Sedona: Polar Express

One of the highlights of the trip was going to the cute old town of Williams, AZ to ride the Polar Express. Andy became obsessed with Route 66 after this part of the trip and still gets excited when he sees 2 6's together.We ate at an old diner.

And then it was off to catch our train.

We made an important stop at Target on the way up to purchase our Christmas jammies so we would be all ready for our trip to the North Pole.

We met Santa before boarding the train.

We enjoyed perfectly warm hot chocolate and cookies.After seeing the North Pole and singing a dozen Christmas carols, Santa boarded our train to give each kid their own special bell.

After returning to the station, we met Mrs. Claus.Made some crafts.

Wrote letters to Santa.And put them in his mailbox.It was a perfect way to start the the holiday season.

Sedona trip: Grand Canyon

Here we are Day 5 of our Sedona trip. The kids were BEAT! So our Grand Canyon adventure was amazing but complete with plenty of meltdowns.

Andy was the first and it occurred minute 1 upon arrival because he JUST wanted to go on the bus. So he screamed up and down the walkway of the canyon. I'm sure a lot of innocent bystanders now have Andy screaming on their home videos of the Grand Canyon..our gift to them, Welcome to America!

The Grand Canyon is amazing! I couldn't believe it.

I had nightmares that 1 of the kids was going to fall into the canyon. Seriously...kept me up at night. You never know when your kid is going to freak out and throw a tantrum (which we experienced) or push someone and HELLO there are no railings. Serious freak out! Tyler found a sign that said Surprisingly not many people do fall off but those that have did not survive...Exactly!

We FINALLY made it on the bus which put an end to Andy's meltdown. I'm not sure which kid was next but....it might have been this sleepy girl.We rode the bus all over the town/village/National Park (whatever it is called), stopped for lunch, and went to the Visitor's center.We also saw lots of these on the side of the road.Right before sun set, Tyler and I wanted to check out 1 more spot. Ya know as a parent when you look back on an event and realized you were a few minutes short of missing the meltdown, well....this was it for us.

I think we came pretty close to loosing a kid over the edge at this stop. They were all SO DONE!We hustled to get a quick view before the sun set and the temperature dropped to 30 degrees and before we lost a kid.I will get this trip all blogged...only 2 more posts to go. Agh!

Off Roading in Sedona

I think it's mandatory if you go to Sedona, you HAVE to go off roading. It was one of the top things on our list. However, our van is not equipped for such treacherous driving and 4 of the 6 people in our family are minors. I was a little worried we were not going to find a way to make this happen. Thankfully we found a place that rents out these bad boys and we were ALL set.

The kids thought it was awesome!

So did Tyler.

Once we were prepped and geared up we headed off to see the sites.

The trails took us to some Indian Ruins.Chase was so cozy in his seat and slept most of the time despite the less than smooth ride.

Andy and Ashlyn both fell asleep and slept through the steepest, rockiest, Mom screaming part of the trail. Yes I was screaming like an old lady as the family chanted. I also needed a chiropractor after but Andy and Ashlyn slept soundly.

More Sedona

Another one of our drives in Sedona took us to a fish hatchery. For $.25 you can get fish food and feed these crazy things. They were jumping out of the water when the kids started throwing food and there were so many!

We hiked by the river to a little sitting area.....
and enjoyed the view.

Sedona Part 2: Ghost Town

Our 2nd day in Sedona we decide to check out the old mining town of Jerome. It is a cute town built right on the side of the mountain. We followed the signs to the Ghost Town.

Once there we were a little confused about what this place was. Basically looked like a dumping site (although somewhat organized) for old stuff/crap, with a few animals running about.There were more old cars than can be found at a car dealership.

I'm sure the look on my face was priceless because I really was confused.

Tyler asked how much the cars were selling for and the lady responded with something about not even for a millions dollars. (I was kind of relieved at her answer bc for the right price, I'm sure we would have acquired one. If you have driven by my house lately, you know why I would be worried/relieved)So we continued our walk through the "Ghost Town...

And stumbled across these cars.....hmmmmmm.....more questions raised.

And then the owner of place who had been following us around the whole time telling us about all the old stuff commented how he just took the yellow car out on same famous race track and gave it a spin. What? So we concluded that this super nice old guy who looked like he stepped out of the 1800's is actually quite wealthy. He leases this land and just buys and collects all the old stuff he can. I totally can see my step dad doing the same thing and just like this old man loving every second of it.