Our Grand Campout in the Grand Canyon

Curating a post to include only the best photos requires effort and skill.  Just as with writing, it is more challenging to express oneself succinctly.

Well, I ain't got no time for that.  Plus, I quit printing blog books when Blog2print went out of business, so it doesn't cost me anything extra to share an outrageous number of pics.  So photo dump, here we come!

Fall is here.  Check out the brilliant colors just a couple blocks away from our home!  While I love spring as well, autumn is unquestionably my favorite season.

During fall break this year, our family joined the Wilhoits and Andruses on their escapade to the Grand Canyon.  It was a long drive (8.5 hours to the south rim), but beautiful.  Here we are crossing the Colorado River at the Glen Canyon dam.

The Wilhoits splurged on a camper van and rented beautiful Boris.  A wise choice considering how chilly the desert nights in October!  We stayed at Mather campground.  I was shocked that we were able to find a spot directly adjacent to the Wilhoits with such last minute notice--that is, until I realized how huge the campground with hundreds of available sites. The south rim of the Grand Canyon is amazingly well-developed.  We love the north rim as well, but it's still pretty closed down because of the recent fires.  Heartbreaking that the lodge there burned.

Who doesn't love having their very own kitchen?  Even if the sausages did set off the smoke alarm.

Here are Papa Kay and NomiAnn in their cozy but less insulated tent.  Papa Kay, I know camping isn't particularly comfortable, especially when you don't have your cpap.  Thank you for being with us anyway!

Just for the record, Zion slept in his crate in our tent, but was super excited to greet NomiAnn in the morning.

Warming up in the morning with our propane fire.  We were informed that real campfires were prohibited due to fire restrictions, but it's possible that the restrictions had been lifted since we saw tons of people burning wood.  Ah well, ours was much easier to start!

Our first trip to see the canyon in daylight.

Definitely grand!

Natural beauty plus plenty of family equals one happy NomiAnn.

Sure love this Wilhoit crew!  I wonder if this pic will end up on their Christmas card.

I wish we'd grabbed Eli for this pic.  Perhaps he was the photographer?

Cousins are the best.

Here's a sleepy Papa Kay.  Small wonder considering how little shut-eye he got in the tent.

So why is everyone chuckling?

Just chortling at my goofball sis.  Hang on tight, Callie!

Pickles is on his way to save you.

NomiAnn provided an excellent picnic lunch, followed by our annual soda tasting.  Anders was adorable and asked if he could have some "Fizzle Juice."

Bottoms up, Eila!  We take our shots seriously.

That afternoon we took hiked the South Kaibab trail to Ooh Aah Point (and a little beyond.)  The girls are doing an excellent job oohing and aahing!

It's easy to see why the Grand Canyon is considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

Jason took these great photos of a Stellar's Jay in flight.

We were also quite impressed by the elk who politely crossed at the crosswalk.

Now for my pics of the same trail.  Like I said, too many photos, but I like them all.

Best buds.

The only thing that would make these photos better would be having Brooklyn and Talia in them. Gosh, we miss our grown gals! We offered to pick up Talia on our way down, but she had class and work and the tickets to the BYU vs. U of U Holy War football game. (By the way, the Cougs won! We listened in from our campsite and watched on Papa Kay's phone. We would have liked to watch it on the big screen NomiAnn brought, but it wouldn't cast. So, we watched The Wild Robot instead.

We slept warmer the second night, but sadly our beloved air mattress sprung a leak.  After waking up every couple hours to reinflate the mattress, Jason had some crazy morning hair!

 Eli and Pickles.

Eli is amazing!  What teenage boy willingly gets up at 6:15 just so that he can go for a walk with his Mom to watch the sunrise?  Mine does.  In truth, the glowing views of the canyon walls were totally worth it.  The only stressful part was when I went jogging ahead and lost Eli because I impulsively decided to hike down the Bright Angel Trail as far as the tunnel.  By the time I got to the top, I didn't know if he was ahead or behind, and silly me, I'd left my phone so I couldn't call to ask.  Just glad we connected eventually!

When we got to camp, Annika was high up this tree.  Both she and Eila spent a lot of time perched up there during our three-day adventure.

Enjoying breakfast from the hammock.  (Also, I need to clean my phone lens.)

Our photographer Eli.  Can't wait to add some of his pics too!

Remember that tree climbing stuff?  Well, Annika and Eila learned from the best!  That's Aunt Callie at the top of this tree.

Our group took the shuttle all the way down to Hermit's Rest where we hiked a portion of the Hermit Trail.  Highly recommend, at least when the shuttles aren't crowded.  Also, this would be a fantastic road to bike!  Dogs weren't allowed on the shuttle, so NomiAnn and Papa Kay graciously offered to stay with the pups.

As for the hike itself, this counsel is wise.

Fortunately, our little hikers did great on both the way down and the way up!  (Adam's ample stash of nerd gummy clusters certainly helped.)  We big hikers did all right too.

We hiked 2.5 miles and 1900 feet down to the historic Santa Maria Spring.  I'm always amazed by these beautiful structures that have been created in such remote locations!  While crumbling in many places, the Hermit Trail itself featured beautifully interlaced hand-placed slabs of rock.

The shade was certainly appreciated, as was the rocking chair.

Perhaps the strangest things were these two stone enclosures built right into the cliff face.  Too scared to venture down there myself, I asked Jason to investigate.

Whaddayaknow?  Historic outhouses.

Two-seater anyone?  Papa Kay says they had one like this in his farm home growing up.  There's one way to stay close to your siblings...

The cacti were beautiful, but Annika tripped and got far too close. Her palm may still have some spines to remind her of the encounter.

Despite this mishap, everyone did great during the strenuous, steep hike up.  Our momma and poppa hearts beamed as we watched our clan conquer this canyon.  

While an accomplishment for everyone, it was particularly touching to witness Annika climb up and up without clutching her chest even once for a beat break.  (Just for the record, we had plenty of regular breaks for water and snacks!)  Because of her donor, she is able to go places and experience things that she never could have before.  We will always be grateful.

In truth though, we all should be grateful for the hearts that beat within us and let us experience each new day.  The next morning NomiAnn, Papa Kay, Jason, Adam and I all headed to the rim at sunrise to watch the new day dawn.

Magical.

I almost forgot!  Pickles and Zion came too.

Checking out the rocks along the two billion year geologic Trail of Time.  Whatever the current worries, sometimes it helps to remember that in the grand scheme our problems are just a tiny spec.

After our stroll it was back to the campsite to break our fast (a la breakfast burritos) before breaking camp.  Even though we had a long drive ahead of us, we stopped at the Desert View Tower on the way out, designed by Mary Colter, the pioneering architect who designed many of the beautiful structures in the Grand Canyon.  The tower is lovely--if you ever have the chance, I highly recommend a visit.

Quite a view.  It's hard to capture the immensity of the Grand Canyon, but we tried.  In fact, during one of the shuttle rides, Eli attempted to calculate the number of mini-marshmallows it would take to fill the Grand Canyon and came up with an estimate of 2 billion trillion.  Of course, it might be significantly more given the amount of compression likely to happen when you pile a mile of marshmallows on top of one another.  Either way, that's a lot of mallows!

Papa Kay, NomiAnn, Adam, Callie, Jason and all the rest--thank you for making this fall break a special one that we will always remember.

Love you!