Day 16 of 17 (New Mexico to Arizona)

From: Farmington, NM
To: Williams, AZ
Miles Driven: 345 / 4,864 Total
Miles Hiked: .7 / 13.5 Total

Today we went to the Grand Canyon.  After entering the park there were some canyons that looked big, which made seeing the actual Grand Canyon that much better.  We started with the Desert View Tower which was pretty stuffy and honestly not the best view of the day.

Next, we drove along the rim making several stops at the view points and turnouts. Now at this point it is important to tell you that this was the extent of the day I had planned.  Driving, parking, viewing, and repeating. So, here I was in flip flops and no sunblock.

BUT, after stopping at the Visitor Center we decided to do a portion of the Rim Trail. It was totally worth it. Only .7 (of the 2.2) miles, but flip flops aren't the best for wanting to get out on the rocks and being the white red head that I am, I was burning within a few minutes.  I made it 15 days without really a significant burn (a little pink at most on a few days), but now I am red nearly head to toe.

However, it was great that all the kids were in a pretty good mood today (not a common occurrence the last few days).  If you haven't seen the Grand Canyon I do highly suggest it. It wasn't the "prettiest" thing we saw this trip, but there has been nothing I've ever seen that made me feel so small. Like seriously, how insignificant am I?

Day 13-15 of 17 (New Mexico)

From: Los Alamos, NM
To: Farmington, NM
Miles Driven: 902 (last 3 days) / 4,519 Total
Miles Hiked: unknown / 12.8 Total

Rest assured, we are not dead. We were just merely without internet for a couple of days so I'm catching up on 3 days worth of traveling.

On Saturday we went to Bottomless Lakes State Park.  It was hot, but the waters was amazingly cold which felt great. The kids saw paddle boats and asked to try them so Justin agreed and they headed out. At first, they were fighting over who was going to paddle, but they eventually gave up leaving Justin to do all the paddling.

We only spent a short time at the lake though since we had a long drive to Mayhill.  Don't worry, nobody has heard of it. So how did we end up there? Justin joined this Facebook group, and one of the admins is this Pastor.  This Pastor was visiting Anaheim not long ago and posted about it in the Facebook group. We met for dinner and we all very much enjoyed our time (kids and adults).  So when we talked about driving through New Mexico on our trip we figured out a way to make it possible to drive through Mayhill where Pastor Matt Henslee preaches.

The house we were staying in was next door to the Henslee's and we were greeted by their 4 girls. The kids instantly started playing and we pretty much spent the next 2 days hanging out, eating, and honestly (at least for us) enjoying the best 2 days of vacation.

After church on Sunday, we headed to White Sands National Monument to go sand sledding. So when you see what looks like snow pictures, know this is purely white sand. It was STUPID hot, but if you dug your feet into the sand far enough at least the sand was cool.  We didn't last very long though since the heat was quite overwhelming and although sledding down the sand dunes was awesome, climbing up was exhausting (especially in the heat).

Overall, a fantastic few days, but I'm glad we're on the last few days of our trip. I'm ready to be home.