Death in the Grand Canyon

***Beings DIY projects take us 17 times longer in our 30’s than they did in our 20’s, you all are stuck with more vacation photos today.  Mwah ha ha.***

Our last stop in Arizona was the Grand Canyon.  (You can read about our stop in Sedona here and here.)

It’s grand.  I think these photos are great but photos really can’t do this place justice.  My brain couldn’t wrap around the massiveness of the Canyon.

It was almost like I was in a dream.  Except Nate had one of his dumb shirts on which helped me remember that it was in no dream.  In my dreams, there are no Reese’s or Woot shirts.

We spent 3 nights and two days in the Grand Canyon.  More than plenty.  The place is massive but it looks about the same no matter where you go.  If you’re not big into hiking, I wouldn’t suggest more than one day or you’ll end up spending some of your time on Instagram and driving your brother nuts.  Actually, it was nice having some time just to sit and relax and take in nature.  I’m no help.

Tips for those looking to go to the Grand Canyon…Right after Labor Day turned out to be a great time to go.  There are less people.  The number of buses running decreased during our two days there.  Less people is always a win with us.  The weather was actually great too.  Low 80’s at the rim during the day and 60’s at night.

We stayed in Tusayan which is right outside of the Canyon.  There is very little in the town and hotels are expensive (but less expensive than in the park).  It was really nice to be so close to the park…but I didn’t want to eat fast food (only food option) for many weeks after.

We “hiked” around the rim.  There are quite a few miles of paved and unpaved trails that go along the rim.  We were all surprised at the lack of guard rails in the park.  And the lack of brain cells of people running and hanging on the edge.  Not this girl. 

There’s a big giant hole over that edge.  A giant beautiful hole.

We headed out early our first morning for a hike in the canyon.  Nate and my brother assured me that the “difficult” trail rating was only to scare away people that don’t exercise. It didn’t really mean difficult hiking.  I surround myself with geniuses.  I knew they were full of crap but decided that I needed to try anyways.  How often does this Iowa girl get to the Grand Canyon?

We started out on the South Kaibob trail. 

Oh hello trail that I thought would be the cause of my death.  Did you know that only one person per year dies from falling in the Grand Canyon? Yes, I did Google that after this hike.

Oh man, my heart is racing just looking at this photo.  My fear of heights got me big time at the Grand Canyon. I honestly hadn’t expected to be so nervous the entire time. My knees were shaking uncontrollably going down this trail. 

All of the signs in the park state it will take you double the time to get back up as it does for you to get down.  It took us 2 1/2 hours to get down and 45 minutes to get back up. I struggled big time going down and I wanted out of that hole on the way up.

I don’t want to scare others from hiking the trail.  Just be prepared if you have a fear of heights.  Elderly people were booking it past me.  This nice couple (approximately older than the Grand Canyon) passed us on the way down and then were cheering me on as they were on their way back up. 

The views were incredible and I’m very glad I did it.  I just might get myself a nice prescription for some Xanax for my rim to rim hike.

We made it to the first stop on the trail.  I really didn’t want to go any farther.  This smile is fake.  I promise you.

Nate and my brother really wanted to make it to the second stop on the trail.  With the encouragement of our ancient friends, I grabbed on to my brother’s backpack and hit the trail.  I still owe him for a chiro visit.

The views at the second stop were worth the year that I lost due to extreme stress.

Overall, we enjoyed our trip the Grand Canyon.  Lots of great views of a giant hole…and elk.

How’s that for a random ending of a post.  I was boring myself.  I might get around to putting the photos up on Flickr.  Maybe.

Have you been to the Grand Canyon?  Any plans to go there?  Where should Nate and I head on our next adventure? 

Diggin’ It- Life Edition

Wowsers.  This week has been busy.  I’m too lazy to pester Nate and Ike for their weekly favorites so we’ll bring that back next.  Today I’ll share with you awesome things happening in our lives.  Most of the photos are from Instagram.  If you don’t Instagram it, it didn’t happen.

I added some fall goodness to the front entry.  I should photograph the whole thing but the darn Boxelder bugs swarm our front door and will not die.

The fall colors in our town are quite stunning this year.  This was taken on our nightly walk.

It’s also harvest time. I love the Midwest.

