Sunrise at the Grand Canyon

Stockton, Jorja and I got up early to go see the sunrise. Originally it was just going to be Jorja and I. Last night I took a short walk to make sure I knew the right way to go. (We were planning on going a different way.) I wasn't far along when I got very scared. It was pitch black, I was alone and I could hear people being loud and I just felt that what I was doing was very dumb. I came back inside and asked Stockton if he could come with Jorja and I. He was a good sport. Well, this morning it wasn't as dark as the night before. I'm sure Jorja and I would have been fine. It was fun to have him along though! When we got to the lookout spot, there were A LOT of people there! Still, it was beautiful and I'm glad we did it.

Stockton

Stockton & Jorja

This looks so fake, but no filters or editing here

Stephanie

Jorja

Stephanie

Jorja

Stockton & Jorja

Stockton, Stephanie, Jorja

We had to check out of the campsite at 12:00 and we could start playing at the Great Wolf Lodge at 1:00. Great Wolf Lodge is one hour away... or so we thought. Mike, Stockton, Preston and I played two games of Bunny Kingdom to pass the time. We drove out of the park and put the address once we got cell service. THREE HOURS??? What? Turns out I kept googling the distance between the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff, not Scottsdale. Whoops! We ended up getting to Great Wolf Lodge at 4:00, right at check in time. We were able to bring our stuff right up to our room, so that is nice. We just missed out on three hours of playing. Good thing we will have plenty of time tomorrow.

I don't envy these people. Glad we are on the other side this time!

My dad sent this picture, "Bear doesn't seem the least bit guilty for chewing up our hot pad." Whoops!

Cacti!

View out our window

Kids room

Our room. Stockton slept on the pull out couch

We played LOTS of Magiquest today. The kids had fun. Especially Preston who has turned his wand into a giant staff and loved the attention it brought him. I'll have to get a picture of that tomorrow. We ate dinner at the restaurant and just happened to be sat at a tv where the Jazz/Suns game was playing. I told myself I wasn't going to watch it because I asked Jorja not to visit Riley while we were here. Turns out that he came here anyway and she snuck out for a few minutes during dinner so she could see him. Super bugged about that. Jazz lost in overtime so that was disappointing. Mike ordered this s'mores kit where we could make them at our table. It took a long time! It was weird because the plate thing was HOT! The marshmallows just wanted to take their own sweet time roasting.

Maysen

Jorja, Maysen, Preston

Maysen, Preston (no idea what is happening there) and Stockton

You can't see the watermark in the picture below, but Preston spilled his entire water bottle on our bed! I couldn't believe it! I took a picture because Rachel kept spilling her water bottle on our bed during our Israel trip. Here we have one day in a super nice hotel and have to sleep in a wet bed! Rachel always would call the cleaning people and ask for new sheets. We just slept in a wet bed. Well, Mike did. It was on his side. I was lucky.

Grand Canyon

Mike and I got up early and started our drive to the Grand Canyon. Mike drove the entire way until the entrance. That was nice for me! The entrance was crazy. Super long lines that took an hour to get through. It seemed like the other line was moving faster, but doesn't it always seem that way. It isn't easy to change lanes in tons of traffic in a motorhome, so we stuck it out. When we could finally see the gate, our lane had one ticket booth. The other lane had FOUR! Who designed that??? When we were finally almost to the gate, this random dude walks to our one ticket counter and has the lady help him with something. I was a tad bit annoyed at that point. Haha.

My dad sent us this picture and said, "Help!! How do you get him to stop?!!" We laughed and laughed about that. Bear loves that ball. He thinks someone should be throwing it at all times.

Bear and his ball

Line to get into the Grand Canyon

When we realized our lane had one ticket window and the other lane had FOUR!

Guy who decides to talk to the one line ticket counter instead of picking any of the other ones

Max with Bear at the dog park

Jorja and Mike doing a 'fit check'

The lookout point was a ten to fifteen minute walk from our campsite. Pretty cool! It's hard to capture in pictures how pretty it is. We laughed and laughed when a little boy walked by and said, "This is the worst walk EVER!" Hahahaha

Stockton, Preston, Mike, Jorja, Maysen

Stephanie

Jorja and Stephanie

Stockton

Maysen, Preston, Stockton, Jorja ~ Oh how I love them!

Stockton & Stephanie

Maysen & Jorja

Stephanie & Mike

Maysen

Maysen, Stockton, Jorja

Apparently the sun was in their eyes

As demonstrated by Stockton

Maysen isn't fazed. A true warrior.

We were able to walk on the 'rim' path for awhile to get different views. It was stunning. There were a few parts where there wasn't a railing. Mike liked taking pictures of the kids at those parts. I DID NOT like that one bit. I was so scared. Mike kept telling me it was safe and that it just looked like a big drop. I wouldn't even come close to look. I was just trying not to cry and saying mini prayers in my mind that nothing bad would happen. I haven't even looked at those pictures. I guess I should. I would probably love them now, knowing that my kids are all safe back home with me.

Jorja (Maysen and Mike just finished taking pictures)

Jorja

Maysen

I don't know what is happening in this picture, but it made me laugh

Jorja, Mike's right side and I'm guessing Stockton's fingers

Jorja

Jorja, Stephanie, Mike

Mike taking a picture of me with Stockton and Jorja. I wonder why Preston didn't get in the picture.

Jorja, Stephanie, Stockton

Holding my water bottle like a pro.

We walked back to our campsite and stopped at a pizza restaurant. The line was long and the pizza was small, but it did the trick. We were at the store in the campsite when Jorja was trying to watch a livestream of Aiden opening his mission call. She wasn't able to watch it, but found out he is going somewhere in Africa, Portuguese speaking. Pretty cool!

Today was also Grandma Honey's birthday. She would have been 82 I think. I can't even imagine that! Mike thought it was pretty cool to be able to spend his mom's birthday at the Grand Canyon. I have to agree!