Ten Years ago TODAY....ish

10 years ago last weekend, Doug and I drove from Utah to home, as just "friends." I hooked him for the 12 hour drive by promising him we would see the Grand Canyon. The best I could give him was Jacob's Lake on the very most southern tip..... hey you gotta give me credit for trying :).

And so it is 10 years, 4 kids, and 3 moves later, we found ourselves at the Grand Canyon. 

It is AWESOME. So amazing. 

We took the train from Williams to the Grand Canyon (Nice I don't know even what city its in.... Grand Canyon?) 

It was a 2.5 hour train ride (a 50 minute drive) with lots of adventures (kids puking, babies crying, motion sickness, sugar comas) guitar players, train robbers, harmonica players, over-priced photographers, and the beautiful scenery horizon to horizon. Pretty incredible. 

The train robbers were the best though, second to Mikenna puking her guts out and Isabella completely losing her mind. Savannah was terrified (seriously? that girls isn't scared of anything!). She was crying and making all sorts of raucous. She was yelling at the train robber to GO AWAY. PUT HIS GUN AWAY. 

And even when he gave her a frog from him sleeve, she was NOT persuaded that he was the same "Cowboy Santa" that she had seen earlier at the gun fight and begged to have a picture taken! Gotta love her. 

When we got to the Grand Canyon we took a free tour to see all of the coolest points. And let me tell you. They. Were. Incredible. 25 years we have lived in AZ and this was our first trip. NUTS. 

My brother Logan mentioned that whenever he comes home he looks on the internet to see if he made my blog.... Well my friends here he is with his cute wife. Aren't they adorable? Well he will not only make it in pictures this trip, but there is a GREAT couple of stories he is going to make on my blog as WELL!!!

Did I mention this was a family reunion affair? Oh yes. It was our FIRST ever Walter Family Reunion. And it was pretty fun. We had all of us kids and all of the grandkids (ok mine plus one :)).

***note the MOBY WRAP that Isabella is in. It is about 15 yards of cotton fabric wrapped around my body. There was a woman who made the comment when she saw me that this particular wrap was only good to carry newborns and small infants. HMMMMM note a little later just how wrong she was.

We played games, ate food, walked, played games, ate food, walked. It was everything a family Reunion should be. With a little bit of cuteness mixed in. :)

Totally UNPROMPTED!!! Isabella went and grabbed a sandwich from the cooler and proceeded to carry it over to Grandpa and plopped right next to him. We about died laughing. She is a hoot!

Playing Ticket to Ride. My all time FAVORITE game. NOT. Actually it is sheer torture every time I am forced to play it. But sometimes I sacrifice for those I love. 

Isabella started this new thing.... she loves to hold our hands. SO adorable. She will put her hand up and say "MA, MA" which pretty much means anything she wants, including but not limited to MOM.

PS: Note the woman carrying the 8 year old on her back in the infamous MOBY WRAP. Oh ya. That's ME. Carrying Savannah. I know. I am buff. I ride my bike and do yoga. The reason that I mention MOBY WRAP is because I think it is the SHIZ! I can carry a newborn and a small 8 year old. All in the same get up. 

Why did I take a picture of Savannah asleep? Glad you asked!!! There was a bus of tourists from China. As they got off the bus there were several of them who came up to where she was sleeping and took multiple pictures. No, I am not even joking. It was so funny. Like they had never seen an American girl sleeping.... who knows maybe they hadn't. SO watch out world. You may see Savannah on another blog! But seriously. Doesn't she look adorable? Poor thing was so worn out and not feeling too good the whole trip.

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