Grand Vacation ~ Grand Canyon~Las Vegas~Southern California

I apoligize for all the gaps in this post, for some reason, it's not letting me format this correctly :(

~Wow, didn't realize how long it's been since I've written a blog! I have been busy, but will try harder to write at least a couple of times each month to catch up. (We'll see how long that lasts :) Well since my last blog, lots of things have happened ~ Matt, JD, and Grant all celebrated birthdays, Ava graduated from pre-school, and the kids found out that they will have another brother joining the family at the end of this summer, and we are all super excited :) Since the little one will be here soon, we decided to go all out on this year's vacation. We spent 10 days on the road and did so much, it's hard to remember everything we did! We started by flying out to Phoenix and driving up to the Grand Canyon, then we trudged through the desert on our way to Las Vegas, and finally went through the mountains on our way to Southern California. This was Ava and Grant's first time in an airplane, so that in itself was exciting for the kiddos. ~ We spent a few days at the Grand Canyon, and all I can say is that it was amazing! It's hard to get over how massive and expansive it really is. I will say that it was a little (okay, very) scary looking over those rims, but the beautiful scenery was well worth it. Matt and JD did a little bit of hiking down the canyon, while the kids and I walked around the top. Of course, while Matt and JD were gone, the kids and I were able to spot a couple of condors flying overhead, which are almost extinct. They flew right over us and they were so close, I could read the numbers on their wings (#'s 16 and 20) It's a rarity to even see one this close, and of course, I don't have pictures, JD had my camera on his hike :( Just to put it into perspective, their wing span measures almost 10 feet, making them one of the largest birds and by the looks of their bald, red heads, they are also one of the ugliest birds I've had the pleasure of seeing!)

~Views of the South Rim of the Canyon~

~ After our trip to the Canyon, we began our adventure through the deserts of Arizona on our way to Vegas. We stopped at an old Wild West town called Oatman, where the churros (donkeys) run wild. We ate at this really unique saloon that had thousands of dollars worth of $1 bills stapled to the walls, so to keep with tradition, we added another dollar to the stash. The kids got to watch an old west gun show and got to feed the donkeys that roamed the streets. This town was the setting for many old western movies such as "How the West was Won" and at one time was an old gold mining community.

~Poor Grant, getting checked-out by the burros~

~Walls covered in dollar bills~In keeping with tradition, we had to

put our own dollar on the wall too~

~In Vegas, we stayed at Mandalay Bay, and the kids had a blast playing at the beach and swimming in the giant wave pool. We walked the strip and watched the fountain show at the Bellagio and on our way back to the hotel, ran into some very interesting characters. Grant got to meet "Superman" and I think this was the first time during this trip that he actually smiled and looked at the camera :) Ava's highlight of the night was going into the M & M store and getting to pick out her own color of M&M's. She of course picked the pink, purple and blue ones! After our visit to Vegas, we stopped at the Hoover Dam and then drove the long and bumpy ride through the Mojave Desert on our way to Palm Springs, CA.

~New York, New York, Vegas~

~Fountains at the Bellagio~

~Grant getting to meet Superman~One of the only times he

actually smiled for the camera~

~Wave pool and beach at our hotel~Kids playing in the water~

~Hoover Dam~

~ While we were in Palm Springs, we hiked the trails of the Indian Canyons, where the kids played in the natural water springs along the path, we visited the Living Desert, where the kids were able to feed a giraffe and ride a camel and lastly, we rode the Aerial Tram, that took us almost 9,000 feet up into the San Jacinto Mountains. The views from the tram and mountain were amazing. The tram was all glass and rotated, so on your way up, you got to see 360 degree views of the area below. I will say that it was a huge contrast in temperature, we went from being hot, almost 90 degrees down below to about 35 degrees and snow on the mountain.

~Riding the Camel at the Living Desert in Palm Springs, CA~

~Ava getting to feed a giraffe~

~Natural Spring Oasis, Indian Canyon, Palm Springs, CA~

~Kids enjoying the water at the oasis~

~View from the Aerial Tram, Palm Springs, CA~

~ After Palm Springs, we began our journey towards San Diego by driving through the mountains. We stopped in the little mountain town of Julienn, which is famous for its quaint shops and apple pie, so we waited in line for almost 45 minutes, yes, I said 45 minutes to try its famous pie and cinnamon ice cream. It was good, but according to Justun, not as good as his grandma Leininger's!

