April

HaPpY bIrThDaY Marcika!! Our Beauty is 13, man time has flown. I can't believe that we have all teens! To celebrate her special day MJ wanted to go to Reno and have dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory with her Grandmas.

Family Vaca!! (some pics were taken by the group we went with)
We hit the road and started towards Southern California, made it to Bakersfield.

We then continued our travels to Laughlin, Nevada where we met up with the rest of the group headed to Moab, Utah. We stayed at the Tropicana. When MJ saw the elevators she said, "This looks like the Tower of Terror, we're all going to die." She was right on the money with her description, yet the outcome is much better than she had predicted.

After dinner we took a quick trip to get gas, and ended up in Arizona. I could not believe how close the border was, just drove over a short bridge and bang.

Early the next morning the group was up and ready to hit the road, destination, South Rim, Grand Canyon, Arizona. Say what?! Route 66, yeah baby, something I've been wanting to see for some time and thankfully our trip took us on part of it.

We stopped on the side of the road and took a little hike up to a natural spring fish bowl.

We stopped for dinner at Snow Cap, the people who owned ti were awesome! They really know how to treat their customers and run a business. The food was pretty tasty too.

Continuing our journey we hit the dirt and made our way to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and were able to play a little in the Colorado River.

 Have I mentioned lately how much I love my hubby?

Still gives me butterflies :0)

We made our way to the Red Feather Lodge, once we were checked in we walked to a little Mexican restaurant, the food was good and the company great. Marcika tried her first virgin strawberry margarita.

We got up pretty early and had time before the group was ready to head out so we made our way to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was so beautiful there!

What amazing group of people we were blessed to spend the week with! 

 

 

There was a crazy, brave squirrel that came right up to us.

We made our way to Mexican Hat, Utah and checked into our room at the Hat Rock Inn which was in  which looked a little run down on the outside, but I must say it was one of the best rooms we stayed in during the trip. After checking in we all walked down to the Swinging Iron for dinner. Must say this is not a place I would visit again, servers were nice, food was over priced and mediocre.

The next morning Jason and I went to a small cafe for breakfast (Brittney and Marcika were still sleeping and had no interest in joining us).

We lost one of our jeep friends, his jeep decided it did not want to drive. We ended up waiting four or more hours while he attempted to fix it and then more time for a tow truck. One bonus to the downtime was that the girls and I were able to get our laundry done.

Camping! Yep we even went camping. We camped at a beautiful campground which was right next to a lake, well a short hike. This campground had regular bathrooms and showers. Crazy, right?!

 

More dirt time we hit Hole in the Rock and saw more beautiful country. We ran into a really old military vehicle. It was amazing how well preserved it was.

While on our way to Monticello, Utah another jeep had issues. We turned off the highway onto a small dirt road. They thought everything had worked itself out, when all of the sudden the jeep went up in flames. Thankfully about ten people were able to quickly grab their fire extinguishers and put it out before to much damage was done. Normally the group would all stay together, however the leader of the group (also the owner of the burning jeep) sent the majority of us on to the hotel. Once we arrived at the Inn at the Canyons, we encountered a less than friendly front counter person.  I was hot, hungry, exhausted, and glad that the check-in was finished. Jason and the girls walked across the street to a little restaurant and I parked the jeep. To my amazement as I parked and looked across the way I saw Angle Moroni lighting the way.
                                      
Up early, breakfast eaten and off to the temple!

On to Moab, Utah. We hit the hills. Then we headed to the condos that we were in for the remainder of the trip. We were lucky to share the condo with two really nice, down to earth, and not huge party animals.

More trail time!

Real petrified dinosaur tracks!

 Abandoned :( 

 Waiting for another jeep to get fixed on the trail.

 It was the craziest thing, there was beautiful sunshine one minute, the next rain rain rain and then before we knew it snow!

These pictures do not do the experience justice. The drop was crazy scary, the fact that if we were an inch to far to the right we would have gone off a cliff did not help calm my nerves either.

Brittney had a choir competition. This was a first for us. Kind of crazy how many people were there and how many schools were competing. Her school had the largest choir, they did amazing!

 She's on the top row second from the left.

Photo by Marcika

 Group photo!

Fun shot!