I hiked the Grand Canyon rim to rim!

 

I posted the other day about visiting Navajo Bridge on the way to the north rim. We packed up Saturday morning. I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't go back to sleep and everyone else was up after 4:00 to eat, load up, and head to the trail head.  It was a bit of a drive so we didn't start the hike until 6:00am at the North Kaibab trailhead.  We started with headlamps and sweaters and got to see the sunrise hiking the switchbacks of the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  So beautiful!

Rachel Willis and I hiked together the whole way and since it was both our first time we didn't know what to expect.  This carved mountain walk through called the Supai Tunnel was a surprise and there were so many stunning views the whole way!  The tunnel is about 2 miles down from the North Rim.

This was one of several bridges we walked across.  Lots of ravines in the canyon and little streams and rivers.

I took this picture to show Andrew the prickly pear cactus.  He was wondering if there was cactus in the Grand Canyon.

We crossed this bridge heading out of the Cottonwood Campground where there were bathrooms and our first water refill.  There were other water stops earlier that were already closed for the season.

More prickly pear!  We were fortunate to hike much of the day in the shade.  Once we hiked down into the canyon Rachel and I did some running at a slower pace.   It was nice taking advantage of the flat or down hill trail.

Just look at that!  So stunning.  We crossed the silver bridge (Bright Angel suspension bridge), by far our biggest, over the Colorado River soon after our 2 hour lunch and rest break at Phantom Ranch.  That was around the half way point.

View from the bridge looking west.  The water was actually moving pretty fast.

View from the bridge looking east.  You can barely see the black bridge in the distance which is the Kaibab bridge.  There are two trails heading back up the south rim.  The Silver bridge takes you to Indian Garden and up the Bright Angel trail, which is the most popular.

You can see the trail heading right, where we went.  The trail left takes you to the black bridge which we didn't need to cross.

Rachel's brother, Ben, sent this to everyone of him and James on the bridge.

Andrew thinks this photo is funny.  I was feeling good!  After a two hour lunch break (too long for a runner) and 3 ibuprofen I was in good shape for the next few miles.  No regrets on the ibuprofen.  It helps with inflammation and I had a big blister, a root canal I was recovering from two days before, and sore muscles all over. :)

See how little those people are?!  This is called Devil's Corkscrew.  We pushed our way up these switchbacks at a good pace.  Once again, thankful for the shade!

Indian Garden was our last water refill and about 5 miles from the South Rim.  There were a decent number of people hiking rim to rim, I was surprised.  Probably a few hundred that day.  It was nice to not be alone logon the trail, and the amazing people were one of my favorite parts of the whole experience.  These people are doers.  You do not accidentally hike the Grand Canyon.  You train, and show up, and do the hard work to get from one rim to the next.  It's humbling to be a part of that group of amazing people.

This was the hardest part of the while day.  Those last miles seemed to get longer and the switchbacks endless.

This was a cool sighting about a mile from the end.  There were a whole family of mountain goats!  About seven, and they were eating  dry moss off the mountain.  The only animals we saw all day, minus birds and squirrels.  So cool!

So close! At this point I could see the trail head at the top and it was such a comfort.  I almost cried.  The last mile or two I was nauseated from everything.  I realized I hadn't eaten enough, didn't sleep well the two nights before, I pushed myself hard all day and truly didn't know how we kept going with our legs burning from going uphill and the air was getting thinner with then higher elevation.  It was just. so. hard. The last mile and a half literally took an hour.

We made it!  We started at 6:00am, stopped at Phantom Ranch from 10:20 - 12:20, and finished at 5:20pm.  Such a relief and feeling of accomplishment!  Truly we made good time, and are so proud of ourselves.  To keep our legs moving so the lactic acid din't build up we walked to the gift shop.  I bought me an overpriced shirt, totally worth it, and some stickers for the kids to futon their water bottles. 

Once the sun went down it got cold pretty quick.  Marianne, Rachel's niece, and her friend Brigette finished and hour after us at 6:20, and we waited so long for Ben and James to finish at 11:00pm.  Because they finished so late we didn't get to eat dinner in Flagstaff since it would have been barely Sunday morning, so we just went straight home.  I got home at 3:40am, showered, grabbed a snack (so hungry!), and went to sleep just past 4:00am and had 3 hours of sleep.  Andrew had church meetings all day so it was a struggle but I finally had a good nights sleep that Sunday night.  It was glorious.

It was one of the hardest things I've ever done, and wish I started training earlier and harder but now I know what to expect.  I'm hoping to get a group together to do it next October!

