Thursday, November 27, 2008

Summer Family Vacation

Okay, so here's a couple pictures from my family's vacation this summer. We went to Zion (of course) Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon (both for the first time.) It was so much fun! I love my family, and we all love camping. What could be better? Hannah and I while hiking The Narrows at Zion's. Seriously, it amazing! At times, your surrounded by 2000 foot high cliffs walking in a 20 foot wide river. Highly recommended (but try to go during a less "touristy" time of year, it can get pretty crowded.) My family at the Grand Canyon. This is toward the end of our vacation. So, story: There was a lot of driving this vacation, but we didn't mind too much because we just love getting out and spending time together. We took two cars, and they were both packed. Fortunately, Grandma let us barrow her mini-van, we definitely needed the space. On the way home from the Grand Canyon (about, 3? hours from home) my Dad's car broke down. Ohhh that was fun! It wasn't really fixable, so we crammed all ten of us, along with a weeks worth of camping gear into Grandma's van. Were talking two to a seat with stuff cover your feet and lap (and head for some. :))But you know, it was actually really enjoyable. There's something so comforting about driving in the middle of the night with your whole family so close. This is a picture of me at the Colorado in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We got to the Grand Canyon the last night of our vacation. My Dad and I really wanted to hike to the river. We didn't start hiking until pretty late in the evening and on the way out, I'm sure we were the only ones hiking the trail. It was so cool to have the Grand Canyon to ourselves. The hike was harder then I expected. When you hike a mountain, you have a pretty good idea of how far you're going (you can see the summit.) In the Grand Canyon, it felt never ending. It was dark and I was out of water (my Dad didn't know, so shh.) If we turned around right then, we'd get back to camp at 3:30 in the morning and it felt like we still had years of hiking ahead of us. Dad suggested it was time to turn around. I agreed, but my feet wouldn't turn. There's something about setting your mind to something, looking forward to it through a week of hiking, that makes it just so hard to quit on your dreams. I've never quit on a hike before. All this rushed through my head and in my hesitation Dad said, "You want to keep going, don't you." I told him I always want to keep going (Keep moving forward, right?) We agreed to hike ten more minutes...guess what was around the next corner? The Colorado! Just five minutes from where we were sooo close to turning around. I'm SO glad we didn't quit! Dad at the Colorado River.

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