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Taking 'The Voice' on Vacation -- It was Grand!
Topics: contests, vacation, family, children, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Animals, summertime
Posted by sherigonzales Wed Jul 2, 2008 22:56:00 PDT
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The Gonzales family just returned from a much needed, much enjoyed, but also all too short two-week vacation.  It has been a while since we've been able to take a long vacation such as this--therefore we absolutely made the most of it.

We opted to drive in order to take in as many sights as possilbe along the way.  We visited M&M World and Nascar Cafe in Las Vegas (the kids' first time) then headed to visit friends in Arizona.  From there we spent a day at the Grand Canyon.  My husband and I haven't been since we were younger and our kids had never been.  The kids were in awe of "the big hole in the ground".  After leaving the Grand Canyon we headed to New Mexico, by way of the Four Corners National Monument-"the only place in the United States marking the common corner of four states: Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah."  We took pictures and walked through the four states in a matter of a minute or so.  It was pretty neat.

From there, we headed to New Mexico to visit the kids' grandparents.  This is where we spent the majority of our time.  We took Papa and Grandy bowling, which they hadn't done in 20+ years, as well as to a waterpark among other things.  The kids love going to their house as they live out in the country with the Animas River running through the back of their property.

Going to Papa Jim and Grandy Glenda's is always an "experience."  On this trip, we saw an abundance of animals the kids don't get to see on a daily basis consisting of deer (usually in a pack of 4 or 5), a raccoon that visited each evening to scoop up all the birdseed that found it's way to the ground, and an ever flowing stream of robins and hummingbirds to feed off the many feeders in Grandy's backyard.  On daily walks to the river, the neighboring owners' horses and llamas could be seen through the opening of the trees.  We also saw an abundance of baby catfish, crawdads, and frogs in Papa's pond.  Oh, and of course we saw more than our fair share of mosquitoes.  Just ask my husband, they seemed to like him more than the rest of us.

After a few days at Papa and Grandy's. we ventured into Durango, Colorado on a few occassions for various activities one of which included river rafting down the Animas River.  I hadn't done that in about 25 years.  What a rush!  We all four thoroughly enjoyed it.  I thought the kids would scream wanting to get off, instead they screamed begging us to do it again and again!

On our return voyage, we headed back to Arizona where we visited Lake Havisu (first time for all of us).  It was gorgeous, but also 114 degrees!  In Arizona the kids could look out the window and see rabbits, quail, lizards and snakes at any given time.  Fortunately we did not see any scorpions which I hear is not uncommon.  For had we seen them, I'm not embarrassed to say I would have screamed like a little girl.

This was truly a trip to remember.  I can only hope all of our future vacations are as wonderful as this!

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Comment From: sunnica

WOW!! I love these photos!! Looks like Ali and her dad are about to fall off! Glad you're home! We missed you! Comment From: dweaver3

What a great vacation! You all got to see so many sights — and what could be better than visiting grandparents?