Spring Break 2021

 In hopes for warmer weather we decided to go visit family in Arizona for spring break. We haven't been to Arizona since the twins for 4 months old so we thought it was about time again. We were excited to do some outdoor activities. Playing at the park, hiking, and biking. We also planned to go see the Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon for the last 2 days with Ricky and Nicole's family.

We left on Monday, March 8th and drove straight through the night so Shad could get there before his institute class started on Tuesday night. The drive there went pretty flawlessly without any big incidents. There was one point where Tenny threw up and I cleaned it up on the go. Then there was another time that Ruby had to poop and we were in the middle of nowhere. We pulled over and she got out a little nugget on the side of the road that I in turn stepped in accidentally on my way back into the car. Luckly it was a dry one! Blah!

The kids always do so well with our all-night road trips. They really are road trip warriors! 

They were so excited to see their cousins and could hardly contain their excitement all week. Gracie developed a really special relationship with Lily this time too. She sobbed the first night that we were home because she missed her so much.

They did a lot of playing with cousins around the house. Building forts, eating food, watching movies, playing pool and air hockey, riding wiggle cars, rollerblades, and hoverboards.

The first morning we could we went on a bike ride. It was a bit colder than the typical temperatures in AZ but it was better than the normal temps in Illinois. Still outside biking weather acceptable. We were going to ride along the highway, but it was pretty busy at 6:30 am and we would have been riding right into the sun. So we decided it was better to stick to some less-traveled roads. We happened to park right by the start of the Queen Valley loop. It was a beautiful ride. Lots of ups and downs and not too cold (although my hands were a bit frozen at first).

Unfortunately on the second loop, Haken's crank arm fell off of his bike. He lost a piece to it before we left Illinois and we were hoping it would hold, but it didn't. He was lucky it stuck on there as long as it did. Shad had to ride ahead and grab the van to pick us up. It was a bit of a disappointment but we still got in 20 miles.

The other great bike ride was on Tuesday morning. It was our last day there and Shad let me go off with Haken to see Canyon Lake and Tortilla Flats while he took care of the kids. We had to take turns with the bikes since Haken's bike was out of commission. Shad and Haken had ridden it days before (although much colder and wetter than the day we went). They stopped and turned around at the lookout of the lake.

 Haken and I went another 10 miles up the road to the summit of Tortilla flats. It was an incredible ride and I was grateful to Shad for letting me go with Haken. He whizzed up those hills and was fun to watch. There was so much elevation and I could tell the next day that my legs were not used to that. So many ups and downs. Haken hit a max speed of 41mph down the hills. I chickened out at 33mph. I love biking with him. It's fun to see him do so well with it.

Wednesday the 10th the boys went and hiked Picket post. It was about 5 miles round trip. They had to scale up the mountain and do some bouldering to get up there. They said it was a pretty intense hike but the kids did really well. Ricky took Eli, Abi and Eve with him as well as a buddy with his 2 boys. They were back just after lunch. The rest of us just hung around the house mostly.

That night we went on a date with all of the adults. The kids stayed home and watched movies while we all had Mexican food.

We hit it hard on Thursday, going to the Casa Grande Ruins national monument in the morning and then hiking in the afternoon. The ruins were pretty amazing! It is one of the largest prehistoric structures ever built in North America.  They think it may have appeared  around 1350 C.E. before history was even recorded. The main structure is 2 stories high and there are ruins all over the grounds were walls once were for other structures. It is pretty incredible. Ricky and Nicole had never been out there even though it was 30 minutes from their house. We were glad to see it for the first time with them. 

We headed back to the house for lunch and then went for a hike up to the hieroglyphs. It was about 1.5 miles each way and all of the kids went. The twins were in backpacks and Ruby rode in the Eurgo backpack on Annie on the way up and walked half of the way down. Ryan and I took turns carrying the tired little girl. Benny walked up and down by himself, although he did trip quite a few times and I had to pull him halfway up. But he did it! 

Chap fell asleep on the way up. I guess that's what we get for going during naptime. 

The hieroglyphs were really cool at the top and weren't even protected by ropes or anything so the kids could get right up close to them. 

