Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Utah!!

My niece was born in January and I had planned on going to Utah for the blessing in April.  But when we found out we had to pay taxes I thought for sure the trip was off.  Well for our Anniversary Paul surprised me and said that we would be able to go!  I was so excited!  His parents happened to be in Flagstaff for the week for work so we stayed the first night in Flagstaff.  We left Thatcher around 7 and got to Flag around noon. We were able to drive up to Walnut Canyon and see some Indian cliff dwellings. 









It was only a mile hike but it was down and back up a whole lot of stairs.  Hayden was very chipper the entire time and was a champ!  Paul and I were sore for days after!




Meteor Crater was pretty close by as well so we decided to head on over to that.  Just a warning.... it cost $16 a person now.  We didn't at all think it was worth the cost but I've never been so we thought it would be okay.  






Genuine, real, petrified.... dinosaur poop. FOR SALE. Yep... you read that right.  Nasty.





The route 89 had fallen off the mountain, so we took route 89 alternate and it had some beautiful views!





Vermillion Cliffs




When we got up into the mountains we discovered the North Rim to the Grand Canyon is closed until May 1st so we just kept on going, but we did see some deer right next to the road.



We stopped for a bit a few times to play in the snow


AHHHHH..... we made it!!  I completely surprised my sister.  I called her from the hotel and just to chat and feel out if she was home or not and then we headed over there and just rang the bell!  The look on her face was priceless when I walked through the door!  So worth keeping it a secret that we were coming!

Hayden and Rebecca played together really well!

And Nora is such a doll!!!  I couldn't get enough of her!



Monday we woke up to some snow.  The view out of our hotel room was really pretty!




We took a little drive up Provo Canyon




The drive home was beautiful!!  It snowed for the first 3 hours and got down to 22 degrees at one point.


 Then after all this beautiful-ness, we got onto the reservation and it was sooooooooo dusty!  The wind blew and blew and the dust was so bad that we couldn't see the car in front of us a few times!  I pulled over at one point so Paul could drive and we both were still finding sand on us when we got home! It was bad!  Makes for a good story though.  We stopped in Taylor to eat at Trapper's and then we went and visited Paul's Grandma's grave. We were very happy to be home.  It was such a fun visit!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

This post almost made me cry. I'm so glad you were able to go! The pictures are beautiful and make me miss Arizona so much.

Emily said...

These make me so excited to see you guys in a month!!! How precious that Hayden and Rebecca get along. And I love that picture of the lights on the mountain!

Clint and Tiffany said...

What a FUN trip!!! Your pics are great, they really capture the spirit of your adventure - love it! Good job!!