After a restful night in Williams, Arizona we headed on up to the entrance of the Grand Canyon. It is not unusual for those living in Arizona to have never seen the Grand Canyon before. It is 4 hours away from Phoenix and it is common to hear people say that you go up, look in, and drive back. (In other words, it isn't worth your time). However, I decided since we were going to be driving "right by it" on our way to Utah, we better go look at it. Otherwise, we might never get back and do it. So off we went.
We stopped at the entrance to take pictures with the official sign. While taking the kids picture, Christian looked around and asked, "So this is the Grand Canyon?" We were still a few miles from the "hole", the innocence of children cracks me up.
Some wonderful people came by and took a family picture for us, so now we have proof we were all there.
This is the view right as you drive up into your parking spot. It was spectacular, quite amazing. It was easy to see why it is one of the official wonders of the earth.
Katie was enjoying the sights. It was really hard to get the kids to move on, they were really entranced by the vastness of the canyon.
This picture really doesn't do the canyon justice. It is really beautiful.
Daddy and Katie, she was really into taking pictures here...we had hardly any pictures of Christian...he was not into it.
The end of April was a great time to go as it was not yet too hot. It was gorgeous weather. A great time to move.
Double self portrait. I found a couple of these. They were having fun with the camera.
This is the first stop (our last as we were going out that way) from the eastern entrance to the park. We went in the lookout tower. You can go all the way to the top. It was really quite something.
It was really fun to go in and up the narrow stairways and look down the center of this very tall building. I stayed close to the kids, just in case they got the urge to see if they could jump and make down to the bottom. One of my friends told me they went to every stop and visitor center in 2 hours. They are fast. We way
under budgeted our time there and felt pinched for time after leaving 4-4 1/2 hours after we got there. I could have stayed longer. We were way behind schedule, but we were glad that we made the time and effort to go.
A few hours later we crossed the border into Utah. The kids were excited that we were in Utah but were wishing we were closer to our final destination.
Our M
apquest directions took us on Highway 9 to get to Saint George, Utah to stay the night with some of our friends. However, that highway is now no longer free...I don't know when that changed...but as I pulled up to the park ranger station I was a bit frustrated. It is no cheap thing to go through a park. By law, he had to charge us again for both cars to go through a different park. After spending $50 on just my car in one day, we decided $30 more wasn't much to throw in there for an annual National Parks Pass. We just need to plan to go and enjoy. It was a spectacular drive, worth the price of admission. The summer after I graduated from
BYU I had been to Zion's National Park and hiked Angel's Landing and the Narrows, but had not been back since. Some people have a natural and early appreciation for nature. My parents tried. We went to National Parks, camped (in trailers), got us out to see the world, but I just took it for granted. Now I appreciate it. It was gorgeous. Had I known that we were going to really go through there (and pay for it), I would have scheduled a day in to see it. It was really stunning and it has some great hiking there also. Here are a couple of pictures while I was driving slowly through the sharp curves. Don't worry, we were the only ones around at the time.
There is Mike driving in front of us. Look at this view! It is better in person. There were more that I could have taken...but I was being safe! Hopefully we will go back soon. Maybe a weekend this summer. There are so many parks in this state.
We finally got to Saint George, where we met up with my cousin four hours after we had planned. They were troopers and we were so glad to see them. The kids had been looking forward to seeing Miles for the first time. He is adorable. The next day we were someplace and supposed to be slightly serious (I don't remember why), and Christian started to bust up laughing. Mike started to get after him until I asked him why he was laughing. "When Miles was doing...", he laughed as he told us what he was remembering from the night before. Christian knows how to entertain himself. Thanks Rob and Staci for meeting up with us so late! It was fun to see you again!
We headed for one of Mike's past boss's house who retired in St. George. Kim and Cindy live in a beautiful historic house downtown, which I forgot to get a picture of. It was really pretty, beautiful gardens and they were such great hosts, ast we dropped in late and left early since Mike had an appointment the next afternoon. We loved getting to see old friends and family on the trip.
Christian wanted to sit right next to his dad and he was holding onto him for dear life at first... 
but Mike quickly got him paddling. It is harder to see them here, but I think Katie's pink shirt sticks out in the sea of blue and orange. Isn't it beautiful there. Look at all the green...I am still getting used to it after all the brown and red in the desert.
They were out for a little while until Mike got tired, as he was the one doing most of the work. 
They had fun being with their dad, on the job. I whisked them away with me so that he could finish up his day and clean up at the end. Scouting is fun!
