Summary of the family vacation

Best View: the day we spent watching the 

Grand Canyon from all 

angles and saw condors too.

Best Hike: 2 miles in, 2 miles out at Boynton Canyon outside of Sedona. Red rocks, colorful

 lizards, potential cliff dwellings, cacti, and good friends all excited for a good hike.

Best (worst) Irony: Boynton Canyon is in a "secret wilderness area" and we drove 2 hours through amazing canyons to get there.  But there was a resort right by the trail at one point! and

 the sound of construction equipment reverberating off the canyon walls! WTF?

Best Break: Strapping C. into the 

backpack carrier and going on a 4.5 mile hike (adult speed) at Sycamore Canyon with Max, Julie, and Brian. Jeremiah, Heather, Gulnar, Saiyan, and J. did their own thing at a different trailhead and we met them there for a picnic lunch. Then we piled in to their van while they drove us back to our car. 

Worst Break: waiting around for C. to take a nap. 90 minutes of crying later, we just put the kids into the car and caught up with everyone else in town.

Best Game: we played lots of board games every night after dinner on the back porch watching amazing sunsets over the desert. ahhh..... but anyhow, the last game of 'Settlers of Katan' was great when Brian pulled a stunning 4 pt gain to win the game, edging out both Jeremiah and I, who were poised to battle it out for a win.  His win was so beautiful that I didn't mind losing.

Worst Game: Let's call it "a one year old, two year old, and three year old on a 5 day vacation with three hours of jetlag." Who's baby will be the last to go to sleep tonight? And how many hours of crying must we endure in the meantime? (hint: Cassie was always the last to go to sleep. Maybe that means she's the winner? But as the parents, we certainly lost every round.)

Best Music: everyone out there probably knows this, but I don't have xm radio so I didn't know about the Grateful Dead station. I was totally thrilled to have a gorgeous drive to the Grand Canyon, dancing to the Dead in the backseat. I also really enjoyed driving through red rock canyons listening to Dave Matthews Band (live at red rocks, 'natch) and being able to stand up in the car, hanging out of the sunroof and feeling the warm air and hot sun.

Worst Music: the kids cd that played in the minivan. The first time it was cute. Then very very annoying. Then we became its' zombie slaves, singing "dino dino dino- SAUR" and now we wish we could remember all the words.

Best Surprise: The ghost town of Jerome was a totally kickin hippy, artistic, hanging off a cliff, historical little town. And the canyon ride home with sunset bouncing off canyon walls everywhere-  now, that was awesome.

Worst Surprise:  When Julie and Heather missed their flight and didn't join us until 15 hours later.

Best Laugh: that J. sneezed inside Max's open mouth. That makes me smile every time I think about it. Plus our impromptu choreographed musical of the fictional story where Julie steals a car and Jeremiah is her lawyer, but they lose in court and she goes back to jail. 

Worst Laugh: That one by one we all got sick with a sinusy head cold. If you're not sick yet, just wait for it! Ha Ha.

Animal Log:

-llamas (on the farm we stayed at), elk (including one that walked right in front of our car on the highway- great), prairie dogs (my favorite!), condors (endangered), ravens (so much more spiritual in the desert), baby bats (in the rafters of a Hopi dwelling), squirrels, and jack rabbits.

Sunrise Log:

-At Grand Canyon: got up at 3:45am to get there in time to see the sunrise over the Grand Canyon. Morning sun salutations were very special. View was awesome. Check!

-At Llama Casa Grande: kids with jet lag were waking up at 4am when the sky was still pitch black. I gathered some breakfast and a blanket and piled them into the minivan. We watched sunrise together from the backseat. Cool.

Best Ancient History: it might have been the ancient hopi dwellings or the pioneer-era towns. But really, it was a piece of black rock in the Grand Canyon visitors center. This rock came from near the bottom of the Grand Canyon and is 1.8 billion years old. And C. held it. I can't even comprehend this scale of time. 

Good times.