London Bridge is falling down

Did you know that the London Bridge is in Lake Havasu, Arizona?  It just so happens that we were passing through Lake Havasu on our way to the Grand Canyon so we had to stop and check it out!

Here's what google says about the London Bridge: London Bridge is a bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, United States, that is the relocated 1831 London Bridge that spanned the River Thames in London, England until it was dismantled in 1967.

Cool! There are fun little shops and 'british' things to set the scene, AND the best shaved ice you've ever had.

Hooray for tourist traps!  :)

Camping!

We finally had our first family camping trip! I would say it was a total success. The only thing we were really missing was a broom, and maybe a table cloth. The table was fairly wet in the mornings so it we sat on towels.

For those looking to camp near the Grand Canyon, we stayed at Ten X campground and it was only $10 a night. The bathrooms were close, there were nature trails on site and the grounds were clean and spread out so you're not very close to your neighbor. There weren't showers, but apparently that's pretty common in the area. There are two campgrounds on the national park grounds, but they fill up fast. Ten X was only about 2-3 miles from the national park entrance.

So here's the campsite:

Here's our awesome new tent. It's the coleman instant tent and truly goes up quickly. We love it!

This is a video of how it goes up and down quickly!

Time to make a fire!

It's not camping without s'mores!

Here are a few shots of the boys and I doing a nature trail.

Once it got dark we told stories and played some card games. The boys went to bed easily and hubby and I had a few quiet minutes with beautiful stars and the dying fire. We stayed there two nights and intended to camp in Durango, CO on our way back to home, but there was a huge downpour and thunderstorm as we drove in to Durango. The campsite owners let us stay in one of their larger rooms with like 8 cots in it.

I think it's safe to say we enjoyed camping, and the boys have already gone again with the Father/Son campout at our church. Can't wait to go camping next summer in the mountains!!

BTW: we cooked hot dogs for the boys, but made awesome foil dinners for us. We bought some ground beef, potatoes, onions, and carrots. Slice it all up, make a patty out of the 1/4 lb of the beef and cook over some coals. Add some salt and pepper and enjoy!

Grand Canyon

Per the request of my dear niece Natasha, I am blogging about the Grand Canyon sooner rather than later. :)  Since Natasha has similar aged kids I would offer this advice: don't get your hopes up too high of your kids recognizing the grandeur before their eyes, and to eat at 'We Cook Pizza and Pasta' since it's the best pizza we've had since Craigos in Rexburg.

So while we were road tripping, we did something sort of crazy. We decided that we wanted to not only stop at the Grand Canyon on our way back to Colorado, but camp there too! We had never camped as a family, but always wanted to. So who better to help us than Amazon.com? We got all the gear we needed and got ready to camp!

Considering that we were camping near the Grand Canyon and visiting it, you would think it would all be one blog post, but they were truly separate events with how the kids acted. Camping? loved it. Hiking at the grand canyon? Hated it. So the camping post will be next :)

I'm not sure what it was, but the kiddos, and therefore the parents, did not have a good day at the Grand Canyon. One element was that Cade had decided in his mind that we were going to hike down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and camp down there. Never did we say such a thing, but if you know Cade, when things don't go as he has planned you're in for a rocky day. So we get there and see this A.MAZ.ING view and he is throwing a fit.

Alex is our homebody. He didn't want to walk. He didn't want to look at the views. He asked for food every 5 minutes and a drink every 2. He was just being super stubborn and difficult to work with. So Cade's unmet expectations plus Alex's stubborn homebodiness = frustrated parents desperately trying to get their kids to appreciate what was before them.

I know we haven't done a ton of hiking, but we certainly walked more than drove in Korea and this was a flat paved trail. No hills, nothing. 3 miles of sidewalk with amazing views and all they remember is the 'trail of time' where there were pennies in the ground. If you ask Cade about the Grand Canyon he'll tell you he loved seeing all the pennies. Great.

For those like Natasha who haven't been and are curious about going with kiddos  I'm sure you won't have the same experience as us. It's great that there are such easy trails that go along the rim. There is convenient parking and shuttles that take you everywhere else. We stayed in the BLUE area (of the south rim) and after about 3 hours we were done. Now what? We went into town and ate a second lunch since our bottomless pits ate our PB&J's at 10:00, and went to the IMAX of the grand canyon. I know, I know, the real thing is right there, but we weren't about to roast at our campsite for the next 8 hours.

The most interesting part of the whole adventure is not what happened that day, but what happened the next day as we were leaving the area. Since we get into National Parks for free as military, we decided to take
64 back through the park and exit out the east side. That little drive along the rim there had some great pullover spots and views, and also had a watchtower you could go to the top of and see even more. If we had known how awful our kids might have acted we would have just driven straight through the grand canyon with all those neat pullover spots and made our way to Mesa Verde or something else interesting to see on our way back. That's life, right?

So here's the pictures of our day at the canyon. We really wish we'd had our good camera with us, as these definitely don't do it justice. I know the kids will always remember that they've been to the Grand Canyon, and the sour memories don't seem to last for them. We will be able to remember the breathtaking views and just wish we'd had more time to be 'at one with nature'. I guess that's what the camping was for. :)

Squirrel!

These are pictures from the second day as we were driving out. I love the view of the colorado river here.

 And here's the cool watch tower I was telling you about.

Farewell Grand Canyon. I'll come back with my teenage sons when we can do some real hiking!

Arizona!

Sorry for the LOOONNG delay. In fact, I'm not sure why I'm up blogging right now, but when you're in the mood you have to, right?

In the previous blogs [like a TV synopsis], we had decided to road trip while we were homeless and had made it through Albuquerque and the Petrified forest. This means we were only a few hours from making it to Phoenix!

It was so awesome visiting with my sister and getting all the cousins together. It's the first time all 5 had been together, and ages since the older cousins had seen eachother. They had a blast playing together, but poor Emma needed a girl cousin to play with. Aunt Laura tried to give her some girl time :)   We played, crafted, shopped and just had a great visit. And I've found that most the times I'm visiting family I don't take many pictures. Valerie remembered to snap a few the day we left so that the grandparents had pictures of all their grandkids together.

Also in the Phoenix area is Dan's niece Natasha and her awesome family. They have two boys and they all played really well together. We hung out, went to a splash pad, the boys biked, and then we hiked up Hole in the Rock, or something like that. It was an easy hike and had a great view. Thankfully we remembered to have someone get a picture.

After about 4 days in Phoenix we made our way to Parker, AZ where Dan's sister Marsi lives. They have 3 girls, 2 of which are almost exact in age to our boys. She also recently had a baby and it was so great to see the newest addition to the McBride clan. No pictures were taken, but we had a great time with them. They live right by the Colorado River so we spent some time in the water and just hanging out.

When we chose our route through the southwest, we didn't realize we were going to be seeing all the families that had similar aged cousins for our kids. It was just awesome letting them all play and get to know each other. After being out of the country so long, we were loving the opportunity to see so much family. After all the visits we decided to take a few extra days on the route home and stop at the Grand Canyon. That interesting adventure will be blogged next, and who knows how long it will take me to get to it again!