Re-visiting a great trip

We decided today, on thanksgiving we would watch one of the HOW video tapes..... we had a great laugh.  here are some of the quotes from the first few days of our trip:

"They have nothing to do in South Dakota, so they do this (showing random sculptures at a farm)"

-Jessica

"Why didn't they just do this: YIAIAIAIAI (running towards the deer with an arrow)"

-Shelby

"Pete thinks that BP is going into a country-wide thing to piss him off"

-Mom

"I got those ibby-jeebies again!"

-Mom

"I found a geode"

-everyone

"White Domination!!!!"

"It's like the Mohave dessert out here, well not really cause there's grass and its about 80 degrees cooler."

-Mom

(dressed in a raccoon skin hat)"and then Lewis and Clark set off.... (runs off, and the hat falls)"

-Chris

"In my mirror you can see, they're still attacking us.  I don't want those animals near me. (talking about the burros"

-Dad

"The donkey mauling"

-shelby

"They'll eat you.  They'll eat your hair and then suck you out of the camper (talking about the bison)"

-Mom

And one of the most cherished lines of the entire trip:

"This is NOT Disney Land!!!"

-Dad

So What Now????

Well! I finally finished posting our lovely trip! Everything is up here so read enjoy, laugh at us, or with us. Thanks for following along on this long journey i'm sure some of you enjoyed it as much as we did!!
Here are the STATS by the end of our trip:
We drove a total of 7,841 miles we drove an average of 8.92 miles per gallon, we bought 879.99 gallons of gas and we spent a total of $3,644.83 on gas!
Lets see, with 3,644 dollars you could buy:
1 used Nissan Maxima GLE
7 dell laptops
20 Ipod nanos
123 American Eagle Jeans
925 gallons of milk
or
6,166 pencils

Wow. So now what? Since my trip is over i have decided to create a different blog:
http://theventfullifeofme.blogspot.com/.
That blog is for everyday randomness i really put a bunch of my thoughts on it and hope people find it interesting.
This blog i will still use, when i go on vacations or trips of any kind! Yay! So if you want to keep up with me, read my blogs!

A few last thoughts:
~so sorry for all the typos! I know there's a lot!
~i changed all the dates so the posts were on the right days, i did not travel back in time and finish writing all of these

** To read this in order, i highly recommend going to the first blog and working your way up!**

(hint: it starts with the entry; T minus: 23 Days 2 hours 9 minutes!!)

Homeward Bound

We woke up bright and early at 6:40 and started drving.... and driving...and driving... and driving... we drove till 1:30, and that's when we pulled into out driveway. OUR DRIVEWAY!!!!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!

OOOOOHHHHklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain

On our was to OK City we saw a huge cross. like HUGE!!!! it was 190 feet tall! So we pulled of the road and went to chekc it out. It was all life size bronze statues of the stations of the cross. They were amazing!! It takes 9 months just to make one person, and there is only one guy making them.

Then we went to the Oklahoma City Bombing muesem. It was THE BEST muesem i have ever been too. And believe me i have been to countless number of muesems. It was the most beautiful touching memorial to the people who died and the ones left behind during the oklahoma city bombing. Outside there was a huge reflective pool symbolizeing the exact second when the bomb went off, and there are chairs set up for each life lost on each floor.


Then we drove to the old huge silo that was converted into a rock clibing arena. It was pretty awesom, chris anmd shelby clumbed, and the rest of us just watched, it cost a bunch of money!


Then we went to El Chicos for dinner. We had a GREAT time. We got a little crazy.... if you know my family well, you know when that happens things get a little weird....
Shelby kept doing the weird "hook the moon" dance move (that was an inside joke the whole trip) and Chris hate so many chips he didn't eat any dinner. It was our last night on the trip and we went crazy.

Shelby's hook the moon in Chicos:

Skinny side of the table:

Fatty side fo the table:


After we ate too much:

We drove for 2 hours and slept at a Mickey D's!

RAFTING- white water style!

Monday June 30th:

This was so much fun. Best day ever! Our raft guide's name was Jared and he talked very quietly. So we are like paddling like crazy and he's telling us what to do, when to stop when to go. So the seating arrangements go like this:

And that is a major problem cause deaf women is seated the farthest away from our soft-spoken guide. SO the trip goes like this:

Jared:Paddle (everyone paddles)
Jared: Stop paddling
(everyone stops paddling except for mom who is working up a sweat paddling like crazy)
Jared: Stop paddling
(mom still keeps going)
Jared: Stop paddling
(mom still keeps going)
Me: MOM STOP (as i whack her on the back with my paddle)
Mom: What? oh you want me to stop... OK.

and this goes on... and on... and on... the entire trip.. it was very amusing.

