The Trip--Day Two

 It was very special to spend some time with Jay and LeeAnne in their house. Isaiah enjoyed their dog, Flossie. My cousin, Hannah, and her boys came over for breakfast. It was fun to catch up with her and watch our children hang out together. 

I was very proud of my children for sitting around the table with 2nd cousins that they haven't seen in years and play games and interact like they were family. The time wasn't long enough. Hannah's boys needed to go to school and we were headed to the Grand Canyon. We all wanted this moment to last longer!

Jay and LeeAnne joined us for our time at the Grand Canyon. We had lunch and checked in to our hotel in Williams, Arizona first. 

And then we took Route 66 to the Grand Canyon. 

As we drove into the parking lot, there were 3 elk standing on the hill. We were complete tourists and took pictures. (I guess that means we can longer be annoyed with tourists that take pictures of wild ponies on our beach!)

After Jay and LeeAnne let us borrow hats and we put sunscreen on, we had our first look at the Grand Canyon. Words cannot describe the depth, the immensity, or the beauty. It is just amazing!

The weather was perfect. I wore leggings and was comfortable all day. 

We decided that we would walk the Rim Trail. I kindof highlighted it in the picture below. We only did a couple miles. It was a paved and relatively flat, easy trail. The problem was that every few feet the view would change and we would want to stop and take more pictures. Everyone enjoyed this...until some of the children had seen enough "of the same thing!" 

Aliza scared Anna and I so badly. I knew in my head that there had to be a ledge below her, but my body reacted anyway. Anna was crying. I was trying really hard to be respectful of my adult child's ability to make her own decisions. Ultimately, I was accused of completely ruining all of her fun. 

The colors. The layers of rock. The cloudless blue sky. It did not get over it!

Anna brought "Jesus" with her. She and Jay had fun playing with photography. I'll come back to the trip through Anna's lens eventually!

I did request family pictures pretty regularly!

We ate supper and then took the red bus route to it's farthest drop off point to watch the sunset. Arizona does not follow daylight savings time so sunset was about 7:30. Watching the light change was the best. 

This was Jay and LeeAnne's first sunsest at the Grand Canyon. We contemplated staying at this point until it was completely dark to see the stars with zero light pollution. It's good that we didn't because we would have missed the last shuttle back and none of us were up for walking a couple miles in the dark. 

We were on the last shuttle to the parking lot when we transferred to the blue line. The parking lot was basically empty by the time we got there. It felt pretty good to shut the park down! An hour or so drive back to the hotel and we all fell into bed!