Part 3 – Will the vacation ever end?

Man, I am just DRAGING this out! On Thursday we went to "Out of Africa" Arizona's only wildlife theme park. It was a hot day but it was a neat place. We went on the Serengeti Safari first. We rode in a "safari vehicle" (really an old school bus with the windows removed) among giraffe, wildebeest, zebra and other animals of the African plains. Okay so I copied that from their web site and my words are in parenthesis. It was pretty neat; we were SO close to the animals. The driver gave everyone a couple of carrot sticks to feed to the giraffe. The giraffe would stick his head into the bus and use his tongue like a hand and wrap it around the carrot and pull it into his mouth. The kids thought it was awesome, I could not believe how close it was to us. Then we went on the Wildlife Preserve tour.(from the website) It was "an educational tram that takes you on an hour-long tour of the WILDLIFE PRESERVE. We saw lions, tigers, wolves, hyena, and other predators that roam in large, natural habitats. It's like seeing them in the wild."

It was quite hot and we stopped a lot. It was neat though. After that we drove to a semi run down Dairy Queen for lunch. Then we headed to Sedona. Just outside Sedona is a natural water slide, we drove up to the entrance but most of the kids were asleep and it was getting late so we just kept driving towards Flagstaff. We did stop at a scenic overlook just above Sedona. We took lots of pictures and I bought some pretty necklaces from the Navajo Indians selling their jewelry there. We got back to the condos and the kids swam in the hot tub. That night we played cards (Phase Ten) and worked on getting ready to come home. Friday morning we got up, ate breakfast, loaded everything up and headed home. It was a nice vacation, but it was good to come home.

This week we have been busy. Ray and I celebrated our 9th year wedding anniversary. Ray came home with flowers for me and we went to dinner. Later that night I was in the computer room with Trent and Ray was in the kitchen and he said "those sure are nice flowers that your boyfriend got you" and Trent started chuckling and said kind of whispering to me "they’re really from dad". I thought it was cute.

We also had a busy week working on the condo that we own in our investment group (with 6 other family member couples) Most of us have been helping with taking out the carpet, repainting (did this before Flagstaff) and cleaning . Hopefully we can sell it soon.

Saturday we had a very productive day. Ray worked on the sprinklers in the backyard and I weeded a little. Then we cleaned out the garage. It needed to be cleaned so bad. I also have been working on my "home office" it was a disaster and I took everything off the desk/hutch and either filed it, threw it away, or put it where it belonged. I also moved the new computer to a better area on the desk and moved the old one down stairs. They have been side by side since we got the new one (like almost 2 years – how sad ). I finally finished it Saturday night and it looks so much better. It is also a much better work station for the work I do from home. I should of taken before and after pictures of my desk and the garage. Oh, well.

Part 2 – The Grand Canyon Adventurers

Tuesday morning Ray, Ken, and Randy got up at 4:30 a.m. to head back up to the Grand Canyon. They got the last bus that goes strait to the hike around 6:00 a.m. They then hiked down to the river (on the Kaibab trail), a 6 mile journey that descended 4800 feet. There was very little shade and no water along the way. Ray said his knees have never hurt so bad. The elevation at the bottom is comparable to Phoenix AZ and the temperature was about 98 degrees (but it was 15 degrees cooler than usual per the park ranger at the bottom). They were down to the bottom by noon. The trail goes down the south rim, then they crossed a bridge to the north side where the campground was. Ray soaked himself in the river, drank lemonade and they just relaxed and set up their camp. There is a ranch down there called Phantom Ranch, that is where he got the lemonade. There was no water stops along the way, so they had to pack it all down. But there was clean water at the bottom so they could refill their bottles. The rangers put on a program for all the hikers that evening talking about how the Grand Canyon was formed. Ray said there was about 100 people down at the bottom. They took two Zatarans black beans and rice mixes and cooked them on Ray’s small camping stove for dinner.

Back at the condo we just hung out with the kids. They played outside most of the day. (No pictures Ray had the camera) but this one is from the other day – everyone with popcicles. We stayed at the Wyndom Vacation Resorts. Ken and Louise have a time-share and so every year we usually go somewhere for a week. It makes it so nice! The condos are nice and have everything that you could need for a week minus food. There is a kitchen in each unit so the "girls" each took a turn cooking a dinner and a breakfast. We had 2 condos that were right next to each other. Each had two bedrooms and a loft with 2 twin beds. Each unit also had a hot tub. We were right across from the Activities Center and we even had a little grassy park in the back yard. Two of the nights they put up a great big screen and showed kid movies. We could see it through our living room window. The kids had fun going to them. It was kind of like a drive in, minus the cars. They also served popcorn and drinks at the outdoor movies.

Back to the Grand Canyon Adventurers - Wednesday morning the boys got up bright and early, made oatmeal for breakfast and headed out on the Bright Angel Trail. The literature that they had said to plan on 7 to 12 hours to hike out. What ever goes down must come up. This trail did have a couple of shady water spots to stop at. Ray said the whole hike was the hardest hike he has ever done, yet they are smiling in all the pictures.
This is the photo when they got done. Then they had to drive back to Flagstaff. Ray’s legs were cramping up about the last mile so he just sat with them elevated all the way home. Ken’s legs started to cramp right as they got to Flagstaff so then Randy had to drive. They got home around 4 :30 p.m. We were all glad to have them back.

This concludes part 2

Flagstaff Part 1

I am finally posting! We have been gone forever it seems. We had a great week on vacation. We left Friday (8th) and drove to Flagstaff. It took us about 8 hours and we arrived around 10:30 p.m. (9:30 AZ time) Ken and Louise (Ray’s parents) were there along with Brad (Ray’s brother) and Jenny, David, Andrew, Ryan and Mykel (Ray’s sister). The kids were excited about their beds being up in the loft and we ended up going to bed quite late that night.
On Saturday we went to the Museum of Northern Arizona. There were exhibits about the geography and people of the Colorado Plateau. The kids liked the dinosaur bones , but started being really loud! So we didn’t spend to much time inside. There was a lookout point outside and you could see a trail at the bottom, so Ray took the boys on a hike and I stayed in the van and fed Kara. Then they called me from the bottom and wanted grandma to come take some pictures. I didn't get to take any because Ray had the camera with him.

Randy, Keri, Sydney and Jenna (Ray’s brother) arrived that afternoon and we drove out to Humphreys Peak, the tallest mountain in Arizona. We road the ski lift up to the top, the elevation was 12,643', except we were not quite at the top, We took this nice picture of all of us. It was a little windy, but nice and an awesome view.

On Sunday we just went to church and hung out at the condo. It was a nice and relaxing day.

Monday we got up early and drove to Williams AZ. We watched a "western shootout" show and then boarded the train. The train arrived 2 hours later at the Grand Canyon. We had a really good tour guide lady on the train and she told us all kind of interesting facts. We ate lunch on a little grassy area and then hiked along the rim. Kara fell asleep so we hiked back to the "village" and I sat with her while Ray and the boys went to the back country office to get info. on the hike to the river that Ray wanted to do on Tuesday. We were back on the train by 3 p.m. That night we went to dinner at Bucky’s Grill (steak house) It was quite lively. The waiters/waitress’ are NAU music students, so along with taking care of us and our food, they also sang and entertained us. It was a fun night.

Well that concludes part one of the vacation in Flagstaff. Stay tuned for part 2 and possibly part 3.