Grand Canyon

Nick's 2 week vacation started on Friday, so we took off to the Grand Canyon. Neither Nick nor I had been there since we were much younger, and I think as an adult it is much easier to appreciate the beauty found there. When I was ten my family backpacked across the Grand Canyon, but we did it the easier way and stayed in a hotel.

This is all of us about 2 switchbacks down the South rim, where Ali said her legs hurt so we couldn't make it any further. I think she needs to workout more.

We did make it to this fun tunnel that both girls thought was really cool. Here is Kat in the tunnel.

Ali really thought this tunnel was cool. Even though she was the one compaining about sore legs, she really wanted to get to the bottom of the Canyon. I think she was mad that we weren't already at the bottom after the 1/4 mile we hiked. She does not have much patience.

This picture is to show how cool it was that my hair matched the canyon. This was not expressly on purpose, but after stripping my hair, and dying it 4 times, I had to give it a week break before fixing it again, or it would have all fallen out. Moral of story: don't try to drastically change your hair before a big trip where you know you are going to be taking lots of pictures.

This picture of Kat is cute, but it has a small story.
The only real hiking we could do was along the rim, where we could bring our stroller. So most of the time we were hiking right on the edge of cliffs. I have never been a great fan of heights, but I don't have any phobias either. Well on this trip we discovered that Nick does have a slight phobia. And by slight, I mean a HUGE phobia. The whole time we were hiking Nick would freak out if the girls got too near the edge. (there were rails and such, but that was a moot point in his phobia). When we got to this one really pretty overlook with nice flat rocks I took each of the girls out to the edge where I sat down and took their picture. (This picture to be exact) I kind of wish I had a small video of Nick while I was taking this picture, because if I did you would see what a heart attack looks like.

Ali LOVED the cliff edge, which probably didn't help with how anxious Nick became. She kept trying to get to every edge she could so she could "see the bottom." I admit, sometimes she scared me. This girl has NO fear of heights at all.

This is a cliff where I got Nick to climb out. Apparently his phobia only extends to the girls. In order to take this picture we had to strap both girls in the stroller.

In the Grand Canyon there is a tall tower called the watch tower. Since Ali is obsessed with "Tangled" (despite never having seen the movie) we called it Tangled's tower. I am not sure how it happened but we never got a picture of the outside, so you will have to trust me that it looks like Rapunzel's tower, or you can google it. Don't ask about the bunny, I am not sure why she has it or why she is showing it, but this is a picture of her inside Tangled's tower.

One of the best things about our trip was the chance for the girls to just have fun. Ali loves to climb trees, and the Grand Canyon is FULL of fallen trees to climb.

She would have never seen the canyon if we didn't force her to "get off that tree and keep walking."

Even Kat ventured up a few trees, though this tree is only a foot from the ground.