On Saturday, my parents arrived in Phoenix, expecting to enjoy the dry, warm weather. Ha! Starting with Sunday, it was cloudy the entire day, with a few light rain showers in the afternoon. I took my parents to church in the morning (it was like a 2.5 hour service, I'm proud of my parents for staying that long!) and afterwards we went to the Botanical Garden. We had so much fun posing with the cacti, haha!
On our way home, less than a block away from the house, I saw the most beautiful rainbow in the sky and started screaming as I'm driving. I parked the car in the driveway and ran back to take pictures. It looked much more beautiful in person, since the camera doesn't capture all the colors. But within less than 5 minutes, the rainbow disappeared! I'm so glad I caught it!
Early the next morning, we started our 4 hour drive to the Grand Canyon. We brought all the winter clothes we had, and I especially asked my parents to bring snow boots and gloves for me, as I wasn’t prepared for the 20 degree weather here in Arizona! As we got to higher altitudes, we could see snow on the ground, so we knew it was going to be cold. When we arrived at the park, we went to the supermarket to grab a quick lunch and some snacks for later in the evening. Afterwards, we drove to Mather Point for a view of the Grand Canyon, but much to our dismay, the canyon was filled with the thickest fog I have ever seen! We could not see anything except for the piece of rock we were standing on. It’s as if the canyon didn’t exist! We took a few pictures anyway, and everywhere you see white is where the canyon ‘should’ be :)
All the tourists, including us, left Mather Point with downcast expressions and helpless chuckles. As we drove away, I was reminded of a silly argument that my parents got into during lunch, and I half-jokingly said that God is telling us to repent and get our hearts in the right attitude before He’s going to let us see the beauty of His creation! My dad laughed and said, ‘What about all these other tourists? They all have bad attitudes today?’ And I replied, ‘Perhaps not, but they’re suffering because of our bad attitude, haha!’ So we just prayed about it and asked God to let the fog dissipate. Not knowing what else we could do at the Grand Canyon besides seeing the Grand Canyon, we went to our hotel to check in and hang out for a bit. The fog was so thick that while driving, we couldn’t see more than a few feet ahead of us. It is such a beautiful hotel, very log cabin-like, although the rooms are small. We ate half of our snacks and watched some TV for a couple of hours, and I suggested that we try Mather Point again to see if the view was any better. We didn’t think it was possible, but it got worse, and we couldn’t even see the rock right in front of us anymore! After a few minutes of waiting it out, we gave up and went to the gift shop. It was funny, my parents picked up books of the Grand Canyon and decided that if they couldn’t see the real thing, they could admire the pictures, haha! As we were walking around the gift shop, laughing to ourselves at how ironic the situation is, I glanced out the window of the store and saw dark patches where the white fog used to be! I grabbed my mom and we ran out to see, the fog had started disappearing and we saw the Grand Canyon! It was ‘extra’ magnificent because of how miraculous it was that God answered our prayer about 30 minutes before sunset! Everyone was SO full of excitement and joy as we walked along the canyon while taking tons of pictures. Within 30 minutes the fog came back, the sun went down and the snow started coming down hard. We couldn’t have asked for more, at one point we said that if we got one minute to see the canyon, it would have been enough, and He was gracious enough to give us half an hour!
View of our hotel, El Tovar
It’s interesting, because this experience was so relevant to what the pastor and another leader in the church said during service the previous day. They said that a lot of times, we can’t see the sun because of the thick clouds in the sky, but that doesn’t mean the sun isn’t there. The sun (God) is constant, the clouds (our circumstances) may make it difficult to see the sun, but we KNOW it’s there! I knew the Grand Canyon was right there, I could picture it in my head because I had seen it just a few months ago! But in front of my physical eyes, all I could see was a huge mass of white fog! But that’s where faith comes in. I had faith that the Grand Canyon was behind the fog. How much more powerful are our spiritual eyes than our physical eyes! The pastor also said that when God’s temple (in the Old Testament, the actual ‘temple’, in the New Testament, our bodies) is in order, miracles happen! When we open up our hearts with gratitude and joy, He is able to work miracles in and around us!
Satisfied with the breathtaking views, we went back to the hotel for dinner and relaxation. My mom brought face masks for us to use on our trip, we looked so scary and ridiculous that we decided to get a little silly in front of the camera, haha!
It snowed a few inches overnight, and Jake was covered in snow the next morning! It was Jake’s first experience in the snow, he looked happy :)
We drove by Mather Point on our way out of the park, and again, it was covered with thick fog, and we knew it really was a miracle that we got to see the canyon the day before. On our way to Sedona, we passed through a couple of areas of heavy snow, it was a bit scary as it was my first time driving in the snow. Jake was very brave and did great! A few miles before we hit Sedona, we came to one of the most beautiful landscapes EVER! There was a car ahead of us going like 5 miles an hour and we couldn’t figure out why until we caught up to it. We were at the top of Oak Creek Canyon and the road winds down into the canyon! The canyon was full of grand, tall oak trees covered with white, powdery snow, and we were right in the middle of it! It was so gorgeous, again, the pictures don’t do it justice. There wasn’t anywhere to stop on the side of the windy road, so everyone was just driving at 5 miles an hour, admiring the views. As we got lower into the canyon, we realized that we were driving along the creek. Sigh, I love creeks, they’re so peaceful.
When we arrived at Sedona, we grabbed lunch at a Mexican restaurant, with perfect views of some red rocks! Even though I was just in Sedona a few weeks before, the view that day was SO different! It was very cloudy and the tops of many rocks had snow! Whoever thought there’d be so much snow in Arizona! During lunch, it started to hail! It was amazing, we’d never seen hail like this before. These were tiny, perfectly round, solid white pieces falling from the sky, and they roll around on the ground like they were beads from a necklace. Within a few minutes, it stopped. Since the weather wasn’t the best for hiking, as the ground was wet, we made a few stops to take some pictures of the red rocks and headed home.
Thought this was an awesome picture
As we were nearing Phoenix, it began to pour like crazy! By the time we arrived at the house, we had seen every kind of weather possible in one day, haha!
The next day, I took my aunt, uncle and parents to the University of Phoenix Stadium, which is where the Cardinals play and where the Super Bowl will be played in 2008! We got a tour of the stadium, and saw some of the VIP areas and the locker room. The roof actually opens up; I think it’s the first stadium to have this contraption. The thing that surprised me the most is that the grassy field is outside the stadium so it can get sun, and it is brought in before games!
Me chillin' in the shower room, hehe ;)
Afterwards, I took my parents to the restaurant where I worked and had a delicious meal, I love the food there! We were one of only two tables who were ‘brave’ enough to sit outside in the courtyard. It was maybe 50 degrees, I guess everyone else thought it was too cold, haha! I got us the chocolate raspberry baby cake, my favorite, the chef decorated it beautifully especially for us (usually the servers decorate the desserts)!
Later that evening, we celebrated my birthday early since my parents were leaving the next morning. Aunt Mary prepared many yummy dishes, and Uncle Peter bought a cake and some sake, it was my first time drinking sake, not bad!
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