It was spectacular.  It was everything I’ve ever heard about it, but nothing does it justice until you see it for yourself.  Ali said it was the prettiest thing she has ever seen.  Gabriel thought it was cool but was bored after the first day and wanted to go back to the last park to play. 🙂

 

 

Shaun is a bit skiddish around heights (to put it mildly) so he enjoyed the sights a lot more from the truck.  I asked him what he liked the most about the Grand Canyon and he said “going back to the camper”.  Ha!  It was INSANE how close you could get to the ledge. Even some of the paved trails were way to close to the unguarded cliffs.  Then add an impulsive/ADHD child to the mix and you quickly become stress/anxious/agitated.  But it was still amazing!!

 

 

 

 

The picture of us above makes me laugh.  The poor kids with no sunglasses trying to smile and keep their eyes opened. The one below is much better. 🙂

 

 

I wish I would have had more time to learn to take better pictures.  I’m grateful for the ones I have though.  It was my favorite spot so far.

 

 

And off to Zion National Park we go!

 

 

 

This was our favorite park so far.  The site was nice and shaded, the kids had fun fishing at the lake, and the weather was perfect.  I randomly picked this park on the way to Grand Canyon and totally lucked out.

Below is the scenery right outside our campsite.  They hauled their stuff up there to hang out and relax.  This is what camping is all about!  I love watching them play together.   Especially when they aren’t fighting. 🙂  Seriously though, I’m so glad they have each other when we go on vacation.  I hope they stay close as they get older.

 

I’m not sure why they like fishing, but they do!

 

The picture below is grainy, but at least I’m in it!  I bought a tripod for taking landscape pictures, but I can also use it with the timer to jump in the pictures.

 Off we go to the Grand Canyon.  I can hardly wait!!!

Davis Mountains State Park (July 10-13, 2016):

Well, Roadtrippers was pretty accurate on the estimated time it would take us to drive to Davis Mountains State Park.  7 hours, and the kids were great.  Movies on the iPad are the best! We also played travel games, and took naps.  It was a pretty small park, but it was very nice and you are surrounded by mountains from almost every angle.

A few of the highlights:

• The McDonald Observatory was very cool! We went to the Star Party on Tuesday night and we were able to see Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars on their telescopes.  They have an outdoor seating area where the guide points to the many constellations in the sky. The observatory is about 15 minutes away from the park.
• It would cool down to the 70’s at night.
• I took the kids to Balmorhea State Park where they have a freshwater pool built around the springs.  Ali loved the diving board and Gabriel spent most of his time trying to trap fish into his water bottle, with no luck.  This was a 35 minute drive from Davis Mountains but it was totally worth it.

• Gabriel and Shaun bonded while hiking for an extra hour after us girls decided to head back.  He ended up with over 13K steps that day, and he was pretty happy with himself! He loves his time with Opa.  He was so happy when he got back.