AZ 2012

About a week after school was out, Brandon and I packed up the kids and sent them to Grandmas and headed out to Phoenix for our annual relax-fest.  Things were a little dicey this year as to whether we'd end up going or not.  At some point in the middle of May, I did something to hurt my lower back.  At first, it wasn't that bad and I kept up my normal routine, which probably wasn't the best idea, because after about a week, I woke up one morning and almost couldn't walk.  So...I stopped my normal exercise and tried to take it as easy as possible at work, and began visiting my chiropractor more regularly, and it got somewhat better.  Until the day after the last day of school.  I think I just spent too much time running around, and though I tried not to do any heavy lifting, I was packing boxes and toting things around like crazy, so the day after school was out, I was in major, major pain.  So...more visits to the chiropractor, lots of ice, and lots of time flat on my back (spent reading, which was the only enjoyable thing about it!) got me to the point where I felt like I could make the long car trip.  I was feeling pretty good by the Wednesday before we left.  I was finally able to do a little cleaning around my house and pack, though, again, there was a lot of time spent on ice and flat on my back in between.  I armed myself with a lumbar support pillow for the car ride, and we set off!

We did a 16 hour day (with many more breaks than normal) and drove to Blanding, UT on the first day.  We drove through Colorado with a mission - find a rest stop we stopped at many years ago along the Colorado River.  There are multiple rest stops through the Glenwood Canyon, but this particular one was right along the water - so close you could take off your shoes & step into the water if you wanted to.  For the last several years, we have stopped at the rest areas that we thought were the one, and have one-by-one eliminated them.  We stopped at what we finally thought was going to be the one, only to discover that we were wrong once again!  Brandon declared that he would stop at every rest stop through the canyon until we found it.  Lucky for us, it was the next one...the "Grizzly Creek" Rest Area if you're ever driving through.  Here are some pictures from our stop there:

We stopped in Grand Junction, CO at a favorite restaurant of ours, W.W. Peppers.  Anytime we go through Grand Junction, we eat there.  It's a local place - serves Mexican, but also steak & seafood.  When we got there, we were seated in the same booth we sat at 2 years ago (the last time we were able to eat there).  Then...we got waited on by the same waitress as 2 years ago.  She was so nice, she was very memorable...but it turns out we must be memorable too.  After she'd been by our table a couple times, she stopped again and said, "I've waited on you before, haven't I?  And didn't you sit at this same booth?"  Talk about a good memory.  We had a great visit with her...and promised to request her again next time we're there.  Her name is Holly...I've written it down so we won't forget.  

Finally, the first day, we took our favorite drive along Hwy 128 in Utah also along the Colorado River.  The grandeur of this drive is just awe-inspiring.  Here we are along the way.

We finally made it to Blanding around 8:40 local time  - after leaving at 5:40 a.m. home time, we were pretty beat!  

We set out a little later on our second day - thank goodness!  It only took us about another 5 & 1/2 hours to get to Phoenix, so it was an easy day in the car.  Our resort let us check in early, so we enjoyed the afternoon poolside.  And the rest of our trip was pretty much this:  wake up early, take a walk, eat breakfast, take a nap, eat lunch, lay by the pool all afternoon, clean up & go to dinner.  So, very relaxing.  My back was hurting quite a bit the first few days after the car trip, so I think Brandon did get a little bored with me.  I wasn't up for much.  By Wednesday, I felt good enough to go hiking with him, so we set out to Pinnacle Peak, which is a just gorgeous hike in the area.  We met a little friend along the way:

Can you see him?  I added arrows to help.  We think it was a rattle snake.  Ugh.  Shiver.  Luckily, he was heading off-trail, so we only saw him from the back. :)  Here is Brandon along the way & after we finished.

My one assignment from Luke was to take pictures of cactus, so once I remembered to bring my camera along with me, I took pictures of as many varieties as I could find.  Who doesn't enjoy a good cactus picture now and then?

It's amazing how tall these paddle-like cactuses (cacti?) can get!

These cactus trees are really cool looking.

I loved the birds on top of this one!

I wasn't often up early enough to see the flowers blooming on top  -  I caught a few here.

We left for home last Friday way early in the morning - 3:14 a.m. Phoenix time (that is 5:14 am here in MO, which doesn't sound good, but sounds a lot better!).  When we come home, we take the short way (short is a relative term) and the GPS predicts it to be a little more than 18 hours to get home.  Last year we did it in 17 hours, 29 minutes.  This year, we were on track to do just that...until we got to the great state of Missouri.  Once we cross the bridge into Missouri, it's less than 10 minutes to home...unless you see that the left to lanes of the Interstate you are traveling on have been closed & traffic is backed up over the bridge into Kansas...at 10:40 p.m., mind you!  We sat looking at the "Welcome to Missouri" sign for I don't even know how long.  After going about a mile in 40 minutes, we finally see the reason for the hold-up...a sobriety checkpoint.  What's unique about this sobriety checkpoint is that THEY WEREN'T ACTUALLY STOPPING ANYONE!  There were about a million (really probably somewhere between 50-75) Sheriff's Deputies & Highway Patrolmen waving everyone through.  Really?  Thanks, Missouri.  And we couldn't wait to get back here?  Brandon said we would never speak of it again, he was so mad...so I really hope he doesn't read my blog.  I have come to a place of sort of finding it funny...you know, one of those funny stories you tell about that one trip?  We finally reached home at a little after 11:30 and crashed.  It was a fun trip, but it is so true...there's no place like home!