Lots of miles to travel in this one

OK, since I cut June short a couple of days I will just dive right in.  Be forewarned - this edition is LONG and there are LOTS of pictures.  Proceed at your own risk.  Sooooo the last time the kids were anywhere near Vegas we were just passing through on our way to Tahoe.  At first they wanted nothing to do with it but as we got close enough to see the sky line suddenly the shouts and cries from the back changed from NOOOOOO to STOPPPPPPP.  Ha Ha Ha, needless to say they were hooked.  Jim was more then happy to show them the family-friendly sights and of course we had to hit a "Lush store for both girls. They are addicted to bath bombs!  We had about 24 hours before Jim's sister and family joined us for the RV extravaganza so we didn't waste a lot of time sitting by the hotel pool.

Stand by Vegas!

Lilly and Ben wanted to do the roller coaster at New York, New York and Lucy did not, so after they finished we strolled down the strip to Paris and Lucy and I rode to the top to catch the Bellagio fountains at sunset.  It was SPECTACULAR! 
We now want to go see the real Eiffel Tower!  Hopefully one day!

The Becks rolled into town the next morning and we basically drug them to all the same places we had taken the kids the day before, but with the kids leading the charge.  Amazed at how much they picked up in the short time we had been there.   

Margaritaville was a good time!

We had time for one massive Vegas-style buffet breakfast before we picked up our mobile homes for the week.  But first, Walmart for supplies!

First stop on our adventure took us to Zion National Park.  With it only a few hours from Vegas, it was fairly crowded, but the campground was nice and we had a pretty good site close to the Virgin River.  Didn't take the kids long to figure out how to pass a few hours.  

Jim talked us all into hiking Angel's Landing the next morning.  Going on a tip from friends we needed to be on the first shuttle (6:00 am) in order to avoid the crowds and potentially see a spectacular sunrise.  I don't remember seeing a sunrise, but we definitely did not have any crowds until we started back down the trail.  The hike was advertised as moderate to strenuous, but our crowd was up for the challenge.  It started out fairly tame, but really picked up the difficulty as we got further along.  It wasn't until we were about 0.5 miles from the top that we started having second thoughts.  

In fact, we started up the part that has a chain bolted into the rock and after a few of the kids started to express concern, we turned around.  Definitely a varsity hike!  

We made it back to the RV's for lunch and to regroup.  Next hike was going to be the Narrows.  I personally was not really digging this hike.  All the press we had read made it sound a lot worse then it actually was.  Hiking on the river bed with the hard, slimey, slippery stones in cold water didn't really sound like fun to me.  It was also the most crowded.  Right away, I was turned off.  However, the further we hiked the better it got.  The kids really liked it.

Our time in Zion had come to a close and we moved on to Bryce Canyon.  On our way there we had to drive through a tunnel that was fairly narrow, so narrow that the two-way traffic had to be stopped in order for us to pass through it.  Of course the parks charge a fee for this privilege, but not as much as they should.  I bet if they raised the rate they could totally supplement their budget if the amount of RV's we saw on the road is typical traffic for the park. Just a thought.

Jim was having WAY too much fun driving the RV

We had barely gotten there when we had the kids off on another hike - this time a fairly moderate one that combined the Rim Trail with Queens Garden Loop.  Oh my the hoodoos were so cool!!!  Jim really wanted to do another hike but the kids vetoed his suggestion.  They needed some down time in the enos (hammocks).  

Our time in Bryce was super short.  Probably needed at least another day.  Oh well, off to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  The Becks have never been to the Grand Canyon period, and our crowd has only done the South Rim so we all got to experience something new.  Our campground was right next to the rim and two nights running we made it over to catch the sunset - or at least most of us did.  It was really cool.  We also hiked over to the Grand Canyon Lodge and also did Bright Angel Point.  The next day after consulting several sources Jim decided we were doing the "Uncle Jim" Trail.  The overwhelming majority of resources claimed that the hike would have "wonderful wildlife and climbing gently among tall pines" - HA!  More like a steep gradient climb through what appeared to be a recently fire controlled burn.  Oh and you start this trail next to the where the mules are kept.  So if you have mules you know you are going to have mule poop - lots of it!  To add insult to injury, apparently the trail isn't marked properly so who knows what we did or if we were where we were supposed to be or not.  In fact on our way back to the campsite at least on two different occasions we wandered into the staff area - oops!  It was still pretty awesome though!!

