Road Trip! Part 3

Canyon de Chelly, Chinle, AZ

Canyon de Chelly is a canyon with ruins from the indians (I'm thinking Aztec but I could be wrong). It is one of three...Mesa Verde, Mexico and Chinle. We have been to the others and so we decided to see the last of the three.

It is the only one where today they still live in the canyon.


This ruin, The White House, was the only one you could hike to without a guide and it was ONLY 3 miles round trip. So we headed down...600 feet down in 1.5 miles...whew! When we got to the ruin, we discovered you couldnt actually go to it...just view from a distance. All that work for a closer view...hmmm. At least they had bathrooms down there! :)


On the way down I had Audrey on my back and she passed out. On the way back up...well Dad had her or I wouldn't have made it back up.
Mom was having lung problems due to the cottonwoods at the bottom so I was enlisted to be her cheerleader...Keri and Dad went ahead...and mom and I......well we went from rock to rock, shade to shade...and we EVENTUALLY made it (mom got feeling better and we changed rolls) to the top many hours later.

Audrey loved being with Tia and of course collecting her rocks.





We eventually headed back to Albuquerque, NM and spent time with Grandma and Grandpa Hanchett before Audrey and I flew home to Phoenix tired and ready to see Daddy again.

Road Trip! Part 2

St. George, Utah to Chinle, AZ

I love the town or St. George how it's nestled into the sides of bright red mountains. So beautiful especially with the white temple that stands out of it all.
We were able to stay with Keri's old roommate and great friend, Ami Jo (thanks ami!) and Ami's sister was to willing to watch Audrey while the adults went to see The Little Mermaid. It was a theater that was set into the mt side and allowed them to flood the stage and give the crowd the feel of being underwater. It was an amazing production!
The next day brought the longest drive of the trip but Audrey was such a good sport! It did help of course that Tia was so willing to entertain her. At one point, Keri was talking to the adults and Audrey decided to entertain herself...

We passed through Zions National Park and saw SO MANY beautiful sights!



This hole in the rock is for light to come thru for the road that goes thru the mountain...all natural light.


Even Audrey got into the sightseeing! Tia taught her "Look!" and she would say "Look!" and point out the window.

We Also stopped at the dam at Lake Powell and went into the visitor's center.


The funny thing about this picture is that Audrey was so fascinated by rocks she would collected a rock from everyplace we went.



After a long day, we FINALLY pulled into Chinle, AZ. Toward the last part, Audrey was wrestless (we all were) and as soon as we pulled into Chinle, Keri and I started cheering and Audrey joined in the celebration. It had been an 8 hr drive.

Road Trip! Part 1

At the end of June (starting our six weeks of constant travel), Audrey and I did our first road trip of the summer with Nana, Papa, and Tia. In one week, we went from Las Vegas, Nevada to St. George, Utah to Chinle, Arizona to Albuquerque, New Mexico. 1,073 miles round trip!

First stop: LAS VEGAS, NEVADA!
On our way there, we stopped at the new Hoover Dam By Pass Bridge...it's high! Yowzers!
Then we made our way to Vegas where we stayed at the Stratosphere.

Great view! :) You can't see it in this view, but we could see part of the strip and if you looked up you could watch part of the tower jumpers go off.
Keri use to live in Vegas and while she was there we all discovered that Vegas is the best place to SHOP!





Papa and Nana showing Audrey the fish at Caesar's Palace
We also got free passes up the tower for a great view (it took some convincing on dad and keri's part because I was so nervous of the hieght.) but it was worth it!





There was also sightseeing at the Bellagio

(my favorite part of vegas!) to see the waters and the flower room



Audrey was not quite sure of the dancing waters at first but eventually relaxed and started dancing.
We played hard and were very tired but ready to move on to our next stop...St. George, UT (Part 2)
Audrey couldn't leave papa alone!
Side note: Audrey fell in love with papa on this trip and she even learned the word Papa. She couldn't sleep while we were there and so my WONDERFUL mother was able to convince her to relax and my parents were sweet enough to let her sleep in bed with them. So in the mornings, Audrey thought it was the most wonderful thing that she could wake up next to Papa!

shakin' it