Gram's 90th Birthday/ Spring Break

Gram’s celebrated her 90th birthday this year and my whole family decided to meet out in Arizona to celebrate. We left Friday night and drove as far as St. George. Mom had a honey baked ham ready for us and home made Greek Pita ready for us upon arrival. The boys jumped in the warmed pool. Then, we all played Nerts! We left pretty early the next morning for Arizona. Our kids are getting to be such good travelers. They can travel for several hours in the car without stopping. Upon arrival in Scottsdale we met Nathan, Benazir, Bob and Daniel at a cool train park. They had a little museum in an old train car, a huge model train car building and then a big park with playground equiptment, but also a carousel and train you could ride. 

 We spent about an hour there and then it was time for the birthday celebration. We had dinner at the Sugar Bowl in old town Scottsdale. 

 Apparently, it was Great Gommie’s favorite place and we would eat there every time we came to Arizona to see her. After dinner Derek drove all around the valley delivering Liv to her good friend Lilleigh’s house- Lilleigh moved to Queen’s Creek Arizona this year. The boys and I went back to Gram’s house with Kylie, Jordan and Dean. We watched a little bit of Patch Adams, then Derek picked us up and we drove to the Pendleton’s house. Upon arrive we played wavelength with them (a game we brought as a thank you for letting us stay with them). We went to church with them the next morning. It was a great Easter service. After church, we had a big breakfast with the Pendletons. Then, we had to pack up and head to Surprise to Aunt Kathy’s for easter lunch with my family. It was a great lunch and we did an Easter Egg hunt in the backyard with Dean. 

 I recorded some audio of Grams telling about her childhood. Liv serenaded us all.

That afternoon we drove to Flagstaff Arizona. It was gorgeous and snowy and covered in Ponderosa Pines. I twisted everyone’s arms into eating at Black Barts. It’s a cool restaurant where the waiters are generally all musical theater students at NAU and in between serving tables perform musical theater songs. The next morning we drove to the Grand Canyon. It was a little chilly, but we were all prepared and had dressed warm for the day. All of the trails that hiked down into the canyon were closed because they were icy, but we walked along the south rim trail from the visitor’s center to the village. 

 We packed a lunch and ate it here and explored the visitor’s center up there and the old lodge hotel. Then, we rode the bus out to Hermit’s Rest and had a drink. 

 Then, we rode the bus all the way back to our car. We drove out the park past the desert view. The view from the watch tower was about the prettiest view we had all day. 

 Then, that evening we drove to Page, AZ. There was a gorgeous sunset on the drive home. Derek insisted we pull over and take a pic. We had dinner at our traditional Fiesta Mexicana where we always eat with the Davidsons when we are in Page for Lake Powell trips.

In the morning, we met Mom and George in Mt. Carmel Junctions for lunch and they brought Kota back to us. They were dog sitting her while we were gone. Then, back up to Orem for the rest of Spring Break.