Another goodbye, back on the road

We said goodbye to the White's and Flagstaff.

We stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park on the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

 

Snow skiing!

We have talked for years about taking our kids skiing...COVID made those plans impossible, so it was amazing to finally make it happen!

I am so thankful for these friends who are always ready to take on an adventure with us.

We put the kids in ski school and then had a little time to ski ourselves on the bigger slopes.

Colin:

Ben took this picture of me:

Altitude was not our friend and Alison, Eli and Jon didn't feel very well the first day.  We learned a good lesson and brought food with us the second day so we could eat lunch right away after ski school...snacks and hydration helped.

In the afternoon, we got to ski with the kids and see all their new skills.

**Will add video soon**

The kids all did a great job with skiing!  I was impressed with all of them.  On the second day, all my kids and Jon were feeling done, but the rest were not, so I took the done crew sledding at our favorite park.

Second stop: Flagstaff, AZ

From the Grand Canyon, we went down to Flagstaff and met the White's at a cabin that we rented together.  There was a pool table in the living room, which provided hours and hours of entertainment.

The view from our cabin:

The house was perfect for our two families and it even had a dog run for Maya.  Every day, a group of deer would meander through the field right outside our cabin and Maya would about lose her marbles watching them.

On the road! First stop: Grand Canyon

Photo taken by Alison:

Ben, Alison and Maya were in the truck,

And the boys and I were in my car.

We made it to the Grand Canyon in time for a late dinner at the lodge.

The next morning, Ben and I went for a sunrise run at the rim of the canyon.  It was an amazing experience!

We picked up the kids for breakfast and then soaked up some views of the canyon.

Ben, Alison and Colin walked a little down one of the trails.

This is where I learned that Eli is not a fan of heights and we stayed at the top.  The great thing about the Grand Canyon is that it's beautiful no matter where you are.

Unfortunately, Colin got hit with altitude sickness and we had to recover in our room for a few hours before we could leave.  I was so impressed with the staff at the Canyon and they went above and beyond to accommodate us.   This was our first time staying in the canyon and we had some amazing views from our room.  Maya could have stayed right here forever.

Our last week in California

Praise the Lord for packers and movers!  Just getting our essentials put together and out of the way for a cross-country move was hard enough!  This was some of our stuff, on top of the flooring waiting to be installed when we moved out:

We moved into a hotel while a few guys packed up our house.  It was a hard week, but we made the best of it.

First stop: Boba

Boba is life right now.

The boys went for a swim and then we went to get dinner at Namaste one evening.  I think it's going to be awhile before they are able to go swimming in January.

Alison went shopping with a friend one afternoon and the rest of us went to lunch at Waypoint Cafe.  It was a crazy windy day, but the food was out-of-this-world delicious and it was fun to watch all the airplanes come in.

We went to Ben's end of tour ceremony...terrible picture, but I'm still learning the ropes of what to do and what not to do during these military events.

We filled up with gas on base, which was cheaper but still around $4.40/gal and then said our final goodbye to Point Mugu.

 

Saying "See you later"

Our time in California has come to an end.  

While Ben took Eli and Alison to get new military ID's, Colin and I spent some time at Mugu beach.  I love that we always saw dolphins there.

 We spent a lot of our time in the last few weeks with friends, squeezing in as we could.

Eli hung out with Elias several times.  Their favorite thing to do was eat pop tarts and play a Lego video game.

We went to Fillmore for the first time, to spend the afternoon at Addy's house.

Tabby organized a fun picnic for a bunch of girls to send Alison off.

The brothers had fun at the other end of the park.

 As cheesy as it sounds, we also had to say a proper "See you later" to our favorite park...we have spent countless hours here and it was a special spot to us.