The Browning Family

Posing for the camera - I guess she was in a good mood that day.

The Grand Canyon State

We took a much needed vacation last week to visit friends and family in Arizona. We wanted to get away before kid #4 comes into the picture. The kids did great for the most part. We only had a few tantrums that were extinguished pretty quickly. (See Layla's screaming pic in the car seat)

I guess I've never really been to AZ- other than just driving through. We stayed in Gilbert for a few days with Tim's mission companion Marc and his family and then drove up to Flagstaff for a few days to see my brother and his family. (I heard a joke recently that you know you're cheap when you only go on vacation where you can stay with friends or relatives - maybe this isn't completely true. We did really appreciate their hospitality and have been promising to go for a long time! Thanks Marc & Heidi and Jacob & Jess)

While in Flag, we drove up to the Grand Canyon and it was GORGEOUS! I was pretty nervous the entire time because the railings don't really keep children from falling through into the depths of the canyon, and of course my free spirited Layla has to do everything on her own (doesn't like to hold hands and wants to go where she pleases).

Flagstaff is beautiful too! It is about 7,000 ft. elevation and looks more like Oregon than AZ to me. There are countless pine trees and the highways are surrounded in beautiful yellow wildflowers. The climate was much like SD with the exception of their afternoon Monsoons.