A visitor

Eldon's older sister Judith is unmarried, thus making her the favorite Aunt among our children :). She is currently in Virginia attending college to be a Registered Nurse. On a whim, we suggested she fly to Arizona for her spring break and she did it! We drug her all over, trying to show her as much as possible. The first day she was here we hiked over 6 miles, and the second, over 4. Thankfully, Eldon had to work the next 3 days so we had a bit of a break and instead went to playgrounds and the library. One of those days her and Makayla and Michael walked the 8.5 mile rim trail that goes around the whole town! Once Eldon had his shifts done for the week, we packed up the camper and drove to the Grand Canyon for the last day she was here.

Paria Canyon

An old corral at Lee's Ferry.

The end of Glen Canyon and beginning of the Grand Canyon.

Evening walk to Hanging Garden.

Blue Pools Arch

Eldon and I celebrated 10 years of marriage on the 15th so the 2 of us made plans to go out for dinner one evening after he got off work. Judith consented to take care of the children all night so I surprised him and got a motel for the night. In typical Eldon and Monica style, we got take-out BBQ, looooong hot showers (no running out of hot water at a motel!),watched an episode of ER, and were asleep by 10 and up right after 6. No fancy restaurants or sleeping in for us! We were in a hurry to get home and head to the Grand Canyon though :). The children did fantastic, even Ethan so that was a relief. This is the first time we've left them just for fun and it felt quite odd but I'm glad we finally did it.

The Grand Canyon!

Makayla loves to get as close to the edge as we let her.

And this one, just give her food and drink and she'll be happy!

Aunt Judith!

I told him to smile normal and got this.........

      We hiked a 2 mile round trip trail to Shoshone Point. You won't find it on the maps but Google will take you to the unmarked trailhead. Because it's an not on the NPS maps, it wasn't overrun with tourists like us. There are several look-out points so we dawdled and had a good time. We headed to the marketplace so Judith could get a souvenir and couldn't even find a place to park! The main area of the park was just swarming with folks so we headed back to our camper.

     And, our camper just happened to be parked on Fire Road 688, which is right in the middle of the Pondersosa forest. No hook-ups which = not many people. Just silence and beauty.

Shoshone Trail is actually an old road. Super easy walking!

Home Sweet Home.

Since there was an overabundance of wood laying around, we had a roaring campfire every day.

And roasted marshmallows whenever we wanted.

The next day-it snowed!

Doesn't it look fun?

Hauling wood.

They played in the woods every available second for the remaining 3 days we were there. They didn't even want to go to the Grand Canyon again. So we didn't :)

When we left, we had to drive back through the park so we stopped for some pictures.

We even saw some elk!