The journey ends....

Day 8 is actually the trip back East. We hopped our plane in Phoenix, and the onboard movie that played was the one with Will Smith called "The Pursuit of Happyness" (yes, Pastor, that is the way it is spelled in the movie... the mis-spelling is significant). LOL! That movie was very emotionally intense, and had such a happy ending that I couldn't help but cry! We made our connection with ZERO time to spare, and got to CT around 9:15 pm. We got the truck, stopped for dinner, and headed to Mike and Gina's for the night. It was really great to spend a few hours with them. The boys were thrilled to see Casey and Ryan! When we left their house on Sunday at noon, (day 9), we could hardly wait to get home! When we walked in the house, I was SOOOO surprised to find that Sandy had CLEANED (I mean CLEANED) our apartment top to bottom! She washed the walls, she cleaned the carpets, she took down the curtains and washed them, she washed all the bedding, she mopped the floor, etc etc etc etc etc.... and there were flowers on the kitchen table, and the place was immaculate! What a blessing!!! We missed Sandy so much on our vacation! As our adopted "daughter", she is coming on our next family vacation WITH US! No ifs, ands, or buts! We sure love her! We had Ben and Stacy, George and Laurel, and Julie and Peter over that evening to watch a slide show of ALL the vacation pictures... Julie even brought some of hers on CD! It was so fun! But now it is back to routine and reality. But the incredible blessing of this adventure will NEVER be forgotten! THANK YOU JULIE! THANK YOU JACK! THANK YOU NANA AND GRAMPA! THANK YOU MOM! Thanks to EVERYONE who made this trip a reality for us! The thrill of a lifetime!

Day 7 in Arizona

We checked out at 9:30 and headed south. We spent the day in Tombstone, AZ, home of the famous gunfight at the OK Corral. It was a hot one... 90 degrees again. We brought plenty of bottled water with us. The town is still old looking (although it is a totally modern tourist trap). Dirt streets, and many of the buildings have some of the original structure, although much of the original stuff burned in the two fires that swept through the town.


Everyone walks around in period dress, and you routinely hear gunshots, and then see someone come flying out a door with another yelling, "NO GUNS IN MY RESTAURANT!" It's pretty funny!
We ate lunch at the longhorn restaurant (NOT the chain, but the original one from back in the day). Then we spent a few minutes in the museum before the 2pm reenactment of the big gunfight. Here are Adam and Nick in front of a "jail".


The gunfight was fun. They did a four part show... Legends of the West, The night before the showdown, the actual gunfight, and the shooting of Virgil Earp.




When it was over, we got a picture of Adam and Nick standing with the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday (with the "attitude" look on their faces to match the attitude of the showdown... LOL!).

There was no shade or cover during the show, so we headed for the ice cream parlor to cool off. Then we went to get our copies of the Tombstone Epithat, and we caught a VERY expensive stagecoach ride!!!!

It was a narrated tour through the streets, telling the history of the town, and showing where different people lived (and died). Neat, but NOT worth $30.
We headed back to Phoenix exhausted. However, we took a small detour on the way and stopped at the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Farm for some pictures.... VERY COOL!



As we neared Phoenix, we saw the most beautiful sunset... a perfect way to end a perfect vacation....

We arrived at our hotel at 7:30, ordered pizza, and let the boys unwind wrestling. We turned on ESPN to discover that the Red Sox beat the Yankees 11-4 AT Yankee Stadium.... sweet! Lights out for the kiddos at 9:30. It's been a VERY exciting week, but I think we are ALL ready to go home sweet home!

we interrupt this blog....

Just a note to say... please be patient. I am behind on blogging. We just got home to Vermont today and have been unpacking and visiting with family. I know I still have two days of vacation left to blog about... I'll get there! :) You'll love the pictures of Tombstone! What a fun week it was! Thanks for enjoying the trip with us via NAM (northern apostolic mom)! Tomorrow we are back to school/work! WOW!

Day 6 in Arizona

Gonna be a hot one today... forecast is sunny and 90 degrees! We are meeting Donna this morning for breakfast and a fun day of sightseeing. We are going to the Desert Museum today.
When we got to the IHOP for breakfast, a very weird thing happened. We are in TUCSON, we walk into the restaurant, and who do we see??? The Pastor of the church in PHOENIX we attended on Sunday! He and his wife were there with a local UPC pastor (and HIS wife) because tonight is the first night of AZ district conference! And it's right down the street from our hotel! How cool is that? But we are going to be with Gary, Donna, and Amy this evening for dinner, and we are excited about that, too.

On our way to the Desert Museum, we stopped at a place called Gates Pass in the Saguaro National Forest. It was amazing. The boys and Jason hiked up the hill, while Donna and I looked out over the valley toward the beautiful Catalina mountains.

When we got to the Desert Museum, we got a real treat! That place is amazing! Here is just some of what we saw:

diamondback rattlesnake

scorpion

falcon

puma mountain lion

prairie dogs

gray fox

otters (they were hilarious!)

gila monsters and other lizards

Some other animals not pictured are black widows, tarantulas, bobcats, GIANT black bears, desert tortoises, parrots, locusts, big horn sheep, and a squirrel that followed us EVERYWHERE!

There were also lots of desert plants to see...

Many of the desert cactuses were in full bloom, and they were gorgeous! We even saw a dust devil or two out in the desert, including the one below....