Before you know it the week is over and we are high-tailing it back to Vegas to return the RV's.  On our way out of the park (at the crack of dawn no less), we come across these.

Jim made them stampede by not coming to a complete stop.  The last little guy was clearly terrified. 

The rental ended early in the day so we decided we had time to check out at least one more item - the Hoover Dam!  We did a drive two years ago but this time we actually parked the car and went inside!  Jim had taken the tour when Lilly was 6 weeks old when my family came out to visit us for Christmas that year.  Lilly and I stayed in the car while she napped.  There was no way I was missing it this time!  It was incredible!  

We bade the Becks goodbye and turned our car towards Yuma.  All in all I would say the trip was a huge success - and all of it thanks to Jim!  He had been planning this thing since last Fall!!  Most of the RV sites you have to reserve 6 months to the day out with some sites "selling out" in minutes as soon as they become available (at midnight).  I think the challenge of that really got him excited about the trip and we all fed off of that.  If there is anything in the plus side for families being at MAWTS-1, it is the ability to actually plan a vacation IN ADVANCE because you know when you can take the time.  So you have him to blame for the length of the first part of this post - hee hee.

I barely had time to get the clothes washed before we were at it again.  Or at least some of us.  While we were on vacation, one of their swim coaches texted me and wanted to know if I could get Lucy and Ben to Goodyear (Phoenix) on the 7th for the Long Course Junior Olympics.  I barely got the sentence out when Ben committed. Lucy was a bit harder to convince.  As soon as she was put on relays that wouldn't have been able to compete without her, she was all in.  I ended up sending them up separately on Friday morning with other families that were attending.  My plan was to drive up early Saturday morning. Jim, of course, was out of town so I had to make sure Lilly had someplace to be because she did not want to go.  I missed their first event on Saturday morning but they had several more that day as well as a few on Sunday morning.  They had not been in pool since the end of May so I wasn't sure how well they would swim, but they did not disappoint! 

It is only the second week of July guys - I hope you are pacing yourselves. Once we returned from Goodyear we finally had a few days to truly relax and try to get ready for school to start.  One of the things the kids had to do every day was read for 20 minutes.  We gave two of the nephews the "air lay" bags for their birthdays and so naturally we ended up having to buy one.  Except we have three kids that all want to use it at the same time.  Guess who is ordering two more?

Lucy getting creative with her turn

Out of the eleven years Lucy has been on the planet, this is only the third one she hasn't spent in Swansboro.  Thankfully we had her party in May so her actual birthday was rather low key.  She wanted to have sushi for dinner and afterwards we invited some neighbors to come over to help us eat the ice cream cake we made.  It was delicious!!

Birthday Balloons in bed!

had to work at Camp Pendleton the next weekend and was able to get us a room at the beach cabins and since we have basically spent zero time in Yuma anyway, we said Let's go!! It was awesome!!  We got up there Thursday night and while Jim worked on Friday the kids and I played on the beach. Fantastic weekend ... SoCal is great!  

Trying to get a Christmas card shot

Oops!  Parent Fail

Saturday morning Jim had arranged for the kids to take a surfing lesson.  Since they didn't get to do that in Swansboro this year, thanks to some really bad rip currents, the kids were super excited!!  The instructor said his goal was to get them standing by the end of the lesson.  They started out on dry land going over the basics and trying to determine if they were goofy foot or regular.

After about 10 minutes they all went into the water.  Immediately all three were up!

So once the instructor realized he wasn't dealing with total newbies he started trying to get them up on waves that weren't shore breaks.  Two hours later all had accomplished that and we headed back to our cabin and rented a board to continue practicing what they had learned.  Jim and I even spent some time on the board.  We seriously need to go back soon!!  

Now these might end up on the Christmas card!

July is basically over.  School starts August 1st, so you can imagine what the last week of July was like - trying on clothes to see if anything still fits, going clothes shopping - because basically nothing does,  getting school supplies and cleaning out the back packs from last year.  Out with the old, in with the new!! Thanks for sticking with us, it was brutal.  August will be more low key - or will it?