Surprise!

I surprised Carmen and Chloe last week when I told them we were heading to Arizona for fall break. (This was a major surprise considering we don't even get a fall break!)

But our cousins in Phoenix do, so we decided to skip some school to see them while they were off school.

Flying out of Calgary on a Canadian long weekend was crazy expensive, so we did the drive to Great Falls, Montana and took off from there. Even with a 4.5 hour delay in the airport the price difference was well worth it. Lucky for us, a college friend of mine was waiting for the same flight with her 4 children and we all kept each other entertained.

Flying hasn't lost it's thrill yet for Carmen and Chloe.

Seeing these cousins of ours will never lose it's thrill! Keith and 3 of his girls (Phoebe was sick and stayed home with Kelly) picked us up at the airport and drove us straight to the Grand Canyon. We know how to stick with a plan, that's for sure. The flight delay meant we didn't arrive at our hotel until midnight! So our first sight of the Grand Canyon was the next morning.

There is no way to capture the vastness of the Grand Canyon.

I tried several filters to see if I could better highlight what we took in with our eyes.

I don't think it's possible, and my amateur photography is not to blame. None of the postcards I saw do it justice either.

Carmen liked to throw rocks over the edge (not near the descending paths) and then say, "It's still falling . . . still falling . . . still falling . . . "

We took a shuttle 3 miles out from the village and walked back along the rim. There was plenty to climb along the way.

We all wore jeans, but it was plenty warm - we probably would have been comfortable in shorts.

We all loved this flower along the path.

Emerson was especially good at noticing the details along the way.

The girls thought to take some pictures to freak Kelly out when she saw them, but they just couldn't be that mean and gave her a full explanation of how safe the spot really was before they showed her the picture.

I have to say, I was a little disappointed that this tower wasn't historic at all. It was just built to look like it was old and crumbling and it's only purpose has ever been as a viewpoint of the canyon.

Our lovely tour hosts.

We took a break in the afternoon and went to see an IMAX film about the history of exploration of the Grand Canyon, then headed back to the south rim to watch the sun set. 

The longer shadows at the end of the day really improve the perspective of the pictures.

But still. Maybe a collage of pictures might capture it.

It cooled down considerably in the evening - on came the sweaters.

The information packet you receive when you enter the park recommends a few points for sunset. We chose the one we could drive to along with dozens of other people.

This picture makes a great conclusion to the post, but it wasn't the real conclusion of our day. We went out to eat, and then had the good luck of having the hotel pool to ourselves. A perfect ending to a perfect day.