Family Vacation - Part 1

We just got back from what seemed to be a trip across the world!  We headed toward St. George Utah...but decided to take the long 'er' way of doing so!  Just the simple fact that we tried to drive to Utah with 5 kids...insane!  Those of you who do that often...more power to ya!  We drove and drove and drove!  Yikes!  

You will never guess what we saw!  RAIN!  Who even knew it still existed?!?  If you who don't know much about Texas...we have been experiencing a severe drought.  No rain...zilch...for months!  It has just been hot and dry!  So, rain was the first thing that we saw that was super exciting!  

We stopped for the night in Arizona.  We were so tired from driving...even the kids slept in the next morning!  Woo-hoo!  We ate breakfast as some little burrito shop...Christopher likes to try these little no name places...I tend to hesitate...but it happened to be the BEST burrito I have ever had!  It was nothing fancy, but it was so yummy!  I actually didn't even get one because of those 'hesitations' I mentioned :) but got to finish off what the kids didn't eat.  

And then we were off on our first event of the trip!  We just couldn't pass up the opportunity to go see the Grand Canyon since we were going to be so close!  It was AMAZING!  It's almost as though it's not even real at first!  Things like this make all the other ' stuff ' we get all wrapped up in, seem so insignificant.  This is an example of Heavenly Father and all of His glory!  

 The Tipa kids at the Grand Canyon

 Christopher and I were there too!  Had to have a picture to document it!
I love this man!  HE is amazing!

 Just trying to make it back to the car!  Whew!

Some of the most incredible views were actually on the drive out!

We took a coloring map of the United States on the trip with us...just to see how many state licence plates we could find along the way.  The parking lot at the Grand Canyon was crazy...there were people from everywhere!  Even other countries!  I found it so interesting to hear everyone talk.  I had the kids listen for all of the different languages.  We heard other languages more than we did our own!  Very cool!  Throughout the course of the trip we found all but 8 states!  A little summer learning never hurt anybody!  Braydon...might I add...got all obsessed with finding licence plates!  He could spot them a mile away!  And even though he cannot read yet...he started to recognize states just by colors and pictures!  So cool!

And thus began the NEVER-ENDING journey to St. George.  Again we drove and drove and drove!  But this day was excruciating!  We were miserable...and so tired from being out in the sun all afternoon.  We finally stopped for some food got going again...but then things began to look up a little.

 We drove over Lake Powell...driving over water is always fun!

We found some new friends on the side of the road!

This one was so close I could have touched it!

And then we stumbled upon another amazing place!  At first we were dreading the whole 'National Forest' sign ...because that means 'slow down a lot' in road lingo...and we were so sick of driving.  I DO NOT like driving with a purpose in the mountains.  If you want to 'sight see'...mountain roads are great...but when you are trying to get somewhere, they make it next to impossible!

But...'Zion's National Forrest'...was well worth our time.  Wow...we all said that several times before we got out of it!  These pictures don't even do this place justice.  I just wanted to look... the camera was getting in my way :)

The view was like this on both sides for miles and miles!

And there were tunnels!  This one was the smaller of the two we drove through.  Terrible picture, I know!  The second one went for so long it almost got a little creepy.  It was so dark and loud...with traffic going both ways!  And we all loved it!  Everyone had to scream just to make things even more exciting!

When we finally got to the bottom of the mountain...there was a little tourist town.  It looked like some place for Christopher and I to go to by ourselves.  There were little shops and nice quaint hotels, and all kinds of lights and excitement going on in the street!  Some day....

Here's Kaywen blowing in the breeze!  She even looked away from the book!

Garron was so 'done' with being in the car.  But he did an excellent job the entire trip.  Unhappy babies make things just that much more difficult.  He's getting so big!

We FINALLY got to St. George about 10pm.  Oh my, oh my.  We were glad to see the lights.  But we couldn't end the night without a little more drama.  GPS failure...about 2 blocks from where we stayed....of course.  We felt like one of those dumb stories that drove off a cliff, just because the GPS said so.  We ended up all turned around on some off road that was not maintained or lit at all...which left us with one way out...through a couple of boulders at the other end of the road...that were not meant to have a suburban go between them! Texas roads are made for big vehicles and with miles of visibility...Utah roads are not!  We were actually looking for a little 'nothing' road...the house we stayed in sat off the road quite a ways...we just found the wrong one!  And most of you know me and my suburban....it's my baby...so you can just imagine all the drama while we were trying to get though these giant rocks with about 6 inches max on either side!

Ok...moving on!  We finally made it!  The house that we stayed in was fabulous!  It was huge...which just happens to be the perfect size for when the Tipa family gets together!  Then we stayed up until 3am just visiting with Nephi and Lindsy and enjoying not being in the car anymore!  That night just visiting with them, ranks up there on my trip 'favorites' list.  Love you guys!  Wish we all were closer!