Our Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries: Our GRAND Fall Break

Even though BYU doesn't have a fall break, Ben still managed to miss out on some school so we could go on a little fall break trip.

To start off our trip we left Provo right after I was done with school on Wednesday. We were on the road by 3:50pm and were booking it (legally) to St. George. We were going to see Beauty and the Beast because we got rained out when we went to see it in August. We pulled into the farthest parking spot at Tuacahn at 7:32 and jetted up the stairs to get our tickets scanned. We were sitting in our seats at 7:38 and the show started about 3 minutes after we sat down. We were so lucky it started 10 minutes late :) The show was fantastic! Even though we had seen the first half before, this time it was even better! There were way more effects that we missed out on due to weather the first time. And the second half was absolutely wonderful. Beauty and the Beast has been one of my favorite movies since I was a little girl and it was so fun to see it live. After the show, we went to our hotel and snoozed.

Barely making it into our seats! We had enough time for a selfie before the show started :)

We always LOVE this water feature that runs through Tuacahn.

The little yellow van got it's own room and bed at our hotel. Somehow we ended up with a 2 King suite.

The next morning we got up and ate breakfast before getting on the road at 8:30 to head down to the Grand Canyon. The drive was beautiful (for a lot of the way). And we were able to get to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon by about 1:30. We first stopped at the Desert View Visitor's Center. It was an amazing first view of the Canyon. This was Ben's first time seeing the Grand Canyon and my second. But it felt like my first because I don't remember it when I went with my family when I was little. After our first view, we found our campsite and set up our tent. Then we packed up our backpack and made a picnic dinner and went on a hike down Bright Angel Trail below the rim. It was a good hike and after we were done I was very glad we did it. From there, we caught some shuttles to Yaki Point to have our dinner and watch the sunset. The weather didn't quite cooperate because there was a huge wall of clouds to block the actual setting of the sun, but it was still beautiful and cast perfect light on the Canyon. We were so tired when we were done, we got back to our campsite and were fast asleep by 8:30.

Our first picture with the Grand Canyon :)

At our campsite.

Hiking Bright Angel Trail

View from Yaki Point

Sunset at Yaki Point

The same view can seem completely different depending on the light.
(This is the same view as the Canyon a few pictures above)

Just finishing up our picnic.

We woke up somewhat early the next morning and went to Mather Outlook to see the sunrise. Again, the weather wasn't quite cooperating with lots of clouds but it was still awesome to see how different the Canyon looked with the different light. We then went back to our campsite and packed everything up, ate breakfast and packed a lunch before heading to the main Visitor's Center. We started an easy hike/walk around the Rim Trail and ended up going to a couple of the museums along the way. It was a beautiful walk with lots of areas to get off the trail and end up right on the edge of the Canyon. We were able to get a lot of video during this walk for our music video. After we saw the museums, we went back to the main visitor's center and watched the introduction movie. It was good but it made Ben and I both very sleepy. After the video we ate our lunch then started to leave the Grand Canyon. On our way out we stopped at the Tusayan Ruins and Visitor Center. It was cool to see what an ancient community might have looked like. Then we stopped at one last look out point to get our last view of the Grand Canyon. Then we were on the road again, headed to Cedar City. We were lucky to escape the really bad storms and rain for the first half of our trip back. We stopped at Cliff Dwellers, Arizona to see these cool, random rocks. Apparently, a lady was traveling through during the Great Depression and her car broke down there and she decided she wanted to live there. So she built a house into the rocks and lived there! It was neat to see and a fun little rest stop. After our stop we got into some off and on rain the rest of our way. Sometimes it was really bad but we made it safely to Cedar City.

Taking pictures at sunrise. Notice how little my camera and tripod look next to professionals.

We thought it was amazing how blue and purple the Canyon looked in the morning.

During our Rim Trail walk/hike. We went out on lots of outcroppings.
This is where we filmed one of the choruses of our music video.

Our last view of the Grand Canyon.

At the Tusyan Ruins

At Cave Dwellers, AZ

At the ruins of a house that people lived in in the 1930s.

Ben climbing a rock.

The next morning it was still raining and we headed to St. George again to go to the temple. We were originally going to go before we went to the Grand Canyon but due to weather we thought it would be better to get there sooner (and we were so glad we did!). But when we went on Saturday morning, we discovered the temple was closed for cleaning. But the weather and lighting were perfect for pictures so we were able to take some nice ones. After the temple, we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch then started the final leg of our trip back to Provo.