Visit from Mimmie and Marcer

On Monday night, my mom and Marc came to visit us. Reese was so excited for them to come.  Here she is seeing them in the airport for the first time.

We started off their visit with biscuits and gravy Tuesday morning then a hike at Piestewa Peak.

King of the Mountain!

Then we headed over to Urban Cookies to grab dogs from Short Leash and a couple cupcakes then had a picnic at Steele Indian School Park. 

 

After naptime, we stopped at Hole in the Rock.

Then had dinner at Four Peaks.

 Wednesday I headed to work while everyone else got ready then when the Museum opened, they came for a quick tour and lunch at Chico's Tacos.

 

Thursday was Valentine's Day so Reese went to school for her class party and I went to work, while my mom and Marc went to drive the Apache Trail.  We had dinner at home so that we could pack and get ready for our big adventure the next morning.

 Friday we hit the road bound for the Grand Canyon.  We stopped to have breakfast and pie at Rock Springs Cafe.  It was delicious!

We decided to take Oak Creek Canyon so that we could see how beautiful it is along with Sedona.  Thankfully, a couple years ago Debbie and I took a day trip to Flagstaff and stopped to have a picnic down by the Creek so when Reese said out of no where that she had to go to the bathroom, I knew just where to stop.  We were able to play in the snow there which Reese was just ecstatic about.

 

 

We stopped to take photos and buy Native American wears at the top of the canyon.  Mimmie bought Reese a dream catcher to hang in her room.  Reese made her read the story about it about twenty times on the drive.  Now it hangs above her bed and makes me feel better about her dreams.

We made it! And it wasn't as cold as we anticipated!

Reese's first time at the Grand Canyon.

 

We stayed at Maswik Lodge and went over to Bright Angel Lodge for dinner. 

I love imagining how it would have been with the Harvey Girls here.

 

This was the first time that Reese had ever stayed in a hotel.  With a four year old who didn't nap that day, we all decided it was best to go to bed when she did.  We had breakfast at the Maswik cafeteria in the morning then drove on Hermit's road along the Canyon to Hermit's Rest, stopping at most of the lookouts.

 

 

That hat didn't turn out too bad!  I realized that I didn't have a winter hat to wear when we went on this little adventure so I crocheted myself one.  I made it with a heavier weight yarn so then had to cinch it in. 

Here Reese was over looking at the Canyon again so I let my mom and Marc go take a look and Reese walked the tight rope (or the stone ledge) and then was a trapeze artist (I would spin her around when there was a break in the ledge). 

Just skipping back to the car... nothing new.

Hot chocolate at Hermit's Rest.

Before heading home, we stopped to see El Tovar, the original Fred Harvey hotel at the Grand Canyon.  Reese was hungry and tired so we weren't able to take as much time as I would have liked but I'm glad that I was able to see it. 

Good Bye, Grand Canyon!  Thank you for being a wonderful break from the norm.  Reese and I hadn't left the valley since August so this was much needed.  We headed back to Phoenix Saturday afternoon then my mom and Marc packed up and flew out Sunday morning. 

 

It was really nice to have the help and distraction after a pretty stressful January.  It was also fun to see Arizona again through Marc's new eyes.  He was really amazed by everything that we were able to show him which reminded me how I felt when I first moved here.  It is really easy to get into a routine and forget to stop and look at how beautiful my state is.