In January my mom realized that the timing of Kyle turning 8 would be right around Spring Break time. Unfortunately my kids' spring break and Valerie's kids' spring break were not the same weeks, but we still decided to come out for the baptism even though her kids would still be in school. (Thanks Valerie!)
We started our road trip by driving to Albuquerque, NM. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express (our favorite hotel chain) and stopped by an awesome children's science museum.
This sand pit was really neat. When you changed the elevation it changed the colors to show where the depressions and higher elevations were. So much fun!
Build a ramp and see if your marble makes it across
Pictures in water droplets!
Bubble sheet :)
Cade was so proud of the dam he built
Fly an airplane
Magformers
Alex loved trying to keep the balls in the air
A little reading nook under the stairs, and you could change the lighting
More fun with wind creating little flying objects out of dixie cups
Magnets!
They had a whole section of tricky puzzles. This was getting all these nails to balance on one nail!
The boys had so much fun and it was very very affordable! If you're in Albuquerque, check out the Explora Science Center!
After the museum we walked around Old Town Albuquerque and got some dinner. The service was slow and the food was okay. Can't win them all! We headed back to the hotel and enjoyed the pool and hot tub!
After the continental breakfast the next morning we made our way towards Phoenix. But first we made a side trip into Sedona, AZ. This is somewhere my mom really wanted to visit, since she hadn't been there in awhile and remembered how gorgeous it was. The plan was to do some hiking and then visit the shops for a little while.
I did some research for a nice trail and read the Devil's Bridge was gorgeous and not to miss. It was listed as about a 3 mile trail so we all felt it would be great.
Well, once we found it, we realized that 1 mile of the trail comes from the parking lot to the trail head. If you have a jeep or some sort of off-road vehicle you can drive to the trail head, but we didn't so we started our trek.
Here's pics from the first mile. Beautiful! Easy trail with lots of rocks in the road.
Now that we were on the actual trail it thinned out a little and became higher and rockier.
It was still gorgeous and good hiking until suddenly the trail pretty much goes straight up. Some seriously steep climbing on sandy rocks was necessary. You have two large passes like this that i didn't even take pictures of b/c I was so busy keeping us all from slipping and falling. All hands on deck!
Everyone on the trail was encouraging each other to keep going. Those coming back down told us how much it was worth the steep climbs. So we pushed ahead slowly and carefully.
It was worth it. The view is breathtaking and scary all at the same time. Look at that natural rock bridge!!
My mom and Cade were the first to brave the bridge. Cade is my fearless dude, but even he felt a little shaky over there!
Cade waited on the bridge while my mom and I switched spots. It wasn't as thin as it looks. In fact when you're on the bridge you really can't see that there's nothing under you. It's all in your head, right?
Alex was too nervous to stand on the bridge so we got a picture of him on the safe side. After his Tower of Terror experience at Disneyland I didn't want to push him to do anything he was uncomfortable with.
I have no pictures after this because the steep hike up meant and pretty scary hike down. I kept telling the boys to keep low and take it slow, practically crab walking our way down. Others were going fast but I'd rather be safe. The rocks were too thin to really stand on and step down, you had to place one foot ahead, and then move a hand down, then scoot your bum, and so on until it evened out. Pretty darn intense!
The last mile where the off-road vehicles can drive felt like an eternity after all that work. By the time we got to our car it had been nearly 3 hours. No time left for shopping, and we were all too tired and hungry anyways. We hit a McDs drive through and headed to Valerie's!!
Now, like I said, we came while Valerie's kids still had school, so during the day it was Drew and my boys hanging out. The first day we went to the scout store to get Kyle's first set of scout stuff, and to a place called Enchanted Island. The boys had a fun time together!
 |
| Their scout store looked like an old church, it was pretty awesome |
 |
| Drew and Alex became fast friends! |
Thursday we did a 3 mile hike on fun trail near Kyle's preschool. Good to get some exercise and some scenery all at the same time! (no pics, oops!)
Dan has family that lives in Tempe, so I headed down to spend time with Natasha and her 3 boys before Kyle's birthday party.
We had lunch and chatted at her house for awhile and then headed to IKEA for some playtime and ice cream! It was so good catching up with her!
Thursday night we celebrated Kyle turning 8 by going to Peter Piper. No pics again, but all the kids had a fun time. Cade even got the jackpot on one of the games and got 250 tickets!
Did you know that Emma was helping to raise a pig? We went and helped her feed and walk her pig. She recently put him up for auction at a fair and did a great job showing him! How neat!
When we were driving down to Phoenix Alex said he'd never seen one of the really big cacti in his whole life. So we made sure to get a picture of him next to a saguaro!
Friday was the day of the baptism! Kyle had so much support from his ward and there was a great turn out. There really is such a sweet spirit when these young kids choose to get baptized.
Saturday was the only day all the cousins could hang out, and because it was 97 degrees we hit the waterpark! We miss our water park from VA and don't live near anything very good so we really wanted to go. I think everyone had a fun time, though Kyle ended up with a headache, sorry Kyle!
We packed up and headed out early Sunday morning to make the drive all in one day. I think Mom was anxious to get home because she got a speeding ticket. No fun!
 |
| The boys saw this moth at a rest stop! |
I think we were all beat from a long, fun week!
We had a GREAT spring break! I love getting together with family :)
