especially upset about it though, and as soon as she took one look at the hamburger as we were about to sit down and eat, she threw up. All over me. She buried her head into my shoulder and let loose. Here is a look into my thoughts at the moment. "Are you kidding me? NO! We just got here an hour ago! This is NOT what I need right now! Do I have throw up in my hair? Yes. Yes I do have throw up in my hair."
Needless to say, we had a major shift in plans for the evening. I ended up showering much sooner than anticipated. Their tub was out of commission, so we cut our time short at my cousins house and made a hasty drive over to my Aunt and Uncles where we were going to sleep. Of course on the 2-minute drive over she wretched again. Of course the majority of it did not make it in the bowl she had in her lap. Of course the dome light in my car is out so I couldn't even make an assessment as to what was covered in vomit. It was definitely not the entrance I had planned. Instead it was, "Oh hello everyone it's so good to see you! Can I please use your washing machine? And a bathtub ASAP?" What do you do? Really? Roll with the punches, I guess. Sigh. Oh, did I mention that by now I was starting to get the yuckies in my stomach? We didn't have any other symptoms like a fever or any issues at the back end (if you know what I mean). All I could figure was somehow Allie I and got some form of food poisoning or something.
This is getting really long.
SO. We finally got cleaned up and by this time it's late so we just go to bed. We fortunately only had one more "incident" during the night, and got a fairly decent sleep. The next morning Allie seemed to be on the mend. I could tell her tummy was bugging her when she ate, but fortunately she kept everything down and was playing. We made it to Sacrament meeting and enjoyed watching the new little baby get blessed. They had a little brunch after, so we went back over to my cousins house for a bit to eat. Allie started to get a little upset after the food set in for a bit, so we ended up leaving after a bit to go back to my Aunt and Uncles. At least she kept it in and it didn't set her back for too long. We just relaxed the rest of the day and enjoyed the beautiful Mesa weather. Ooohhhh, it was so nice. The oranges were in blossom and it smelled heavenly! My Aunt and Uncle have a great back porch with some fun little scooter things the girls spent all day playing on. (I managed to get video of this but no still pics). Later that night some more of my cousins came over and we were finally able to sit and visit and enjoy each other without the interruptions of spontaneous explosions.
We spent our last night of our trip in Mesa again, and got up and headed for home. We didn't have any definite plans, just decided to take the day as it came. As we made our way back up the state, we decided to take a different loop and stop in at Lee's Ferry. This ended up being the perfect way to end the trip. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we found a great little beach-like area at the side of the Colorado River and just let the girls play their little hearts out in the sand and water. They were having so much fun and it was so nice to sit and watch them loving every minute of their time there. I was so comfortable just relaxing in the sand and sun with the 3 (and a half) people who mean the absolute most to me and not caring about time or anything else for just that brief afternoon. It was one of those absolute perfect moments where I wanted to take a snapshot of life to keep forever in my memory. Even if we're redneck parents who by the end of the water fun let their little girls run around in their t-shirts and underwear. Give us some credit, at least no one else was there.
We planned to maybe stay somewhere one more night and finish up our vacation Tuesday, but decided we were so close to home we might as well just go all the way. All in all, we had a wonderful trip. The girls traveled really well, and we had so much fun being with each other and just taking each day as it came doing whatever we wanted. I admit it's nice to be back in your own bed, but we came home with a new set of memories to love. Throw up and all.
To make a quick conclusion, my stomach was yucky for a few days but fortunately I never did throw up. The following Thursday, Kenna got hit with the 12 hour throw-up ordeal. The next day she was just fine though, thank goodness. Jacob wasn't able to escape it either, and ended up with his own little ordeal Sunday night into Monday. I guess it ended up being some random fluky virus after all. At least it was quick and we're done with it.
Well, there's our vacation. In a nutshell. Thanks Jacob and girls for an awesome official first family vacation. I'm looking forward to our next! With three car seats. Whoa.
