April 2023 - Spring Break in AZ

We had a really fun spring break in AZ. We went to 4 parks / monuments in total:

Glen Canyon
Grand Canyon
Montezuma
Tonto: Superstition Mountains, Salt River, Saguaro Lake, Canyon Lake

The first stop was Horseshoe Bend.

Then we rode a train into the Grand Canyon complete with a live-action cowboy show, live music, root beer floats in the dining car, and lots of Mad Libs. Mad Libs was top entertainment on our spring break road trip. The kids looooved it. A lot of the Grand Canyon--including the visitor center--was unfortunately closed.

We drove along Route 66 and ate at a fun diner.

On the way south we stopped at Montezuma Castle, which still has 5-story cliff houses there after almost 1000 years (!!).

We had ridiculous amounts of fun staying with Casey and Jess. They were the best hosts. It was also really fun to see some of Kyle's friends and Kristian and Malori.

We had to take the kids to Organ Stop Pizza while we were in Mesa. It was fun that Alexa & Tyler are starting to recognize classic soundtracks like Phantom of the Opera, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, etc.

We did lots of beautiful hikes through red rock, canyons, wild flowers, cacti, and past wild horses (which I thought was so cool!).

On our last day there we went tubing at Canyon Lake, which reminded me of a mini Lake Powell. It's always fun to be out on the water with the kids.

Then back to real life...

Tad wanted to wait to celebrate his birthday until the new Mario movie was out. We planned his party around a weekend that Jimmy was in town from Manti. Tyler, Liam, Audrey, and I snuck out to see the new Mario movie on a date a couple of weeks later.

Baby Audrey continues to be adorable and gets lots of love from her brothers.

Kyle has been busy cutting down lots of dead trees on our property so we can reclaim our yard. Unfortunately, one of them dropped through the fence which was not what he was going for.

Tyler got an Etch-a-sketch at DI and he is insanely good at drawing stuff with it.

Other shenanigans:

Video of Liam whistling:

https://youtube.com/shorts/tkyXTKROJA0?feature=share

Mom: There's a new king, Charles. And his wife, Queen Camilla.

Tyler: That sounds like Canola.

Tad: I'm going to call her Vanilla.

Last but not least, we got a new car to replace the Matrix. We landed on a 2019 silver Kia Optima. So far so good. It's nice to have radio and bluetooth again, I forgot how convenient those things are :). PC: Alexa.

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La felicidad que se encuentra: Kyle, Jenny, Alexa, Tyler, Tad, Liam, Nathan, and Audrey

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