The Vacation to End All Vacations

This summer, Jacob and I decided to spend all our dollars to go on a Grand Adventure. And so we did.

The Adventure started with a trip to Arizona to welcome home Jacob's twin brothers from their missions. Well, Stephen returned a few days before we were able to get down there, but at least we were able to greet Robert at the airport when he arrived. 

Each family was in charge of making a poster to bring to the airport. I learned that despite my background in elementary education, poster-making, especially when it involves paint, stresses me out. So I put Jacob to work on touching up my mistakes.

This is as crafty as it gets.

Unintentionally patriotic poster.

The man of the hour.

Our time in Arizona was mostly spent avoiding the outdoors. You guys, it was hot -- like stepping into an oven whenever you set foot outside. I lost track of how many times I burned myself on the seat belt in the car. And so while I love my in-laws, after spending a week in 115+ degree heat, I'm starting to think they might be slightly insane. (But only slightly!)

So, in an attempt to avoid roasting, we watched the Olympics, played games with the siblings almost every night, and, um, may or may not have consumed three milkshakes apiece. We will not speak of how many calories we consumed during this vacation.

We also watched the new Batman movie, did a little bit of swimming, and made merry with the relatives in general. One night we had a family potluck/birthday bash to celebrate the boys' return and the August birthdays. We played several family-friendly games, including a three-legged race which paired each child with an adult. My four-year-old niece and I came in dead last. I guess we lack that competitive edge. Alas.

The Erickson clan: 1 mom, 8 siblings, 6 spouses, and 18 grandchildren.

The Monday morning after Robert and Stephen's homecoming talks in church, Jacob and I bid our adieus and set off on the Grand Adventure: Stage Two. We drove to California to spend two days at Six Flags Magic Mountain. We splurged and purchased Flash Passes so we wouldn't have to wait in line as long. And let me tell you, we couldn't get to the rides fast enough! By the time we got off one ride, it was usually time for us to board another. One of our favorite rides was X2:

X . . .

. . . 2.

While it wasn't nearly as hot as Arizona, it was still pretty hot. The first day we were fools and didn't bring a water bottle into the park with us, so we were scouting out drinking fountains like nobody's business. Unfortunately, this still didn't prevent us from getting super thirsty and slightly dehydrated. So we ended up resting a lot.

Taking a break.

Wilting.

 And then, because we were so thirsty, we ended up purchasing the World's Most Expensive Lemonade to share. (Later that day, we purchased the World's Most Expensive Milkshake and the World's Most Expensive Soft Pretzel.) Food and beverage was not cheap! But I guess that is kind of the point when you run an amusement park.

A little refreshment.

On the second day, we brought our own water bottle we could fill up, and things were much happier. (Also of note: we didn't bring our camera or phones with us, so we could go on the water rides, and that also made  the second day more enjoyable.)

After one more night in the hotel, it was back to the real world (i.e. Utah). It was a lot of fun, but we're going to need our bank account to recover from this trip and from paying tuition before we have any more adventures like this!