Carter’s first day of middle school — 6th grade.

Raine’s last year of middle school — 8th grade.

August 9 – Show Low Lake

August 10 – Grandpa put up his much-anticipated zip line

August 11 – the Petrified Forest

We started our drive home from the north end of the Petrified Forest and Daddy had to wakeup on his 44th birthday in a cheap motel along Historic Route 66!

August 5 we headed out on a long drive toward Arizona to meet Sara and her family.

On the 6th we took an excursion up to Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam.

Then we boarded our open-air truck for the ride to Antelope Canyon.

Antelope Canyon is a sandstone slot canyon within the Navajo Nation. The entrance doesn’t look like much…

…but as soon as you enter, it is unbelievable. Between the four of us, we took hundreds of photos; it was incredible.

Carter with his angel wings

Raine with her angel wings

After we exited the other side, we hiked back up over the top. That’s the canyon right there; you literally cannot even tell it is there.

After the tour, we headed over to the Grand Canyon to meet Grandma and Grandpa Anderson at the Yavapai Lodge, where we were staying that night. After dinner, we hiked over to the canyon to watch the sunset while we waited for Aunt Sara and her family.

Early on the 7th, Sara and Daryn joined Daddy and I on a hike to the rim to watch the sun rise.

Once everyone was awake and packed, we hiked along the rim to the Ooh Aah Point trailhead.

The switchbacks to get down the steepest part of the rim were pretty tight!

The view from Ooh Aah Point

Addy, Raine, and Millie

Somehow Carter managed to escape our notice when took the group photo.

Once we made it back up to the top, we drove to Mather Point to look out from the observation platform.

We had a great view of the trail that we just hiked out to Ooh Aah Point.

This was the only place that we could catch a glimpse of the Colorado River down in the bottom of the canyon.

We loaded up the cars and drove to Flagstaff where we all met up for lunch before driving the rest of the way to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.