Phoenix trip with Junie

Every once in a while I see really cheap plane tickets to Phoenix, and my first thought is, "We could go visit my brother Kenneth!" And my second thought is, "We could have those fish tacos again." I don't know what it was about that taco place we tried in Phoenix several years ago. Maybe just that it was really hot and the lemonade slushies tasted so good? Or that I am already predisposed to like fish tacos, so if they're above average I like them disproportionately? But I remember them with a fond sigh every time I think of Phoenix.

At any rate, plane tickets to Phoenix were $38 (!!), Junie had been complaining nonstop (hee hee, not really, but she had mentioned it several times) about how she was the ONLY one of the children who hadn't ever been on a plane [besides Goldie, but Junie never admits that, because I went to Russia when I was pregnant with Goldie and Junie says that counts]—and Kenneth and Sheila said we could stay at their house, so—we went!

It was really sweet how Goldie and Daisy reacted when I told them we were going to take Junie on a tiny trip. They could have been envious or resentful or annoyed. But they were only thrilled and excited. Daisy immediately started planning out how we could keep it a total surprise. She and Goldie would pack Junie's suitcase secretly while Junie was babysitting another family. And we'd load it in the car before she got home. And then the night of the trip we would tell Junie we were going to get ice cream and ask if she and Sebastian wanted to come. And then Daisy would ask if she could come, and act really disappointed when we said no. And then Seb would take us to the airport instead of the ice cream store. It was all surprisingly devious and it went like clockwork! When we got to the airport Junie was so surprised and confused. Even as we handed her her backpack and started walking in, she was saying, "Is the ice cream store in the airport?" It was late at night, she was wearing Goldie's shoes (ha! We didn't plan for her grabbing the wrong shoes as we went out the door!), and she said it felt like she was in the strangest dream.

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The Grand Canyon

Sam and I have never been to the Grand Canyon before, though we've considered making that detour on our way to Arizona before. It seemed like a good place to go for an anniversary trip! It is just as spectacular as we imagined it would be—although it is hard to really comprehend anything on that scale. It didn't really seem so much huger than Canyonlands or Flaming Gorge and it didn't make me think, "Wow, nothing I have ever seen before is anything like this!" But it IS bigger, and you realize that when you get a glimpse of some tiny little white lines of rapids down in the Colorado River and then read a sign telling you those rapids are as big as a thirty-story building. !!!

We stayed in this unusual dome tent-ish thing, about a half hour away from the canyon.

It had a stove in it, and a bed, and was much nicer than a real tent, as you can see.

And there was a big window for looking out at the sunrise…

And a skylight for looking at the stars. I'd had high hopes for the stars, but the moon was full the nights we were there, and while it was bright and beautiful, it made the stars themselves…rather negligable.

It got really cold at night, but the pellet stove kept us warm. It made such lovely crackling fiery sounds, too. Luckily we were able to get a bit of a cellular signal, because Sebastian was frantically texting for help with the sacrament meeting talk he was giving the next day, and I was able to sit snugly in our little dome and give him suggestions.

Thanks to the wonders of having an online sacrament meeting broadcast, we were able to find a place with wifi in one of the Visitor Center parking lots at the Grand Canyon and watch Seb's talk! He did a good job.

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20 good years

Sam planned the best anniversary celebration for us last year, and though I knew it could never be equaled, it was my turn to plan what we did this year, and I had to think of something! I realized we were in the ideal situation for babysitting for a brief window of time, because Abe would be finished with his BYU classes but not on a mission yet, so he could be around to drive the other kids where they needed to go, and then of course we don't have any tiny babies at the moment, Gus being a ripe old 17 months and the new baby not due till August. So the oldest five kids stayed home with Gus, and the youngest three (besides Gus) went to stay at my mom's, and Sam and I were able to get away by ourselves for a few days!

I subscribe to one of those "cheap flights from Salt Lake" emails, so I decided if a good deal came up at the right time we'd just go wherever it was, and if not we'd drive somewhere. It doesn't really matter where you go, does it, when you have a chance to go somewhere without kids? Anywhere feels new and fun! Anyway, it turned out that there were $63 flights to Phoenix, so I looked around at what was within driving distance of Phoenix and found Sedona, a place I'd never heard of. It looked beautiful, so we found a place to stay and planned to spend a day or two there and then drive up and see the Grand Canyon too.

Sedona is one of those places where people have "retreats" instead of vacations. The brochure in our rental house advertised full moon yoga sessions, and shops selling healing crystals and aura photography, and about six pages of businesses that belong to the "Sedona Metaphysical Spiritual Association." Supposedly there are several naturally occurring "spiritual vortices" in the area, caused by special…magnetic…lines along earth's energy fields?, which I don't like to make fun of, but…well, actually I kind of do like to, but I won't. But I can assure you Sam and I were very funny about them.

Luckily, Sedona is also a beautiful place NOT to get one's palm read and one's aura photographed. It reminded us of St. George, but packed into a smaller area and with more vegetation. We loved the little house we stayed in (just a guest house in someone's backyard) with this lovely view from the front porch:

What does one even do without kids? Go on hikes, apparently. And eat late dinners. At least that's what we did! We steered clear of a couple hikes that looked lovely, just because the trailheads were terribly crowded, and did some of the "less popular" ones which turned out to be just as lovely.

This was a hike around the mesa the Sedona Airport sits on top of. It's right in the middle of town but felt like it was way out in the wilderness!

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