Into the sun we go...

Just before school started, my sister Emily and I and our 6 kids drove, yes I said drove, to Arizona. My sister Natalie lives there with her husband Ryan who is going to school to be a Podiatrist. We had originally intended this trip to be a surprise for her (ryan knew). But as the summer progressed, and thru a few series of events, she found out. Nevertheless, she was happy to have us come down. So, we headed out for the 15 hour trip down.

Here is everyone packed in the car - we surprisingly all fit! We stopped in Draper and ate lunch at the park with Dad and Lorna. The kids had fun climbing the huge tree and playing in the stream. Then onto St. George. We stayed in a hotel there for the night.

The next morning we left to head thru Vegas. As we started to cross the border, by the Hoover Dam, we got stopped by security (because we had a car topper). Since 9/11 they have to be very careful about who goes over the Dam. Once they realized we were 2 moms with 6 kids, they let us pass. I guess we weren't considered terrorists...

We stopped in Vegas to have lunch with Grandpa John. John is my step-grandfather - he married my grandma Jan(dad's mom) when I was young. He has always remembered ALL of our birthdays and our kids birthdays - he is absolutely wonderful like that. We really consider him our real grandpa - afterall, he is the only grandpa we have left living.

We got to Phoenix around dinner time and checked into to our resort. We watched Nat and Ryan's kids that night so they could have some alone time for their 6th anniversary.

We swam a lot, but only before noon, or after 8pm. No sunburns either!

There was this lifesize chess game that Parker and Kelton and Andrew played.

We went to church on sunday and spent the day with Ryan and natalie at their house. Ryan practiced for his "foot" test on Emily - and then made dinner for us - good thing you washed your hands Ryan!!! :-)

We had to wait and play at the park after it got dark because it was so hot during the day.

We went to this very cool indoor jungle gym for kids, and the kids at heart. It was called Makutu's Island. There were slides and nets, and fish and all sorts of climbing and tumbling things to play on.

Too bad the kids couldn't stay "caged" up longer....:-)

We visited the Mesa Arizona temple...

We "adults" went out to dinner and to the mall...

We visited the Phoenix zoo and water park...

We ate at the Rainforest Cafe...

We had so much fun, that we pretty much wore everyone out...

The only bummer was that we had to leave and that we had to drive 15 hours again to get home.

Good thing our shopping trip didn't overload us, but Emily still had to get on top of the car to smash it all in!