Grand Canyon Trip!

This weekend was our Grand Canyon trip with the Rose family plus Keaton! Jon, Laura, and Clara and Joe flew into town on Wednesday. We had to ask The Brooks to help us transport everyone to our house since our car wouldn't fit everyone. We had chicken burgers and pasta salad (artichoke, olives, tomatoes, and basil = yum!) for dinner at our place. Thursday Justin and Joe hung out all day at The Strip while I was at school. We had the "Staff vs. Student" basketball game after school and they came to watch. I score the first five points of the game (woot woot!) with a three-pointer and a layup. After that it turned into jungle ball; the students were being super aggressive and the teachers were getting angry! It was a close game and in the end the staff won. It was a fun time!

Butterfly exhibit in the Bellagio

Watching the fountain show

We went to a buffet at the Bellagio and met up with James and Bonnie. Turns out you need to be aware of food containing alcohol at this buffet! As I was filling up my dessert plate I wasn't looking at the signs next to the food I was just looking at what looked good. I had a few bites of everything and then later James told me the eclair I had a few minutes ago had alcohol in it! I thought he was teasing me but sure enough, above the pile of white chocolate eclairs there was a sign reading "Contains alcohol - Bourbon." It was an honest mistake but really funny.

Buffet time!

On the balcony of Jon and Laura's hotel room

Laura, Jon, and Clara

Keaton flew in that night and he and Bonnie stayed the night at our place while everyone else stayed at a hotel. Friday morning Jon picked up the 15 passenger van and Keaton, Bonnie, and I enjoyed Nutella and strawberry pancakes! Around 9 we loaded up and were on our way by 9:30. We hit the Hoover Dam and later lunch in Arizona at In-N-Out. This was Keaton's first experience with In-N-Out so that was fun. We continued on and when we were about an hour away from the Canyon we went to "Bearizona:" which is a similar park to Bear World in Eastern  Idaho. We drove through different sections of the park and saw big horn sheep, wolves, bison, and arctic fox. We walked through an area that's more like a zoo than a drive through park and saw bears, goats, bobcats, otters, porcupine, and fox. The bears were fun to watch as they were climbing trees and playing together. With the goat enclosure we were allowed to walk through it. The mama goat bleated and two other goats came RUNNING and sprawled under her belly and started drinking her milk: it was HILARIOUS!

Lake Mead at the Hoover Dam...check out that water line!

Playful bear cubs

From there we stopped at a Safeway to get food for the next day. Our "cabin" was an unexpected surprise. We followed the directions on Laura's phone and when we saw what we were staying in everybody was a little apprehensive: it looked like a regular trailer house. But when we pulled up and actually went inside it was awesome! The place was completely decked out. The kitchen had a lot of old-fashioned components to it that was very nostalgic. There was a telescope and lucky us, Bonnie worked as a telescope operator for the physics department when she was at BYUI so she pointed out some planets to us. Unfortunately it became overcast when the sun really went down so we didn't do much with the telescope. They had horses and carrots for us to feed them. We had taco salad for dinner and Justin made peach cobbler for dessert. We sat around the fire and told a bunch of funny stories. That was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. It got really windy so we put out the fire and went inside to chat quietly so we didn't wake up Clara. We were all pretty exhausted so we were all in bed by 10. Our mattress was amazing...but of course we would think that after sleeping on an air mattress for four months! p.s....we found a mattress for free last week: it was propped up against the dumpster at the same spot the couch was put when we found it a few weeks ago. We have no shame: we took it in and we have a real mattress again! Now we just need a box spring and a bed frame and maybe (if it's cheap) a head board. Slowly but surely!

Feeding the horses!

This horse was hogging all the carrots

Our "cabin"

Peach Cobbler!

Saturday we had a quick breakfast, packed up, and were out the door by 8:00. We did Mather Point first: a lookout near the visitor's center. It was gorgeous! My favorite part of the Canyon was watching Keaton respond to the scenery. He was loving it! Justin hung out with Joe most of the day so I could hang out with Keaton and we had lots of fun. We did a "Trail of Time" hike that is just a 1.2 mile (2 km) "hike" along the rim of the canyon where every meter is 1,000 years so it takes you back 2 billion years which is the oldest rock exposed at the bottom of the Canyon. Along the way there were rocks from each of the formations of the Canyon which I really got a kick out of. Sometimes the family would ask me how the rock formed so I had fun explaining about the Canyon, how it formed, and what rocks are involved. From there we hit the Bright Angle Trail head and hiked for about an hour. We got to a certain point where Jon and Laura, Justin, and Joe turned around so Keaton, James, Bonnie, and I pressed on. I wanted them to see the first cabin stop of the hike where there's a restroom and water so we started running after we split up. We hustled down but after five minutes we could see we wouldn't make it to the cabin so we turned around. We hiked all the way to the Hermit Formation so we made it through four of the nine formations in the Canyon. We rode the bus back to the visitor's center, had lunch, and then explored the shops at the visitor's center. We rounded everyone up by 1:45 and we were on our way home.

We hiked down to the Hermit Shale

Mather Point

Mather Point

Next to the Coconino Sandstone Formation

Mather Point

The Four Brothers

Bright Angel Trail

Mather Point

Bright Angel Trail

A storm came in just as we were leaving.

Along the "Trail of Time" hike

The morning sun makes for the best pictures

I was really happy Keaton could join us. It was a lot of fun hanging out with him!

After much contention and a long day of driving (which we can all laugh about now...right?) we finally made it back to Vegas. We determined we would meet up at BJ's Restaurant around 8 PM. Justin offered to babysit Clara so Jon and Laura could go out with the rest of us. After dinner everyone was exhausted so we decided to take everyone back to the hotel to get some shut eye and to pick up Justin from babysitting. Since Keaton didn't get to do any of The Strip on Thursday night because he got in so late we decided to suck it up and take him to see a thing or two! That was the right choice: Keaton loved it! We drove up Las Vegas Boulevard and we saw the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. We enjoyed people watching from the car until we parked at the Bellagio. After meandering through traffic and crowds of people, we barely made it to the fountain show which looks really nice at night. We walked through the casino and watched people lose a lot of money and then went to the butterfly exhibit. From there we headed home after a long exhausting day!

Sunday morning we drove Keaton to the airport and then went back to bed until it was time for church. We were exhausted! Everyone accidentally left all the Easter candy they brought so we ate it all night while watching Netflix. Good times!

This week is my spring break and I am thrilled! I went swimming this morning at the nearby rec center for a half-hour. Phew! It was a workout! I'm excited to get back into swimming. Here's to enjoying the rest of my spring break! After that it's just a few short weeks of student teaching and I am done! Also, ladies: I'll be making a Mary Kay order this week. If you'd like me to get anything for you let me know this week and I'll bring it to Arco when we get together for our Girl's Weekend. Until next time!