The Grand Finale

Be Warned: there are A LOT of pictures in this post. We hiked the Grand Canyon people, how could there not be lots of pictures?

Tim and I were having such a wonderful vacation week, that we felt like we really needed to finish off with a bang ;) We have both been training all summer to hike the Grand Canyon rim to rim and this was the weekend. We were so grateful to Tim's parents for coming to Phoenix to not only visit us, but to watch Oliver while we hiked. (My mom stayed at my sisters house and watched her kids for the same reason). There was a total of 16 of us hiking, 3 of which were coming from Utah and met us from the North Rim.

We met at my parents house at 10 a.m., loaded up in the 15 passenger van (not my favorite) and headed out.

We had a little van trouble on the way, it kept over heating, but once we got that under control we had plenty of time to get car sick in the big ol' van. My dad and Cody did most of the driving.

My favorite part about the trip was that Whitney and Tim both came. This was my 7th time hiking the canyon and my first time sharing the painful accomplishment with them :)

We picked up Logan in Flagstaff on our way to the North Rim. He drove the van with all of our bags around to the South Rim on Saturday morning while the rest of us hiked. One of these days we'll convince him to actually hike with us :)

Tim took this awesome shot on the ride to the North Rim. It was chilly and cloudy and so beautiful!

And then it started snowing :-/

Fortunately the snow stopped. These are the cabins that we stayed in on the North Rim. They are so cute and cozy and would make the perfect getaway weekend location.

The clouds started to part on the North Rim, just enough to tease us with how amazing the canyon is. 

It really was freezing. Tim was in shorts and we both were in flip flops. We commented on the fact that we don't remember the last time we were that cold. It was kinda nice for a change.

The entire Riding gang (minus my mom). How fun is that???? I feel so lucky that I have such a fun family that's willing to do such crazy adventurous things together.

Hanging out in our room. Whitney, Chris, Logan, Tim and I all shared a room and let me just tell you. I cried I laughed so hard. If you really want to know ask me about it, and I might just tell you why.

Andrew (my dad's high school friend), and Derek and Melissa (friends from my ward)

We ate a pretty nasty dinner at the North Rim. Unfortunately they were out of half of their menu and what they had left was not delicious. But we all managed to eat a little anyway. I think next time around we are going to opt out and have dinner at Jacobs Lake.

Me, Dad, David and Bill (friends from the ward), and Logan

My Dads Nephews Seth and Jason and his brother Jim

Chris, Whitney, Claire, and Cody

We were pretty sad about our nasty pasta and watered down hot chocolate. Tim said it was not a good Birthday dinner. We made up for it by getting him some Cafe Rio the next night.

We woke up at 3:45 a.m.. Got our things together and got ready and met at the van at 4:45 a.m. and left the trailhead at 5:00.

It was sooooooo dark when we got started and we were pretty tired with heavy tummy's. We used flashlights for the first hour.

A shot of the trail early morning

Tim finally convinced some of our group to stop for a quick picture

Me and the dad. 7th time hiking the Grand Canyon together.

Roaring Springs

Dad and his girls

My poor dad took quite a spill as you can see. It was pretty sad. His sternum is pretty sore and his poor chin is all scrapped up. Passer-by's were staring at him the rest of the day. The good news is, he'll survive, that and he always says "if you're not falling, you're not having fun" so he was having a pretty good time!

Have I mentioned that my husband is a stud?

You haven't really seen the Grand Canyon until you've hiked it. It is incredible!

The bridge crossing the Colorado. The climb out is about to begin.

The Colorado River

Up we go

Every once in a while we would stop and look at where we'd been. Do you see the little trail?

Tim was so pleased when he found this rock that looked like a face :-)

So the last three miles are where it starts to get tough. The trail is super steep and it never ends. You keep looking up thinking "I'm almost there" just to run into another set of switch backs. It's an unfortunate mind game. Once you get to the top, the satisfaction is so great!

We started on the other side. Isn't that awesome?!?!?

We were all pretty excited to see this Elk with it's huge rack on the way out of the park.

What an awesome adventure! It was fun to spend time with family and push my body to the limit. I was definitely sore yesterday and it's starting to slowly go away. I am so grateful to my dad for starting this great tradition and to Claire for sorting out the details. It's amazing how so many people came together to make this possible. Logan, thanks for driving! Frank and Maxine, thanks for watching the boy! And let me just say, that if you ever think you might want to hike the Grand Canyon, you totally should. It is AMAZING!!!