It was a great time with cousins and they were all rewarded with a sucker at the end!

The next day cousin Annie took all of the girls (and Jack) out for manicures and ice cream for Lily's birthday. Poor Jack is stuck with between all of these girls, he went in place of Ruby who wanted to stay with me (he loved it though and did not want to be left out.)

While the girls were getting their nails done, the big boys hiked up to Flat Iron. That was quite the experience given the weather conditions. Haken did not pack a jacket and it was quite cold at the top and snow covered (have you ever seen snow on a cactus?!). They made it to the top but could not see anything because of the cloud cover. Kind of a bummer but still a fun hike.

That night we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandma Kristin helped me put some embroidery on a few white towels for our primary kids getting baptized. Gracie loved watching the embroidery machine and helping her. The kids also played with step cousin Etta (Kelcey's daughter who is Ruby's age). Ruby and Gracie just loved her. Then we had pizza.

Sunday we went to church in person, but we had a lesson before we left by Haken and Abi. They did a really great job teaching us about what it means to "cling" onto something and how we can have patience. Everyone had to hold onto a sucker during the lesson. They were promised that if they didn't lick the sucker then they could have another sucker later. Everyone did it, except the twins of course!

There were also good Sunday naps that happened. Poor Haken had a lot of late nights and early mornings on this trip. He played really hard.

That evening we went to Ryan and Lindsay's for dessert. We played at the park, ate dessert, and sang songs. We had pie for 3/14 pi day. It was a great time.

The plan was to head to Flagstaff on Sunday and see the Grand Canyon for the first time. We had hotel rooms booked and everything! But we ended up canceling the hotel rooms because there was a foot of snow in Flagstaff from the storms that week. We were definitely not prepared for the colder weather. 

So, instead, we decided to go south to Tucson where it was a little bit warmer. On Monday we drove down to Tucson. We drove through the Saguaro National Park. The roads had rolling hills and were kind of fun. Haken wished so badly that he could ride them on his bike. One day he wants to come back to Tucson and ride everywhere. I guess it's one of the cycling capitals of the US. 

It was such a fun day! The weather was perfect! We first hit the Arizona-Sonora desert museum. The museum was actually more like a zoo. They had all kinds of dessert animals for the kids to see. Some were inside buildings and others outside. The kids were really good sports and walked everywhere even though they were hungry and tired. 

Afterwards we had a late lunch at the Guadalajara Grill. This place was recommended to us by a few people because they have live music and make the salsa right in front of you. Well, we got neither of those things and the service was SOOOO slow! We got our chips and then waited 20 minutes for our salsa. It was 2:00 in the afternoon so we must have caught them in between shifts or something. The food was really yummy though. The boys really liked their salsa. 

For our last day in Arizona, we decided to head to the park and then load the kids up on sugar at a huge candy store. Haken and I did our Tortilla flats bike ride this morning and met up with everyone at the park (see pictures above). 

The park was freezing because the wind was blowing. The kids still loved it and we had a nice little picnic. They were definitely ready to go to the candy store after that. This candy store was incredible! It had every single kind of candy you can think of. We gave the kids each $5 to buy whatever they wanted. It took them over 30 minutes to decide what to get. They were all very thoughtful. Haken was in distress the entire time. Tenny, however, just wanted everything and pretty much screamed for me to open it the whole time we were in the store.

The last night we had pizza at Ryan and Lindsay's and played at the park some more. 

The kids were sad to leave the next day. They loved spending so much time with their cousins. Lily and Gracie especially hit it off. Gracie sobbed the night we got home because she missed her so much.

Our drive home was pretty uneventful, except for the fact that it was crazy windy! We decided to take the northern route to avoid the big storms going through the south that was supposed to bring on some tornadoes. However, we sure did get the crosswinds. It probably cost us an entire tank of gas with our huge van as a sale (totally not awesome since gas was already over $3.00 a gallon across our entire drive.) We did have a little detour as we missed a turn-off and it added an extra 45 minutes of driving. We'd just like to think we took the "scenic route". We made it home safely after driving through the night and everyone was grateful to be home, despite the freezing cold temperatures and rain. Welcome back to Illinois in the spring!