Road Trip

Well, here we are again.  We made it home.  Our family just took a trip in our motor home over many miles full of laughs, surprises, amazing landscape, and even a few tears.  One of the joys of homeschooling is being able to take off and go with your family off season and when it fits your schedule.  We had a great time.  We began our trip with a flat tire just a couple hours from our home.  Unfortunately the tire they put on was the wrong size so the next day we had to replace it too.  But other than that no major mishaps only adventure.  A family gets to bond a lot when confined in a motor home for 8 days.  There were laughs and games and poor little Isabella had a few tears but it was good.  We went to Zions National park where they asked how many where in our trailer.  We told them 8 and they couldn't believe there were eight of us in the motor home.  This became a very common response everywhere we went.  "You have how many in there?"  Seriously we were in Utah is it really that big of a surprise?  Zions was absolutely beautiful.  Although I thought it ridiculous to have to pay $15 to go through a tunnel because our rv was too big, in addition to the $25 fee to enter the park.  We went ahead and upgraded to the year pass to all national parks for $80 so now we need to get our money out of it.
From there we headed to the Grand Canyon.  It is so incredible silly to look at the pamphlet they give you as man tries to explain the Grand Canyon.  Why is it so hard so see this is just God being creative?  Life is so difficult when you try to ignore the Creator.  But what an amazing view.  Several years ago we went to the Golden Gate bridge.  A bus load of Asian people fell in love with Alex and all formed a line to take a picture with him and give him a kiss.  Well, the same thing happened to Danika and Sierra at the Grand Canyon, it must be the hair color. 
Next we went to Las Vegas to spend time with David's sister and family.  So good to see them.  Then on to California to stay with David's Uncle and family.  We had one day at Disneyland and one day at the beach where we also got to see a aquarium in Redondo.  When we tried to get a hotel in Anaheim we drove into the parking lot and found out there was no way out and no way to turn around.  So we backed out onto the street.  The local cars watched in awe as Alex and I tried to stop traffic and back David up.  Quite scary.   The aquarium was free but asked for $4 donation per family.  That was great.  The kids got to touch lots of sea animals and see sharks, rays, fish etc. 

Zions National Park

The majestic Grand Canyon

Disneyland

Cassie was quite shocked by Pooh Bear

We were so blessed that Cassie got to see her favorite princess, Belle.

Here we are at the aquarium looking at sharks.

Our family at the Golden Gate Bridge

Here's our trusty motor home that carried us through.

Lake Tahoe

Life inside the motor home

Dad and Isabella taking a break on the road.

From there we went up to the Golden Gate Bridge.  It really is an awesome bridge.  It was a bit challenging driving through San Francisco to get to it but quite amazing.  We drove form there to Sacramento thinking we would stay there but had a hard time finding an RV spot.  So we drove on to Lake Tahoe.  It was dark when we got there and they had just got snow.  There was snow on both sides of the road and the road was damp.  Quite an adventure.  We found a campground and called it a night.  The next morning we went to the lake.  It was quite chilly so we didn't spend a lot of time there but it is so gorgeous.  As we were driving home I was just hit by the majesty of God.  How awesome is our God.  I am so grateful to spend this trip with such a wonderful family and share in the awesome creative works of our God.    What a mighty God we serve and his creation is so beautiful.  Hope you enjoy a the snap shots.  Have a great day and get out and see God's lovely creation.