Grand Canyon National Park: Day 4,5,and 6

I took quite a few pictures at the Grand Canyon. I guess seeing something that beautiful makes you want to take lots of pictures so you can remember it:) Sorry in advance for the picture overload!

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We got to the Grand Canyon pretty late on day 4 so we didn't get to see much more than our campsite at Mather Campground. We got busy setting up camp so we could cook dinner and get a good night sleep!

 Eli was all smiles!

 The boys were SUPER excited about making it to our campsite. I have to say that this was one of my favorite places that we stayed on our whole trip. We didn't have power or water, but the site was HUGE and the boys had plenty of room to play without bothering other people. We were also pretty close to a bathroom without being too close which is always nice:)

 The next morning we headed straight to the Rim Trail to see the canyon...and it did not disappoint!

 After a long day of exploring the Rim Trail, we came back to our campsite for dinner: chicken kabobs and corn on the grill!

 The next morning we headed out for a hike below the rim of the canyon on the Bright Angel Trail. We knew that we probably wouldn't get too far...it's a tough hike and Eli is only three!

 It was beautiful seeing the canyon from a different perspective!

 We only made it down about a mile, but the views just kept getting better and better the farther down we went!

 The end of the trail for us...and then it was time to hike back up.

 We made it to the top!

Henry and Grant did really well....Eli not so much! He ended up getting a piggy back ride most of the way up from Jason and from me!

 While we were resting at the top of the trail, we got to see a caravan of mules coming up from the bottom of the canyon.

 We also saw a ton of wildlife while we were at the Grand Canyon. There were deer everywhere and we caught this baby elk eating leaves near the welcome center.

 On our last night, we headed to the rim to watch the sun set.

 I didn't get very many good picture of the canyon in the sunset {I think we were in the wrong place for great sunset pictures}, but I did a couple good shots of the boys with the sun shining on them.

 We LOVED our visit to the Grand Canyon! I think the boys would be ready to load up and head back right now if we asked them. We will be planning another trip when the boys are older so that we can hike even further and maybe even take a rafting trip on the Colorado River!

Roswell and White Sands, NM: Day 3

We loaded up and left Carlsbad bright and early on day three...we had a full day of travel and fun planned. Our first stop was the {quirky} town of Roswell.

It was early on Sunday morning so most of the town was still sleeping I think:) We only had a little bit of time to spend here, so we took a quick walk around the little downtown area....

...took pictures with aliens and ufos....

...and bought a couple of {alien} souvenirs. 

Then we started our first {scary} trip up and over mountains to get to White Sands National Monument. It was a pretty eventful trip! Someone pulled out in front of us and we almost ended our big roadtrip on day three! Luckily Jason was fast on the brakes and managed to not hit {the jerk} who pulled out in front of us. After a stop to calm our nerves {and eat some local tacos} we were back on the road heading to some White Sands FUN!

This place is AMAZING! Out in the middle of nowhere there is this beautiful area of white, sparkling sand that seems to go on for miles! The boys had such a fun time running, sliding, jumping, and smiling for pictures. Jason and I had a good time too, but I'll spare you those funny {& sort of embarrassing pictures}. We only had about two hours to spend at White Sands National Monument, but if we ever come back this way I will be sure to include more time for us to play!

We we left White Sands, Jason noticed that the camper breaks didn't seem to working just right. We managed to make it down {a HUGE} mountain, and we found the closest Walmart. He assumed that he just needed to add a little bit of brake fluid to the system, but when we stopped in the parking lot he realized it was a lot worse than that. When Jason had hit the brakes so hard to avoid hitting {the jerk} that pulled out in front of us, part of the brake line broken in half....meaning we drove down those massive mountains with no brakes on the camper! We survived though....

 ...and after a trip to Auto Zone and two hours of working on the brakes, we were able to get back on the road to Albuquerque. 

We watched the sunset down into the New Mexico horizon as we drove and drove for what seemed like hours on the interstate. That night was our first ever experience driving the camper at night. It was kind of scary, but I was glad that there were at least other cars around. We ended up not getting to our campground until almost 9 pm, which meant we parked, used the restroom, and then went to bed...hoping that the next day would be a little smoother!

From Mississippi to New Mexico: Day 1 and Day 2

We loaded up and headed out early on day one!

