Arizona Trip

Hey yal..for those of you who don't know, we went to Arizona for Erin's Spring Break. We left Saturday morning and headed to Joe and Brandi's in Fort Defiance. We stopped by Arches National Park on our way and spent a few hours there. We arrived at Joe and Brandi's around 630 pm. Grandpa and Dave hurried over to Joe's ward building to watch the Priesthood Session. We spent Sunday there too and hit the road on Monday morning after breakfast at Denny's with Joe, Brandi, James, and Matthew (don't tell Annie and Emmy).

We were then off to Joel and Rhonda's in Maricopa, Arizona. On our way, we drove thru Sedona, Arizona. We didn't stop, just drove thru Oak Creek Canyon and the pretty red rock of Sedona. We arrived at Joel and Rhonda's in the late afternoon. We were greeted by Rhonda, Gabe, and her daughter Riley. Everyone else was either still at work or school.

On Tuesday, Erin, Luke, and I went out for the day while Grandma and Grandpa stayed at the house to relax. We went to the Mesa Temple, fixed a nasty chip on the windshield, ate lunch at the Mesa In-n-Out, browsed the Fiesta Mall in Mesa. I actually bought a Dodgers T-shirt at the Mall because later that evening we went to the Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Los Angelos Dodgers game at Chase Field. Turns out there are tons of Dodger fans in Arizona. Which is a good thing, because we got slaughtered all three games. Grandpa, Joel, Ryan, Jon (Gabe's hubby), and I were all in attendance. Even though the Dodgers lost, I had a blast. I have not been to a Major League game since we lived in California, and it was awesome to be to a game. While we were at the game, Erin was hanging out with the girls in Phoenix for her birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

On Wednesday, we went to the Phoenix Zoo with Gabe, Riley, and Erin (Ashmore). Erin (Ashmore) took work off early to spend the day with us. It was a lot of fun. We took quite a few pics and had excellent weather.

On Thursday, we headed out. We again drove thru Sedona, but this time stopped to walk the shops. It's not summer yet, so it wasn't crazy busy like I remembered it. On our way out of town thru Oak Creek canyon, we found a Dairy Queen. Who would of thought? Anyway, we stopped and picked up a few refreshing treats for the road. We ended up later that afternoon in the Grand Canyon. Grandma and Grandpa had never been, so we planned to stop by to take in the sites. We stayed that night in Cliff Dwellers Lodge. A small lodge about 9 miles west of Lee's Ferry on Highway 89 Alt. It was nice enough. They had a room, their own little restaurant, which was enjoyable, and a little shop with mostly fishing gear and gas pumps. Apparently, Lee's Ferry is a big Anglers area and you can spend big money to launch at Lee's Ferry and fish with a guided tour.

On Friday, we went over to Lee's Ferry in the morning and took in the sites. We walked down to the boat launch area and skipped a few rocks off the dock. Well, I skipped rocks, and Luke threw/plopped rocks into the water. It was again beautiful weather. We arrived back home that evening. It was a really fun trip. We enjoyed it very much.

We need to spend more time with Joel and Rhonda's family. They really are an awesome bunch. We had a blast down there. It's too bad we weren't able to spend much time with them growing up, I already miss them and wish we could have stayed longer.