5 lessons from "Own-A-Zona"

This past October we took our first big family trip out to Arizona. Leading up to the trip John Grayson was very excited to see cacti and Delia was content just being excited to say the name of the state we were going to... which came out as 'Own-a-zona'.  We learned a few lessons on this trip...

First - Children have no concept of time zones, this was readily apparent on both our flight out to Arizona (John Grayson was in tears about how tired he was at 6pm on the first day) as well as our 4:30am wake up time from the kids each morning. Thank goodness for 24 hour Dunkin Donuts.


Second - The kids loved Cacti.

It started with John Grayson. Every time we saw a new cacti (and there are lots of variety) he wanted to take his picture in front of it. This was great to look and learn about these cacti, but both John Grayson and I learned that touching a cactus is not a pleasant experience. John Grayson due to curiosity, while Daddy backed into a cactus while taking the picture above. I was picking needles out of my leg for more than a week.

Delia started getting into the game as well, but she had a passion for large cacti. We found this one just down the block from where we were staying. The locals told us that this one had to be at least 100 years old!

Third - While the air temperature is hot in October, the water temperature gets cold.

We went over to my Uncle Jim and Aunt Linda's house for a cookout one of the evenings we were there. I remembered how much I loved their pool when I was a kid, so I thought they would love it the same. They did, but wow was it cold.

Given that the kids are not prolific swimmers at this point, I had to go into the pool with them. I thought it would feel better over time, but the half hour we spent in the pool was one of my coldest dips ever!

Fourth - A family trip to the Grand Canyon from Phoenix is a long day no matter how you do it.

Lamenting the 8 hour round trip drive to get to and from the Canyon, I found a company that could do a charter flight from Scottsdale to the Grand Canyon, significantly shortening our journey. So on Tuesday morning the 4 of us piled in a Cessna with our pilot and headed up to the Canyon. The flight up was incredible, we were provided with some of the most epic views I could have ever imagined of the Arizona desert. We also got to spend 30 minutes flying over the Canyon which was amazing (picture above).

When we got there we spend a few hours hiking around the South Rim, while Mommy and Daddy were enjoying the view, the kids interest began to wane as they saw it as just a big hole in the ground. We were able to get a couple good family pictures thanks to some friendly folks in the park. By the end of the day the kids had enough.

 

All of us ended up sleeping on the plane ride back.

Fifth - The old west is cool at any age. 

Our last night in Phoenix we took the kids to a western town called 'Rawhide'. They had people in character (Cowboys, Sheriffs, Outlaws) walking all around the 'town'. As we got there one of the Outlaws had been thrown out of the Saloon and a shoot-out ensued. The kids were enthralled at all of the old west activities and the actors. 

Albeit a long trip to get there, taking the family to 'Own-a-zona' was a fun trip that filled with great memories!