Thanksgiving report

I have wanted to blog about our great Thanksgiving trip to Flagstaff, but I wanted to use pictures too. Well, we have soooo many pictures that I couldn't decide which to use because my perfectionism kicked in so here is a quick recap. Jamie flew home from Idaho on the saturday before Thanksgiving and we left early on Tuesday with my parents. We managed to fit in the van pretty comfortably for the 7 hour drive. We rented a house in Parks, AZ which is about 15 miles west of Flagstaff. There was snow on the ground but not much of a chance for more. The house was on a dirt road with a driveway going up a hill to the house. Jim tried to get the van up the hill, but we decided to leave it at the bottom and just walk up. I asked him if the van would slide on the incline and he said no. Well he was wrong because as everyone was carrying suitcases into the house I was behind the van pulling more out and the van slid into me. Lucky for me it didn't go too far because I was loaded with stuff and couldn't move out of the way very fast. That really convinced me that I truly am not interested in living in snowy areas.
Julia had some classes to finish so we picked her up at her apartment after a grocery store stop in Flagstaff. The weather was cold and we did have snow (Amelia was thrilled). Jim bought a sled at Target and he and the girls were sledding that first night. We went to the Grand Canyon on Wednesday and as soon as we got out of the van it started snowing and the wind was blowing so we were freezing. We spent about 2 hours walking around and seeing as muchas we could with the clouds down low in the canyon. It was really beautiful, but way cold. Jim and I had fears of ending up in a ditch again like we did when we visited his brother there when Julia was 2 years old, but we made it home safely this time. We spentThanksgiving at the house watching the parade, playing games, playing in the snow and enjoying Julia's first pie. On Friday we went to Sunset Crater and walked around enjoying the scenery and snow. We headed home on Saturday to have Jamie home in time to fly back to school. It was really great family time. It was a good thing we left Saturday because they had more snow on Sunday. Julia sent us pictures of her car buried in the snow. I guess she will learn quickly how to dig it out to get to work and school. Her are some random pictures from the trip. I definitely have to include the one of my mom sledding with Jamie. She is such a good grandma!



Freezing at the Grand Canyon!