Day at the Grand Canyon!

          Monday was our 8 hour round trip to the Grand Canyon from Phoenix. We woke up at 6:00 actually 7:00 Montana time which seems very early for spring break, grabbed some snacks, cameras and pillows for the trip. Normally when people drive to the Grand Canyon they stay over night, but those people aren't like Justin, Libby and i who really wanted to see the canyon but we also wanted to race home to swim. the farther away from Phoenix we got everything started to look not like we had expected parts of Arizona to look. The sad part was that the temperature at the Grand Canyon was a lot colder than Phoenix was and we froze (by spring Break terms). at the temperature it was at, about 65 degrees, in Montana we would have been running around in tank tops and shorts. on the way over to the Grand Canyon we took a scenic route and drove through Sedona, which is one of the coolest towns Ive ever been to. Sedona is in one of the most scenic places in Arizona with amazing shops as well as "Pink Jeep Tours". we briefly drove through and snapped pictures of as many things possible, on the way out of Sedona your eyes got confused and made us wonder where we were. we got closer to the Grand Canyon and we realized it looked almost exactly like Yellowstone with pine trees and long lines at the gate. the brochures said the canyon was caused by erosion and some other theory that didn't fit with creation, it makes you wonder why the other desert rivers don't erode like the Grand Canyon. its amazing to realize all the clues to the Earth being made by God and yet people don't see the clues to creation, even if there as wide and as deep as the Grand Canyon. we walked along the South rim of the canyon and the first time we saw it, there was a huge WOW and an "it looked smaller from the air plane"! we walked to a large view place where we took a lot of pictures and had our picture taken by a really nice elderly couple that turned out to have a grand daughter in Helena which is not very far from Gardiner.
1 thing everyone should do in their lifetimes is throw a rock off the edge of the Grand Canyon, making sure not to hit any hikers, as well as get helicopter tickets to fly over the Grand Canyon (which we sadly didn't do;()
it was one of the most amazing places ive ever seen and my pictures can only do so much, you have to see it your self. on the way home we stopped and got ice cream and slept most the way back, enjoying the climate increase. on the way we stopped for a bathroom stop but Libby and i weren't feeling required to get out and stretch especially once we read a sign that said "watch your step poisonous snakes and spiders inhabit this area" at that we stayed in the car. we then drove home, careful of not hitting rush hour traffic and hung out at Grandma and Grandpas house with Joy and played "mafia" with joy and grandma and mom and us kids. and then we all drove home and collapsed like piles of rocks and slept like rocks too, with our aching tail bones.

super cool mountains and perfectly clear sky!

 one of the successful pictures going into Sadona

This was Arizona, hard for me to believe,

 this part played tricks on your navigation and your eyes.

Finally at the Grand Canyon, on go the Wows!

again, a lot more impressive than the pictures!

Justin and the veiw

Justin and i "Wowing".

Mom, Libby and Justin

mom, Justin, Libby and i

Mom and Libby waiting for Jb and Dad

Again more palm trees( i Love Palm Trees)!!!

Second day of Sun: Sunday!

