Grand Canyon

Three days after getting home from Disney we had things all packed up and headed to

 GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK!!

It was one of the prettiest drives we've ever been on.  Everything was so green cause of all the rain.  It's a pretty long haul from here and we arrived in the late afternoon, too late to get a permit though...

Why?  Because we wanted to hike to the bottom.  Check out that trail!

So we camped out and were first in line at the permit office the next day and got a permit for the following day.  Cool!  If you ever want to do this, and we highly recommend it, apply for a permit 3 months ahead.

We spent our extra day scoping out the trails, complete with wildlife.

 Then the next morning we were ready to descend into the depths of GRAND CANYON!  Not gonna lie, having passed the 1/2 century mark I was a little nervous!

But we just kept walking down and down and...

down and down

 and down and down

 and the views down were spectacular

 and the views up were amazing...

but never doubt, we were always going down

 and down

 with a few rests and then

 down some more until...

 You go through a tunnel and pop out at a bridge that takes you across the Colorado River to the Bright Angel campground AT THE BOTTOM of THE GRANDEST CANYON!!!

And you're so hot and tired that this is what you do.  (Can't show Dad...just image trying on pants in Kris and Billy's living room...)

Then you relax in the nicest of camping spots and go to the ranger show on Condors, and it's so exciting cause the day before we saw two of them!

And then we have a magically, scientific dinner (military MRE) that heats itself and tastes yummy and then go to another ranger campfire program and see lots of stars and the full moon and camp in bliss.

We were up and at em the next day ready to head up and out.

 You might think that is the top...hahaha...it is just a mountain within the canyon.  We're talking a deep hole in the ground!

 We took the South Kaibab trail down and the Bright Angel trail up.  The up trail followed the path of a stream most of the way so it had an "oasis in the desert" kind of feeling.

And after 6 hours and 45 minutes we made it to the top!  (Which is faster than the average time!  Way to go old people)  We're looking at our calendars to see when we can do that again!  Anybody wanna come?

Disneyland Trip

In September we headed to California.  We had some time to kill so we went to San Juan Capistrano.  It was so fascinating. 

The tour included those listen to the recording tour guide things.  Kinda long winded but fun to do.

This part of the mission was built in 1776!!  

On Charina's birthday we met up with LaDon, Jamie, Ally and Daniel for our remaining day of Disney magic.  Sorry Charina....we did have lots of fun for you!

We agreed to go only if Jamie agreed to stay in a wheelchair all day.  We had an accord and we were off!

We had a great time!

Except maybe LaDon after the Tower of Terror!

After our day at Disney we drove Jamie and the kids home and then jumped on an airplane in SFO.  LaDon left LAX for his cousin's mission farewell.  If you're ever wondering if just one or two days can be fun and relaxing, I assure you it can!