Vacation 2016: Day 7

 In the morning, we packed up our tent, ate a little breakfast and headed out for the day. Our first stop was to get coffee and plan out our hike at the Visitor's Center. After talking to a park ranger, we found a hike that didn't appear to be too difficult for our crew and set off.

Our trail of choice was Bright Angel trail. It had a couple of tunnels/archways and a very nice view of the canyon. This is us at the first tunnel. We hoped we might make it to the second tunnel but our crew was getting tired, and considering the fact that we had to hike back up, we wanted to turn around sooner rather than later.

After all that hiking, we were ready for some lunch. We wandered around the market place, looking for a pressed penny machine (unfortunately it was broken) and settled on some postcards to send to a friend and show to our class back home. Then we headed out to the picnic tables and enjoyed our lunch in the cool shade.

Before we left, we headed back over to Mather Point for another look at the spectacular views. The kids also got to climb around a little which made all of them pretty happy.

Enjoying the view.

Hanging precariously from the canyon wall.
Actually, there was a pretty large ledge there. Asher was wandering around behind Tyler in this picture.

All that hiking and climbing wore these two out. I love their matching sleeping expressions.

 We left the Grand Canyon (stopping to get that pressed penny at a general store just outside the park) and started our drive to Las Vegas. As we were driving, we saw this large sandstorm forming to our north. It was really cool to watch. When we stopped for gas in Kingman, we got an alert on our phone warning us about this sandstorm. Luckily, when we turned north we were on the other side of a ridge of mountains so we didn't get stuck in the storm.

After a few more hours in the van, we arrived at Hoover Dam. I had seen quite of few references to Hoover Dam in different movies but nearly all of them were from the mid-90s so they didn't have the awesome bridge.

 It was 111 degrees outside that day. Ugh!

A family divided.

After all that hiking and no shower, we were a pretty grimy group when we got to Las Vegas. Check out those dirty feet!

This was our hotel in Las Vegas. Our room wasn't in the main building of the hotel so our kids didn't see any of the hoopla. We did drive up and down the strip once after dark though so we could all experience the lights of Las Vegas.

Vacation 2016: Day 6

Day 6 is when we officially started our vacation. Our first stop on our "official" vacation was to get Elias some flip flops. One of his flip flops broke during Covenant Kids and duct tape really wasn't doing the trick in holding it together. New shoes!!

After a stop for groceries and coffee, we were ready to head out on the open road. We headed north out of Phoenix. We ended up stopping in Flagstaff, AZ for our big meal of the day: Smashburger. Addilyn was pretty jazzed that they have gluten-free hamburger buns so she (and I) could have a "normal" hamburger.

After that, it was a straight on through to the Grand Canyon. This was our first official view of said canyon.

 Me and my brood.

Tyler took Addilyn out on this big rock. I wasn't expecting to be as nervous as I was here. I was freaking out a bit. Luckily, all the other mothers in the area were freaking out a bit too.  At least I know I'm not alone.

Tyler took the bigger three on a short hike while Albert and I found a nice rock to sit on and admire the view. We also really enjoyed watching a mother and her teenage daughter try to take a picture on the same rock that Addilyn and Tyler were on. They both really wanted to get a shot of the daughter on that rock but were super nervous. The girl ended up scooting on her stomach because she was so afraid. To her credit, she faced her fear and ended up with a very nice shot as her reward. I thoroughly enjoyed the banter between the mother and daughter, though, as she strove for her goal.

The view from the bottom of their hike.

A little scrambling always makes these kids happy.

 We drove down the road a bit to Mather Point for a spectacular view. This very nice person offered to take our picture. Albert wasn't having it. For every family picture for the entire vacation, Albert wasn't having it. Years from now, he's going to look back and wonder why he was screaming this entire trip. Our only response is because he's three.

We found a nice camping spot in the Kaibab National Forest. Tyler doesn't handle altitude changes very well so he was feel pretty rough by this time of the day but he managed to get the tent all put together while the kids and I worried about dinner. I may have also had some help with dinner from some pirates as well.
This camping spot was far off the beaten path and really secluded. It was interesting (and a little unnerving) to hear the coyotes yip to each other as they headed out for their evening hunt. After that the night was quiet and peaceful.

Vacation 2016: Day 5

Day 5 was a big day. That was a lot going on from beginning to end. It started with more Covenant Kids and going to the morning session. Then there was a birthday party.

And corresponding cupcakes.

Tyler may have been pretty wiped by this point.

Then in the afternoon, Tyler went to rehearsal for the evening's service and the rest of us went and played at the waterpark again.

Check out the sleepy boy on the left...and Addilyn's hair!!

After all of our waterpark fun, we headed back to our room to rest and get ready for the evening's festivities. The kids watched some random kid TV (terrifying!!) and then we ate some sandwiches in the room and got all dressed up.

 Looking sharp and ready to go!

Our group took up an entire row!

