Okay, here's the real stuff

My previous report of our vacation was just my idea of a joke, here are some real pictures of what we did. It took a bit of doing to sort through 340 pictures for the few best ones. Each of the following posts roughly represents a day of our trip, organized by destination. The only place missing is Snowflake, AZ where we stayed with our friends the Caffrey's. We had such a nice time with them and felt so right at home that we didn't think to take our camera out of our car. I feel bad now that I didn't get a picture of their cute little family! But it was nice to take a break from being a tourist as well.

Some fun facts from our trip:

We visited 9 National and 2 State Parks and Monuments in 9 days
We drove right by 4 more without stopping to visit
Just Eric and I went, no kids
We camped 6 of 9 nights
we only showered 3 mornings
I have no idea how many miles we drove
We only ate out once, relying on restocking at grocery stores along the way
we heard true silence
we got funny tan lines from the binocular strap on our necks
I nearly forgot how to change a diaper
we slept in the back of the van once, best rest I got

Anyway, it was fun. And I'm quite sure I'm a better person than when I left. I hope it lasts awhile!