Kinsel Family Reunion 2008

Grand Canyon/Sedona, AZ Trip

This year, in an unusual deviation from our normal family vacation (Disneyland in the off season), we travelled south with (sister) Mak and her daughter "princess" to join some of the extended Kinsel family in gorgeous Sedona, Arizona. Along the way, we swung by the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to show Jay just how Grand it really is and to take the first family picture we have had in 20 months (might as well do it right, right?)

Jay was impressed, I was impressed, Dad was impressed and Mak was impressed. When Sam asked where we were going, we had vaguely told him it was a "big hole in the ground". He was pretty excited to "stick his finger in it." When we arrived, he was rather disappointed that the finger sticking wasn't going to be as cut and dried as he thought. He was more impressed with the vast amount of puke that came out of him when we reached the top resulting from the combination of a long, windy road and a snack of string cheese and a capri sun. He is still talking about it. "Princess" kept insisting (while standing in the various lookout points) that she couldn't see the Grand Canyon, and Thomas was just happy to be allowed to throw pebbles off the side (although now that I think of it, that was probably illegal).

The highlight of the Grand Canyon ended up being the pinecones they found and then hucked at trees.

SLIDE ROCK NATIONAL PARK (Day 2)

Hi Mak! Although I am unwilling to post pictures of myself in swim gear, I have no qualms whatsoever about posting your hot bod! Thanks for being the swimsuit model for this section.

Slide rock is a series of natural sandstone waterslides that are really fun if you can keep the overeager 10 year old behind you from coming too close and slamming his heavily treaded swim shoes clad feet into your back. Also, if you can keep your bum from getting stuck in some of the, er, narrower passages as you are going down, that's great too. Surprisingly, the water was absolutely freezing. We made our way into the water inch by squeaking, gasping, chattering inch. It was definitely not what I expected from Arizona in 100 degree heat. There were some minor cliffs for jumping, which were far too much of a challenge for me, as well as some more major cliffs (60+ feet) which were barely enough to challenge my 14 year old cousin. It isn't that I am a total coward around heights, I just have a more healthy respect for the edges of cliffs.

Day 2 ended with steak cooked by dad, potatoes cooked by me, macaroni salad cooked by Albertsons, and a massive temper tantrum cooked up by both my darlings. After a great slide show put on by dad, in which we all discovered that young Aunt Lisa looked like Marsha Brady and young grandpa looks like a cross between young Jack Nicholson and Popeye, we packed it up for the night.

In the 3 minutes it took to get back to our hotel, Samuel had zonked out. I carried him up the stairs and tried to set him on his feet to dig out the key and open the door. He slumped to the ground, still asleep and stayed there. Thomas was very concerned about him and wouldn't come inside until Sam did.

While the three of us were doing this.....

...Thomas was still doing this!

THE NAVAJO EXHIBIT (DAY 3)

It would not be a vacation with my dad if there were not some kind of museum or exhibit included. In this case, there was a navajo exhibit at the Museum of Northern Arizona. Although it was difficult to keep 20 sticky little fingers away from the tables of beautiful and hideously expensive Navajo jewelry and pottery, they kids liked watching the puppet show and making crafts at the kids table. We all had (what else?) Navajo tacos for lunch (except Princess, who ate a navajo hot dog and Sam who had a navajo ham sandwich) and crossed our fingers that the kids would all fall asleep on the 45 minute drive home. They had all been promised a dip in the pool if they were good. When we got home, we woke them up, suited them up, lotioned them up and trotted them over to the pool where we had the pleasure of getting wet for 5 minutes before the black storm clouds rolled in and we were chased back inside by a thunderstorm, the likes of which I had never seen in my sheltered utah valleys. Needless to say, the squall kept up until about five minutes after we all decided we were tired of waiting around in wet swimsuits.

Instead, we spent the afternoon playing a game called Wise and Otherwise, which I completely rocked at (it's not because I'm a nerd mak, it's because I am amazing). That evening we ditched our little energizer bunny with Grandpa and took Sam out on a dinner date night with us. Aunt Lisa had drawn a little face on his leg earlier and he named it "Tamuel." A little pair of glasses from the Mr. Potato Head set was the right size to fit on his leg over the "eyes" and he consulted "Tamuel" about everything for the next several days. For dinner that night, Tamuel thought the chicken strips and root beer from a bottle sounded good to them and they enjoyed it immensely.

Anyone recognize the background? Apparently Walt Disney used to live in Sedona and the mountain in the background is called Thunder Mountain. Recognize it now?

As I picked pictures to post, I realized I don't have many of the extended family. I saw mak running around with her far more superior camera and fingured I would just get them from her (so, sorry to those of you who didn't get to go. Mak will probably post them?) For the record, everyone is pretty much the same except Javan, who grew about 7 feet since I last saw him, and Morgan, who didn't exist yet at the last get together ten years ago.

As is always the case when I see family for the first time in a long while, I wish we saw them more often. It was a bummer we had to keep our trip so short, but it was a great reunion. It was definitely worth the 10 million rounds of the "animal game" it took to get there with minimal tantrums (no matter what animal we were describing, Thomas always guessed "crocadiddle" which made it kind of easy). We want to shoot for Orgeon in the next year or two. If we only have reunions every 10 years, I will be 40 for the next one. Too wierd. Your turn Mak...