Spring Break

This year for Spring Break, we decided to take a trip to Arizona to visit our friend's the Thomas'.  Jacque was my BFF and roommate in college and they have lived there for nine years.  And for nine years we have been saying that we needed to come down and see where they live.  So, this post has nine years worth of pictures in it.  Sorry!

On the drive down, we stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam to take a break.  It was huge and scary and pretty amazing.

 This is the view from the bridge as we walked across.  This was right before a big semi drove across and the whole thing started shaking.  And then my kids and I hurried and got off that bridge.

We stopped again just outside of Flagstaff at the Waputki Indian Ruins.  Jacque and Tyler met us there and we had lunch and walked around for most of the afternoon.

This was a blow hole in the earth.  It blew air out, strong enough to hover shoes and water in mid air.  The kids played here for a long time.

It was so fun to have the kids all warm up to each other so quickly.  We were meant to be next door neighbors!

 See how comfortable they all are with each other?  They had no problems acting weird together.

Near the ruins was a huge lava flow from the nearby volcano.  We made a quick stop here to hike around.  It was totally freezing by this time.

The kids were mad at us for making another stop, but when we got out, they loved it!  It was such a strange, beautiful landscape.

We stopped in Flagstaff that night for some dinner and live music at the Galaxy Diner on Route 66.  Fun!

We got to Jacque and Tyler's that night and then the next morning the adults went to the Gilbert Temple.  It was such a beautiful temple!  We were in awe of the beautiful desert landscape.

This friendly saguaro welcomed us with open arms, into their neighborhood.  Did you know they don't grow arms until they are around 70 years old?!  This guy must be quite old.

That afternoon we all drove out to the middle of nowhere, to the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch.  Yes, you heard me correctly.  There were no roosters, however.  Apparently that is the owner's name.  And they had a lot more than ostriches.  They had a whole petting zoo and monster truck rides.  I know, so random, but so fun!

We started at the donkeys.  That top donkey is not willing to wait his turn to stick his head out of the feeding window.  Somebody give him a pellet!

 They had deer.

 They had goat feeding with pulleys.

 This feeding station was the most comical one.  There were instructions posted on how to get a "goat kiss" if you wanted.  As you can see, I didn't.  I dropped the food before I'd even let that tongue get near me.  My children, on the other hand...

 Let me take you on a photo journey of Ryan's first kiss.  Not many mothers can say they have that documented.

 Yes, that is a goat tongue, going into my son's mouth.

 Maren is even closing her eyes for this special moment.

 At some point she dropped the food, and now it really is just a big ol' kiss.

 And Grant got a little action, too.  So, so gross.

 We fed parakeets.

 Dustin, someone is watching you...

 That sign there by Ryan isn't lying.  4 of the kids got bit by the ostriches as they walked across the bridge.

 If you look closely you can see Grant's bite mark below his elbow.

 Ryan is wisely giving himself some distance.

 More goats.  But no kissing.

 Here we are getting ready to start our Monster Truck ride. 

 We got to hold real ostrich eggs.

 And see some natives.

 Cool mountain.

 Ostrich fishing?  Yes, we did.  Like I said, so random.

 We fed these pretty macaws.  This part was so cool.  We each had a cup of nectar, and the birds would land on us to eat.

 This was right before that top one pooped on Dustin.  The kids thought it was great.

 There is that monster truck again. 

That night was the General Women's Conference and then the Mesa Temple Easter Pageant.  They did a great job with it.  And the temple was beautiful.

The next day was Sunday.  Right in the middle of Sacrament Meeting, my kids looked up and saw a scorpion right above my head on the ceiling.  Needless to say, I scooted very quickly down our row.  I guess we got the full Arizona experience.

Someone climbed up a ladder and got it down.

That afternoon we did all sorts of Easter things.  Here, Jacque is helping the kids make resurrection rolls.  They wrapped a marshmallow inside the roll, and after it was cooked, the marshmallow was gone.  A fun object lesson.

The kids did an Easter Egg Hunt in the backyard.

Cute little man.  The bag is as big as he is.

We dyed Easter Eggs.

We also had a delicious Easter dinner.  We basically packed in every Easter activity we could into one day.

The next morning we said goodbye to the Thomas' and headed further south to Biosphere 2.  We had so much fun with them!  We are so grateful for such wonderful friends!

These Biodomes were made to house people and plants in a totally enclosed environment.  It was kind of interesting to see.

The giant lung that helped air to flow.

That afternoon we drove to the Saguaro National Forest.  We got there just in time to get our National Parks Passport stamped and then take a few fun hikes and watch the sunset.  We happened to be visiting Arizona at the perfect time.  The cacti were blooming and the weather was perfect.

There were hundreds and hundreds of saguaro.  It was so beautiful!

So big!

This little critter scared the girls so bad.  They went to the bathroom together because they were scared of wild animals outside the bathroom.  When they got inside, this little friend was waiting for them.  They came running out screaming!  So funny!

This was the second hike we went on.  The sun was starting to set and it was beautiful and peaceful.  Except for the constant complaining of our children that they wanted to be done.  Ahhh, family vacations.

It got exciting though when we heard and then saw a coyote barking near us.  That was fun.

Beautiful sunset!

We had such a fun vacation!  We could have easily spent another couple of days there.  It was so fun to see a new place and wonderful friends!