When we got done the guides brought out snacks, which included watermelon and... The best snack ever!!! What you do is take peanut butter put in on a tortilla chip and then dip it in salsa!!! I LOVE IT

Then we drove to El Santuario de Chimayo Shrine. Also known as, The Holy Dirt Place.

Anyway, the deal with this place is that this dude, OK excuse me, this priest saw a light shining from the ground so he dug up this cross. Pretty cool right, so anyway he moves the cross to his Church, but the next day its gone. Well, he finds it back at the place he dug it up, so again he takes it back to his Church and the next morning it was back at the other place. This happened once again, and the dude, sorry, priest, finally got the hint and built a shrine at the place he dug up the cross. Now the shrine is still there and there is a hole in the ground where there is blessed dirt that heals people. In the room outside of the dirt hole there are a bunch of crutches and walkers just left there. It's pretty cool. There was a cute pony there! He would trot along the gate and follow us.

From there we headed to Oklahoma City and we stopped in Amarillo Texas at the RV Site. It was a nice site, they had a pool, and doughnuts in the morning, but in moms words, "it stinks like a herd of cattle took a dump in our RV!!" It did.... we were like right next to a huge cattle farm. Who is stupid enough to put an RV site right next to a poop farm!! Well... it is Texas.

Another day in Santa Fe and a big rock

Sunday July 29th:

We went to church at St. Francis Basilica, which was celebrating it's 400th birthday. Gosh, i thought it was a big deal when St. Alban celebrated it's 20'th!! The church wasn't all that pretty, but i think i'm biased cause I'm in love with the St.Louis Basilica!

The we walked over to the Loretta Chapel. Which is the CUTEST chapel ever!!!!!! The nuns who built it needed a way to get up into the choir loft, and they prayed for a builder who could help them design stairs that wouldn't take up any of the seating room. Then all of a sudden this man came and built the stairs for them, and then left. Here's a picture of them

When he built them, there were no handrails, and they kept it that way a long time, but then they put them in, because it was scary! The weird thing is there is no center beam for support and they have lasted for a long time!!!! Another gorgeous thing in the chapel was the stations of the cross. They were the prettiest ones i've ever seen.

After the chapel we shopped around the square and mom and dad fell in love... with a rock. Ok, alabaster tone, but it is still a rock.

We shoped around a bit more, had lunch at Plaza Cafe. Then everyone except me, i was feeling a little sick, had Roasted Corn from a Cart. They all siad it was delicous!

Then we shopped at walmart!! Yay!!! We bought som hemp so we wouldn't get bored. Then we got to the scay place.....

CREEPY!!!!!! We hid in the RV.

Sedonna

Wednesday June 25th:
We drove from the canyon and went to sedonna. So much red rock!!! i mean it's everywhere, and it is so pretty and ... well, red. But we had another accident, the muffler on our car was all twisted up so we had to cut it off!
When we arrived at the RV park, probably the nicest one yet, we went down to the creek and swam and played with the rope swing. Then when we went back, the little kids next door (there was like 8 or 9 kids ages from like 2-8) put on a circus so shelby and chris went to play with them. exactly one week till we get home!!!!!

Thursday June 26th:
We woke up really early in the morning, well early for us, and went on a Pink Jeep Tour. Bob was our driver and he was pretty cool. At first i thought it was going to be boring because we were driving on the street, then when Bob pulled over and started rearranging all the car parts, i realized this was no ordinary tour. We went off-roading for about 1 1/2 hours.

 It was really fun, although it hurt my back and neck a bit, it was still a lot of fun! We went down these crazy hills and stuff, it felt like we were going to flip right over.

We also went rock climbing.....

great picture huh?!?!

Then we went shopping for a while. There are a ton of little shops all around with some great stuff! We saw this guy making candles that glow when you light them. They are really hard to explain, but they were sooo cool. Shelby bought one that was on clearence for 8 bucks. Christopher was so facinated by it that we stayed for like an hour!!


We also met two little Chihuahuas that were for sale . We wanted them soooooo bad!!! but dad said no... surprisingly.

Acoma and Boring Burros

Saturday June 28th:

We went to Acoma Pueblo Village . It was a village all on a huge rock. AND there are still people living there! I thought it was fascinating. There is no electricity, and it is soooo quite, except for a few generators people dare to bring up there. I think it would be a perfect place to live for a few months to get some peace and quiet. Life is so simple up there. They also have no plumbing, so each house has it's own bathroom (a.k.a. wooden out house). There was no running water, so they had a "water catch" which was basically a shallow hole in the ground where rain water would collect. It was weird.



The village is up on that rock: These are prayer ladders, that is where the men pray:
Then on the way to Santa Fe Mom and Dad decide it would be fun to go to a Burro Fair, a.k.a El Rancho De Las Golondrinas. WOOOPIE! I was in a very bad mood that day, and on top of that we had to sit around and watch burros. I do admit though, they were extremely cute!!

