Snow Surprise!

A few weeks ago, Tom went on a field trip to the Grand Canyon with Spencer.  While the kids were in a morning class, learning about the Grand Canyon, Tom went and had breakfast at the El Tovar Hotel.  He went with Todd Smith from our ward who has a little boy, Harrison, and just happens to be the grandson of the principal of our school, Mike Hallock.  Anyway, they had a really great time and Tom decided then that he wanted to bring me back there sometime for a fun weekend together.  So, last weekend, that is where we went!  

 We stopped off in Sedona for a quick walk through of an amazing art gallery.  The sculptures were absolutely incredible!

 Tom and I really loved the wind sculptures that spun around when the wind blew.  If we had an extra $2,000 laying around, we would have bought one! ha ha

Yes, we checked the weather before we left and it did say that it was going to be really cold with a chance of snow.  But when we got to the Grand Canyon, I was TOTALLY out of place with my cute sun-dress.  Everyone was dressed in winter wear and I was FREEZING!!!  Tom dropped me off so he could park the car and needless to say, I got a few strange looks as I walked into the restaurant from the wiser, winter dressed people.  


The meal was absolutely fabulous and the hotel is very nostalgic and rustic.  I loved it!  

 After dinner, we went to our room and changed clothes (finally!) and went on a walk.  This is a view of our hotel from the other side down the trail.  It is so beautiful!

 This is not a great picture because it was dark and taken on our I-Phone.  But, even though Tom and I have both been to the Grand Canyon before, it still takes your breath away to see it in person.  There is nothing like it in the world!

 After our walk, we didn't want to just head to the room, so we bought some hot chocolate and found some rocking chairs to just sit and talk.  Since it was freezing outside, there was NOBODY else out there.  But, we were dressed for it now :), and had the entire porch to ourselves.  It was heaven!

 Honestly, it was so much fun just rocking and talking---with no kids to attend to, no emails to answer---just a piping hot chocolate to sip as we talked.  Ahh . . . heaven!

Then, the next morning, this was the scene outside our hotel window!

 We couldn't believe it! Seriously, when we read the weather report before we left we thought there might be a light flurry or a snow that would melt quickly as the morning heated up then we could go hiking.  Uhh--that wasn't going to happen!  There was at least 4 inches of snow on the ground and it was still coming down!  We just had to laugh, though, because here we paid for a room with a canyon view and all we could see was clouds!  You just have to laugh at life sometimes . . .

Then came the drive home.  We got stuck in traffic because of an accident and sat in our car for over an hour.  But, you know--that was one of the most fun parts of the trip for us.  We were safe, we were warm, we had some food in our cooler, and we had each other.  

We put on some fun music and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and decided to plan our future family vacations together.  We talked about when Kohler was leaving on his mission and when Kelsey would be leaving for college and what places we wanted to go visit before our family started leaving home.  We only have 3 summers left before Kohler leaves for his mission (which blows my mind!) so we really thought things through and discussed what was important to each other.  We shared our hopes, our dreams, discussed realities, and concerns about our kids.  We laughed and even cried when a sentimental song came on our I-Pod---but we both felt a little sad when the cars started moving again because that time seemed to pass so quickly and we didn't want it to end!

This was what it looked like from our car---we were stuck in a spring blizzard!

When we got home, we both mentioned to each other how much fun we had just being together.  It didn't matter what we did or weren't able to do because of weather.  We just loved being together.  We never get sick of each other or tire from being together.  Tom and I both say we could hang out together 24/7 and still have things to talk about.  I am so thankful that we have a relationship like this.  It makes us excited for our future knowing that we look forward to being together forever, even when our kids will be grown and gone.  

Man, I love this guy!