We spent about 3 hours at the museum, and the desert heat began to take its toll on the Ziters. Even though we DRANK and had ice cream 1/2 way through our visit, we were toast. THANK GOD for the air conditioned car!!!! On our way back, Donna toured us through Tucson. We saw University of Arizona (home of the wildcats!), the conference center, a gorgeous catholic cathedral, the "snake bridge" seen below...

the fire station (station 16) where her son Brian works, the church they attend, and Gary's office.
Back at the hotel, the boys went swimming for 2+ hours, Jason checked his 75 emails, and I journaled by the pool. We arrived at Gary and Donna's house at 6:30 pm, and had a wonderful visit with them and Amy. We had enchilada casserole, fried chicken, and garden/potato/macaroni salads. YUM! Here's something for the memory book... we ate outside on the back patio. I got up to go inside for some more enchilada casserole. However, when I tried to go in, I discovered (the painful way) that Gary had CLOSED the sliding glass patio door... I walked right into it full force! It was embarrassing, but HILARIOUS at the same time! While sitting out on the patio, we heard the coyotes begin to howl. The boys thought that was really cool. After dinner, we put in the movie "Happy Feet" for the boys while we shared pictures and stories with Gary, Donna, and Amy. At 9:20, we headed back to the hotel. We did two loads of laundry then hit the sack.

Day 5 in Arizona

Well... today is the day we said goodbye to the canyon. We packed the car, had breakfast, turned in the room keys, then stopped at the general store gift shop for last minute souvenirs.

We stopped at Mather Point on the way out for a final look. This is the same spot we got our FIRST look at the majesty of the Grand Canyon! WOW!
It was a L-O-N-G drive from Grand Canyon to Tucson, but the boys did really, really well! We went through Sedona (absolutely GORGEOUS), the red rock canyon. It was so beautiful!




We stopped there for lunch and ate at a place called "The Hitching Post" restaurant. They had tables outdoors and lunch was delightful!

While we were eating, we heard a jingling sound. A cowboy with spurs went by and the boys started singing:

I got spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle

As I go riding merribly along. *heehee*

Back in the car, heading south. We hit Phoenix during rush hour traffic, and I needed a valium. I HATE city traffic!!!!!! Once we got through that, the drive to Tucson was smooth sailing. We drove by a cotton farm, a pecan orchard, and an Ostrich Farm! That was really cool!

We reached our hotel about 6:30 pm, and it was CLASSY! Here are a couple pictures:

Inside our room

The view directly out our door in the center of the hotel.

The pool in the middle of our hotel.

After being in the car for so long, we all hit the pool! It was a heated pool, which is kind of weird, because when it is 90 degrees, you want to COOL OFF!!! But it was still very relaxing.

After our dip, we went to a chinese restaurant called Panda Village, which was nice. We called Gary and Donna to set up plans for tomorrow. Jason and the boys went to bed, and I stayed up until 1:00 AM fighting with the computer, posting on my blog (just like tonight!!). As I shut down the computer (I was working out by the pool, not in my room), a voice called out from the dark on the other side of the pool. "Excuse me... Can I talk to you?" She startled me!! It was a young girl named Ali (age 24) who just needed someone to talk to. We talked for about 20 minutes, then went our separate ways. I hope I was a good listener, and pray she heard what she needed to hear.

Day 4 in Arizona

Wow! Today has been a monumental day of canyon viewing! Jack and Julie met us here at the lodge, and we hopped the bus toward Bright Angel trail. We saw the mules as they headed out with their passengers toward the bottom of the canyon.


You will note there are NO railings on this very narrow path... hence the sign below...

Once the mules had hit the trail, we followed down the trail to a tunnel through the rock on the trail. Here are the boys standing in front of the tunnel.

When we walked through the tunnel to the other side, we spotted a HUGE California condor sitting up on the crop of rocks above us. Awesome sight!


Hard to see here, but he is showing off his incredible 9 1/2 foot wing span here... wow!
Anyway, we headed back to the rim where Jack and Julie were waiting, and a man with the condor project told us he would be scaring the condor off. We got video and photos of him soaring through the bright blue sky... what an incredible sight!!

Then we hopped the red line bus to see the western end of the south rim. Here is a picture of all of us at one of the early stops on the tour....

My very favorite stop was Maricopa Point. It was so breath-taking (and a little scary)! It was like standing on the edge of the world! Here is our family standing there... on the edge of the world at Maricopa Point.

There was another stop called "the abyss", which had a sheer 3,000 ft drop straight down. SCARY STUFF!! We got a great view of the Colorado River at Pima Point, then we headed back to the Market Plaza and had lunch.

While we were at Maricopa Point, the boys completed their final Jr. Ranger activity. After lunch, we hopped the bus to the Canyon View Visitor Center, where they were sworn in by a national park ranger as official "Jr. Park Rangers". We bought them each a ranger hat to go with the badge, patch, and certificate they received.

Then we headed back to the lodge for much needed rest and downtime. The boys and I laughed so hard watching America's Funniest Videos and Funniest Pets and People.

When the sun started to sink low, we headed to Yavapai Point to watch the sunset. It was VERY beautiful! There was an artist standing on the rim painting the canyon as the sun set. There were three mule deer grazing right where everyone could practically touch them. The sunset was a neat experience. We decided that sunrise would be the same thing, except in reverse. So, we opted to pass on it, and we will be sleeping in tomorrow morning.

We hadn't had dinner yet, so we headed into the village and got........ you guessed it..... McDonalds. Whatever. We pick our battles! They were really good during the sunset.

At bedtime, we had a "crisis event" (at least in Nick's eyes). There was a funky bug that Adam noticed on Jason's Bible. It looked something like this:

Quite creepy, actually. I picked up the Bible to shake him off outside. That thing moved with lightning speed toward my hand and startled me. I gasped and dropped the book. Nick started freaking out - demanding that we pack and head for Vermont RIGHT NOW!!!!! LOL! It was hilarious!!! Jason/Daddy/the hero killed the bug, and all was well. He fell right asleep.