The entire ranch was kinda neat, but the activities were really boring. We learned how to pack a mule. We watched a blacksmith heat metal. We learned about the difference between mules donkeys and burros, except i don't remember because i wasn't really paying attention. We watched mule racing - i slept through that one.

We also saw a little Mexican village they had built. i got a great shot of the storm coming in. I thought the little town was cute, everything was so surreal. Well probably because is was a fake little town, but still.

I was looking back at the journal my mom wrote, my quote of what i though was there, it reads:
"t- thought they were a bunch of fat asses. Did i look like i enjoyed it?"

Then we walked around Santa Fe. What an adorable town! I love it. There are tons of little shops, and in the middle there is a huge square. They were having some sort of music fest there. I would love to go back and spend a few more days there. We went to eat at a very fancy, ok not that fancy, Italian restaurant. The served gluten free pasta, so mom and Chris were very happy. I had a pizza with 4 cheeses. Best pizza i've ever had period. Christopher was also happy because he got to order his new favorite dessert, creme brulee, he liked it very, very much.

Slide Rock

Friday June 27th:

On our last day in Sedona we went to Slide rock. If you have ever been to Johnston's Shut in in MO then that's the same general thing. It was so fun, but a little scary at first. What it is, is a giant "slide". Basically a long river where the rocks are really slippery and you just slide down in!!

Here's some fantastic action shots. The hardest part, aside from trying not to get a major wedgie, was actually getting in the water. You'd think in Arizona the water would be warm!!

Look how red the rocks are:

The five of us jump in, our first slide: ..... Yeah i was scared.
I think i actually landed on him once we dropped in the water...
After slide rock we drove! To New Mexico!!!

The RV Park where we stayed was on an Indian Reservation. It looked like a parking lot. The bathrooms were a conundrum. They were beautiful.. they looked like a master bathroom in someones house. The only problem was, they were very large and there was no shower curtain, so it was FREEZING!!! And the water pressure wasn't all that great either. SO i'm standing in this massive bathroom stark naked, trying to fit my entire body under the little stream of water trickling out of the shower head, while a breeze is coming in and giving me goosebumps. That was an interesting experience.

June 24th... grand canyon

Wow... i bet when the first explorers came to the arizona area, they were riding their horses super fast and just fell into the Grand Canyon. i didn't realize that the grand canyon was just a giant hole in the ground!!!! It is, i might add, the prettiest hole in the ground ever!!! We hiked around the rim for about 2 miles. It was beautiful, then we went back to our RV and hung out the rest of the day. It was a great relaxing day. We got some really great shots:

I'll be your dam tour guide and answer any of your dam questions...

June 23:

Hoover dam and grand canyon west rim.

The hoover dam was big...really big...really really big...I got nothing else. It was a big dam.

we did rub the angles toes to give us good luck.

It was too hot for me to remember, so heres a picture:

Then we drove to the Grand Canyon West rim to go on the Skywalk. That was breathtaking, literally. Jess and Dad were very scared to go on it at first, but when we did actually get out on it, jess was fine, but mom and dad were a little wary.

it was an amazing first view of the grand canyon. The colors were beautiful and it seemed to go on for miles. I really enjoyed that, i could have stayed on the glass bridge for hours.
I'm sorry for the incorrect date on the blog. e haven't had internet for a while, so i am trying to catch you up on everything that has happened.

Ice......

Yesterday was another day on the town. We went to church and then went to MGM grand. Funny thing is, the shirt that christopher innocently chose to wear said, Rain Forest Cafe MGM Grand Las Vegas. We didn't realize that until after we had eaten at The Rainforest Cafe.

Then we went to see the lion exhibit in MGM. It was the coolest thing ever. You could walk under the Lions because the "cage" was all glass. They were right on top of us. And these were not your regular zoo lazy lions, these cats were up and about tackling each other and playing with their toy. It was really fun to watch.



Then we shopped around a while. We went to Miracle Mile and watch a laser show and a rainstorm inside. It was really weird, it felt like a movie set. Then we went to see the Sirens at TI show. That was a little risque. I asked christopher what he though and he said " I liked the explosions and fire and all that stuff...." He did not mention the skinny barely-clothed girls that were dancing all around.


THen we went to the our first Vegas show, which was Ice. I loved it. It was beautiful and breathtaking, and very strange. There was a girl who hula-hooped like 30 hoops on ice, then guys and girls on unicycles, girls who would skate around and then lift them selves up with these ribbons attached to the ceiling. Tese guys even did backflips and jumped off see-saw like devices and fliped in mmid air, ON ICE! It was really cool. This morning we are going to a buffet breakfast at Circus Circus and then we're off!!

