Phoenix is Rising Tournament

This year we have had the opportunity to play in a few new tournaments,

which has been fun to go explore places we haven't ever been.

Both boys got to play in Phoenix in the Phoenix is Rising Tournament - 

April 10-12th.

We left Julia and Austy with Shay and Sawyer for the weekend.

They came and stayed at our house and the kids loved it!

That beat driving in the car for 12 hours, then 12 hours of games, then 12 hours in the car again.

Thank heavens for our dear friends who helped us out until the girls could get here after school.

We drove down with Garrett and Ty Friday.

I love these trips like this with these 2. 

It's fun to have time alone with just them and to have fun stopping along the way.

We stopped in Kanab for lunch - 

had a little fun with this mural on the side of a convenience store!

 

 Stopped at Lake Powell over look - tried our hand at panoramic pics

We also stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam and had a little fun with Bub and his fear of heights!

 But that was only captured in video......Baby steps to the dam bubba!

We made it to Gilbert Arizona by about 7:30 that night....

we met up with Jeremy and Angie Nielson (Our friends from Morgan Pavement)

and stayed with them at their home while we were there.

We visited the Gilbert Temple....

 

 

The Mesa Temple...

 

And the new Phoenix Temple...

They were all beautiful.....I think as far as the grounds and everything goes....

my favorite of the three would be the Gilbert Temple.

Loved being able to stop at 3 temples this trip.

We try to see as many as we can when we travel.

Jeremy took us to see the Morgan Pavement office he has all set up there in Mesa.

It was fun to walk around and see all he has done.

The games were awesome.

Both boys teams played extremely well.

Garrett's team made it to the Semi-Finals and lost by 1 with 1 second left in the game.

That was a heartbreaking loss.

Ty's team won the Championship and Ty was also earned All Tourney Honors,

which was really exciting!

 

We left the tournament and headed up towards the Grand Canyon.

We had never been, nor had the Hamblins.

So....we got a room on Expedia and headed that way.

Around 11 p.m., we called the hotel, just to make sure all would be well when we got there.

Good thing we did.

They were leaving and closing up within just a few minutes 

and didn't show we even had a reservation!

We were able to work it all out and they had a key waiting for us when we got there.

PHEW!!

Nothing around for miles to stay at......that would have been a long night in the car!

We woke up early the next morning to see what we could of the Canyon

in just a couple of hours, so we could make the long trip home.

Boy, am I glad we made the stop at the Canyon!

Beautiful!  I don't know how anyone can see that and deny our Heavenly Father's existence!

It was breathtaking!

 

 

We stopped at this area and before we knew it.....the majority of us were out on that ledge!

Made my stomach drop and my knees queasy to see my family out there!

This is what it looks like from a distance...

And this is what it looks like with my family on it!

 I was glad when they were back standing right by me!

Garrett had the opportunity of a life time when Janci asked him to play along.....

He didn't think twice about this chance!!.....

At the next stop.....Ty wanted to try it out......Garrett was the only option for Ty! 

Ha ha!

The boys finished out the remainder of the Canyon drive in the back of the truck....

Again.....another successful Tournament Trip!

I loved this trip.

So fun to be with our good friends and to spend time with just Garrett and Ty.

Austy and Sis had a great time with Shay and Sawyer.....

and we're hoping they did too, so we can hire them again!