~Another Desert Oasis, Joshua Tree National Park, CA~

~ We spent the next couple of days relaxing and exploring the beaches along the California Coast. We started up in Carlsbad and worked our way all the way down to Coronado Beach. The water was cold, but the kids still enjoyed wading in it and building castles in the sand! Grant and JD were the only ones brave enough to actually sit in the water, while Ava enjoyed combing the beaches for shells and rocks. We had a pizza picnic on the beach and watched the sun set one night and in Coronado, we rented a 5-person bike and pedaled our way down the board walk. We even got to see the Navy Seals train along the beach. Our next venture was Sea World. The kids loved watching the Shamu and dolphin shows and JD got a thrill riding on some of the water rides there. Our last night in San Diego was spent in Old Town, where we enjoyed authentic Mexican food, and ended our night with a tour through the Whaley House, one of the most haunted places in America! JD and I went there looking for some spooky stuff and Ava tagged along because she wanted to see the "creepy" doll room.

~Kids enjoying the Beach~

~Coronado Beach, Hotel Del Coronado, CA~

~Enjoying a family bike ride along the beach~

~Enjoying the rides at Sea World~

~Is that you Marty?~Watching the 4-D show at Sea World~

~Shamu Show~

~Ava and JD's first tour through a haunted house~Whaley House, San Diego~

~There's a new sheriff in Old Town~ Ava and Grant wearing their badges~

~Now that's what I call a kiss!~

~ This was one of our best family vacations so far, but we can all agree that it's nice to finally be home, especially after spending the night in 10 different hotels and averaging 22 hours in the vehicle on this trip!! (Okay, when I say we, I mean Matt and I, the kids could have stayed there another couple of weeks without being home-sick :) I've posted a few pictures, but will post more as I organize them!

Sedona, Arizona

Merry Christmas, From the Leininger's

This is the picture that we added to our Christmas cards this year, it was our family picture taken at the kids' Aunt Kelli's wedding. I would have posted the card, but I don't know how to get that on the blog and the letter that goes with it, isn't able to "paste" onto the blog. (maybe if I ever get some time on my hands, I can re-type the letter on this blog :)

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas (With lots of snow, in a secluded cabin, in the woods)

Well, this year, we were all dreaming of a white Christmas, and just like last year, we got one. Too bad we had to drive 9 hours to get there, but the drive was well worth it! This year, we decided to head up north to the Black Hills and celebrate Christmas the old-fashioned way, in a log-cabin, with a wood burning stove, high in the mountains (or hills :) of SD, near the old historic mining towns of Lead-Deadwood. We did enjoy a few modern amenities though, like, a hot tub on the deck, snow-mobiling, with the snow-mobile trail being only a half-mile away, skiing, tobogganing, sledding, and snowboarding, to name a few :) We left a day early and arrived in Rapid City the first night, and to surprise the kids, we decided to stay at the Marriot, which had an indoor water park. You would think that will walls of slides, a lazy river, rafts, and a giant play area they would be overwhelmed with their choice of things to do, but (not) to my surprise, their favorite area was the hot-tub. Well, we woke up the next morning thinking that we would just take our time getting to the cabin, well, I should have eaten my words, cause we DID take our time, but not because we wanted to! We woke up to a sheet of ice on the windows, so thick that you couldn't even see out. Rapid City had an unexpected ice storm and everything, including our car, was covered in a layer of ice. So we did what anyone would do, we let the car warm up for a half-hour and tried to scrape the windows, with what-ever we could find. (It's a good thing we left our scraper at home ): We did manage to get the car scraped and warmed and then headed to the store to load up on groceries before we skated, slid, tried to drive, into Deadwood. Well to say the least, the drive there was beautiful....talk about walking, or should I say driving, in a winter wonderland. The cabin was beautiful and we even had our own little flock of turkeys right outside as we pulled up. The first thing we did when we got into the cabin was lit the fire and enjoyed some hot cocoa. Later, the kids and I went sledding down the hill in our driveway, while Matt and JD, snowmobiled on the trail. (They went almost 50 miles that first day on their mobiles! ) The next day, we went tobogganing and snowboarding down at the Mystic Miner Ski Resort. Christmas Eve/Day was spent in the cabin, enjoying the fireplace and hot-tub and watching Christmas movie classics. I will say that this was one of our favorite Christmas memories, and we all very much enjoyed a very peaceful and relaxing White Christmas in SD.