Can you see the picture of the Airstream clipped to Mississippi right behind my head?!? Moving the camper on our Roadtrip Countdown was SUPER exciting for the boys!

 We drove through Louisiana, and it seemed to take forever! I think that is probably because we were driving up the state on a diagonal which means we spent way more time than we usually do when we just drive through it on I-10. 

 We finally made it to Texas! And they are serious when they say everything is bigger in Texas...it took us two days to get out of the great state of Texas!

 We stopped overnight at a state park just off the interstate south of Dallas. We had some local bbq for dinner, we slept with the windows open, and then we headed out the next morning before the sun was up!

We ate breakfast in the parking lot of a truck stop:)

 We drove past miles and miles of wind farms...seriously I've never seen anything like them!

 We made it into New Mexico by lunchtime...and we only had to make one emergency stop {aka Eli had to poop and there was nowhere to stop for miles, so he had to poop in the camper on the side of the road!}.

 We enjoyed the beautiful views and the gorgeous blue sky all the way to Carlsbad, New Mexico!

We made it to Carlsbad Caverns around 3:00 pm.

  We went straight to the natural entrance to the cave and started the hike down. You have the option to ride the elevator down and then back up...but what is the fun in that! 

 The hike down took us a little over an hour, and the hike up took a little less time than that....mostly because Eli got a piggyback ride on the way up:) On the way down we kept passing people coming up who were sweaty and out of breath, and I kind of thought they were being wimps...that was until we started the hike back up! I don't know if its because there is less oxygen down there or what, but that was a tough hike up and I was sweaty and out of breath by the time we made it to the top!

We're Back!

So we made it back from our big roadtrip! You know how you usually need a vacation after your vacation...yeah with a roadtrip that long I think I may need two vacations to get back to normal! I have spent the last two days doing {loads &loads of} laundry and napping. I think maybe the whole being on Pacific time for more than a week has really messed with my sleeping patterns...and the fact that we stayed up late and got up early almost every day of trip may have something to do with it too.

I have lots of pictures to share, but I need to go through and pick out the best ones before I just start uploading a million and one pictures. I had intended to blog some while we were gone, but the wifi gods weren't very nice to me....and apparently it can be difficult to get an internet connection with your phone when you are 8000 feet above sea level:) I had planned to do a little round up of all the great Roadtrip Ready posts from May, so that post may come sooner than my vacation post. And I also wanted to keep up with my monthly Instagram Recap posts {if you follow me on Instagram {@supermom_kelli} then you have already seen a TON of our trip}, but that didn't happen while we were gone so my May recap post will hopefully be up soon too....and eventually I will get around to posting about our trip!

Until then here's a quick picture of the boys by the camper at our campsite at the Grand Canyon:

Roadtrip Trial Run

This past weekend we loaded up the Airstream and took her on a trial run. Basically we wanted to make sure we could make it down the road without any of our millions of redos and changes messing up. We also needed to see how camping was going to work, and make sure we had thought of everything before we head out across the country in a few weeks!

Our inaugural trip went pretty smoothly. We made it to our destination {and over a huge bridge that I shared a picture of on Instagram} without any trouble. Brakes, lights, hitch...everything worked just like it was supposed to!

 We arrived at the campsite and Jason got busy unhooking and setting up everything...and the boys got busy exploring:)

 We stayed close to the campground the first night because it was kind of late by the time everything was set up and ready to go. But the next morning we headed out to explore the island. We checked out the public beach area and the pier. 

 And we rode our bikes all over the island. I think we must have ridden at least 15 miles over the weekend..and I was so proud of Eli for keeping up with us the whole time! We did have to slow down for him a few times, but for the most part he stayed right with us pedaling his little legs as fast as they would go!

 We took in a little history lesson at Fort Gaines. I obviously didn't pay very close attention because I can't remember exactly what war this fort was built for...I'm assuming the Civil War though:)

 Then we let the boys play at the beach for a while.

 After all our exploring, we were ready for a snack! We found a little place that had yummy {but SUPER expensive} snow cones:)

 The next day, we got up early and did a little bird watching...well at least as much bird watching as three loud boys can do. Basically we just walked through the bird sanctuary and read a couple of signs. Grant did find a couple of birds though:) 

 We ended our camping trip with a quick lunch at the picnic table. Then it was time to start packing up to head home.

And obviously our weekend trip wore the boys out because all three of them passed out about halfway home! I think that means our trial run was a success!