Day 3, the first in Arizona

Day 3 at Josh and Teri's in Phoenix Arizona.

First shots are of us at the Real Salt Lake stadium putting our Seattle Sounders Logo in the snow right on their door step. The idea hit us that we have potential to see Real Salt Lake, LA Galaxy/Chivas USA, San Jose and Portland before returning to our home turf.

So we had to stop early last night because we weren't sure how much gas we had in relation to the next KOA Kampground. It was good because we got a nice Kabin that actually slept all six of us.

We got a good night's sleep and saw some hoo doo mountains...

it was cold in the high desert

We had snow storms and sand storms (equal to white out only it is a light brown color and can ruin your windshield). The boys had a great time crossing the Colorado river...

 
and then we found some ancient indian dwellings near Flagstaff where Jesse was attacked by a cactus (cutting the hike a bit short).

Phoenix is a wonderful place. There is plenty of room and everything is laid out in nice squares. So if you can manage to get lost in Phoenix, you don't stand a chance in any other major city in the US. I will say that this is one place where the drivers are oblivious. On one side, they are probably too old to be driving and on the other they only read the signs that are written in Spanish, which is mostly the advertisements for cell phone service, cable TV, and McDonald's. Needless to say, we were almost run off the road first in Phoenix.

As we unloaded, Josh and Teri commented on us bringing in our entire IT department worth of computers, tablets, external hard drives and smart phones. Part of our vacation is getting caught up on things that we are behind on. One of those is the fact that Dawn has brought all our computers to the breaking point by filling them with pictures and videos of every other activity we've done since the last road trip. So - she is burning everything she can to disk to prevent the hard drives from committing hara kiri.

The boys found other things in the first 24 hours at Josh and Teri's to do. Here it is in their own words:

Solomon
We took their dogs, Bailey and Murphy, on an hour-long hike up a trail covered with dozens of rocky hills, most of which I decided to run up. We'll see if I've caught my breath in the next week or two.
Other than the multiple college basketball games, we also played a lot of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which we had brought along with us. I had told Uncle Josh a lot about it, and he finally got to play it over our visit.

Nathan
Back at the house, we "watched" a KU basketball game. Mostly we played with the dogs, Murphy or Smurfy as I liked to call him, and Bailey. We also played outside, around the pool.
editors note: watched could be interpreted we played with the dogs and avoided the curses directed at the referees, players and remote controls.

Jesse
Nathan made cookies and Josh gave him the wrong ingredient, so we had Super Sugar Hollow Cookies that were really sugary and really good.  It was Aunt Teri who finally figured out the mystery ingredient, so we can make them again sometime. 

Andrew
I played with Bailey most but that might of had something to do with Bailey playing and Murphey just laying there and barking.



Day 2, Ghosting

Well if you have never seen Hamish and Andy introducing the sport, you haven't a clue as to how we started our second day of the road trip.

The first thing you have to know is that we had to scoot back over to Boise State to pick up the boys and sure enough, Nathan left something locked in Jordan's room after Jordan had gone to class.  The security staff was no help, but the RA finally vouched for the boys and they were in.

What did he leave behind? Oh - his video camera. Without which we wouldn't have been able to capture all the boys trying out their hand at Ghosting the unsuspecting students and staff at Boise State.

Solomon set the record on the day - but stay tuned for more ghosting episodes.

Day 1, a kid's perspective

Andrew
Today we finished up minute packing, and then about 30 minutes away from home we found out that I forgot my running shoes and now mom and dad are coming up with ideas to make me pay for new shoes.  

Jesse
Today we got packed and we got to go to Jordan's small house.  We also went to dinner with Jordan to Dennis (Dennys).


Nathan
Toaday, we started our multi-week vacation to Arizona, California and back. We had a small delay before leaving, because someone got stuck at work. When we got to our destination, at Jordan Sodeman's dorm room, it was about midnight. We went out to Denny's, and enjoyed $4 all you can eat pancakes. Three of us decided to do a contest of "whoever eats the most wins." Jordan ate a whopping 1 and a 1/2, while Solomon ate 5. I went into the contest with the thought of, "this is just for fun" but when it started I decided to win, eating 5 and a 1/2. i think. That night we spent crammed into Jordan's dorm, instead of some other place.

Solomon
Today we started our road trip! We have made it from our house to Boise ST. College to see Jordan Sodeman, and the four of us our going to cram ourselves into his dorm room for the night while our parents get a hotel. We went to Denny's with him, where he instigated an all-you-can-eat $4 pancakes contest. The pancakes were the size of the Travis', not Taylor-sized. Jordan ate one and a half, while I ate Five and a half. In all, he called himself a girl fourteen times that night. What a great night.

And the Parents
Yes, we got stuck at work a little longer than expected. Rob's boss got sick leaving him with three conference calls scheduled back to back to back - forget Rob's already scheduled meetings. In any case, we got out the door a little late - but the pass was clear. We didn't run into any snow between Seattle and Boise State.

When we got there, we chilled a little in Jordan's dorm, met a couple colorful room mates and took off for Denny's (which was just down the street). There, the boys enjoyed breakfast at 1:00AM and heard a little of Jordan's mission trip to Asia. Exciting stuff. On the way back, Jordan asked if he could jam the boys in his room for the night. Best wingman ever.

In addition to Andrew's shoes being left behind, we discovered that one of our boys claimed Rob's travel toothbrush. If those are the only two things we are missing, then maybe we are doing OK.