Prescott and the Grand Canyon

Our third day was spent in Prescott.  I strapped sweet lil V to me.

 And we took a lovely morning walk around the Groom Creek neighborhood and surrounding areas.

 We looked for birds and I longed for a longer camera lens.

We found a plastic deer that showed a sign of Graves' disease and Ryan was very quick to diagnose it. It is a little difficult to tell from the front, but its eyes are definitely bulging.

Once the sun really started coming up, it was very toasty, so we headed back to the cabin to finish our morning playtime.

We spent the afternoon at the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon and ended with a lovely afternoon rainstorm.

On our fourth day, we met my brother and his family at the Grand Canyon. We miscommunicated a wee bit when we discussed the meet-up time, as the south side had no daylight savings and the north side did. So, we showed up a bit later than my brother's family.

We started out by eating lunch in the picnic area while my brother dropped off their dog at the kennel. While we were eating, the kids saw a deer walk right through the parking area and began chasing it. It's all fun and games until someone gets lost. :-) We spent a few minutes trying to find little ones, only to find out they went to the restroom. Once we had everyone together again, we went to the first and busiest lookout point right next to the main visitor's center. My fear of heights certainly showed up in full-force at the edge of the canyon. If I were one to have panic attacks, I would have had many that day! Even as it was, I often found myself holding my breath with all my muscles tense just looking at people close to the edge. It was fun trying to keep track of all the littles, make sure no one fell over the rails, take pictures, and catch up with everyone's lives all at the same time.

 The views were spectacular and the clouds were very relieving. In direct sun it was incredibly hot, but as soon as the clouds shaded us it was beautiful. After we left the first group of lookouts, it started sprinkling on us. It was a nice break from the heat.

 Ryan had the babe strapped to his back in my sister's pack. We were so thankful to have it instead of the Moby with how hot it was. The only scary thing with it, though, was that she was held in only by a loose strap around her waist and Ryan kept bending over the rails, putting her almost horizontal. The first time I saw him do that I completely freaked out. Each time after that, I made sure to grab her foot so she couldn't wiggle out of the pack.

My brother took a picture of our family, but somehow we didn't get a picture of both families together.

 Even more beautiful than the canyons were the clouds as they quickly rolled across the sky.

 By the time we rode the shuttle to the second set of lookouts, the lil one was fast asleep.

The views from the second lookout were just as amazing and colorful.

We walked around in the air conditioned building, learning about all the rock formations and earth layers.

 While we were there, I discovered a job that I would not be a good candidate for: a window washer.

This ledge actually went all the way around the building at the base of the windows and there was nothing under them to break your fall, well, except for the bottom. 

 By the time we finished at the second lookout areas, V was not only asleep, she was completely conked out.

After that, we rode the shuttle back to the visitors' center and parted ways with my brother's family so they could make it to my parents' house before nighttime.

 (Ryan standing with V on his back, Ethan in the gray hat, Aimee in the pink hat, and I think Jane next to her. Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

(Jayke next to Markie, Kate next to Sophie with Andy on her lap. Again, please correct me if I mixed up the 2 younger girls. I can finally tell them apart when I see their face, but not the back of their heads.)

The kids were so excited that they could ride a bus and even more excited that they didn't have to wear seat belts. They loved playing with their cousins, even if it was only for a couple hours and were so sad when they had to say good-bye.

After my brother's family left, we went to the visitor's center to look around and also so I could feed V. You can tell she has a full belly now with that big ol' grin across her face. Full belly, happy baby.

We hopped back on the shuttle to see the lookouts on the East side of the visitor's center. This is where the storms really started gathering, giving a beautiful contrast to the canyon walls. 

 It was beautiful to see all the different depths across the canyon.

Jayke convinced us that he could handle carrying the babe on his back. I was a lot more nervous about him carrying V than I was about Ryan carrying her. I wouldn't even let him come close to the edge out of fear that he might slip on loose rocks, especially since the lookouts on this side did not have rails like the other ones did.

