Today's Grab Bag of Thoughts

This was our last picture together.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  It was our last day in North Carolina and she was still the ammonia induced coma with no great news.  She was coming in and out and didn't even know we were there.  We visited her everyday.  We played music for her and she seemed to love it.  We showed her videos of the girls playing and singing and tears rolled down her cheeks.  As we held her hand she sometimes squeezed our hands, but the nurse said it could be involuntary.  We prayed for her and we talked to her.  The last night of our visit we stayed at the house with the kids, it was harder than ever to let them go.  We barely slept that night.   The phone rang at 8am that day and the house started going mad.  My stomach sank.  Then he called me...it was like time stood still when I heard the words that I was not expecting to hear.  "She's awake!" We could not get dressed fast enough. ...

Today we woke up at the buttcrack of dawn to go rafting on the Colorado River.   It was hard but totally worth it. The sky was a beautiful baby blue and the sun was heating up the earth here at the Grand Canyon to about 102 on the canyon floor.  We boarded the bus at 6:10, which was 10 mins late due to the wandering Elk blocking the bus from making it through the parking lot.  Once we had finally picked up all the other people we headed out for our 2.5 hour bus ride through the Grand Canyon and the Navajo Indian Reservation.  Though the bus driver was very knowledgeable and interesting, I was really hoping to have got a bit more sleep on the bus.  The highlight of his talk was him ending a lot of his sentences with the word "period". If you are a loyal reader of one of my other blogs you will know why this is so funny. The first time he said it Alyssa just giggled and smiled. Then as he kept using the word she said MOM! did you tell him to say that? Why does he ...

As we begin to start the day we start by asking where to go and when. How to tackle the south rim.  The skies are a brilliant blue with awesome fluffy white clouds. Now come on, do you really need me to know the technical terms? No good. Just know they were pretty. It was a hot day - 92 degrees but much better than the 106 or 110 it was. It probably only took like 20 mins to start getting a lot of negative attitude from the preteen.  The little on started out good but caught the negativeness from the bro. We nipped that in the butt quickly. I guess it is expected that kids would not think this was fun. Kids of all ages and nationality are complaining. Lol there are no color boundaries for boredom.  They stuff these shuttle buses like sardines. Let me set the picture. It is 1pm and about 90 degrees out. We and everyone else are sticky from the her. Our bodies almost touching on the seats and the heat coming off of them bringing each others internal temps up a few notches. ...

Well we started our day " standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona  and such a fine sight to see" from there we headed to the Meteor Crater.  It was made over 50,000 years ago.  The site is pretty awesome too look at and the history is a great learning experience.  Alyssa really enjoyed this too.  She also spoted on the way there a  flyingdactol alien.   From the crater we head to the Grand Canyon and for about 2 of the hour drive my child was speaking a different language.  My child 2 languages now...English and absolute jibberish which is a cross between Spanish and Chinese sounding.  But the same words come out over and over again so she must be having a conversation with the voices in her head.  This drive Matthew crazy, but she loves doing it.  Most of the day was in the car, but when it wasn't we had to deal with the little one and her attitude today.  Tomorrow is a new day...she will do better. Mom (and Matthew) both saw...

We are at Today we left my uncle's house. It was so great to spend time with them. We had such a blast. They were so wonderful to see and hang out with.  Now we are on the road to another national park. Where to park? Lol no clue why no one can make a decision. After a brief discussion on that, we got ready to hike. Dear Blog, my daughter is wearing a dress and I am wearing white shorts. Lol best hiking outfits.  We are at Tonto Natural Bridge. It was very pretty but not sure the rock climbing was a great idea. At one point I was walking across a fallen tree suspended between two large boulders with a nothing else. Smart? Probably not! From here we head down the long high way to Winslow Arizonia. Yes, yes, yes...we might be standing in a corner there soon.  Just a brief note to my traveling friends Winslow has one of the worst Denny's we have ever been to. Took over 1 1/2 hours to get our food and it was only after talking to a manager did it ever come. If you are hunger ...

Today we are heading to the Kartchner Caverns. We are only 10 minutes on the road and my parents are already having a discussion on that is why we have GPS. Lol.  While at Kartchner we decided to get a locker for our stuff. Without reading the instructions before paying my mother ended up paying $2.25 for a dollar locker. Oh not to mention that the first time she closed the door with her purse in her lap.  The hour tour showed us some breath taking sites. Beautiful stalactites and stalagmite as well as natural water formations that looked like bacon. That was Alyssa's favorite part. :-) The tour ends with this massive 5 story natural formation nicked named Kubla Kahn.  After that we drove around Beson for 30 mins trying to decide what to eat for lunch. Yes I know that sounds easy yo do but we have two very picky kids and a  gluten free freak. Denny's kept coming up and I kept shooting it down. Ended up at a local Mexican restaurant.   After a filling and wonderf...