Spring Break in Arizona

For Spring Break this year, Joe decided to work in Arizona so we all headed to Kingman for Historic Route 66. We packed and loaded up the car on Monday, March 29 to spend a week at the Hampton Inn. On the way down, I took pictures of the Hoover Dam. I hadn't seen it since we moved to Las Vegas almost 2 years ago so I was excited to see the progress of the bridge they are building over the dam. It is pretty spectacular and has been featured on Modern Marvels on the Discovery Channel. The bridge will be a highway for travelers so that they don't have to spend extra time driving around the dam and through the tourist traffic. It is impressive and scheduled to be completed sometime in the next year or two.

We had a great time during the week. Joe worked almost every morning so after a hot continental breakfast, the kids and I hung out in the swimming pool all morning long waiting for him to come back. Usually by the time we got ready for the day after swimming for a couple of hours, Joe would be done so we would either eat lunch from our stash in the kitchenette or go out on our way to some fun activity. It was a nice break from cooking and dishes. Paper products and sandwiches are definitely the way to go!

We hit the bowling center, the sticky-foot theater twice to see "Alice in Wonderland" and "How to Train a Dragon", and the neighborhood Wal-mart. We ate at a local pizza joint, Stromboli's, got homemade caramel root beers at Mr. D'z Drive-In, ate at Chili's, got burgers at In 'n' Out, and enjoyed orange chicken at Panda Express during the week.

We even decorated eggs for Easter in our hotel room. We hard-boiled them in the microwave and it actually worked, although we did lose 3 in an explosion. We colored them with Kool-Aid and the kids loved the way they turned out. They would put the eggs in several different colors and most of them ended up looking like dinosaur eggs. It was pretty fun.

Our eggs are cookin'!

Carlee is a little bit wary about our technique to hard-boil the eggs.


Eight different flavors and colors of Kool-Aid and only $ .15 each!


Loving the way the colors turned out

We called Carlee to come color her eggs and this is how we found her.
She stayed like this all night!

Good morning, sunshine! Come color your eggs for Easter!


The finished product

We visited the historic Route 66 visitor's center and museum. We watched a short film on how Route 66 was the main road for motorists and the small hotels and towns along the road were extremely popular. People would stay in these towns for a few days to enjoy the peace and quiet. Once the Eisenhower highway was built, the towns that once thrived along the route became pretty rundown.

After visiting the museum, we walked across the street to the park and climbed on a big train. The kids were acting like passengers on the train and also victims on the tracks. I just enjoy playing with my camera and my kids, although it was really windy.

We also visited Oatman, which is an old mining town named after a woman that was captured by the Apache Indians and later traded to the Mohave Indians who eventually released her. It is now known as a ghost town and tourist attraction. Wild burros wander the streets and nuzzle you for any type of food. We took some carrots and the kids loved feeding them.

We walked along the dusty streets visiting gift shops and looking at all the old town places. At the back of one store was a fence with these large turtles. They were so active and the kids would have spent hours in that corral with them. They loved feeling their rough necks and hard shells.

We got some sandwiches, frybread and sarsparillas at the town's saloon for lunch. Cowboys performed a shoot-out in the streets every hour or so but we kept missing them by minutes.

Clark and Katelyn enjoyed posing for pictures the entire time. They were always yelling, "Take a picture of me doing this, Mom!"

We visited the Oatman Hotel where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon after being married in Kingman. Apparently, they visited Oatman quite a bit because of the peace and tranquility of the town and Clark Gable enjoyed playing poker with the miners. The hotel rooms were closed for renovation but we did get some ice cream in the Sweet Shop downstairs.

This is Billy Bob Bob, a one-man band, bidding us farewell as we headed back to the car.


These are pictures of the landscape on our drive back to Kingman.

We also enjoyed a hike up in the Hualapai Mountains during our stay. It was about a 3 mile hike and the kids were so busy looking for the perfect walking stick that they didn't complain at all. Plus, the weather was perfect so the time flew and the hike wasn't too bad.

On the way back down the mountain, Joe suddenly stopped and Clark tiptoed back to Jake and me and told us to be really quiet. About 20 feet in front of us was a baby deer and its mother. They were busy eating and didn't really notice us for a while. The baby was really close to us and as we stepped quietly down the trail, the mother quickly jumped in front of us to get to her baby. It's the closest I've been to a deer in a really long time and they looked so pretty.

Sunday was Easter Sunday and General Conference. Clark had left a note for the Easter Bunny to hide their baskets at home so we just enjoyed coloring and doing conference packets in the hotel room. Then my parents called and wanted to come to our house that evening with my brother and his girlfriend. They had spent Easter with my sister in St. George but Geoff really wanted Alanna to see Vegas at night with all the lights. We didn't leave any keys behind and had locked everything up so we decided to head home that afternoon instead of the next morning so that we could meet them. Plus, the kids were anxious to have their Easter Egg Hunt and see their baskets so we loaded up quickly and drove home.

Kingman is a small town with that same feel but it was a nice break. We got to do some things out of the ordinary and spend time together as a family and that is what these breaks are all about. Leaving the routine and everyday schedules for a short time to just enjoy something different is definitely an opportunity that we just can't pass up and I'm glad we got to visit a little piece of our nation's history on historic Route 66.