The Giant, Gaping Hole in the Ground

On July 7, my extended family and I went to the Grand Canyon! This is better known as 'the giant, gaping hole in the ground' by my cousin.

My aunt said that there are normally two opinions of the Grand Canyon:
                 1) This place is absolutely breathtaking......let's go take five million pictures in every location                              possible!
                 2) Oh, this is the Grand Canyon.  Pretty, now let's go.

I do admit, the Grand Canyon is one of the most prettiest places I have ever seen.  But after seeing one area, you have seen it all. The Canyon has tons of viewing sites, which provides different angles of the Canyon. We went to three.  Oh, did you know that the Colorado River is located in the bottom of the Canyon?  The River looks very calm from far away, but I wonder if it has a heavy flow.  Also, the Little Colorado River, which is a tributary of the main River, was near Naomi House. :) Sadly, the Little Colorado River was dried up, until Monsoon season hit.

The Fourth of July

Despite how awful the 4th of July was in 2013, it was quite spectacular this year!

It started out with a swim at the local pool.  Normally, the pool is quite crowded and it opens at 1 PM. Since it was a holiday, the pool opened at 10 AM, and our large crew was the majority of the pool occupants! It was a bit chilly since the sun hadn't fully made its appearance, but it was still very fun.

After we came home, my uncle had made lunch for us.  It was your typical hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, chips, juice, and this awesome cake that was red white and blue.  The cake took 5 cake boxes and 21 eggs. We overestimated how many people would be eating with us on that day because we had tons of food and cake leftover.  But since we have a large household, we didn't care! Leftovers just meant less food we had to prepare later on.

Later on in the day, we went to a local high school to watch the fireworks.  We arrived very early, but the kids had a blast running up and down the school bleachers.  The firework show was very pretty.

Elizabeth and I ended the night about an hour before the rest of our crew did.  Elizabeth and I took a couple kids to Walmart, and came home right before everyone else did.  It was difficult to find the right key to get in the door!

I am so glad I have gotten the opportunity to make amazing 4th of July memories and learn to love it once again! :)

Disney Movie, 'Cars'

Hello! I went to Arizona with the mindset of, 'I will update this blog all the time!'.... Yeah, didn't happen.  :p We did not have unlimited wi-fi, so I had to use my phone for all the blog posts.  It became very hard, especially since I want to include pictures.  So now that I am home, I will update with posts and pictures and all that awesome stuff! :)

The Disney movie, 'Cars', is one of my many favorite children's movies.  In this movie, there are tons of references to things that can be seen on Route 66. I mean, c'mon, they even have a song about Route 66!

The best part is, Naomi House was literally on (one of) the ends of Route 66!!!  Route 66 is broken up throughout the West now because of the interstate.

Remember how Lightning McQueen got lost on the interstate trying to find Mack, and ended up on Route 66, which landed him in Radiator Springs?  He got lost because there were no street lamps.  Well, in real life, this is very true.  There literally are no street lamps near Naomi House on the interstate.  It was so hard trying to find the exit! I would be at least a mile back from the exit, slowing down so I could find the curved line so I would know when to                                                                                       turn.

In the middle left of the above picture, you will see a tractor with the words 'HERE IT IS' next to it.  The sign that this derived from was RIGHT DOWN THE STREET FROM THE HOUSE!!!!! I absolutely love this fact.  :D

You may also remember the Cozy Cone Hotel.  This is also derived from something in Arizona.  The Wigwam Motel, which is located in Holbrook, looks like Native American Wigwams.  In the movie, the hotel rooms were just like traffic cones.  The Wigwam Motel has beds, a TV, and an interestingly-shaped bathroom.

So there is how cool Arizona really is. They have a famous movie fashioning animated versions of their landmarks! :)