At our last stop, the rains started coming down at the other side of the canyon. It was beautiful to look at. 

 Even more beautiful, though, was the lightning. Incredibly dangerous, I'm sure, but there were a few of us that sat there trying to get a little lightning on one of our exposures. The rain was really thick and it was still pretty light out, so it was hard to get any bright lightning in the pictures.

With a quick black and white conversion, you can barely start to see the lightning on the left side.

And turning just a few degrees, you wouldn't even realize that the storm was so bad right around the corner.

The kids enjoyed the views a little and the parents probably appreciated its grandeur a lot more.

 As we were getting ready to board the shuttle again, the storm clouds were covering up the last bit of blue sky to be found.

As I sat in the van feeding V while the kids were in the visitor's center getting another junior ranger badge, the rains started coming down. First in a light drizzle, followed by a heavier sprinkle, and then finally a good rain. It could not have been a more perfect way to end the day.  I love the rain.

Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Well

Our second day trip while on vacation was to Montezuma. It was pretty interesting seeing the homes built into little coves on the side of a cliff.

They had a model made of it so people could see what the building actually looks like since no one is allowed to go inside anymore. I was amazed at how large it was. From the ground it doesn't look like more than a couple rooms, but it was quite elaborate.

There were little alcoves all over the side of the cliff where they had storage areas and other little rooms. It was actually pretty interesting to see.

While we were there, Ryan heard a group speaking Tagalog, so he started talking to them. He always surprises people when he does that. They usually ask if he married a Filipina, but he obviously didn't. Then they start asking him why he speaks Tagalog like a native. It's always a good conversation. In usual Filipino fashion, we were instant best friends because Ryan shared a common language with them. We all hung out while Ryan talked with them. They were a 4 generation group/family from Western Canada. It was a couple with a baby, both of their parents, and one set of grandparents. They were a lovely family. Before we parted ways, they wanted to take pictures of us and with us.

Now in front of the ruins.

 Now with some of the group.

Now with the whole group (except the man taking the picture).

Now some of the cute baby.

 (All of the above photos came from the family that we met.)



I was really surprised at how high up the cliff the buildings were. I pretty sure I would not want to raise little children up there. Could you imagine trying to keep a crazy toddler from trying to jump off the ledge? I think we have it bad trying to keep toddlers from jumping off the table or couch!

The kids all became junior rangers and were given a badge and sworn in. I'm pretty sure Ryan took a video or at least a picture, but I can't find it. I am assuming it is on his phone.

After Montezuma Castle, we went to Montezuma Well. It was pretty well hidden in the surrounding hills. If you didn't know it was there, you wouldn't find it. It was basically a hill that had the center of it dipped down with a little lake in the bottom of it. It was actually pretty far down, even though you can't really tell from the pictures. It was far enough down that we didn't want to hike down it with the impending storm.

 It was nice having a happy baby for the trip.

There were even ruins under the edge of the cliff. Don't ask me how anyone got in there or even how they crawled to the other rooms that were down a little further. The cliff was basically a sheer drop-off that went right to the water.

From the location of the well/lake, you could walk a little further down the other side of the hill and down through some rocks to see where the spring came out of the ground. It was a complete different world down there. Everything was so green and cool. It was very refreshing after being in the hot and muggy hills. The spring comes out of the ground right behind where everyone is standing in this picture and then flows along the side of the rocks until it goes into the nearby stream.

The stream is flowing right at the base of the rocks.

And merges with this little stream.

We were a little nervous walking down on that part of the trail because we saw the rocks that were right over our heads were just balancing there. I was fine (meaning completely oblivious) until Ryan pointed it out to me and then I was quite anxious to get out of there. We found this rock on the way out that looks like it was carved to look like a Native American. It was pretty interesting.

 Right after we left, the storms rolled in and gave us the most beautiful clouds to look at and down-poured rain on us. It was just perfect.