Motor-home Road Trip

We're off on our big road trip- but it began with a flight to Vegas. (Wednesday)

Now that they're older the whole plane ride is peaceful and calm...

...just kidding.  They can still be crazy. The boys had fun sticking these things to their faces and seeing who could get the others off first.

Yay...cousins!!

After spending a day and a half at Kelsy's house, we borrowed her kids and her car and drove to St George.  We had to stop and play at Valley of Fire though because we love that place! (Friday)

That evening we made it to Daniel's parents' house in St George.

 The following day (Saturday) was an awesome day at Snow Canyon. Hannah and Daniel went on a horse ride (Hannah's dream!). Eliza and Riah weren't quite old enough but they enjoyed petting the horse.

While they were on the horse ride the rest of us played on the sand dunes. Ethan and Mason were having fun trying to run up the hill before Andrew could knock them back down it again. That doesn't sound fun to me, but they all had a blast and it was fun watching them.

After the horse ride, sand dunes, and a picnic lunch, we stopped at the petrified sand dunes which were super cool. 

The kids hiked and climbed all day.

That afternoon we went to Pioneer Park to climb some slot canyons, which was also awesome.

Kelsy and Brett met us up there and then we all stayed the night again at Grandma and Grandpas. It was a long and busy day but so much fun!

On Sunday (St Patricks Day) we went to church and then the St George temple. The girls found clover looking things that they're showing off.

The sun was so bright! I took a lot more pictures but they all turned out funny because no-one could keep their eyes open.

We had a yummy dinner then Kelsy and Brett took my kids to a fun park while Daniel and I got his parents' motor-home ready to go. We said goodbye to family and drove to Zions that night.

Unfortunately, due to all the snow they'd gotten that winter, a lot of the hikes at Zions and Bryce that I wanted to go on were closed. The day started out cold so we had to go find some hot chocolate to warm and cheer us up (some of us started out a little grumpy). We did a few of the smaller hikes instead and loved looking at how beautiful everything was! (Monday)

When we got back to the RV park we went swimming and then met up to play with some friends who were joining us at Bryce the following day.

On the way to Bryce we had a little incident where the motorhome got stuck in some mud (the side of the road was a lot softer than it looked!) on a highway in the middle of nowhere. We were anticipating a lot of time and a lot of money for a tow truck to come help us but after saying a prayer, within a couple of minutes, a nice man (volunteer firefighter who likes to help stuck people on the side of the highway) stopped with his jeep and pulled us right out. We were very grateful!

Bryce was very beautiful but unfortunately, we couldn't do much except for hike in some snow to one of the lookouts. (Tuesday)

At least we had the Shileys with us!

That night we drove to Lake Powell and stayed the night there.

Fun in the motor-home

Outside of Bryce was a fun spot where we pulled over to play and to climb for a little bit. I think it was called red canyon.

Wednesday morning we walked down to Lake Powell- it was gorgeous! I'm glad we didn't skip this.

Then we drove to the Grand Canyon!

We stopped to buy souvenirs at one of the side of the road native american jewelry stands 

I've been to the grand canyon before but I'd forgotten how amazing it was!

Back at the motor-home for the night.

It was very windy at the petrified forest (Thursday). The next few days were mostly driving.

My only shot of Albuquerque was the sunrise as we drove out of town. (Friday)

Amarillo, Texas

A park near Oklahoma City

Bass Pro in Springfield Missouri. (Saturday)

We had a wonderful trip! We went in March and we'll have to go and do a bunch of these things again when the hikes (and some other things we wanted to do but couldn't because of both previous and current weather) are open.