Bonfire Night 2020

Yesterday was Guy Fawkes Day!  A funny English holiday we celebrate and adapted for our family.  This is Elliot's fake cheese smile.  I told him to smile normal and he said this was. ;)  Andrew was sick this year (likely strep) and sadly had to miss the celebrations.  We really missed him - everything more fun with Andrew - but he did contribute our brown paper bag effigy.

We had the best soup potluck with salads, rolls, a veggie platter, and treats.  My family does the yummiest potlucks.  I made two chilis, creamy chicken noodle soup, and rolls.

 Valerie, Doug, and Alyssa Opie came this year!  It was good to have them.  They brought a yummy pumpkin pie, my favorite! Doug especially wanted to come and let Andrew know that so glad he made it.

These boys were so funny to watch.  Jason is in the yellow, then Sterling in the red, and Rupert in the right.  It's so nice having the Manning's in town to join us.

Rupert thought it was funny to wear three masks and try to confuse us as to which one is his really face.

Of course we had to bring out the sparklers after burning the effigies.  They seem to last 2 seconds so it's hard to get a photo of them.

Be a kept saying "I want one!"  She ended up with probably three total.  I was impressed with how brave she was with her sparklers.  There were older kids that were more apprehensive.

These three girls said the poem.  Zara started and Josie and Avery did the rest.  They snuck these hat's from the office.  They're grandma's and they felt so cool and pretty matching in them.

Elliot cracked me up wearing the mask with his glasses on top.  He just started wearing his glasses more.  Glad they're getting more use.  Also, these cool asks are from Nora!  She sent them to use from Germany where she got them at a German dollar store.  That was so thoughtful for her to get them for us!  The masks were a really fun addition we will look forward to bringing out every year.  And they're good quality too, since none of them broke.

These coloring posters were a big hit with the girls.  These are the dinosaur scene and moths and butterflies from my favorite print shop.  I especially love their Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas prints.  These coloring posters are so good for a family gathering like this.  Last week I gave out a Halloween one to family and friends from church.  Just a fun coloring activity.

It was strange not having Andrew there this year.  Elliot was the only Englishman there but my family always make get togethers so fun, and next year I'll make less chili. ;)

Halloween 2020

Halloween looked a little different this year but we were fortunate that it wasn't too different.  We had a fantastic day and I kind of wish Halloween was on a Saturday every year.  I still took the kids trick or treating, and Elliot and Andrew stayed home to give out candy.

In the end Andrew set up this table outside and made sure there was always candy there while he and Elliot watched Harry Potter 4 for Elliot's first time.  Elliot read all the books this summer (we finally let him) so he's been looking forward to seeing this movie since he turned 13.

Classic front porch photo.  It's tradition!  It's also the only group photo we can see Elliot's face.  The kids trick or treated around our neighborhood by evergreen and back by the stake center.   A lot less trick or treaters this year, and fewer houses handing out candy but still a lot of fun.  Then we went trick or treating in the north part of our stake by uncle Ammon Opie's parents.  we've gone there for years now.  Such a great neighborhood!

Elliot was an army soldier.  I took the girls to thrift costumes at Goodwill with Kristy and Lizzy and scored this green jumper for Elliot, hoping it would fit.  We got lucky!  He's so hard to find clothing that fits or he likes. ;)  We ordered the hat on Amazon and the neck scarf/mask Andrew already had.

For Avery we were so excited to find this pretty white dress for $10!  We found some scrap fabric for the veil, and dug up the flower headband in my stuff.  For the makeup I also used what I already had and looked at inspiration photos on pinterest.  We were impressed with how well it turned out!  Such a transformation!  She felt really special and we all kept looking at Avery thinking how she doesn't even look like herself with this makeup.  She was a really good Emily for The Corpse Bride.

Zara wanted to be a Roman.  We lightly turned her hair and then dug up this headband in my things that I had forgotten about.  Another thrifted dress from that day.  Zara just wanted mascara and lipstick.  It's hard to tell but Zara has the prettiest long, curly eyelashes that the mascara just magnified.

Rupert's, Zara's and Baa's costumes were also from Goodwill.  We really lucked out!  But shopping mid September really helped.  Rupert's night in shining armor costume also came with a cape that he didn't want to wear this time. ;)  Because he got the costume for his birthday he asked for and received a shield, helmet, and sword as presents that he's played with a ton, just not on Halloween.

Be a actually has several costumes we thrifted including an Anna dress from Frozen, and old witch costume, and a yellow sparkly dance dress, but this is the one that was clean Halloween night.  All the dresses are in constant rotation.  She likes feeling pretty.  I went a little extra with the makeup with a burnt orange eye shadow all around her eyes.  I though it was very Halloween like, and bright orange lips.  We took her in the wagon this year so she could eat to her hearts content between houses.  The girls even grabbed the candy for her sometimes to go faster.  She was in heaven.