Luckily it was a row between sections which meant we had a lot of space for Albert to lay on the floor and play with his cars. And the rest of the kids made sure that everyone was properly hydrated at the water station right next to our seats.

I know him! Here Tyler was officially ordained.

Father-Son selfie.

This picture makes me laugh. Tyler and his parents were taking a picture together when Gary Walters, the President of the ECC and John Wenrich, one of the Executive Ministers joined them.

After the service there was a reception with cake and friends. Albert was so tired that he actually fell asleep in my arms (that hasn't happened in a couple of years)! Unfortunately, he's much heavier than he was a couple of years ago so I couldn't hold him very long. It was fun to catch up with friends and celebrate their collective hardwork. Well done, ordinands!!

Vacation 2016: Day 4

Friday started with Tyler and me dropping the kids off at Covenant Kids. For the entire meeting, there were activities that the kids could participate in. Tyler and I thought that sounded like a lot more fun for them than sitting around with us, trying to be quiet so they went. We dropped them off there on Friday morning, talked to a few people at the session and then headed out to scope out the waterpark.

We needed to check everything out, sans kids, and then make our game plan before trying to bring the kids. That's what we told ourselves at least. Mostly, Tyler tried out the slides and I tested the lazy river. We both talked to friends for quite awhile too. I ran off to meet with my spiritual director and Tyler talked to more friends. It made for a really low key but thoroughly satisfying morning.

At noon, we went and collected our children and fed them lunch. They enjoyed watching the golfers and ducks whilst recapping their morning's adventures and collectively daydreaming about their soon-to-be waterpark exploits. Good times.

In the afternoon, we took the kids back to Covenant Kids where they got to go on a field trip to a Butterfly Emporium!  Albert wasn't feeling it that afternoon though, so he got to go hang out with Grandma, Aunt Kendall and Lily for a couple of hours. Meanwhile, I took Tyler on an adventure.

All I told Tyler about our excursion was that we were going on an adventure. I was giving him directions so when, after nearly half an hour or driving, we ended up in a residential neighborhood, he was a little confused, especially when I had him stop at a house. See the confusion?

He was even more confused when I walked up to it, grabbed a key and went in. Our friend Brittany is an artist. When she was graduating from college, we went to her senior show and Tyler fell in love with a couple of her paintings. She has this wonderful ability to take a portion of scripture and paint it in a thought-provoking way. He loved that and said that he would love to have something like that in his office to stare at and inspire him while he was thinking deeply or writing a sermon.

Since Nick and Brittany live in Phoenix, I thought that his ordination would be the perfect time to arrange for him to get such a painting so I contacted Brittany and had her paint one of his favorite sections of Scripture. In the previous picture, he was reading the note she wrote about her painting (Nick and Brittany had to leave town but left everything for us to pick up when we were able). In the above photo, he is pondering it. He was thoroughly surprised (which I was so glad about because I was certain he was going to stumble across Brittany and I's facebook messages) and so, so grateful to Brittany for the time and effort she put into this wonderful piece of art.

Here he's pretending to be a cat burglar, stealing someone's priceless artwork. It did have to look strange if any neighbors were watching. We walked into a house when the owner's were obviously not home and walked out with artwork.  

After Tyler and my big adventure, we came back to the resort and took the kids to the waterpark!!

It was ridiculously hot outside so we had to be careful to wear our shoes whenever we weren't in the water. The pavement was HOT!!

During our waterpark play, the rest of the Johnson clan showed up at the resort to play as well. When we were all tired out and ready for some food, we headed out in search of some pizza. This was half of our crew.

And here was the other half.

We ended up at a restaurant that served some really good gluten free pizza. That was a yay from Addilyn and me!

Vacation 2016: Day 3

This day was our last driving day on our trip to Phoenix. We decided to stop off at the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ. This motel was the inspiration for the Cozy Cone in the movie Cars. Very fun!

We drove through the Coconino National Forest and some mountains on our way to Phoenix. I really enjoyed saying Coconino and watching the transition from evergreens to saguaro cacti. The kids really, really enjoyed learning the proper usages of the words cactus and cacti. I love our weirdos!

After we arrived in Phoenix, we met our friends, Nick and Brittany, for lunch. Tyler had a meeting during the afternoon, so the kids and I tried to kill time while we waited for our room at the resort to be ready. As it was miserably hot outside, we thought it would be best to find water so we found a small pool to play in. The kids splashed around and I tried to make sure no one drowned while staying cool.

After we were able to get into our room, we got everything unloaded and squared away and then headed out for dinner with Nick and Brittany and their kiddos. We decided to hit a Chicago classic that has made its way to Arizona (probably due to the snow birds and the Cubs training here in the spring). Mmm...Italian Beef at Portillo's!

The youngest two of our group weren't really feeling the picture but the rest were having a good time!

After dinner, we headed back to our resort to scope things out and prepare for Friday. We thought these lit palm trees were particularly pretty.