Family Trip to Arizona (Day 1)

We took a little family vacation to a Family Reunion in Duncan, Arizona.  (It is almost in New Mexico)  This was a reunion for Grandma Sue's grandfather's family.  We did not know anyone who was going to be there except for our own immediate family and Grandma Sue.

Thursday night we headed to Phoenix.  We stayed at Uncle Tom and Aunt Jan's house.  On Friday morning we picked Grandma Sue up from the airport and started on our journey across Arizona.  We took a lot of pictures so I will break this trip up over the next few days.

We stopped at Besh-ba-Gowah Archaeological Park for a stretch and snack.  The kids had a lot of fun playing in the trees.

Kade had a little hair trouble on the slide.

As we were driving through the Gila Valley there was cotton plants everywhere.  In front of us and behind us!

We had to stop and get a little piece.  Abi and Grandma picked some for us.

We also stopped at the Gila Valley Temple (it was dedicated this year).

We finally arrived in Duncan at our hotel.  We have decided that our kids are hotel spoiled.  When we arrived at the hotel, Kade got out of the car and said, "Where is the hotel?"  Mike said it is right here (pointing to the "brick" building)  Kade said "What is this crap... you have got to be kidding me."  Because we have a Marriott card, we usually stay at Marriott's using points for free.... hence the hotel spoiled part.

Here is a few pictures of the outside of the hotel.  I will do another post about the inside.  (It turned out to be an awesome Bed and Breakfast... although we did not eat breakfast there, we ate at the reunion... but more about the hotel later!)

After a little rest at the hotel, we headed over to the reunion.  It was at Gail and Darrell Hackney's ranch.  Here is a picture of their ranch.

It was very big with lots of places to explore.  We met some family members that we had never met before.  The boys and Grandma played a fun game of ladder golf with some other kids.

We also got to observe the local McBride's prepare dinner for the next night.  They were cooking pretty much a whole cow pit style.  They had it butchered into huge pieces, then seasoned it and placed it in burlap sacks and big turkey type bags.  They put it on a rack and lowered it into the ground to cook over night and into the next afternoon.  (It was yummy the next night!)  Here they are lowering the meat into the pit.  We all stood around and watched them lower it.

Along the drive to Duncan, we saw these very interesting looking plant/tree.  To me they looked like a cross pollinated Joshua Tree and Yucca plant.  I wanted to "discover" them and call them a Joshucca.  But apparently they already have been discover and have some other kind of real plant name.  There was one on the ranch... here it is. 

There are a ton of different types of plants in the desert.  I will do a post about them too.
It turned out to be a great family event.  We were able to meet lots of people we did not know that we are related to and hear some great family stories.

Watch for more posts over the next few days about this trip.