My mom is NOT 43 years old!

Yesterday we explored Vegas! We had a ton of fun, except for the fact that it was 108 degrees and possibly the hottest wind i have ever felt. We walked through lots of casinos, including Circus Circus, Belagio, New York New York, Treasure Island, The Mirage, Excalibur, and the Venetian. They are all so pretty and glamourous. We didn't see any shows, but we just wandered around the city looking for stuff to do. The Venetian was def. my favorite because it looked like italy, there was even Gondolas!

When we went to Excalibur mom wanted to do one of those "I'll Guess your Age". So she's goes up, and all the kids and Dad hide behind this wall. (so we could con the man into thinking she was younger) Well it worked and he guessed 36!!!! So we got to get a prize and we picked a little stuffed chicken. It is adorable. We named him Vegas and he is a 43 year old English chicken who lost his eyes in a Bar fight with a Pig.
Hmmm... what else did we do. We saw the Belagio lights, that was great. We saw an amazing Acrobat Act at Circus Circus. These guys were insane, they were jumping on each other creating "super-men" It was really cool. We also went to the MnM "factory" which is basically like a use merchandise gimmick. It was still fun. We saw a cool light show on the ceiling in down town Vegas on Freemont street. It was a big tribute to Queen.


I think thats all we did. Today we are heading off to church and then going to see some shows, hopefully.

death..........

Right before Las Vegas we drove through Death valley:
HOT HOT HOT!!! The only word to describe death valley. It was not beautiful, nor breathtaking, just super hot. It was cool (wow that's ironic) to drive through the lowest point in America, but it was too hot. We did try to fry an egg on the asphalt, and the car, neither cooked.

One good thing did come out of Death Valley though, i bought a really pretty ring!! it's hearts linked together.

So that night we were supposed to stay in the valley, but the kids and mom decided against it, so we forced dad to drive us all the way to Las Vegas.

Yosemite was the best!

So we spent two full days in yosemite!
Wednesday:
We traveled into yosemite and first thing we did was take a open-air tram ride all around the park. It was great because, well we weren't in the HOW and we still got to see the whole park without walking. There are some beautiful falls in this huge valley. Me and dad both think its the best National Park yet. Its great because the whole park is routed with roads and shuttle busses that take you from place to place. We hiked and went to see the Lower Falls. It was a tough climb but def. worth the knee scraping and mist spraying.

We also stopped at a nice little spot by the Merced River. Me and Mom decided that we are building a house there, the tour guide said he would move in next door. It was absolutely gorgeous!! So peaceful and surreal.


Then later we hiked for about a mile up to Mirror lake. Big let down, but still beautiful. Shelby, Jess and Chris walked across the lake in their clothes while i was fighting the battle of Skeeters vs. Taylor. Apparently all the bugs love me, and the lake.

Thursday (a.k.a. today):
We took another tram tour today around the Mariposa Grove. Its a bunch of really big Sequoia Trees. They are stunning. They are the largest living thing. ever.... The trees are really interesting too, we learned a ton about them, but it wasn't boring at all. We saw some GIANT trees.


Then we drove... again. there seems to be a lot of that on this vacation. We stopped a few times and saw the valley from up high. One of the stops we slept... and the other, well.... there was an accident.

Well, we were taking really pretty picture by this lake. When all of a sudden, disaster strikes. So here's what went down: Jess mom and i wanted to take a picture of us sitting on this log in front of the lake. So when jessica had to climb aboard, she lost her footing and fell. To her death. No not really. But, as she was falling she grabbed hold on already-sitting-on-the-log-not-really-well-balanced mom. who, in all her graceful glory, tumbled down with her. I laughed.... so did dad.. and mom for that matter. But jess was seriously hurt. Just some flesh wounds. The funny thing was the way mom bandaged her up after wards. You see, staying in an RV has its disadvantages; we really don't have adequate gauze and linens to dress wounds properly. So my girl-scout mom pulled her resources together and did what she could. Well... just look at the pictures....



So after that incident we took a hike, without the mummy-jessica. We climbed, and climed and climed. And the thing is, we were already at 9,945 feet (exact;y cause Ranger Parker told me so), and we just kept getting higher. Shelby and I almost died. No seriously i think we stoped every two feet. It was only 1/2 mile up but it felt like 3 years. The altitude was really getting to us. It didn;t bother chris and dad though... oh well. Well the lake was beautiful (the lake was at the very top ) but i'm not so happy about the hike up. Though very pretty, i think i suffered from my first heart attack.



So from todays amazing height of 10,100 feet, we will travel to Death Valley tomorrow... at the amazing hight.. wel depth of -200 and something feet!!! Its gunna be sooo hot.

Alright, i'm going to go beg mom for some of the Tillamook cheese we bought. its some good stuff