Arizona Trip

In May we took a week long family trip to Arizona.

Our first stop was the Grand Canyon. It was...interesting. We drove for about 6 hours to get to the south rim. We stopped at one view point for a few minutes and then went to the visitor center. The visitor center wasn't that impressive and then we decided to ride a bus to go to another viewing spot. Unfortunately we didn't realize there were 2 bus routes: One took you to all the viewing spots and one took you to all the different restaurants and shops. We got on the 2nd one. It went in one big loop that took about 50 minutes. There was one of the stops we could have gotten off at and gotten on one of the buses going the other way but by time we finally figured out what was going on we had already missed that stop. Spencer liked the bus for about 5 minutes and then he just wanted to run around. So for the next 45ish we were holding him down and he was throwing tantrums and crying etc. We got him to calm down for a little while singing songs with him but it was still a long ride. By the time we got off we were all so tired we just left. So that was our Grand Canyon experience.

Singing "Wheels on the Bus" with daddy on the bus.

After the Grand Canyon we drove another 2ish hours and got to Steve's Grandpa and Grandma Oliver's house in Prescott. We stayed 2 nights there and had a blast. His Uncle Ken and wife Laura and her son were visiting that weekend as well. Aunt Karen and her husband Ron lived locally so they also came over everyday to visit. I had never met Ken and his family and Spencer had never met any of them so it was really nice.  

Spencer loved playing with his Tia Karen.

Spencer wrestled with all the uncles, whom for some reason Spencer called "J"-all of them-whether their name started with J or not. We're not sure why but it was cute.

Uncle Ken and Aunt Laura

Grandpa took some pictures of us on our way out the door to church on Sunday.

Spencer reading with Aunt Karen and Uncle Ken.

While we were in Prescott we found this cool Animal Sanctuary park. It was kind of like a mini zoo. All of the animals were exotic type animals that were either rescues or were in a zoo that was shut down and didn't have a place to go etc. It also had a park that Spencer shared with the peacocks. They were cooling themselves in the shade. One was just on the fence next to the play area-the other was chillin' on the play bridge.

This wolf wouldn't take his eyes off Spencer. He was following us as we walked along his fence and would stop when we stopped. Somewhat scary since I'm assuming he was picturing Spencer as a snack but still kind of cool.

They had a "petting zoo" with goats. But the goats were new and weren't used to children yet. So they just ran away every time Spencer tried to get closed to them to feed them the hay the keeper gave him. He got frustrated and finally just gave up.

Spencer's favorite part of the whole thing was the sand pit they had. He probably would have spent all day there if we had let him.

Spencer's 2nd favorite part was the spider exhibit. He would go up to the glass and say "oooooo" and just stand there totally mesmerized. We kept leaving and he kept going back in. We finally had to pick him up crying and run off to find something else to catch his attention. Creepy.

After Prescott we headed to Mesa for a night. We stayed with my Aunt Brenda and cousin Michael. My cousin Sanoe and his family stopped by for a visit from Phoenix. We didn't take any pictures unfortunately. We did take a picture of a painting my Aunt Brenda painted and posted it represent her though. On our way out of town we stopped by the Mesa temple where my parents were married. It was beautiful.

After Mesa we headed down to Safford to visit my Grandma Church. Spencer loved hanging out with Grandma. She was nice enough to watch him while Steve and I went to the temple down there. We stayed with my Grandma for 2 nights and it was so nice to just relax and play games and talk.

We stayed with Grandma a few days before her birthday so we got her some flowers while we were there for an early birthday present.

After Stafford it was time to head home and after an 11ish hour drive we were there. Spencer was an angel the whole time. He just played with his new Buzz Lightyear toy, watched movies, slept, snacked, looked out the window. He never complained or cried the entire Arizona trip in the car. All in all it was a really great trip with a lot of really great memories that we took home.