A letter to my husband

Three years ago today I got to marry you, my best friend. My handsome, amazing, loving, caring, supportive best friend. My person in this world. My love. My rock. My everything. I don't know where I'd be in this world without you.

I know things have changed since those first few dates eight and a half years ago. Maybe we're a little less exciting, maybe we stay in a little more, maybe we party a little less, but I love every thing about our life and would never want to go back to the way it was. The way it was back then was wonderful, but what we have now is even more wonderful. Three years of marriage, two houses we've turned into homes and one amazing little guy we cherish every single day. It's been an amazing ride so far and I can't wait to see where this ride (and the Air Force, of course) takes us next because I know wherever it is, you'll be there, strong, standing right by my side, holding my hand.

Thank you for being exactly who you are. You have all of my love always and forever.

Our Arizona Mini Vacation: The Meteor Crater

On our last day in Arizona we woke up in our hotel room, packed up the car and got on the road. It was another long day of driving ahead of us and we wanted to get home well before dinnertime. We did have one last stop on our itinerary, though, which was the meteor crater in Northern Arizona. Once Matt saw it was right along our route he was pretty much insistent we stop. And while a meteor crater isn't really my thing, I'm all about supporting Matt's love of space and learning some new stuff myself along the way.

So basically some 50,000 years ago, this meteor measuring 150 feet wide crashed into the Earth leaving behind a crater almost one mile wide and 550 feet deep. Pretty impressive. It's also the best preserved meteorite impact site on Earth, which is cool. They offer tours around the crater, but as usual, with our two-year-old tagging along, we decided to just breeze through the museum, then check out the crater ourselves and end with a quick stop at the gift shop.

 Walking up the stairs to get to the highest viewing point and the view out from the crater

Checking out the crater

A chunk of the meteor

Overall, the meteor crater was cool to see and I'm glad we went. It was another one of those natural wonders, though, that if you didn't stop and really think about what you were looking at the amazing-ness of it would be lost. I mean, a fiery ball fell from the sky and crashed into the Earth leaving behind a crater that could fit some 20 football fields. Crazy.

From there we hit up the gift shop where Ethan picked out a rock souvenir, Matt bought his own geode to crack open and I, of course, got a smooched penny. Everyone was happy. :) And then it was back to I-40 for us! Another 5 or so hours on the road and our 950+ mile roadtrip was complete. To say we were happy to be out of the car at that point would definitely be an understatement, but all that driving was totally worth it for the amazing sites we got to see. Sites unlike anything I'd ever seen before, and sites that I will keep with me for the rest of my life.

Our Arizona Mini Vacation: Sedona

On Sunday we ventured about 45 minutes south of Flagstaff to Sedona, Arizona. Now let me just start by saying, wow. I know I mentioned this in my Grand Canyon post, but seriously, I had no idea how beautiful Arizona is. It is gorgeous! The pictures I took don't even come close to doing it justice. If you want to see a better example of it's beauty, just google "Sedona, AZ" and go to the images. Everything is this deep red color accented by full, green mountains. It was awesome.

What was cool about driving from Flagstaff to Sedona was that we went from an elevation of about 7,000 feet in Flagstaff to 4,500 feet in Sedona all in a matter of 45 minutes. How did we drop that elevation you might ask? Well down a curvy, windy road on the side of a mountain, of course! Okay, so I say this was "cool" because 1. Matt loved it and 2. The views were amazing. It was actually a little less cool, though, because I'm a big weenie when it comes to curvy, windy roads on the side of mountains (let's all think back to our honeymoon in Maui now). Fortunately, this road actually had two lanes and a guard rail, but other than that it was really similar to that fateful road in Maui.

Anyway, on our way to Sedona we stopped at Slide Rock State Park, which is this awesome park with a natural red-sandstone water slide you can actually ride down. Unfortunately, though, due to a recent forest fire the slide portion of the park was closed. :( So all we got to do was look at the creek. Pretty to look at? Sure. As much fun as sliding down the creek? Heck no. So we went, we took pictures and we headed on our merry little way.

That's the creek down in the right hand corner

After our uneventful trip to Slide Rock, we drove to a little downtown area of Sedona and got out to walk around. It was a cute area with restaurants and shops and amazing views, of course.

From there we kept driving through Sedona and appreciating the amazing red rock mesas that surrounded us everywhere we looked. I can only imagine what the hiking in Sedona is like, but with a two year old in tow, we stuck to the road and scenic pull off areas.

