Thanksgiving trip to Arizona

 For Thanksgiving break we drove down to Arizona to visit Aunt Marian, Uncle Ryan, and family. 
We stopped at the Grand Canyon on the way down.  The kids were not too excited about the canyon and were ready to leave after the first few hours.  (We spent an afternoon, night, and morning.)  They were really anxious to get down the road and see cousins.

Here is Nathan before the "Wow Effect" wore off.

We saw a lot of the canyon at dusk.  We walked along the rim, saw some elk, and went on a couple of short hikes.  Clara was intrigued by all the mule poop on the trail. 

The highlight of the trip for the kids was eating dinner at Wendy's and sleeping in a hotel.  We considered camping, but I was a stick in the mud.  Not interested in shivering all night, cooking and cleaning up breakfast, and packing up again in temperatures well below freezing.  Not worth it.  Sorry.

The kids enjoyed the watchtower.  Nathan suggested I put the camera up to the binoculars.  Pretty cool!

Arizona has beautiful sunsets!

 Finally with cousins!!  Nine kids, lots of noise, lots of action, lots of fun!!!!

We had Thanksgiving dinner with David's Arizona relatives.  It was so fun to catch up with everyone and get to know them better.

The next day, Uncle Ryan took us on a short hike along Merkle Trail in Usery Park.  There were lots of great rocks to climb on.  The kids had a blast at the playground in the park.

That evening we went to see the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple.  Wow! 

As much as I like the lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake, I must say I like Mesa's Christmas display better.

We had a wonderful visit with the Chases.  The kids got along really well.  I wish we lived closer so we could see them more often.