       On April fools day, and our second day of sun, we woke up rather early at least by spring break standards to go hiking. we all slithered out of bed and flopped on the couch to put on the best hiking shoes we could find, mine being pink converse. we drove past Apache junction and got to see superstition mountain again, which is one of the coolest desert looking mountains that Ive seen and looks nothing like our Montana mountains. we drove for quite a while and the farther away you got from Phoenix Arizona the more funky types of cactus there were. our first hiking destination was canyon lake which seemed like a fairly random lake, being in a desert. it was really blue and rather large with lots of people there and it seemed like every body had the same idea to have a Sunday picnic there. Living in a main entrance to Yellowstone were naturally used to alot of cars in all the fun places but there where barely any compared to June in Gardiner. we went across a bridge and parked in a permit parking, but decided to go with the flow and park by all the other rebel cars without permits and thankfully didn't get fined. we hiked up this one trail and got an amazing view of our random lake, touched a cactus, posed dramatically multiple times, chased a lizard, then stepped on a cactus. it all went like ghasp, pain, pose, chase, and ouch all over again. after we got done with all that we blasted some random lady gaga music and being unused to flying around turns in the road through jardine the unaccustomed visitors slowed down around turns and for some reason thought we were crazy for going "fast" around the turns!?! we stopped at another place that didn't look like a designated trail, but a pull out and we decided to hike there. there were all sorts of cool rocks to climb, at one spot there was a large cave thing that you would see in an Indiana Jones movie with a fire ring.....dramatic pose! we climbed around there forever and found a large hole with an extremely deep pool of water at the bottom, one of the main events of visiting tourist sites is to throw rocks of varying sizes of everything that looks like it needs a rock thrown off it. we then drove back to our rental and got ready to meet gma, gpa and joy for dinner at the Texas road house. when we got there we were slightly confused by the piles of peanut shells on the floor  but then joy explained it, both joy and us made reservations so they were ready for us, or were they? by the way it was April fools day!!! hahahaha! Joy, Justin, Libby and i all sat at one table and the grownups sat at a different table which gave us time to make plans. i had these amazing ribs and Libby and Justin had french fries and joy had a steak! we decided to proceed with the dares, at which we saw a younger boy get a balloon and sit on a saddle for his birthday and we told the balloon man it was Justin's birthday ( not really!!! April fools)!!!! we said he was turning ten, but all before that happened we had to convince Justin to play along with the ultimate dare. he was so shamed that we moved his birthday and told the balloon man. but that wasnt the end we did whole video intros and documentation, which i will at some point post and had the lady bring him ice cream and make him sit on the saddle. Justin didn't finish his fries and the lady wouldn't bring ice cream until he wad done but we didn't know that. she was letting Justin build up tension and slight shame for our joke. she finally came and Justin turned red as she said yeeeeehhhaaawww and something else to the whole restaurant, during that part Justin turned white. We thought the parents would get mad or freak out but they didn't they were taking pictures and laughing. after the ye-hawing stopped Justin was afraid to get off the saddle, after the waitress gave him a large bowl of ice cream. Justin still felt to shamed so he didn't want the ice cream so Joy, Libby and i finished it for him, it was really good!!!! from then on Justin was convinced that the birthday police were going to come and get him, so we helped him form a disguise. the finished outlaw disguise was Justin in Joys sunglasses a napkin banana and he held up a menu to shield his identity, he looked hilarious!!!!!!!!!! as we walked out of the restaurant normally, Justin was hiding behind bushes and diving under cars. we then ended another day of eating out on the wanted list at the in n out, as well as the Texas Road house due to paper hats and fake birthdays:).

Dad at BK with a paper hat he got to add to justins collection.

Superstition mountain on the way to our hike, theres a superstition of lost

gold mines on the mountain but we ran out of time so we didnt go find the gold

this was just another cool rock:)

Mom, Dad, Libby and Justin posing dramatically on the hike.

Justin posing by a large ledge with a really blue river at the bottom.

 it was really pretty on the hike to see the cactus blooming.

 Mom and Libby resting at the end of the hike

Dad and Justin

Libby and i being tired, then after this picture regaining

 energy by spotting and chasing the lizard.

Canyon Lake

Justin posing on the second, off trail hike with dad

 looking for the next leap of death.

Dad and Justin coming down off a slight cliff, 

its much steeper than it looks.

Mom, Dad and Justin

 Views on the hike

Justin, Dad, Libby and i posing again.

 

this was a huge hole that had really deep water at the bottom.

the "kids table". our eyes make us look like zombies because of the flash.

adult table:}

my (fake) pet cactus.

Justin dressed in disguise.

