Family Vacation, Part 1 - Hatch & Arizona

So here we sit. On I-10 somewhere west of Phoenix. We’ve been at a dead stand still for over an hour now. Apparently there was a really bad accident a few miles up the road. Right now there is a group of four or five men from different vehicles all hovering over the atlas we loaned to them, seeing if there’s any way to get turned around and take another route. We’ll let them do the dirty work, then just ask what they figured out when they’re all done. :-) I really think at this point our best bet is to just wait it out. If ever I start to get frustrated in situations like this I only have to remind myself that somewhere up the road somebody—probably several somebody’s—have been in a tragic accident and my being delayed cannot compare to what they’re enduring. One of the map guys said he heard there were three cars involved, two of them burned and there was at least one fatality. I’ve been praying for all those involved and thanking God for His mercy toward us once more.

Okay, so that’s not a very jolly way to start a blog… Oh, wait… the cute old guy in the suspenders just returned our map and said some of them are going to try to cut across to the eastbound lane and find an alternate route. He said one of the other guys has a police scanner and he heard that the Interstate might not open up until 10:00 or later—that’s three or four hours from now...

Sooooo… we followed the cute old suspendered gentleman across to the eastbound lane and backtracked a mile or two and we are now headed north on a little dirt road, hoping it stays decent… Ha! Did I speak too soon?! We just followed Suspenders (in his nice 4x4 truck) onto another dirt road that had a sign posted: "Warning—Use at your own risk; this road is not regularly maintained." Wa-Hoo! Our vacation is looking to be a real adventure!!! Nuthin’ but memories, that’s what we’re makin’. ;-) More later…

Okay, I'm back. This time I am resting peacefully in the comforts of a motel room. ~aaaaahhhh~ What a blessing! :-) Now I'll back up and start at the beginning of our trip.

We got up Friday morning and packed. Crazy. Loaded the van and shut off, locked up, and bug bombed the house and were gone by about 2:00. We'd been telling the kids we were going to go to Albuquerque on our vacation (technically we DID go there on our way...) and they haven't been just too amused with it. After we passed through town James broke the news to them: we're going to CALIFORNIA! We talked about all of the things were going to see--the giant trees, the ocean, maybe Alcatraz, and the longer we talked the more excited they got. Especially Joe. He's the thankful child around here. The one most likely to plow you down with a giant hug in such situations. Since he was securely strapped into the van, however, he settled for hugging his boot. Weird-o.

Happy kids. Sooooo relieved to not be going JUST to Albuquerque on vacation. Ha!
We told the kids that we were going to visit a state they'd never been to before and asked them to each guess which one it would be. Katie figured we were going to New York to see the Statue of Liberty (a personal dream of hers--and mine!), Joe correctly guessed California, and Sam took a shot at Hawaii. We traveled three hours south that day to Hatch and had dinner with Brother Hector and Sister Erika at Sparky's (their food is sooooo good!)--and look!--Katie was right, we DID see the Statue of Liberty! :-) I insisted on taking her picture with it.
After our delicious dinner and nice visit we went to Youth Service at the church. It was so nice. I've never, ever been to church in Hatch that I haven't been blessed. Afterward we went back to the Soto's house (Hector & Erika Soto, that is) and visited with them and Jesus and Sophia for a while before we all crashed.

The next morning we got up early and drove to Las Cruces for Tayde's graduation. Believe it or not, it is the first graduation ceremony I have ever attended (crazy, hu?!) and I thought it was really cool. Though not nearly as... reverent (?!) as I would have expected. That was kind of weird! Ha! Still, it was a neat experience. And, of course, Tayde was the purtiest graduate of all. :-)

We left right after the graduation and drove the six hours or so to Sun City, Arizona, to spend the night with my great-grandma. We sat down and enjoyed some milk and cookies with her, then the kids watched a Shirley Temple movie (Katie loved it; the boys endured it) while James and I played "I Buy" with Grandma Bunny and just talked. Aside from it being 100 degrees when we drove through Tucson AND when we arrived in Sun City at about 8:00 last night (and nearly as warm in Grandma's house! Ha!), we had a really good time. It's always so good to see her. My kids think it's so cool that they get to see their grandmother's grandmother--most people can't even imagine that. She's a neat lady and we're blessed to still have her with us.
I had to post this picture. Ha! It CRACKS ME UP!!! This is the guest room at Grandma Bunny's house. Notice the picture on the nightstand... it's our family. That's because she knew we were coming for a visit. She keeps a drawer full of family pictures and before anybody comes to visit her she pulls out THEIR picture and puts it in the frame--so you'll feel especially loved and important or something like that, thinking that she keeps YOUR picture there by the bed all the time! HA! I love it! We tried to do that in our guest room. Our first guests were the Hays and we found a TERRIFIC picture of Brother Dustin to put in the frame. But we never have changed it out, so all of our guests get to wonder why in the world we keep a picture of Dustin Hays (and SUCH a picture) framed in our guest room--which I find even more entertaining the Grandma's approach. ;-)

