Arizona Fun

Last Wednesday I packed up my van and my girls and at 6:30 a.m. I followed my sister and her family and drove off in to the sunrise headed for Arizona. Well, technically we were not driving in to the sunrise so much as had it blaring on our left sides for a while...only to be followed shortly by blaring on our right sides, but I only know that because of the geographical knowledge bestowed upon me by my father. He’ll be so proud.

Surprisingly the 13 hour trip down went quite well (10 hours driving, 3 hours of LONG stops for little bladders). I had every toy, game, movie, treat and snack imaginable on hand, as I knew I was going to be in the car with them alone and wouldn't have a back up person to help entertain. I may have suffered a bit of mental trauma from the jam packed kid filled hours...but I will recover.

We were able to spend the rest of the week at my grandparent's house with my family for a much needed vacation and reunion. There was walking down memory lane - not an actual road - Jeeping, playing, destruction - tearing down a barn can be surprisingly entertaining - and more fun.

The 13 hours home on Sunday went almost as smoothly as on the way down. Although I think we (me and the kiddos) were not quite as naïve about how quickly it would pass and all participated in a bit more whining and complaining.

Now that I've given you the extremely Reader's Digested version I will do a bit of a photo montage for my dear husband who may (or may not) check the blog if I tell him there are pictures. If you choose to forgo browsing the rest of this post, please leave quietly as to not disturb the other readers.

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Halfway there at our lunch break...some passengers were worn out.

Others...not so much.

Blowing bubbles at the park

Such a messy face for such a fancy diva

Running through sprinklers at the Grandparents abode

Some random hitchhikers I decided to pick up...although maybe against better judgment

(My mom, Claire, Cousin Eliana, Brielle, Cousin Cadence)

Standing on a stump...just because I'm sure Marty will flip out when he sees this picture as Claire is "too crazy for her own good" or something like that.

Brielle's turn on said stump

Jeeping Girls...although not much Jeeping was happening here, they were sitting in the back of the Jeep that was hooked up to an old barn with a tow strap and was being used as the muscle behind pulling the barn over.

(Brielle, Cousin Cadence, Claire)Outside the entrance to Ghost Town...as you can clearly read. Too bad it was $5 to ENTER Ghost Town and we are far too cheap to blow the big bucks on things like that.

So there you have it...our trip in a nutshell. Looking at these pictures makes me realize that even though I may have been super stressed out (you try traveling alone with two kids) the girls had a GREAT time and will have the same great memories of Arizona that I do.

Will I do another big road trip with the kids alone? Probably...I'm just un-teachable I guess.