Our VERY action packed trip...

We just got back from a very eventful trip to Flagstaff Arizona! There were LOTS of great memories, and lots of not so great memories...
These few pictures are the summary to the travel portion of this trip! There were FIVE BLOW OUTS!!!! I am not kidding! they were BLOW OUTS! Final score: Gees-0; Smiths-1; Murdocks-1; and coming in first place with a whopping three - Vandes!
Four of the blowouts were on trailer tires... Luckily (yes, I said luckily - sad I know) our Suburban blew a tire... Our first tire blow out was just up the pass. We weren't even an hour from home when we lost our first trailer tire! We had gone up a day earlier than my parents and the Murdock's... Luckily we were with the Gee's who were just a God send to us!

Our second blow out happened on our way to Needles... you know, a real cool place to be stuck on the side of the rode. Luckily it was the Suburban because we didn't have a spare for our trailer. During this pit stop on the side of the rode, Jimmy nearly lost his head from the Suburban coming off the jack and falling on him!

The Murdock's had their blow out at around the same place we had our Suburban blow out(the next day coming up with my parents)... I think it is the Needles conspiracy... once you pull into Needles, there are a TON of tire sales ... interesting...
The forth flat came on our trip home. Our trailer lost another tire. (It was a good thing we got spares in Needles). This blow out cracked our trailer :(....

My parents were the last to have a blow out... I guess they were feeling left out! Their blow out is the picture above in the rear-view mirror. That one took the most time because the spare they had didn't fit! So Larry and Louise had to drive to Barstow to get one... the temp outside - 110 degrees!!! I am NOT KIDDING!!!!

How many guys does it take to change a tire???

On a lighter note... we did have a good time! Haley had made puppets for us all to put on a show.... really it turned out to be the Mindi and Stef show :). Then later, Haley got everybody, pretty much, involved... Below is the picture of Jim, Larry, Louise, and my mom playing puppets with Haley... Hunter and Kaylee decided playing in the dirt was more fun!

There was NO GRASS at this campground... Hunter would wake up in the morning and ask , "Can I go get dirty now?" This is us outside the Snowbowl. We took a chairlift to the top of a mountain to look down at the Grand Canyon and other really pretty stuff in Arizona... The kids were great! (Keith came too, he took the picture) the rest of our campers stayed back.

Us taking a tram ride threw Sedona. Jimmy and Hunter looking out at the Grand Canyon...
This is a picture that will go down in memory hall of fame for the Vandes... On our way from the Grand Canyon we stopped at a little store in the middle of no where for some beef jerky. The Store was called something like The White Buffalo... The lady in the store was a bit different (that is the nice way of putting it). (I will make this a short story... if you are interested in hearing more ask Larry or I later) Haley and I go into the store to pet this bunny. The lady was not happy with me for that... plus the Lady was ticked off at Larry's rude behavior so Haley and I got kicked out of the store! SERIOUSLY.... The lady kicked a 7month pregnant girl and little kid out of a store because we made her uncomfortable because we were traveling with Larry who was rude... (he wasn't... by the way).

We had some great laughs and some great cries :) over all... we did have fun!!! The kids were real troopers threw the whole tire problems... they really were awesome!

Four cute kiddos!!!