This year for our annual fall family vacation we decided to do a large loop down through Arizona to visit my parents on their mission then across to St. George, and back home.
Day 1- We left Tuesday morning and drove down to Blanding. That evening, I finally got a chance to catch up with my good buddy Arin.
Day 2- We drove about 2 hours south and met my parents in Chinle, AZ. We had lunch at a little pizza joint where missionaries get to eat free. After we had our fill, we took some scraps out on a plate to give to Leah who was in the van. We let her out, she sniffed at them and decided she wasn't hungry. As Theron was picking up the plate and heading to the trash a drunk who had obviously been watching what was happening, rushed over and swiped it from his hand and told him that he would take care of that.
We then went on to Canyon De Chelly to hike down to the White House Ruins. Although the trail was posted with signs prohibiting animals we ignorned these and brought Leah anyway. Which later turned out to be a benefit. The trail itself is only about 3 mile round trip, but it was extremely steep.
The kids did pretty good on the way down, but pretty much had to be carried the entire way out. This was also pretty much true to grandma as well. We just used out trusty 'ol sled dog and let Leah pull grandma all the way out of the canyon.
After our hike we drove another 30 miles on to Ganado, where my parents trailer is. While we were getting dinner ready we had lots of visitors. The Navajo people were very friendly, and they all seemed to really love my parents.
Day 3- After breakfast my parents, the kids, and I all walked down to take a tour of the Hubble Trading Post. The guide was for the tour was very informative, and the post was very interesting although after about 15 min the kids had enough, so grandpa took them on his own tour of all the animals on site.
Later we drove down to Window Rock and went to the flea market. I picked out a couple of beautiful Indian earrings. Afterwards we went to lunch as Theron put it, the very first Chinese Buffet place that actually didn't having any Chinese people working there. It was good, but no missionary discount here.
Following lunch we went to the Window Rock Zoo. All the animals are indigenous to the Navajo Reservation area. The favorite animal was the elk. Theron got a little to close to the female, so the male came up to him and started hissing at him and rubbing his horns along the fence at him. It's a good thing he had the chain link in between him and his woman or else Theron would have been in for it. The owl was pretty cool as well. You can see in the pictures the owl looking up at the kids.
After all that excitement we rushed back to Ganado to get things ready for the cookout we were having later that evening. My parents invited Corey a convert to the church, his mother, grandmother, and his aunt. We had grilled chicken salads and Ba Bread. They are sweet family and we had great time visiting.
Day 4- Theron and I woke up and went running along the wash. I took Jimmy, my parent's rez dog with me. He did pretty good for a couple of miles until he remembered a short cut home. We packed up our van took a few more pictures then headed out on the long, long ride to St. George.
We made a quick pit stop in Page, and had lunch at the Glen Ganyon Dam visitor Center. Then were on our way again. It took about six hours before we made it to St. George. We first stopped for dinner at Anthony's house. The kids were really happy to be out of the van. It was fun to see Sam and Logan again. They're getting so big.
Our last leg of the day ended at David and Sam's house (Theron's bro. & his wife). We ended staying there two nights. Hunter had so much fun playing with Stetson and Sterling, and even sparky (his lizard). Stets was such a great sitter.
Day 5- Rain, rain, and even more rain. We have had such great weather the entire trip, we only assumed it would be just as nice in St. George, but sadly no. Fortunately we weren't the ones participating in the marathon, but unfortunately I was the one of the many who did get a down pour on at the Tuacon production of Le Miserables. Grandma J., Rachel, Amy, Sam, Aspen, and myself had a ladies night out left our kids and our husbands and went to be cultured. It sprinkled off and on up and till the last 20 min, which then turned into a complete down pour. Rachel just said it made it more fitting for the play. It was a lot of fun, regardless of how wet we got.
Day 6- The sun will come out, and that's just what it did. We chased kids around and tried to catch a bit of conference. Had lunch with the Jeppson's, and took off for our last leg of the journey. Fortunately we had played so much the whole last week that the kids slept the entire way home, and we didn't even have to stop once! It all turned out to be a great family vacation, but boy was I tired when we got home. It's a good thing we don't take these longer trips but once a year.
