Vacation Memories...

Friday with Friends is hosted by Jennifer over at Trading Ashes for Beauty. Today's topic is vacation memories.

Of all the family vacations we took when I was a child, the one that stands out in my memory is the trip "out West" when I was 8 years old. My brother, William, was 15 and my sister, Jeanne, was 13. Our cousin, Lori, and a friend of my brother, Jamie, went along with us. Our trusty Dodge van had seats for five, but there were seven of us...so two people had to sit in the back (with all our stuff) at all times...way before seat belts were required! :) The packing and planning took weeks. Mom would take boxes of food, pots, pans, but nothing unnecessary.

Our ultimate destination was the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Along the way, we saw the Arch in St. Louis and I'm pretty sure we got to travel up inside it. We saw many campgrounds, and traveled many a mile in that old Dodge van! We absolutely loved it when Dad would buy pastries for our breakfast! We thought we were hot stuff!

Once we got to Arizona, we set up camp and the next day, Dad and the boys hiked down to the Colorado River that flows through the Grand Canyon. Mom and the girls stayed "up top" and did laundry, played, etc. While I am sure that the hike went well, what I remember is that while we were doing laundry, (remember, I was 8) :)  there was a teenage girl sitting on one of the washing machines singing at the top of her lungs. What struck me as odd was the song..."Angels We Have Heard on High"...in the middle of the summer?!?!

Anyway, we also visited Sand Dunes National Park. Dad and the older kids went hiking up in the dunes and then jumped off the edge of the dunes...over and over...Mom and I stayed down at the bottom. I can remember her sitting on a lawn chair watching me. I was busy playing in the sand and a little stream. I pretended that I was a worker in a Safeway grocery store. :)

One other memory, and then I'll stop reminiscing. While we were traveling through Kansas, we had to stop over. So Dad found a great campground and we set up our tents. However, in the middle of the night, Dad abruptly woke us up and told us to quickly gather everything and just throw it in the van...I remember being frightened...and then watched my mom go in the men's room with my dad, brother, and his friend. They got busy folding up all the camping gear, put it back in the van. We found a hotel for the remainder of the night. I found out later that there were tornadoes in the area. Tornadoes + tents = disaster!

I don't have any photos to share with you, but I hope you've gotten a picture of what that trip was like for a little 8 year old girl!