Grand Canyon, Part 1

We wanted to go on a road trip with the Meisters this summer so we decided to go to the Grand Canyon. Amanda and her kids have been before, but my kids had never been. Andy stayed behind, which made it even easier to all go in one car. We missed Andy, but it was fun to do a moms/kids trip.

We left Wednesday morning and headed to Williams, AZ. On the way, we stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch. It's one of the Meisters' favorite restaurants and another new place for my kids. We all really liked it.

Joey and Zachary played checkers while we waited for our food. 

We got to Williams in the late afternoon. We checked into our hotel, and then we went to the pool.

For dinner we walked down the street to a KFC/Taco Bell and then to McDonald's for dessert because we are very fancy. 

The next morning we got up and got on the train to the Grand Canyon.

The train ride took two hours and fifteen minutes which seemed a little long, but there was some entertainment like this "Rock 'n Roll Cowboy."

When we got to the Grand Canyon, we immediately went to see the amazing view. My kids especially were pretty in awe since it was their first time seeing it. Hannah and Joey both commented that even in person it looked like a painting.

After a quick look at the view, we grabbed lunch.

Then we hiked along the rim trail for a couple of hours, stopping for lots of photo ops.

This was one of my favorite pictures. I remember doing this when I was a kid at the Grand Canyon.

Since it's monsoon season, you never know when a storm can suddenly come upon you. At one point there were storms on either side of us complete with thunder and lightning. It was so cool to see, but we were so thankful that we never actually had any rain on us. It's like the Lord kept us in a bubble, for which we were very thankful. At one point though, the lightning did come close enough that everyone except for Ellie and me felt the lightning when it struck. It kind of whooshed their hair and made it stand on end! So crazy! 

We had about four hours at the Grand Canyon before we needed to head back to the train. 

On the way back we went to the cafe car so we could play some card games.

Later our train got robbed by masked bandits! ;-)

The marshall came a few minutes later and had more fun giving me a hard time than catching the bad guys. Ha!

We made it back to our hotel that evening, grabbed our luggage, and drove a few minutes away to our AirBnb where we were going to stay for the next two nights...