Our RV Trip: Day 6-10

We rose early on the 6th day to be able to get a parking spot at the Slide Rock.  I think this was definitely the kids' favorite thing we did on the whole trip.  There are naturally eroded "slides" in the near freezing river.  There is also a deep slow spot before a dam that is for cliff jumping, but this sounds way more daunting than it actually is.  I was picturing a super high cliff and it wasn't more than a high dive.  I'm no high dive girl so I didn't do it, but Brian, Genna, and Drew (only after watching others for a while to get up his nerve) did it.  Hannah and Bobby wouldn't even do the slide, but they still enjoyed the time there.  The sun was blazing, so eventually we'd be driven to get into the numbing water for a bit to cool off.  The port-a-potties were beyond disgusting, but I'll spare you the details.  We were there for a few hours and then headed back for lunch before some adventurous ones went to a different "slide" rock area.  It was less popular, but I was told it was even better than the first one.   Bob needed a nap and was dying to swim and play on the playground so I stayed behind.

Sedona

Slide Rock

Our Base Camp at Slide Rock for snacks, water, and rest.

The big shoot/slide

Cooling off in the shallow slow water before the slide.

My Buddy when things get too wild and crazy for this girl 

All the girls!

All the kids!

The boys at the second slide rock

The Grand Canyon

Our day at the Grand Canyon was our last active day of the trip.  It also happened to be our 20th anniversary!  It was over a 2 hour drive to the south rim, but it would have been nearly 5 hours to the north rim because you have to drive all the way around the canyon.  We headed out on a scorcher of a day, almost 120 degrees.   We walked along the top of the rim and enjoyed the breathtaking views.  

Our one romantic moment of the day

I was standing next to this little cutie thinking I needed to stay close to him because he's my one to try crazy unexpected things.  You see that the rail has the double slanted railing on the top of it.  Sure enough, I saw the glimmer in his eye, and he ducked his head and tried to get in between the two bars.  I stopped him with my hand and said, "Oh no, buddy boy.  I don't think so.  It's a long way down." He just smiled that innocent smile of his, and didn't try anything else.

Drew is not normally a complainer on long walks.  He was walking full days in Europe before the age of 4.  However, he has his daddy's hatred for hot weather, and it makes him very crabby.  He actually barely complained at all, but this was the only face the Grand Canyon got to see of his.

Genevieve, on the other hand felt horrible this whole day and still gave us beautiful smiles and kept right on trucking with us.

Judah is carrying here one of the USB charging fans that I bought for the RV to help people fall asleep easier.  Turned out the power on these things was pretty lousy, but they provided some relief.

After leaving the Grand Canyon, we made two stops on the way back to Sedona to see some native American ruins and cliff dwellings.  

Tuzigoot National Monument

Montezuma's Castle (Cliff Dwellings)

And that's all folks!  We started our drive home that evening and stopped at an RV site in El Paso late at night.  That made our drive the last day much more bearable.  Overall, we felt like we were getting the hang of the RV by the end and having teenage girls in the RV (I'd been quite  apprehensive about this aspect before the trip.) wasn't so bad after all. They survived the close quarters and sharing a tiny bathroom and shower with the rest of us better than I could have imagined.  I'm not sure it's really the best method of travel for our family being that Brian is so mission-focused and doesn't like to stop and smell the roses along the way to our destinations.  If we were going to make a trip where there were many small destinations along the way, it might be something we could do again.  However, our kids are really good at the long drives in the van and we can make better time that way.  It was very inconvenient not having another vehicle if we wanted to make excursions from our base site.  Certainly, I do not want to rent one of these things in the heat again!  It was 121 degrees on the day we drove home when we left Arizona, and I was so sweaty when I was in the back of the RV even when we had the generator on.  

Our RV Trip: Days 3-5

I had been refusing to sit in the front seat of the RV for the first two days of the driving because I thought it would be too nerve-wrecking.  However, riding in the back was really freaking me out.  Hannah sat in the front the second day and told me she thought I'd be more comfortable up there because it was a similar feel to our 12 passenger van.  So, on day 3 I tried it out and found she was so very right.  It was much easier for me to feel how long it would take him to stop and from then on I was much more comfortable even when I was in the back.

On day 3 we arrived at our friends' house in Phoenix, AZ.  We had not seen these friends since we moved to Germany the second time.  They were stationed with us in Germany the first time and again in Maryland/D.C..  It's been nearly six years since our families were together.  

They have kids the same age as Drew, Isaac, Genevieve, and Hannah so the kids had a great time getting re-acquainted, swimming, playing games, and the little ones put on plays.

We slept in the RV out on the street.  The original plan was to park it in their driveway, but the measurements that the guys had exchanged over the phone did not account for when we expand the RV for sleeping.  So we had to park it on the street.  Also, we thought originally that we'd be able to plug into their house for electricity and A/C, but when Brian picked up the RV they said if you used the RV it would trip the breaker on the house.  Sooo, we had to run the generator until 4am when Brian would have to get up and turn it off and plug back into their house so we could use our outlets and fans to keep cool the rest of the night.    The reason we couldn't run the generator all night was the RV rental company told us you needed to check the oil level every 8 hours of activity and it couldn't be checked while it was hot.  This whole RV thing had quite the learning curve, but I think we did okay in the end.

While at our friends' house, we had a graduation "party" for their oldest.  This included the extended family that our friends had staying with them when we arrived.  They had grandparents and an uncle and aunt with their two small kids.  We are so glad we decided against bringing our dog, because there was a total of five dogs there when we arrived.  Two lived there and three were from the extended family, two of which were puppies with a lot of energy.  They had a very full house!

They live right by their church, and we walked down to Mass at 7:30am in the morning on Sunday, day 4, and spent the rest of the day hanging out and catching up.  On Monday morning, we set out together to Sedona Pines, a resort with mini cabins and RV spots.  

We got settled and went swimming, had pizza that the guys picked up from town and played a very competitive game of putt putt golf where I was the ultimate score keeper for seven kids while teaching Bobby how to play.  It was his first time playing, and although he came in last place he wasn't far behind the rest of them.  He was actually quite good for a five year old that had never played before.

They had extra room in their cabin for two, so Genna and Bob slept there to enjoy a cooler night sleep in a big comfy bed.  We were up early the next day though for our next adventure!