Chapel of the Holy Cross

Next we hit up the Oak Creek Brewery for a delicious lunch and from there headed back north to our hotel. And while Ethan and I snoozed in the car (I try really hard to stay awake when Matt has to be awake to drive, but sometimes I just can't fight the tired bug!), Matt stopped on his way back up that curvy, windy road on the side of the mountain and took some more pictures.

See the road?

Then after a little downtime in the hotel room we took Ethan out to a huge playground we found to let the little guy burn some energy and run around and just generally be a kid. He loved it and totally deserved it after all the car time we put him through earlier that day.

From there we visited the Lowell Observatory, which is actually where they discovered Pluto - cool! And we got to look at the sun through a telescope - also cool!

Checking out the sun

And finally, after the observatory, we went to Beaver Street Brewery, where Matt could have a quick sampler and then we ordered carry-out and very happily headed back to the hotel room to crash. Have I mentioned that traveling with a two year old is exhausting? Haha. :) I'll be sure to finish the "Our Arizona Mini Vacation" series soon with the last post for the Meteor Crater and finally making it home after 950+ miles in the car in four days. :)

Our Arizona Mini Vacation: The Grand Canyon

For the Labor Day weekend, we decided to get out of Albuquerque and head to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon. Neither Matt nor myself had ever seen the Grand Canyon and while Matt did visit Arizona once in high school, neither of us had ever really explored Arizona. So we packed up Friday and headed out around 5pm to Flagstaff, Arizona where we stayed all three nights. Flagstaff is about 4.5 hours from Albuquerque, but that ended up being about 5.5 hours for us once we added in a few stops for food/gas/restrooms/etc. So Friday merely consisted of driving, checking into our hotel room and sleeping. Much needed sleeping.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early (literally, bright and early because silly Arizona doesn't observe daylight savings so while our bodies were saying it was 7am, it was actually 6am in Arizona). Then we grabbed a quick breakfast and headed to the Grand Canyon! Yay! Another 1.5 hours in the car and one elk sighting later and we were there and it was amazing. Just amazing. Seriously. The Grand Canyon did not disappoint. It is just so... so... grand! Haha. Sounds silly to say, but it's so true. It's just overwhelming at times. And also hard to really soak in. Unfortunately, though, Ethan wasn't really in a "let's sit and soak it in" mood (let's be real, what 2 year old ever is?), so we didn't get to spend as much time as we would've liked there, but we still probably spent a good two hours wandering around taking pictures and appreciating all the glory of the Grand Canyon. Anyway, here are just a few things I learned while visiting the Grand Canyon:

- There are bugs at the Grand Canyon. Like these really annoying little no-see-ums and then big mosquitos. And they are everywhere and they like to land on you and eat you. Yuck!

- There are squirrels at the Grand Canyon. Really bold, unafraid squirrels. And they come right up to you (especially if you're a two year old in a stroller snacking on something like goldfish or an apple).

- My son is terrified of squirrels. Especially the kind that practically jump into your lap.

Now for some pictures of the Grand Canyon, of course! You knew I couldn't go all that way and not take hundreds of pictures, right?? But don't worry, I edited it down to just my favorites. :)

Somebody is excited and ready to go!

Gorgeous yellow fields - I had no idea how pretty Arizona is!

I'd like to say this is after we wore him out at the Grand Canyon, but nope, this is actually headed to the Grand Canyon. Just a little morning nap!

Oh just an elk. Chilling.

"Excuse me, sir, but may I have some of those delicious goldfish?" Cue Ethan's panic attack.

 

It's like "Where's Waldo?" but instead it's "Where's Matt?" See him? He's there. And yes, he's crazy for climbing down there.

We stopped at the airport to watch some of the Grand Canyon helicopter tours take off - Ethan, of course, loved it. :)

Gorgeous views during our drive home

Seriously, I thought Arizona was a desert, I had no idea it was so lush and green!

So after all that fun at the Grand Canyon on Saturday, we went back to Flagstaff and just relaxed for the evening. We walked around Old Town Flagstaff and had dinner at a local brewery - the first of three we stopped at, of course. :) All-in-all our first full day in Arizona was definitely a success and I think enough for one blog post. I'll be sure to follow-up with "Our Arizona Mini Vacation: Sedona" soon! :)