~Views from our cabin. Beautiful winter-wonderland scene~

~JD riding on his snow-mobile~

~Our beautiful cabin in the woods~ (family enjoying the hot-tub)~

~Enjoying the hot-tub again~We spent a lot of our time in there, nothing like having frozen hair while sitting in the 103 degree water~

~Christmas Eve dinner~

~(Hey JD, you can look at the camera, Santa hasn't come yet)~



~Grant's new hat~ I asked him to pretend like he was working, I guess work must be too much for him~

~Ava and I with the new "Snuggie"~ We always joked about the Snuggie, so Matt and JD thought it would be funny to get one for me as a joke, well the joke was on them, because I got each of them a Snuggie too :)~(okay, theirs wasn't exactly a "real" Snuggie, I got them the new and improved "Fuzzie Wuzzies")~

~My special gift from JD, a Rosary made from my birthstone, a Peridot~

~(He even used his own money to buy this one:)~

~Special gift made by Ava for our family~Hand-made card and ornament with her cute little face on it~

~Whattttttt????????~Okay, I just had to put this one in....I double-dared Matt and JD to make snow-angels because they were getting too hot in the hot-tub, so they did it and here are their angels, don't think you could even pay me enough to roll around in the snow with only my swimming-suit on!~

~The Kids and Matt racing down the hill...Snowboarder vs. Sledders~

End of Summer Vacation

Family enjoying some wonderful Chicago deep-dish pizza at UNO's

With school just around the corner, we decided to squeeze in one last trip and boy did we squeeze a lot in with this trip!! We decided to head east and visit the "windy city", but it felt more like the "hot city" with temps well in the 90's, but we didn't let a little heat put the "sizzle" on our summer fun. (sorry for the cheese-fest commentary, I'm a little tired from the 8++ hour drive :) Our first stop of the trip was a visit to the Iowa Hawkeyes Stadium (now that we're joining the Big 10, we need to see what our playing field's look like) and then a stop in the "Quad Cities" (Moline, IL, Rockport, Davenport, and Bettendorf, IA) for dinner, a tour of the John Deere Museum and a water taxi ride along the Mighty Mississippi. We finally ended our day with a hike through Starved Rock State Park. We then spent a few days in Chicago and toured many of the city's attractions such as Wrigley Field, Shedd Aquarium, Navy Pier (complete with a ride on the giant Ferris wheel), and of course we spent some time walking along the "Magnificent Mile" where Ava spotted her favorite store!! Yes, she found it, the American Girl Doll store, so we just had to stop in and do a little shopping. I let the boys do their thing, while Ava and I did ours :) Well, needless to say, 1 1/2 hours and $200 dollars later, we were hungry and ready to try some of that much talked about Chicago deep dish pizza at UNO's. We ended our trip in Chicago with a day at the beach. We went north to Evanston and visited yet another Big 10 school (Northwestern) and then spent some time swimming in Lake Michigan. (We were pleasantly surprised at how clean the water and beach were) Then, we headed south to Springfield. On the way down, we drove along the historic Route 66 highway and then stopped in Lincoln, IL. Lincoln is where many of Matt's ancestors farmsteaded, so we were able to stop at the old church and cemetery and even found quite a bit of ancestral history along the way. It was also full of Abe Lincoln historical sites and the world's largest covered wagon :) As we drove down Route 66 we stopped by the Cozy Dog Drive-Inn home to the corndog and the place where the corndog was invented. Yummy!! Then we spent the rest of our time in Springfield walking in Abe Lincoln's footsteps. We visited the Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library, the Old and New State Capitals, Lincoln's Law Office, Governor's Mansion, Lincoln's Home and Tomb. It was very surreal to actually be in the very spot's that our 16th president frequented, but the spot that had the most impact on all of us was standing inside of Lincoln's tomb and being in the presence of such an amazing and important figure in our nation's history. As we headed home, we made one last stop in Hannibal, MO hometown to Mark Twain and the inspiration for many of his popular and beloved novels. Needless to say, we are definitely glad to be home, but this was a trip that will have a lasting impact on all of us.

Iowa Hawkeye Stadium~Future Big 10 Rival

Enjoying a water ride along the Mighty Mississippi (Matt didn't do a very good job at getting out of this picture)

Beautiful Chicago skyline atop the giant Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier

Another view of the city

Hmmmm......wonder who they're taking to? Like the pink phone Grant:)

Like my glasses.....getting ready to watch the 4-D show at Shedd Aquarium

Ava after picking out her new doll at the American Girl Store. As Ava would say "She looks like a mini-me."

Whose doll is this again????

Nothing like ending the day with a trip to the beach!!

Enjoying the sights along Historic Route 66

World's Largest Covered Wagon~Lincoln, IL

Abe Lincoln's House~Springfield, IL

Lincoln's Tomb~Springfield, IL