3rd installment

A little funny that it took me three posts to actually get to the Grand Canyon pictures. But it was just that good of a vacation.

So Sunday morning we woke up early to go to the Wild West Show the train company put on. Since we have been home I can't even count how many times the boys have replayed the shoot outs. And how many times I have heard "No I get to be the sheriff".

Then it was time to board the train. Luckily for us our wonderful neighbors who had already taken the train gave us a book all about the ride before we left home. So we had all kinds information that we would not have known without the book.

Riding a train might just be my new favorite way to travel. Its nice and slow with comfy seats. Big windows for me to look out. This particular train had musicians come through to entertain us.

And of course I took pics along the way, Cute grandma and grandpa. I have to say a very good way to reach the Grand Canyon.

Of course I have heard about how magnificent the Grand Canyon is. It did not disappoint. It really is so big its hard to comprehend it, a little overwhelming.

So happy that our Grand Canyon first time was with shared with family.

There is a walk way that I have no idea how far it goes. We walked along for about a mile looking at the views. There was tons of educational stops along the way that was right up my nerd alley. The boys thought the rocks and how old each one was was pretty cool.

Love these two!

This might be one of my new favorite pictures of all time.

You really could stay for days just looking at everything. For us it was a few hours. We had a wonderful lunch at a hotel with windows overlooking the Grand Canyon, a little surreal.

All to soon it was time to leave so back on the train for us. I think the highlight of the boys trip was the train "robbery" that happened on the way back. The "robbers" (who we found out were retired and off duty police officers) rode along side the train. At just that moment the train ran into trouble and had to stop. The "robbers" came through each car. Can you just imagine the boys faces as this happened? Then the sheriff came though and we all cheered for him to catch the "robbers". So fun!

Oh you might think we are done... but no. There will be one last post, just that good people :)



Grand Canyon (2)

After the parade Luke went down hill fast, high fever, headache the whole nine yards. Winnie and I walked to the closest store we could find that had kids medicine. We gave him some and hoped for the best as we went to lunch. We had just ordered when we realised he needed to be in bed. So Dewey drove him back to the hotel. While we waited for our food, packed it to go and walked back to the hotel. Surprisingly not to out of the norm for us (we are used to the unexpected, roll with the flow people)  so we came up with a new game plan for the afternoon.

Grandma offered to stay with Luke who by this time was fast asleep so that we could take Kolby exploring.

I had seen a brochure for a place called Bearizonia. Its a wildlife preserve rescue place for large animals that you can drive through.

Happy healthy animals that you get to see up close and personal, YES please.

So Dewey, Me Grandpa and Kolby loaded up in the car to see us some wildlife :)

It was AMAZING! I am aware that animal pics on a blog are a snooze fest however I think my love all things furry trumps that fact.

I mean can you even handle how cute this bear is?

After driving around past bears, wolves and buffalo you park and walk through the next area. Which includes....... BABY bears. Oh my heart I almost couldn't handle it. And I found out that they are bottle fed once every two hours. That means someone has the job of holding these babies and bottle feeding them every two hours. THAT'S A JOB. At that point I was prepared to stay and live there forever if they would let me do that "job". I might have had to be pushed away from this area..

Its kind of hard to tell but there are THREE bears in that skinny little tree. These bears were the next age up from the babies, the kindergartners. And just as stinking cute I might add.

The three men folk thought the whole thing was pretty cool. I loved every minute.

When we got back to the hotel room Luke was just waking up. More medicine a little food for dinner and then early to bed. The next morning he rallied and seemed to be feeling a lot better. Which was handy since this was our big day, our trip to the Grand Canyon via train.

More to follow.....