Family Trip

On December 26th, Cass, Caden, Kinsie, my parents, Tory and Brandi's family, our family friend Chelsey and I all loaded up our suburbans and embarked on a seven day vacation to sunny Arizona! (Cass's brother Roby later joined us in Arizona.) The first two days of the trip were spent driving through Missouri, Kansas, Texas, and New Mexico.

On the third day of our trip we traveled to the Grand Canyon, where we traveled the route around the South Rim of the canyon. Finding the right words to describe the view is difficult as it was so breathtaking!

Our first stop was at the Canyon View Information Center. The first look-out center was Mather Point, where there was a very neat stone tower that you could go inside to view the canyon. There were several floors to the tower...the first picture is one that Cass took of Kinsie and I while we were standing at the bottom and Caden and he were standing at the top level.
There was also a really neat rustic seating area where we were able to get some great pictures of the kids.

After spending the afternoon at the Grand Canyon we traveled down Canyon Creek drive. This was a very narrow highway that wound through the mountains as we descended down. All of the kids exclaimed with joy and through their arms up in the air as we traveled down...I on the other hand could have done without viewing the steep canyons that went directly down on the side of the road!! We then traveled through scenic Sedona. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and as the sun set we drove through town, which was magically lit with Christmas lights. At the end of the day we stopped to spend the night just outside of Phoenix. We had a lot of fun that night just relaxing at the hotel and playing the Wii.

The next morning we woke up and were very excited for the short drive into Tempe to the Arizona Grand Resort. When making plans for our trip to Arizona we had chosen the Grand Resort to stay, as it was the official lodging for several of the ISU groups. On Christmas morning my parents surprised Tory and Brandi and us by treating us to our stay at the resort as part of our Christmas gift! A special THANK YOU, Dad and Mom, we loved our stay and it was such a generous gift!! I can't really say enough about the resort! The service, accomodations, and setting were all so wonderful!

The main lobby of the resort had a beautiful outdoor patio that looked out over the resort golf course. There were fire pits, chairs and tables all around the patio and it was a great place to sit and relax. The lobby restaurant also served meals outside so you could eat and enjoy the view.

This was the view from our suite. It was gorgeous!! The resort has an incredible water park and you can see one of the slides in the distance. The water park also had a wave pool, lazy river, giant hot tub and pool. The water park is usually closed during the time that we were there, but they opened it up for one day to treat all of the Iowa guests.

On December 30th we attended the ISU pep rally at the Rawhide Wild West Town. Rawhide is an 1880's wild west town and was an awesome setting for the pep rally. Following the ISU program, we ate an outdoor dinner, roasted marshmallows and enjoyed some of the attractions of the town. Our nephew Adler even took a ride on the mechanical bull! He did such a great job and took quite an exciting ride!

The 2009 Insight.com Bowl was held on New Year's Day at Sun Devil Stadium. It was a beautiful 70 degree day!

While tailgating we ran into Brad Rumple and were able to catch up with him. His nephew was a senior football player so his family was very excited to see him play in a bowl game.

The parachuters during the pre-game ceremony were awesome!

On New Year's Day we reluctantly loaded up our vehicles and started on our drive home. As you can see by the pictures below the kids were very worn out...and the adults were too! It was such a fantastic trip, full of wonderful memories and the kids are already asking if when we can go back! I am also hoping that we get to return to Arizona next year!!