View more pictures of our hike HERE.

Two full bags of Trader Joe's munchies and fruit were left on our porch along with beautiful yellow mini daisies in a pot, a balloon bouquet AND a huge banner that was taped across the front of the house that said "Welcome Home". I knew instantly it was my parent's. They shop at Trader Joe's, called right before we got home and they just do very thoughtful things like that. Things that very few people think of. Those nice acts of love that bring warmth to your heart and bring a smile to your face and that was so unexpected. :) THANKS MOM AND DAD!

We are very happy to be home and safe at home. We drove in about 5-5:30pm. Made good time on the road. No major stops. Midnight was very happy to see us. Was meowing like crazy and then darted out of the house with incredible speed.

We unloaded the trailer, truck, ordered pizza and left the kids for sushi... yes... Dan and I all alone. It was very nice. We then went shopping at TARGET! Love and missed Target. All we saw were Walmarts... Ewwwww... and even those were few. We went to Target tonight for a few more last minute clothing items for Kaycee. She is leaving for camp tomorrow afternoon for a week.

You can look for pics of Kaycee on Forest Home's website. Then, click on Camp Photos on the right side of the home page. Click on 2008 - Summer. Then click on Adventure Mountain - 5th to 6th Grade. Then click on July 6 - 12. They try and upload each night, but sometimes they get behind being busy with 100's of 5th and 6th graders. And some years there are lots of pics of the kids and some there aren't. One of Kaycee's best friends, Erica, is also there. If you know her, you might see her in some of the pics too. You can also send her a card or note if you want. This is the address info. I wouldn't send it past Wednesday. From past experience she may not get it. They leave before mail on Saturday.

Kaycee Kimes
Adventure Mountain July 6-12
Forest Home
Forest Falls, CA 92339

Crashing for the night. Church tomorrow morning @9:30am. One of our closest, awesomest buds Mr. Todd Molter is speaking tomorrow at WACC and can't miss it. Then, Kaycee leaves @ 1pm ( I think). Need to bring up the paperwork and instructions still. :)

Here is a video that Karly and Kaycee made while bored during pouring rain, lightening and thunder here in Williams, Arizona.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSEw4-hh6AU]

We are still here in Williams, Arizona amongst the pouring rain, thunder, lightning and wind. Actually, It is 6:45 or 7:45, depending on our time zone. We still aren't sure if Arizona is an hour difference or not. We decided to stay because of the terrible weather and the highway we were going to take has been closed because of a fatality. Plus Dan is still not feeling good.

So, we took the opportunity to check out the laundry room and showers. Beautiful! Showers were the nicest have ever been in in a campsite. In fact, they were as nice as some of the nice hotels we've stayed in. They even had shampoo and body wash dispensers that were full. Laundry had 5 washers and dryers that were free. We loaded ALL 5 and jumped in the clean, hot and free showers. It was the easiest laundry and showers camping we've ever done. Now, laundry is mostly done when we get home tomorrow. That will help as we try and get Kaycee off to camp this Sunday afternoon. The only laundry left will be towels, rugs, sleeping bags and bedding. Those we don't have to do right away as we have extra of everything at home. But, we will want to wash Kaycee's sleeping bag before she leaves... can you push that "easy" button for me. Whenever we take vacations, we should always do laundry before we go home. QUICK! All laundry in an hour. I want to now open up a laundromat in our garage. Can you imagine how fast I could do laundry for 6 people including bedding? I could do bedding for the entire house in one day. That would be so cool.

Dan went to the store and stocked us up on some good food to get us by until we get to the store when we arrive home. Can you push that "easy" button again?

We are now kickin' it watching the movie Spiderwick Chronicles. Strange, but entertaining so far.

Getting up early tomorrow to hit the road to make it home by early evening.

Yesterday, we took a long 8 hour drive to Williams, AZ. Since Danny and I were at ER till 5am, we were exhausted. I slept 2 hours, while Danny slept until about 11am when we needed to check out of our camping space. Danny had times before we left that appeared his stomach still hurt, but not nearly as bad as the night before. Just once in awhile he would complain. Do we stay, take him back to ER or hit the road knowing that we were looking at a 4 hour strength of no medical care. We chose to hit the road. Danny slept at least 2 of those hours which worked out great. And he did some snoozing off and on on during the next 2 hours along with playing Hangman on the laptop with Karly.

Our main stop along the way was Four Corners. This is where you can be in Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico at the same time. That is if you are using your hands. Or your friend could be in Utah while you are in New Mexico and holding hands.

We pulled into Grand Canyon Railroad camping and were a little disappointed in the "parking lot" type rv park. We also decided not to go on the train ride since the last one was so much fun (yikes!) for most of us. It did cost us to cancel our tickets, but it gained us some sanity. The campground has a very nice store, playground, barbeque area and horseshoe pits. The major problem with it was that it was across a busy main road from the campground. The kids could not walk or ride bikes alone to it like all other campgrounds we stay at.

FOURTH OF JULY! Got up early and found a cute little cafe on Route 66 that we had a yummy breakfast(Dan said it was the best dining out meal we had on the trip) and some espresso and hit the open highway to the Grand Canyon. We stood at one of the viewing points, took pictures and said "ooohhh" and "aaahhh". Also, the standard, "don't climb the fence!" as we look down an immediate drop to death. Do you see me rolling my eyes and more gray hair appearing?

Visitor center was the same as all the other National Parks in the way of their merchandise. It was the nicest, cleanest, most informative and newest by far of all the others. But, by now, we were all pretty much done with looking at rocks and saying "ooohhh" and "aaahhh". We hoped back in the truck and back to camp we came.

BTW... we are all drinking much more fluids than we have been before. Could have been part of Danny's problem, so we are on top of it now.

Dan is over at the playground with Danny and Karly while I write my last blog while out on the road and upload pics. We think we are going to hit the road this afternoon. Dan is still not feeling good and just wants to go home. We all are on the same page as him. We were also notified that there are no fireworks this year here in Williams. That's a drag. There is a cute small town parade, but it's 100+ degrees here and who wants to sit and watch a parade in this heat?

Check out our pics here of the last two days.

Danny update: Doing great! Looks great! Acts great!(well, that is under observation - he is an active 6 year old boy) He is getting lots of fluids and good, healthy food. He purchased this duck that when you squeeze it's tummy, it quacks... the deal is everytime he does that he drinks water. Been working out great. I also remind him every 5 minutes to have a drink.

BTW... latest report at 1:30pm... it is raining here with lightening and thunder. It feels so awesome with the 100+ heat.

What memories we have created. We've also grown in many ways too as a family and each other's struggles with our own "issues". Future note: Do not bring DS's and all the electrical toys. Except my computer of course. :) hee hee... Hope to see our friends and family very soon!