White Sands

Last month we took a little road trip with Ben's aunt and uncle.  We drove to New Mexico and spent the day at White Sands.  I had never heard of it before, but it is a National Monument, and it is exactly what it says it is...a bunch of white sand!

We all had so much fun and stayed for hours!  There are large hills, where the kids spent racing down on "sleds".  They also built forts and buried each other.  Ben and Uncle Wade even built stairs into the sand to make it easier to go up!  And they worked great!

Calvin waiting for the trip to begin.

The famous sand staircase!

Devin and Lacey had fun burying Heidi and Calvin!

Here is our "campsite".

Carson and Alli building their fort.

Good times, good food, good company!

We had so much fun! And with it being just over one hour away, we will definitely be going back!  We had to pretty much drag the kids to the cars to leave!

Arizona Roadtrip-Last Day

After we left Mt. Graham, we debated on what to do: find another camping spot or get a hotel.  Hmmm...hindsight is always 20/20.  As we were driving and it got darker and darker, we managed to find a road and we took it.  Since it was dark, we didn't see that the road goes right through a wash...with lots of sand.  Now in the past we would have just put it in 4 wheel drive with our Yukon XL, but our party bus doesn't have that feature.

So all the kids were asleep in the van.  They were sleeping so peacefully that we didn't want to wake them up, so Ben and I worked and worked to get ourselves unstuck.  We tried everything we could think of.  We dug, put twigs and cardboard under the tire to get traction, forward, reverse, but we only got deeper and deeper.  Finally we retired to inside of the van.  Kids were everywhere!  On seats, the floor, on top of each other.  I found a spot to sleep by Daisy's carseat, half on the seat and half off.  Ben slept in the drivers seat for a while and then moved to that spot that you step on after you open the sliding door.  Yeah, I don't know how he slept there.

So we got some sleep. Not a very good sleep, but some.  And we tried again in the morning.  We weren't very far from the highway, inbetween Safford and Wilcox.  One nice man stopped by and tried to pull us out.  It didn't work.  He had a small blazer and we have a one ton.  So he left and came back again with more "equipment" and tried again.  That didn't work either, but it was really, really nice of him to stop and try.  In the meantime, we were able to get a hold of my brother, James, who lives in Safford.  (Funny thing is, he just pulled my sister out of the sand the week before.  Thank goodness for little brothers!)  

I wish I could have taken some pictures.  James was driving over bushes and small tress like they were nothing!  He hooked us up and pulled the van out like it was nothing!  He was a life saver!  

 

Here is the tire after we tried all night to get it unstuck.

The Van View.

It got deeper and deeper the more we tried!

We did a few things to keep us all entertained for the 12 hours we were stuck.  Obviously the first part of the 12 hours, we slept, or tried to.  When morning came around, Caleb and Carson practiced their photography skill and took a few pictures!  They took some good ones too!  Some boys made towns out of dirt and rocks and sticks.  And of course we ate lots of snacks!

Daisy

Cactus Flower

We watched the highway and all the cars.

So after we left our "camping spot", we headed to Tombstone.  On our way there, we stopped in St. David and visited the cemetery there.  We found lots of family graves there.  The boys had fun looking for the headstones.  It was like a treasure hunt.

Our Great-great Grandpa Calvin Reed.

There were lots of pictures I took.  After we visited the town of Tombstone, we went to the town cemetery.   I'm not talking about the Boothill Graveyard, but the actual town cemetery.   Here we found Tom Brandt's Gravestone.  He owned the town bank and was the first one shot and killed in a bank robbery in Tombstone.  He is my Grandpa Reed's (Pa) uncle.

Tom Brandt's Gravestone

Then in the same cemetery, Lillian Reed is buried.  I believe that she is Pa's cousin who died in an automoblie accident (when cars were first coming out).  I was honored to participate in sealing her to her parents in the Temple.

Lillian Mrytle Reed  1909-1926

We had a great time on our Roadtrip and hope to do it again.  Next time, we will avoid the sand and get a hotel.  :)  It's the trips that don't go as planned that you will always remember.

Arizona Roadtrip-Mt. Graham

On our roadtrip, we stayed in Thatcher for a day or so with Wes and Brittany.  We had fun visiting with them and our kids loved visiting and playing with their kids.  Then we took off to go camping on Mount Graham.  We drove to the top of the mountain.  It was so beautiful up there!  We went up at the beginning of the week, so no one else was up there!

Ben took the boys shooting and we had a fun lunch.  But the closer it got to the evening, the colder it got!  Pretty soon all the kids were in the van just to keep warm with blankets.  It really wouldn't have been so bad, but it was a "no burn" weekend.  Ben and I discussed what we should do because it wasn't even dark yet.  So Ben, being the A/C guy that he is and never leaves home without his tools, took out his thermometer.  It was in the high 30's!  So no wonder why we were so cold!  That was too cold, especially with a baby!  So we took down the tents and loaded up everything as quick as we could before the sun went down.  We barely made it!  

We had to change plans and quick!  This is probably why Ben and I don't plan very often, it's because the plans don't go as planned!  This was definitely one of those times.  No one could have predicted what would come next...but that is for another day.  (How's that for a cliffhanger!)

The following pictures are courtesy of Caleb.

The boy's BB guns. Apparently two of them are missing.

We had a lot to load back up into the van and fast!

We had to put our jackets before starting.

Daisy stayed nice and warm in the van, bundled in blankets.

We barely made it before nightfall, and it was COLD! (For an Arizonan family)

Family Vacation

We stayed a week at Grandma and Grandpa Bear's cabin in Lakeside. We loved not having to do anything except relax! Here are a few of the highlights we enjoyed. We also went on a hike to a spring that is nearby. I couldn't get any pictures of the hike because it was raining and I didn't want to ruin my camera.

Here is a picture of Ben, Ashton, Calvin and Carson. I am standing on the dock and off to the right, you can see the beach that Grandpa Bear made. It is a favorite spot for the kids during the hot afternoons.

Caleb riding his kayak.

Carson and the kayak. He loved to see how fast he could go.

Here is Ben sporting his racing life jacket.

Ben took Ashton and Calvin on a canoe ride all around the lake. Caleb and Carson kept up in the kayak close behind.

The Demuths were up for a few days with us. Calvin and Riley are practically inseparable.
Every afternoon the thunderstorms would come in and we would just sit on the porch and enjoy. The boys had different ideas...they wanted to play Frisbee. They loved it and got completely soaked!