First day of Vacation: Saturday

            Its truly strange waking up warm in the sun one day and have woken up with goose bumps the day before. we stayed at our grandma and grandpas house for the night until we went to our vacation rental and grandma rolled out the couch bed for Libby and i while Justin slept on the couch. to begin with we didn't have any plans for Saturday except for sit out in the sun, so we decided to go shopping at the mall after grandma made us an amazing breakfast and Libby had successfully eaten part of a dried date. the mall was not very far from the house so it took about 5 min. to get to the Fiesta mall and it was surprisingly quiet for 11:00. we went in through macys and went to a lot of amazing stores that aren't usually in our mall including wet seal, and this amazing store called Bohemian Chic. Bohemian Chic had lots of different cultural clothes from India, that was our favorite store to look around in while doing the looking around we found a rack of these amazing, colorful, genie pants with bangles so we got scarves and a pair of the pants and went in the dressing room to try them on. we also found tons of beautiful skirts and dresses and some jingly belly dancing hip things. we considered the pants that came in Emma Libby and I's favorite colors also our E.E.L.s colors, blue, green, and red. we weren't sure if we wanted to buy them so we decided to come back another day when we were sure, and wandered on through the mall. In the intersection of some stores there was a hug bungee jumping/trampoline thing and we went to read the sign. there were only small children in line so Libby and i were truly disappointed  but then we read that the weight limit was 250lbs so both Libby and i were light enough and it only cost $7 per person.so Libby and i stood in line with all the other small children and Justin and then goat escorted to the other side to bounce. i made Libby go first(:-P)! the guy strapped you up and you held in to a collection of giant rubber bands and bounce on a trampoline as the guy tightened the tension and you go twice as high as you planned and you could do flips! font flips = hard, Back flips =easy. when i went i would sometimes only get half way over in my flip and almost land on my face. we later went to target and i got an $84 silk grey and blue flowered dress for $9 and i later wore it for Easter. we took a quick run through past the perfume isle and sprayed perfume all over the place and then got bored and went to the food court and ate. oh, and we went to a sports store and my mom looked for more running shoes and my dad looked for kayak stuff as if they count as carry-on, while Libby, Justin and i went and looked for Joy Gear(aka ASU fan clothes) and we were rather successful. we found and ASU jersey with #3 on it for $56! Libby and i grabbed it and went to try it on and attempt to look as cool as Joy. later went we went back to gmas and gpas house and saw joy again we learned that there is no #3 on the mens ASU team and they usually only sell the star players jerseys, as well as Joy said that she was glad her Basketball jersey was not on the discount rack:) haha! when we got to their house all of us got our swimsuits on and went over to the pool to swim, joy came later, we played a game called categories where there would be a category and the guesser would stand on the edge and guess things from the categories until the one with that thing was called and they had to swim across the pool without getting tagged. we also had large orange inner-tube and all attempted to get on at the same time, Joy, Libby, Justin and i  and after many times succeeded. after we all dried off we went to the In and Out for dinner, where again Justin was dared. we all had delicious burgers and became well known to the burger people not in the best way, kind of like outlaws=)! we made up some small dares, the first of which Justin actually completed was to go sit in a baby chair next to the entrance. then we (Joy, Libby and i) told him to as how much one french fry cost, but he denied that challenge, after that we finally got him to go up to the counter and as for a In N Out paper hat and we voice recorded him asking the guy for one and through the whole thing he couldent stop laughing. the guy didn't say much and gave him a hat and Justin was proud of it. then we told him that he should go ask the guy if he could work there since he had a hat, but he then denied. later on, after we fed him a few french fries we dared him to go stand by the door and say "thank you for coming to the in and out" or " welcome to the in n out!" and he did.... power of french fries. one lady was exiting and stopped and looked at Justin and asked if he was doing a dare and Justin casually replied "yep", and went back to work. joy went out one door by our table and walked around to the other door and was greeted by Justin:) Justin was dared to wear the hat the rest of the evening and after dinner we went to a grocery store and Justin got some majorly weird looks as he strolled through the isles.

Libby eating a Date :P

Libby and i at Bohemian Chic looking ninja:)

check out the pants!

 Mom, Dad and Justin in the mall

Libby being strapped in.

Libby doing tricks.

me doing flips and face plants

Justin getting strapped in

Libby, Justin and dad in a glass elevator

Libby posing in Joys jersey!

everybody at the pool:)

  

Joy, Libby, Justin and i on the inner tube =)

driving to dinner, Sun and palm trees!

All of us at the In n Out eating burgers:)

Justin proceeding with his first dare!

Finally put on the hat and on the wanted list!

Mom, Dad, Libby, Justin and joy after Justin was asked if he was doing a dare.

Justin is now also wanted in the grocery store:)