MALEAH'S 5 YEAR PICTURES

ROAD TRIP TO ARIZONA

Last week when the kids got out of school we loaded up the car and headed out for a week in Arizona. We picked the kids up at school on their last day and started our adventure right then. Our first stop was Bison Ranch in Overgaard, Arizona -- a mere 8 hours away.

Fun in the car.....

It was a good drive until we started seeing these signs.........from now on I will take these signs seriously. We were almost to Overgaard, had been driving for at least 8 hours, when all of a sudden, right in the middle of the road was this huge elk -- just waiting to get hit -- and we almost hit it. I was definitely glad when our drive ended that night!

We started our vacation the next morning with some swimming at the resort.....

Time to get crazy in the pool.....

.....and see how many crazy pictures mom can get.....

The resort also had a fun little play area. Cameron likes teetherball and any play area that has monkey bars is a good play area with Rena!

Maleah inside the resort lobby......

There wasn't much to do in Overgaard, but we did manage to find this lake nearby where we spent the afternoon doing some exploring.....

The next day we drove about an hour and a half away and went to a Petrified Forest.

These were some of the cool pieces of petrified wood that we saw (and that Jeff wanted to take).....

The road through the park is a total of 28 miles and has many different stops along the way. Here we are playing around at each stop.....

Inside one of the museums.....

RUN Cameron RUN.....

"Get your kicks on Route sixty-six" -- The telephone poles in the background mark the path of old Route 66.....

Maleah was taking the picture and was having trouble holding the camera straight so we were making up for the tilt..... :)

Jeff thought he should try to take one last piece of wood with him before we left. It is illegal to take ANY piece of wood from the park (no matter how big or small) -- and they were serious -- they had signs posted everywhere, they had park rangers out watching, they showed movies in the museums about people being caught & arrested, they told stories about people that took some and then returned it because their life had been so miserable since they stole it and they were checking people and cars leaving. We decided to NOT take any home with us!!!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

The kids made pancakes and bacon for breakfast (I helped a little bit!).....

.....and then we had otter pops for dessert (at 9am)! That morning we were headed out of Overgaard and on to Phoenix so we had to empty the fridge and freezer -- which meant we HAD to eat all of the otter pops that were still in there -- no need to waste them!

A quick stop at the park before getting in the car AGAIN.....

We went to a steak house for Father's Day dinner once we arrived in Phoenix. It had a fun indoor slide to help keep the kids entertained while we waited for our table.....

The restaurant also had a big bull outside - which was also entertaining to the kids. I gave my camera to Rena to get "a" picture of the bull and I now have about 25 pictures of the bull.....not sure if it was the bull that was entertaining or my camera!

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY MALEAH!!!

We celebrated Maleah's birthday while we were in Phoenix. This was our morning celebration.....

Off to the pool in her new boob swimsuit (she wanted a swim suit with "boobs" like Rena has) and new goggles.....

This is how Maleah saved her chair by the pool for the day.....

A birthday dinner celebration at The Cheesecake Factory.....

Cameron did not want to cooperate for a picture -- this was the best we could get out of him......

In Phoenix we stayed at a place called "The Arizona Grand". It has a couple of different pools and restaurants and also a waterpark right on the grounds.

We enjoyed the wave pool -- the kids had fun IN the pool while Jeff & I enjoyed drinking our morning coffee while watching the kids in the pool.....

A highlight at the park was having drinks delivered to our chairs -- (we really only did it twice, but it was exciting) -- the kids all fought over who was going to put the flag up on the back of the chair to signal that we needed service and after we got our drinks we all wanted our picture taken.....

I have to admit -- I really enjoyed having my drink delivered right to me......I would have done it many more times if the one Pina Coloda didn't cost me $10!

The lazy river was a big hit. That's Jeff, Rena & Maleah floating by down there.....

AND, of course, the park had water slides. It only had 3 slides and you had to be 48 inches tall to ride them. Cameron was tall enough, but unfoturnately neither of the girls made it. We went to the managers office to see if Rena could get a waiver on the height restriciton, but they stuck by their rule and wouldn't let her ride. I told her that we could walk up to the top and see if they just didn't measure her once we were up there, but at that point they had already told her no and she said that she didn't want to break the rules.....funny girl!

These were the two big ones.......8 stories high. Cameron didn't really want to try them, but once Jeff bribed him with 20 bucks he was quick to go down. He only did the one on the right -- he said there was NO way he was going down the one with the dark tube -- but he did the one and he even did it 2 times (he only got $20 for the first time!)! Jeff did all of them a few times and I did each of the big ones once. I would have done them more, but after I spent 10 minutes trying to get my suit out of my butt I decided that was enough for me! :)

Jeff going down the big slide.....

Cameron coming down the little slide......

There was a fountain outside of the park that the kids had fun going through on our way to and from the waterpark......

Hey -- what's missing??? Does Jeff look relaxed??? Notice there are NO kids eating with us......included in the resort fee was a 1/2 day admission to the "kids club" at the resort. SO, one afternoon we took advantage of it and spent the afternoon kidless! We ate lunch at the resort and then went back to the waterpark with our books and magazines. We both took a nap on the lawnchairs and another one while floating around the lazy river. It was a nice afternoon and the kids also had a great time in the kids club!

Time to move on again......after 3 nights in Phoenix we loaded up and drove another couple of hours to Tucson.

We spent one morning/afternoon at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum......

Maleah and some sort of lion sitting in the shade behind her.....

The temperature that day hit 112 degrees -- Cameron & Rena are trying to stay cool under the umbrella.....

We watched a show (in air conditioning) and the kids got to pet a lizard after the show.......

Time to cool off with some ice cream.......

In the museum.....

I don't know why, but these kids see a statue and they insist on having their picture taken. And even on these HOT statues......out in 112 degree weather......they could barely sit on them they were so hot, but they wanted to sit and they wanted their pictures taken......

After the museum we met up with my cousin, Mike, who lives in Tuscon with his daughter Loren. I haven't seen him in over 6 years so it was great to be able to spend some time with him and his daughter......

Of course in the heat we had to spend as much time as possible at the pool (I think these kids would have been happy if we spent our whole vacation at the pool). Jeff often gets a good workout when he "swims" with the kids.....

AND, unfortunately, our last morning........

Time to hit the road for another 8 hour drive.....

The kids did really good with all of the driving. Maleah was the one always asking "are we close?". When I would answer "no" she would say "but really.......are we close?". We would go back and forth until I would finally just say "yes, Maleah, we are close". Then she caught on that "close" didn't really mean "close" so when I would say "yes" (when we weren't really close) she would say "but are we super close?" By the end of the trip she was asking "are we close?", "are we super close" or "are we super-duper close".

It was a fun trip!