Mesa, Arizona

We spent three days in Mesa with Robert's brother, Mike and his family--wife Jamie and daughters Kieralyn, Hadley and Ryah.  It was really nice to spend time with them.  Robert's folks were also there so we had a good time all together.  We have three boys and they have three girls, with only Hadley and Gavin being the same age.  We wondered how and if they would play together.  But, they got along great and had fun playing.  One evening all the kids, minus baby Ryah, were jumping on and sliding down the air mattresses.  We brought our rowdiness with us but the girls seemed to like it. 

While in Mesa, we played at the park, visited an orange orchard (the citrus is in season--we brought oranges and grapefruits home), saw the Mesa Temple christmas lights, and had a birthday celebration for me. 

 Five of the cousins together--Matthew, Gavin, Hadley, Kieralyn and Adam.  Ryah was already in bed.

 

 Celebrating my 40th birthday. 

We went out to dinner with Robert's folks, Mike & Jamie, my folks and my best college roommate, Angela Lunt.  We ate yummy mexican food at Matta's.  It was fun that we were all in Phoenix at the same time.  I always make it a point to see Angela when I'm in Phoenix.  We've been friends for over 20 years.  I just wish I would have taken some pictures at our dinner.

 We also went to Papago Park in Tempe.  I used to ride my bike up here at least once a week when I was at ASU.  It is a natural park with giant rocks to climb up on.  I knew the boys would like this.  We climbed up to the 'Hole-in-the-Rock'.  From the lookout there is a nice view of downtown Phoenix. 

 Adam, Gavin and Matt hiking up the trail.

 

 Exploring the rocks--Robert, Gavin and Adam

 

 We made it to the top.  There is a bit of a cave so the boys climbed up into it.

 

Here's the view from the top.  In the distance you can see the buildings of downtown. 



Flagstaff, Arizona

After spending time in Mesa, we headed up to northern Arizona--Flagstaff.  We met Oma and Opa Leonard there as well as our Sorenson cousins.  The photo above is of the San Francisco Mountains, surrounding Flagstaff.  We spent 3days/3nights there.  We had 4 hotel rooms for 16 people.  We ate meals and played games in the hotel lobby, explored a volcano crater, visited the Grand Canyon, celebrated New Year's Eve at Black Barts, swam, and shopped a bit. 

Sunset Crater

On our first full day in Flagstaff, we went to Sunset Crater.  It is a volcano 15 miles northeast of Flagstaff.  It erupted over 900 years ago.  It's really neat because we saw and walked through the lava flow.  You can see lava rock everywhere.  On top of the crater the rock has broken down into small pebbles.  Through out the flow beds, the rock is much larger.  The kids really enjoyed this and had fun hiking around.  There is a 1 mile loop trail that we walked.  I think this was the kids favorite activity while in Flagstaff. 

 The top of Sunset Crater

 

 

A look-out of the lava flow beds.

 

 Adam really enjoyed taking pictures here.  He and I were at the end of the pack because he kept finding neat these to take photos of.

 

 Our happy Gavin standing in front of some lava rock.

 

 Matt and cousin, Noah Sorenson, found a hill to climb up.

 

 Walking through the lava flow beds--(l-r) Gavin, Opa, cousin Lily with cousin Madeline, friend Celeste, cousin Noah, Robert, Adam and Matthew

There were a lot of gnarled trees.  We learned that the ponderosa wood naturally twists and spirals to strengthen from the wind and moisture.

The GRAND Canyon

We went to the Grand Canyon on New Year's Day.  It was a very beautiful day--great weather, no clouds, just a bit cool.  The view was wide-open.  I've been there at least five times (I can remember five times) and it is always impressive.  It is just so GRAND. 

 

 Our family picture with Oma & Opa Leonard

 Matthew with his cousin, Noah Sorenson.  They are both 8 years old and got along really well.

 

 

 Our family picture:  Gavin is upset so he won't face the camera; Adam and Matt are tired of carrying their binoculars--so we caught the moment; it just wasn't a happy one. 

 

 

 

The Grand Canyon is about 80 miles northwest of Flagstaff.  We drove there heading west on I-40 to Williams and then north to the national park.  On the way back to Flagstaff, we decided to take a different route.  We drove the Desert View Road east and then headed south on Highway 89 to Flagstaff.  This was a beautiful drive.  We got to see lots more of the Grand Canyon and small 'tributaries' of it--smaller versions of the canyon.  I would recommend going this way instead of through Williams.  It really was stunning. 

 

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

 

We left Flagstaff the next day and went back to Phoenix.  In the afternoon we took the boys to a trampoline park, where they jumped and played around for a couple of hours.  That evening, Robert, Adam and Matt went to a Phoenix Suns basketball game.  It was the boys' first NBA game.  Gavin and I went to the movies with Oma and Opa.  The next day, Friday, we had played on leaving early to make the long drive back to Garden City, but the boys were way too tired.  I couldn't get them up 'til 8:30.  We left Phoenix before 10am but decided to stay the night in Albuquerque.  It was nice not to have such a long drive.  We got up the next day and drove home.  The last 30 minutes was in a blizzard but we made it safe.  The boys are quite good travelers.  It's so nice to be out of the baby phase.  It makes traveling so much easier, and we feel like we can visit more places.  



Over the Hill...

Today I am officially "over the hill". 

Happy 40th Birthday to me!

(Man, that feels old.)

Christmas Morning

We had a fun christmas day.  Matt woke up first at 6:20.  He tried to wake Gavin up but he wasn't interested.  Matt then told him, "lets go look at the presents".  Gavin shot out of bed and ran to the living room.  They got into their stockings.  Their noise woke Adam up.  So, we all got up and started opening presents around 6:30.  After opening their gifts, the boys were so interested in playing with them, they didn't want to stop to eat.  Eventually I made some muffins, put them on the table, and told the boys they could get one when they felt like eating.  They may have eaten one muffin each but nothing else 'til dinner, when we made them stop playing. 

 This is the living room before the chaos began. 

 

 



 Gavin received Toby, a Thomas train from his grandparents. 

 

 

 This was the big present from Santa.  Look at all their faces.  It was an xbox 360 with kinect sensor and games.

 

 Adam's face says it all.  He is in love.  He has been wanting an xbox for years.  He also received the minecraft xbox game.

 

 Gavin was excited to get his very own marshmellow gun.  He always uses Matt's.

 

 Santa brought a new bike to Matt.

 

 Gavin got a couple of new train sets.  In Gavin's heaven there will be trains and train sets.   

 

We got each of the boys a Kindle Fire.  They were all excited.  Here they are checking them out.  Amazon has a neat service that only costs a few dollars a month.  It allows the available content--books, apps, games, videos to be based on their age range.  With that minimal fee, they get hundreds of books, apps, videos, etc.  Without this service I could easily pay that same amount for one game or one book.  An extra bonus is that now Robert and I can have our tablets back. 



Gingerbread Men

 This christmas we decided to decorate gingerbread men instead of a house.  I found a kit with three big gingerbread cookies and thought the boys would enjoy each decorating their own.  We did this Sunday afternoon.   They had fun.  Afterwards they nibbled on the cookies but said they weren't that tasty.  So, they ended up mainly picking off the candy and sprinkles.