Road Trip To Mesa!!

Last Wednesday night Gary, Madi, Jackson, and I packed up and headed down to Mesa Arizona to see my wonderful brother David, his sweet wife Amy, and their CUTE twins, Stockton and Griffin. They were blessing the babies in church so we went down to support them and be there for the blessing!! We had such a great time! Mom, Dad, Kristen, Bryan, Lisa, David, and Justin met us all down there too! It was great to be with most of the family again (some couldn't make it down). Here are some pictures we took on the trip!! Thanks Dave, Amy, Kathy, & Brian for the wonderful hospitality and great time we had down there!!

First I thought I would let you see what great entertainment we had on our drive down!! Thanks Madi!! Here is a song she learned in preschool about her shapes!



Here is a picture of Jackson, Stockton, & Griffin hangin' out together!!

On Friday we went to a great waterpark in Mesa. Madi had a great time! I didn't get many pictures here because I had the camera in the locker most of the time and I forgot to get more pictures.. Oh well.


After the water park Gary, Madi, Jackson, and I went to get some of Madi's favorite Ice Cream, Dippin' Dots. She had those at Sea World earlier this year and loved them. We were all really tired after our day at the water park so we relaxed at Amy's parents house for the night while everyone else went to a Diamond Back's baseball game.

On Saturday we went to a place called Last Chance.. This is a store where Nordstom sends all of their returns. We had a lot of fun finding some great deals there.

After that we went to Amy's parents, Kathy and Brian Ellis, for a BBQ and got to swim in their pool! Madi loves to swim and everyone had a great time while we were there.

Stockton taking a break in his swing.. We all commented on how nice it would be to have that kind of life again! Stockton is wearing a onesie that David wore when he was a little baby!! Hard to believe we were all that small at one point.

Here is a great shot of Griffin!!

Jackson and Griffin playing together!! Jackson was pretty excited to play with his new cousins.

Jackson had to get used the water before he really enjoyed himself.. He was a little nervous at first.

Gary throwing Madi around in the pool!

After swimming we got dressed and went to an old ghost town/mining town. This was a fun little outing we enjoyed.. Madi and I had never seen these tall cactus before so it was great to see that up close!

Madi had fun with her cousins, David and Justin. They live up in Vancouver WA so we don't get to see them as often as we'd like!! Madi loves playing with them!

Here is David and Justin up on the balcony of an old Hotel.

The cactus here were huge!! Take a look!!

Dave, Justin, Madi, David, and Kristen

After looking around we went to the little restuarant there and had a snack. There was a great view of the Superstition Mountains from where we sat.

Thanks for taking us there Dave. It fun to see a little history around Mesa.

Sunday we were up bright and early to make it to the blessing! Stockton and Griffin looked so cute and were given beautiful blessings!

Stockton and Griffin relaxing on the couch after church.

After church we enjoyed a wonderful lunch prepared by Kathy, Amy's mom!! Everything tasted so good!! After lunch we headed over to Dave and Amy's to relax a little before we headed home. Gary and I didn't want to try and make it home in one day so we wanted to leave Sunday and break the drive up a little. We stayed in Page, AZ. On Monday morning Mom, Dad, Kristen, Gary, Madi, Jackson, and I went to the Glen Canyon Dam visitor center and looked around a bit. Gary, being the Engineer always enjoys looking at stuff like this..
Madi always likes to look at the dinosaur stuff..

Here's a great shot Gary got of Jackson with Lake Powell in the background!!

On the way home Gary and I decided to take the senic route and took Hwy 14 from Hwy 89 over to I-15 through Cedar City! Talk about a major elevation climb. I think our highest altitude was 9888. The views were beautiful and worth the little detour.

Here is a picture we took at the summit, around 9800 feet.

Well, we finally made it home!! Madi and Jackson were sooo good during those long hours of driving!! I was pleasantly surprised! Thanks again Dave and Amy for inviting us down!! Your sons are so cute and we can't wait to see you all again!