You want to know another reason why I love the Midwest?  Tenderloins bigger than your head.  Lyndsay had no clue what the following masterpiece was.  I didn’t realize that pork tenderloins were a Midwest only type of thing.  I don’t know how one lives without the pork tenderloin in their life.

Speaking of food (this post has some focus issues), I have a deep love for pumpkin this fall.  I’ve never been a huge pumpkin fan before.  But this fall.  This is the fall that I only shove pumpkin…and tenderloins in my mouth.  Like these pumpkin chocolate chip muffins I made last Sunday.  And yes, I am going to have to up my workout routine.  Doh.

Eating reminds me of the kitchen.  Ike was concerned that we would never be finished tiling the kitchen backsplash.  It was a valid concern.  No worries little buddy, the tile is now up waiting for grout on Sunday!  Lots of kitchen posts coming up soon…ish.  If I can get my blogging act together.

Speaking of Ike, he just wants to say “hi” and he hopes you have a happy week-end!

How are the fall colors in your area?  Have you had a tenderloin? Could you live without them?  (It just seems wrong.)  How about pumpkin?  Who’s pumped to see this backsplash that has taken us four years to install?

The Color Run- Tips

I made a New Year’s Resolution way back in the beginning of this ol’ year of 2012…If you are invited to do something.  Do it.  Unless you have a legitimate excuse.  New Girl premiere.  Not legit.  Work. Legit.

Why this resolution?  Because I am 110% an introvert.  And good at math.  People suck energy out of me.  I don’t want it to be this way.  But it is.  I needed an extra push to get me out of the house.  Luckily most of my friends are extroverts so this resolution works out nicely.

When one of my favorite people in life called me in May and told me that I needed to sign up for The Color Run in Des Moines in October, I did it.  After some hesitation.  Maybe I’ll have something important going on in October.  What if it’s cold?  What is I don’t train enough?  It is a 5K.  I can totally just sign up later if needed.  My friend swore to me that it would sell out fast and I needed to do it.  She was right.

So. Much. Fun.

We started the day in our nice and clean white shirts.  We being Nate’s sister (Lisa), one of my favorite people in the world (Melissa) and myself.

It was 44 degrees at 1:00PM.  There were 27,000 people racing.  You know, the entire state of Iowa.  I don’t do cold or crowds and yet I still had fun.  I think the massive amount of people helped raise the air temperature a bit.

We were released in waves of 1000.  So many people.  Obviously cool things need to keep coming to Iowa because we come out of the woodwork for this stuff.

At each kilometer were splashed with powder.  The powder is colored corn starch.  Completely safe.  This is what the first kilometer color site looked like.  Ooo, orangey.

Oh hey, Nate! Thanks for being our personal photographer.

The blue was really pretty.  As was the race course.

As were we after a couple of kilometers of The Color Run.

We ran jogged most of the 5K.  There were so many people that it would have been extremely hard to run the entire race.  I’d say about 70% of people walked the whole thing.  If you want a serious 5K, The Color Run probably isn’t your best bet.  We walked through each color station.  The people that ran through the stations had very little color on them at the end.  What fun is that?

At the end there is a big ol’ explosion of color.  At the beginning of the race you are given a packet of color to save until the end and then there is a countdown to throw the color in the air.  Very cool.

At the end we took a bunch of nerdy photos…

Moral of this story…introverts, get out of your house!!

I do have some tips for those planning on running The Color Run or pondering it.

• If The Color Run is coming to your city…or state…do it!!
• Sign up for the first wave if possible.  There is so much anticipation of what is to come. If you’re in the second wave you already see how the first runners look, what the end color explosion looks like, etc.
• If you live in Iowa, have many different white shirts options.  I am still freezing.  I will not be warm again until June 2013.
• You many notice bandanas in the pictures.  There were quite helpful on reducing the amount of corn starch inhaled.
• Have your husband photograph. 
• Wear sunglasses.  I can only imagine how much fun corn starch to the eye is.
• I mentioned before that most people walked.  Anyone can do this.  There were even kids in strollers….most were screaming sad screams though…so there’s that.

Have you ran The Color Run?  Do you plan to?  Any fellow introverts trying to make it amongst the energy sucking extroverts?