Grand Canyon Trip

Wow. The Grand Canyon is the prettiest place in the whole world. We went up there on Friday evening to visit with the GeoJourney kids. It was so nice to go up north and get out of Tucson for a little while. It felt really fall-like in Flagstaff and it was so nice to be camping. There are always a ton of elk at the Grand Canyon in the Fall and Winter, but this time they were up to something special. It is the rutting season and they all decided to sing to eachother. All night, the elk were making this crazy trumpeting sound. It was really eerie.
On Saturday, it rained and rained and rained, but it was okay because it was really neat to see the canyon all cloudy and dark. Plus, it gave us a good excuse to sit around in the lodge and drink cocoa.It poured all night long (hurray for a leak-free tent!) and we were a little worried about the trails, but luckily, the rain stopped in the morning and we were able to hike. We went down the Bright Angel Trail to Plateau Point. You can see the trail here. It's the skinny line down the center of the picture past the green patch of trees. Plateau Point is the tippy edge of the top of the inner gorge of the Grand Canyon.
The view was amazing, but it was a little scary to be on such a steep cliff. I tried to take a picture of what the drop looked like, but I was too afraid to get very close, so the picture sucks. Basically, it is a straight drop from Plateau point down to the river 800 feet below. Yikes! We made it back up the 6 more miles to the rim (ouch!) and then celebrated with dinner with our friends. Oh man are we sore today!

A great visit

Well, my mom just went back to Georgia after a wonderful week's visit. We had such a good time together, I wish it could have lasted longer. We visited the Titan Missile, Tombstone, Gates Pass, we went to the movies and out to dinner. Whew! One of the coolest things we did was buy my cool new computer. Seriously, this is the coolest computer I have ever ever owned. I think her name will be Coco, but we're still trying it on for size. It's a shiny HP laptop with a webcam and everything. It's all very futuristic.
Meanwhile, there are some new crafty things to report.
Here is a home-craft of sorts. When mom came, we needed a place for her to sleep so Rob bought this daybed that we put in the office.
That's a pretty Mexican blanket that Katie gave me. We'll use it as a couch when no one is visiting. Also for Mom's visit, I finally organized the scary-messy craft shelf. Look! Now it's all usable. We live in a house with no closets, so everything has to be out in the open- now the crafts can be in plain sight without endangering anyone.
I also finished another pair of socks. These are for my friend Ryan. They are thick hiking socks made from fat stripey wool (Patons). This is my first knitted object that someone has actually paid me to make. Does that mean I'm a professional? Hmm, maybe we'll see how he likes them first.Finally, I'm getting ready for Kacy's shower on the 29th, and trying to think about what I'm going to feed people. I've decided to make a bunch of tiny cakes in all different flavors. Fun, huh? Well, today I got the equipment. Tiny cake pans! I have six of them. Enough for three 2-layer cakes or two 3-layer cakes. Yum. I'm thinking lemon butter cream, chocolate chocolate, and carrot cake with cream cheese. Any other ideas? Five tiny cakes ought to do it. If they turn out to be a huge pain, I may make different flavors of cupcakes instead.

Up for this weekend: a trip to the Grand Canyon to visit the GeoJourney kids. Should be fun. I'll blog about it, promise.