It was so great to see Peter and Emmalyn when we picked them up at the airport. I really enjoyed my time just with Maxwell. It felt weird knowing the family was split up and was good to be back together again.
Kimber and my new sweet baby nephew Hunter
Nana bought Maxwell this Baymax (from Big Hero 6) balloon. He loves it.
Playing "pool" with Grandpa
Video - Emmalyn was determined to walk down the stairs in the family room (made me so nervous with the marble floors) and LOVED LOVED LOVED Sheba. I was grateful Sheba is so tolerant of children. Poor Sheba is going to be ready for us to go home in a few days.
Heather, Hunter, and little mr. attitude - Aaron
Look at that sweet face! It sure is fun to hold a baby.
It is so fun to see Maxwell develop a relationship with his cousin.
Max hanging out with other cousins - Kaitlyn and Tyler
We all played heads up. Maxwell didn't fully get it but had fun playing (Mostly he would read the answer out loud if it was something he recognized).
Re-watching the video from one of the rounds
Sleeping in her sleepsack, no pjs.
I left packing for Emmalyn up to Peter and he forgot PJs. Whoops.
The next morning we got up "early" and headed out to go to the Grand Canyon. We've never been to the Grand Canyon despite going to Vegas countless times. Dad and Marriann had sold their house and were going to be moving out in January so this was likely the last time we'd ever stay in their house and who knew when we'd go back to Vegas.
The drive was so gorgeous!!! It's so nice to be around these gorgeous mountains after being in flat Dallas. It took us a little more than 2 1/2 hours to get there (after a couple detours from wrong turns) and the kids did great in the car - once we stopped and changed Emmalyn's poopy diaper on the side of the road.
We drove through part of the Joshua Tree National Forest to get there. It was so neat! I have never seen anything like it. They are fascinating trees. They are so unique, it almost felt like we were driving through some science fiction movie.
Stunning landscapes
We drove to the Havasupai Indian Tribe Reservation. We wanted to go on their "Skywalk" over the grand canyon and it was the quickest drive to get to the Grand Canyon. It's on the Grand Canyon National Park South Rim. They have the area set up as a total tourist stop with multiple places you can visit. As part of our package, we first visited the western town and had lunch.
Whoops - Peter and I found ourselves in jail.
The lighting is bad but here are the kiddos.
Cuties
So, fun story... As we were about to get on the bus to go to the next stop, I smelled poop and figured out that Emmalyn had gone poop. Well, I was holding her on the bus and Peter looks down and tells me that I have poop on my shorts. Nice. So for the rest of the bus ride, which felt like it took forever, I saw there scrunched into a packed bus...painfully aware that my daughter smelled like pooped...trying to carefully hold her so that the poop didn't leak further out of her diaper. It was awesome.
Finally, we get off the bus, and beeline for the area the staff pointed to when we asked about a bathroom. I go inside what is basically a trailer with bathrooms in it looking for a changing table and they have one BUT the stall is so small that you can't fully pull down the changing table beyond a 45 degree angle. Worthless.
Plan B! I laid paper towels down on the floor and got Emmalyn all cleaned up. Luckily she leaked mainly on me and her legs and not her dress. After she was cleaned up, I did the best I could to clean the poop off my shorts and we continued on with our day. Gotta love the poop drama.
Next stop - wandering through the different types of homes Indians lived in.
After we saw a few different types of dwellings, we saw the nice fancy building below. What was in this building? Oh...just nice restrooms. I didn't go inside because I knew I'd find big, spacious restrooms with a lovely changing area for babies. Grrrr....why did the staff point us to the other one?!?!
Yeah! The center with the skywalk.
We had to put everything in lockers. EVERYTHING. Diaper bags, purses, wallets, phones, cameras, change. Nothing could be left in our pockets.
Then we all put little booties on our feet. Max didn't dig them but Emmalyn loved them.
There were photographers there to take your picture on the skywalk (which they tried to sell to you later, of course)
It was interesting because the sensation of walking out on the skywalk with a glass bottom allowing you to see straight down to the bottom of the skywalk is unlike anything else. I wondered how the kids would do with it. Maxwell was a little hesitant at first but got over it fairly quickly and Emmalyn was great from the very first minute. She walked right out...later sat down and laid down as well.
The Grand Canyon was just breathtaking.
After the skywalk we walked over towards the edge for some pictures and I look up and Peter and Maxwell are way too close to the edge for my liking taking pics! ARGHHHHHHH
This was the picture.
Here's them right after the picture. It's much too close for my comfort. I've never felt anything like that in my life. My stomach dropped and I had genuine concern and panic until they moved away. I was like BEGGING Peter to move away from the edge. Sure they weren't RIGHT on the edge but what if something happened and a big gust of wind caused Peter to lose his balance? WAY TO CLOSE, right?!?!
My nutso husband took this pic over the edge looking down. I couldn't even look while he took it.
Isn't this just stunning? Even the clouds seem more picturesque here.
You can see the horseshoe shaped skywalk on the left
We then took another bus ride to a different spot to view the canyon
Again, this dude felt like he had to stand right on the edge. I think I might have literally been yelling at him to come back... it wasn't worth it.
He made me do it. I hated it. I thought about laying down on my stomach and inching out to this point. I don't need the thrill of looking over the edge. (Funny how this made me so much more nervous than the skywalk.)
We felt a couple random drops, plus needed to be heading back for plans we had back at Dad's, so we lined up to get back on the bus for our car.
Those clouds out there look quite threatening.
While we were walking back to the car the winds were kicking up and as we were buckling the kids in, big fat drops started coming down.
By the time we got to the exit from the parking lot, it was a freakin' monsoon. My windshield wipers couldn't go fast enough, I could barely see, and I felt like this was the type of place where flash floods happen and wash you off the road. Plus there was lightening and thunder. It was scary but on the plus side, the kids took a nap! :)
Even though it was raining and the kids were sleeping, we stopped to take a picture next to a joshua tree on our way out.
It was a crazy end to a great little road trip.
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