Beatrix stayed home for the second part of trick or treating.  After a few houses Rupert and Zara stayed at Ma & Pa Opie's house since Ruth and Ammon's kids were there watching a movie and their legs were tired.  I took Avery the last stretch.  This is her last year trick or treating because she'll be 12 next year.

Andrew and I didn't dress up this year, maybe next?  It was a great day, even with Covid precautions.

 

Navajo Bridge & the North Rim

 

(not sure why this is blurry)

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to hike the Grand Canyon rim to rim with this group.  I started training three weeks before.  It really wasn't enough but I did my best with the time I had.  We set off last Saturday from Rachel Willis's house.  She's my running buddy.  We hike with her brother Ben, his son James, his daughter Marianne, her friend Brigette, and Gary (Ben's father in law) was the driver.  He's hiked rim to rim many times and it was great hiking with him the last few weeks and having someone experienced there.  Ben and Marianne were also experienced rim to rim hikers.

After a lunch break in Flagstaff we headed north.  This was our stop at Navajo Bridge.  There's the bridge for driving and a bridge for walking. 

Look at that background!  Those are the Vermillion Cliffs behind me.  I have memories coming here when I worked at Jacob Lake Inn the summer of 2005.  So nostalgic!

This was looking down from the bridge.  Just stunning!  And that water was moving pretty fast too.  Just north of here is Lee's Ferry where a lot of rafts get started but we didn't see a single floating device all weekend.  The Grand Canyon North and South rim visitor centers closed the week before so we were there at the beginning of off season.  

Thankfully the weather was perfect! It got much colder a couple days later.  I live in such a beautiful state!

Here's where we camped near the entrance to the north rim.  It got nippy as the sun went down and was a low around 35 degrees at night.  My bum was called all night but warmers kept my feet warm.

Loving the fresh air and ponderosa pines!  Arizona has the most beautiful forests!  There must have been a fire a few years ago because some of the drive south of Jacob Lake had burnt forest.  It was strange having a view down to the vermillion cliffs.  Normally there's forest in the way from that drive.

Rachel and I shared a tent and she made some yummy soup we shared too.

I brought the cookers, Trader Joes corn chips, and homemade chocolate chip cookies.  It would have been nice to have a camp fire but the fire was only a ring of rocks, not a metal ring, and with the fire hazard we had to do without.

As usual the moon and stars were so pretty at night.  It was so windy, the wind blowing in the trees kept me up much of the night but we tried to have an early start to bed since we needed to be up early.  I went to bed around 8:30 and had broken sleep all night.  I ended up not being able to sleep past 3:30 which wasn't too bad since we had a 4:00am start anyway.

Wish I slept more and drank more, but not a terrible way to start the hike.  Such a pretty day!  I was surprised how fast it felt getting to the north rim in one day.

2020 primary program parts

This year for the primary program instead of singing and sharing in person during sacrament meeting it will online.  We were asked to submit each child's parts where the primary presidency gave some suggested prompt questions, and we practiced the songs at home too.  Here's what we submitted: (this is Avery's last time)

 Avery: "My family has grown closer during this unique time by watching out for each other while we stayed together during quarantine."

Zara: "I like the Book of Mormon story of when Jesus Christ came.  He healed the blind and sick, and taught. I love it when Jesus prayed with the children because I feel closer to Him."

Rupert: "I liked helping my daddy plant winter grass.  I feel Heavenly Father's love when I serve others.  I just like doing like Jesus and doing Come Follow Me."

^ ^ Rupert's self portrait of thinking about Jesus. ^ ^

We have amazing Primary leaders who have been so good about reaching out and planning Covid - friendly activities this year.  I can't wait to see how the program turns out!

a Rupert birthday

 

Rupert is such an easy going boy with a big smile, he just so fun to be around.  For his birthday I couldn't muster up motivation to plan a party with invitations so instead we invited friends over so a special playdate/party.  We kept it simple and Rupert was happy, which is the most important thing.

Teddy, Rupert's cousin came, and his cousin Knight Sowards in our ward, as well as Leo Patterson who lives down the street.  Mack Whiting came later too.  We love having amazing friends who live close by and go along with our last minute birthday playdate.

We decorated cupcakes, ate pizza for lunch, and played Halloween bingo. 

Rupert had some specific ideas about what he wanted his cake to look at, and the ideas kept changing based on the pinterest photos we looked at. ;)  It was loosely based off this photo and I'm super happy with how it turned out.  The inside of the cake was a funfetti box mix but I want to try some of these recipes after stumbling on it.  Love a good recipe bake off!

To end the day Rupert wanted to go the place with rice and spice chicken.  He meant Panda Express. :)  I I took him on a little date to get it.  Next time we're going somewhere with free food because you can only do that once a year!