McDonald Family Vacation!!!

We just got back from the most fun, crazy, adventurous, wildly hysterical road trip with my family. My mom plans these trips a year in advance and creates detailed and color coordinated packets to get us all excited and prepared. I just love how much she enjoys planning and preparing for these trips....I think she enjoys that more then the trip itself! haha ;) Now keep in mind as you continue reading on, my ENTIRE family went on this trip. That consists of my parents, five of us siblings and our spouses, and everyone's kids (11 children under the age of 7, 3 of which are babies). Just wanted to paint that picture for ya :)

We started off in St. George and stayed in the most amazing condos. Then we traveled to Kingman, AZ to see where my brother Preston and his wife Rachel live. We saw the Hoover Dam and visited Oatman and then made our way to Williams. We took a train to see the Grand Canyon and then finished off the trip in Junction where we all stayed in this old Courthouse together. This is a very condensed version of what we did on our trip but I just wasn't sure how to share everything we did and explain all the priceless moments we had, so here is a list of my favorite highlights from our trip!!!

McShavis Family Favorite Moments!

-the crazy loud air conditioner in St. George that gave us all nightmares...lol.

-Kevin and Amanda's point of view about the "wild" donkeys....Kevin called it a "scientific anomaly" I believe.....so funny!

- Kevin’s panic attack when all the donkeys came down from the mountain in Oatman....bahahaha!!! (sorry Kevbev....it was priceless!)

-winning five crowns and being silly shooting my hand guns

-showing Amanda what my hair looks like pulled straight back.....Eeeeek!

-riding the train and having the “armed robbers” come aboard and rob us

-watching Morgie drool over the entertainment on the train…hehe!

- Kris hiding in her invisibility cloak and performing her patronus on a group of frightened/confused people!

-playing telestrations with everyone…..Obama/highlights/Amanda’s flying bunny….the bat from hell!

-finding my camera and realizing Aisling had taken it and recorded tons of silly videos

-seeing where Preston and Rachel live and having them look so happy :)

-hanging out in Xander’s room with all the boys and playing with toys

-making up all those dam jokes at the Hoover Dam!

-pretending our tour guide was a robot and had a cape on!

-Marshall having a thumb war with that high Jamaican guy...hehe!!!

-seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time….WOW.

-sitting in the back seat with Sam in the car and making funny faces at Kevin thru his mirror

-Swimming in Williams with everyone and seeing my mom look absolutely and completely happy :)

-being so scared of ghosts and creepy animal heads in the courthouse as I was trying to go to sleep and having Kevin keep a look out for me....(meanwhile Sam was sleeping in the vault!)

-beating Preston in foosball!

-being silly with Morgie in the pool…hehe!

-hearing Clayton say “horse spit”

-Aaron's tick! Bleh!!!

-Preston’s comment about the 7 wonders of the world….you know what I’m talking about ;)

-watching my dad make any grandchild smile with his funny claw voice

-watching Kris have a pretend gun duel with a random guy on the side of the road

-Marshall’s awesome video scavenger hunt! So fun! Loved seeing how into it their family was ;)

-Austin going up to Cedar and telling her she looked cute and that her hair was so cute!

-everyone feeling carsick on the way back from Oatman! Poor Kennedy :(

-seeing Sam interact with everyone…..he really grew up on this trip!

-watching Amanda beat Clayton in checkers….haha!

-the only words I could understand from Ari….”Sam has a big head, big head, big head”

-playing name that musical via text while driving in the car. So fun!

-being with my whole family and all getting along and having no breakdowns (adults included)!!!!!!!

-Oh and lastly, having a practical joke that me and Kevbev set up go unnoticed………ok let me explain……so we thought it would be funny to come up with something really lame and do it over and over again throughout the whole trip and see if it would catch on or if anyone would make a comment about it. We failed desperately and now we just feel totally embarrassed! Hahaha! (hopefully my family reads this blog so they will understand…lol) So we had a saying we would say over and over again and an action we literally did nonstop! You know the hand motion spiderman does when he shoots out his web? Ya…..we did that to each other all the time and whenever we did or said something cool or funny we would say “that’s so web!” Hahahaha! No one said a word about it! And now I’m sad to say that our prank has turned on us…….we can’t seem to stop shooting webs at each other! It's just so web! We are totally hooked! Hah!!!

We really had the best time and everything worked out perfectly! It was definitely our best family vacation yet!!! Can't wait to see what the future brings for the McShavis family ;)

Here are some fun videos and pictures of our trip!!!!!! Enjoy ;)

Getting excited for our cool train ride!

This little screw kept Sam busy for an hour on the train!

Cool raccoon hat ;)

Marshall and Cedar feeding the "WILD" donkeys!!!



Clayton and a donkey......(Clayton is the one on the right)

Kevin and Sam at the Grand Canyon

"That's so web!!!"



Sam's cute little feet poking out while sleeping in the car :)



Cute Morg and Kevbev just chilling and looking cool ;) Oh and me in the background spanking Preston in Foosball!!! BooYah!

At the Hoover Dam

At the Grand Canyon

Our video scavenger hunt- clean the window of someone's car



Our video scavenger hunt- act out a scene from twilight (ours has a little twist......if you haven't seen Jimmy Fallon's spoof then you probably wont understand this.....)



Our video scavenger hunt- give someone with sunglasses high five