Polar Express

During Thanksgiving, 2014, we took a family adventure. We went to Williams, Az The North Pole. We drove to Williams, Az, then boarded the Polar Express train to the North Pole. There, Santa hopped on our train and hitched a ride back to Williams. This town of Williams could very well be the town that served as the inspiration to the movie Cars. Set along historic Route 66, it was 'bypassed' when Interstate 40 was built. The town has bounced back nicely, remaking itself as the 'Gateway to the Grand Canyon'. It certainly has retained it's nostalgic feel, albeit with modern, tourist-trap food prices. Another memorable highlight for Da Boys was Bearizona. It is an animal habitat which you can drive your vehicle through. It affords a close up view of lots of animal species that you rarely get this close to. The last destination of our trip was the Grand Canyon. While too young to hike the canyon, Da Boys did manage a short, scenic walk along the South Rim.

Waiting to board the Polar Express train

Reindeer Bell. Do you believe?

Traffic Jam in Bearizona

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

Sydney and Elvis

Road Trip 2014

We took a family roadtrip to the valley of the sun... AKA Phoenix, Arizona. Yup, Arizona, in July. Yup, we knew what the temperatures were like in Arizona, in July, before we left Southern California. Yup, we took the trip willingly. Because, we had two destinations; both had pools. We launched on Saturday morning, and made it to the Cali/ Az border before stopping for lunch. We let Da Boys loose in a McDonalds Play Place (What a brilliant marketing idea) to burn off some energy. Mommy and Daddy passed on the McDonalds food (HA, we outsmarted the marketers) and got takeout from the BBQ place next door and brought it over to eat while watching Da Boys. We then stopped for some pix commorating Da Boys first inter-state trip.

We arrived at our first destination (The Roberts family hotel and resort) in about 6.25 hours. Here Da Boys enjoyed the pool, complete with water toys (re: water guns!!!), inflatable basketball hoop and various floatation devices.

The hosts threw a party in our honor, and even shaped the menu to my liking; Carne Asada and Pollo Asado tacos. And for dessert, they served Smores over an open fire pit. Yup, open fire pit, with real flames, in July, in Arizona... Yup, the smores were my request, and nope, I didn't think that one through... Fire in the Arizona summer, not very smart decision by me.

On Sunday, we went to destination #2... Arizona Grande Resort and Spa. The main attraction here was the "Oasis" water park. It had a lazy river, a wave pool, a kiddy pool with splash pad.. and giant water slides.

Da Boys initially enjoyed all the aforementioned features, except for the water slide. There was a minimum height requirement of 48"... And Casey is currently about 47.95" tall. But, above and beyond that, he was scared of the water slide, and didn't want to try it. Apparently, he forgot about the summer of 2012, when he last bombed down a water slide...Rewind back to the summer of 2012.

So, we did what all responsible, loving parents do... We bribed him... to try it once. And that once is all it took. After that initial ride, Casey wanted to ride that darn slide... Over and over again. And so, being loving parents, we rode that slide with him... over and over again... for the next day and a half!!!

Arizona Grande Waterslide from p wang on Vimeo.