Last days .... Drive home to Idaho....

The pictures below are of our last days in Arizona.  Ryan's dad flew up to help Ryan drive the Penske!  We rolled out of town the day after Cooper got out of school, May 25th. We drove for 2 days and stayed the night just North of Salt Lake City so the traffic wouldn't be too bad!  

Packing the truck wasn't too bad but I didn't do too much! I just packed the boxes!  Ryan's dad was a bit hot due to the AMAZING weather - I think it was about 90 the 2 days he was there!  The kids loved having their Grandpa there and Grandpa enjoyed the nice weather and picking the oranges off the trees we had right in our backyard!  Not having those any more I realize I never once picked an orange.  Ryan always did it and squeezed them!  Another reason we need to go back to Arizona for a visit!  

First day of the drive I had all 4 kids as Ryan and his dad left 2 hours before us at 5am.  Not so good when you go to bed at 2am.  Ryan got sick and rode with his dad all but the last 2 hours and the kids did AMAZING in the van for me!  We hardly stopped as they wanted to keep catching their dad and Grandpa!  We stayed the night in a hotel that had a huge pool and the kids loved swimming and it wore them out!

Home stretch of Day #2 of driving for 12 hours!!  Everything went great and Ryan even rode with us for some of the day!  We didn't see snow until we were on top of Lookout Pass....We went from 90 and gorgeous to snow and rain for weeks .... I will admit I was unprepared!  We lived with one of Ryan's brothers  and his family until our renters decided to move out!  Lucky for them it was only for about 10 days!  

Chloe and Grandpa bonding??? 

Waiting for Cooper's bus on the last day of school :( 

Grandpa had to pick some oranges to bring to Idaho from our backyard 

Some random guy offered the kids to sit on his motorcycle and they LOVED IT!! 

Chloe loving the motorcycle!! 

Cooper got to ride with Daddy and Grandpa in the Penske!  Bad picture but he has a HUGE smile! 

SNOW 

Easter Swedish Celebration @ IKEA

Ryan took the kids to IKEA to celebrate Easter!  I forget the name of it but will have Ryan post about it!  Here are the pictures!

Cooper vs Beam at School

April 2011: We got a call at 8:45am (when school starts) from Nurse Watkins (who we also went to church with!  Cooper had ran into a "pole".  She was not sure what it was but we later found out when Cooper pointed it out to Ryan it was a big beam!  Anyways, he was playing with his friends and wasn't watching where he was going and BAM - smacked right into it.  

Ryan went and got him from school and went straight to Dr. Garrett's office.  Our pediatrician had already done stitches on Reese back in February so she was probably not surprised to see us again.  6 stitches later with NO crying and Dairy Queen with dad Cooper was ready for school again!  All his friends were so concerned about him and when he returned they all were surprised and ran to him when they saw him!  Just made his day.  

Had to be front and center!  Bummer part is the other dr took the stitches out and the steri-strips didn't hold too good at the San Diego Beach so his scar is a bit open ....He is still super cute!!

Nap Time

If you get offended I am sorry but this was too cute!  Reese falling asleep in the chair and just looking so comfy while snoozing away!!

Maybe Ryan was trying to work also....Probably didn't get much done!

Phoenix Zoo 2011 Last Trip

May 2011:  We were able to go with our friends the Campbell's for our last trip to the Phoenix Zoo.  Love that place!  We will definitely hit this fun place up when we visit again!  

That about sums it up!  The adults did too much talking so not as many pictures!  Last one was Ryker loving his snack since he didn't go on the camels and was stuck with mommy!!

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon ... Here is the amazing Grand Canyon ...I think that this is the South Rim area...I will admit I was lost and we were just lucky to find a place that was fenced but still get 1000000 dirty looks for taking our kids here!!  We went to the first area that was fenced pretty good but each time you went further down the path the less fencing there was .... And don't mind the smudges on the pictures as one of our kids got ahold of it and we didn't realize it!!  

Cooper was in this picture behind Ryan even though right off to the left there is a gap where there is no fencing we noticed after he tried to run away from us in that direction .....We are more than ever thankful we survived this trip and saw this amazing site God created and met our goal that none of our kids were injured!!!!!

Chloe and her twin

This is Random - This was Chloe's last play date with her best friend Lily in Arizona.  These girls were amazing together and just loved each other.  We have been home for 2 months and Chloe still asks to play with Lily off and on as they really just loved each other!!  We miss you Lily and your family!!!!

Bedrock City - Who doesn't love the Flintstones???????

Ryan really wanted to see the Grand Canyon before we moved from Arizona  Me, I could care less about a really deep hole but I will admit it was a fun, long, day trip!  This is the first part as we drove through a town called Bedrock City.  First thing you think of when you hear Bedrock has to be FLINTSTONES!!  I know most of you will appreciate this as we grew up on this show but our kids had no idea who the Flintstones were but they LOVED this run down, cheap place for them to run and be free from the van!!  This is a must stop about 30 minutes south of the Grand Canyon!!!!

That is Reese on the left and Chloe on the right ...It was windy can you tell??

So after all this fun I am not really sure the kids enjoyed the Grand Canyon because as far as they were concerned they could call this the Grand Canyon and would have been completely satisfied!!
Since I am so behind this really happened in April 2011.