This morning we enjoyed some blueberry muffins and fresh grapefruit from the tree in Grandma's back yard (heavily covered in sugar--the only way to successfully swallow grapefruit) before loading up and heading out. The Shulers' service didn't start until 11:00 today, so we had time to stop by Wal-Mart AGAIN (we had stopped there last night to buy some Mother's Day flowers for Grandma Bunny) and get the boys' hair cut. They were looking pretty shaggy and I didn't want all of our vacation pictures looking like that, so it worked out that we had just enough time to get 'em looking nice and clean again. That makes me happy.

We had a good service with the Shulers today with LOTS of fantastic music, of course. Uncle Colin preached a good message on prayer. Several of the Shuler kids and Katie read quotes and poems and such about mothers for Mother's Day, too. After service we went with the Shuler gang (including Uncle Colin's mom and dad) to Cracker Barrel for lunch. I took this picture on the way, for those people who've never visited Sun City...

Everything there is nice and clean and always freshly manicured. I always think it looks like something out of a movie. I would HATE to live there (wa-a-a-a-a-ay too hot for me), but I think it is one of the neatest places--I love driving through it.

Somehow I managed to not get any pictures of any Shulers. Weird. They are ALWAYS doing something picture worthy! We had a really good visit with them and I'm so thankful we were able to visit two of our churches AND get in a little family time on our vacation.

Once we left the restaurant we hopped on to I-10 and headed toward California! Wa-Hoo! And that, of course, is where we were when I STARTED writing this blog entry. The dirt road actually ended up working out okay for us, though it got a little rough in a few places. When we got to the end of it--where it connected with another highway that would get us where we were trying to go--there was a big metal gate closing it off so you couldn't get to the highway! We drove parallel to the barbed wire fence for a minute hoping to find a break in it (we saw a truck that looked like it had come from that direction who was on the OTHER side of the fence, where we were needing to be), but to no avail. When we got back to the gate a guy was standing there holding the gate open for his wife to drive through and he held it open for us, too. Ha! "Never mind us. We're the idiots who are going to drive the entire fence line looking for an opening instead of getting out and OPENING the gate so we can drive through!" How embarrassing. Oh well--we made it through and that's what matters.

All in all, the dirt road route was actually really neat! The scenery was amazing--such a cool "lost in some desert in the middle of nowhere" kind of a feel to it. We even stopped to take a picture with this cool desert-ish sort of cactus plant thingie.

And we always think the Saguaros are so cool. Joe thought this one was especially neat growing right there with a tree wrapped around it.
And here are some pictures of the sunset as we drove...

And FINALLY--after much sitting and waiting and then a very dirty, dusty ride along a winding dirt road (so glad we didn't get a car wash in Phoenix like we had hoped!)--we made it!
California. ~sigh~ Now the "vacation" part begins. :-) We actually made it all of about a mile past the state line before we found a motel to crash in! We moved into our room and James went out in search of dinner. He came back from Burger King with chicken and fries because they DIDN'T HAVE ANY BURGERS. Burger King not having burgers might be even slightly worse than the time we went to Dairy Queen and they told us they didn't have any ice cream. Anyway, we got all of the kids fed, showered and sacked out--they were asleep almost immediately--and now I've got all caught up on the blog. Tomorrow we begin weaving our way up through the ginormous state of California to see what we can see. James' only real preference was that I find a route that will deter us around L.A. He's never been there before and wants to keep it that way. I have been there before and am perfectly happy skipping it. We're not doing what most people to when they visit California anyway (Disneyland, the beaches with big crowds of scantily clothed people, etc.)--we're wanting to see more of the natural beauty stuff and take in sights that we've never seen before and may never see again. Los Angeles doesn't fit into the "natural beauty" category at all! Ha! So anyway...

The fun begins!