Arizona!

This past weekend, Robert's cousin got married in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm so glad that we got to go. The wedding was beautiful, and the vacation was awesome. Here are some pictures!

Cliche sky picture from the plane. So beautiful!!

I probably took close to 10 pictures of us trying to get him to act normal. But then again, that's kind of his normal :)

The view from the balcony of our hotel room.

There were bunnies all around the hotel grounds!! You'd walk outside and see 10 to 20 just chilling, eating some grass. 

First item on the agenda: pool!

Getting ready for the wedding! My mother-in-law generously let me borrow this beautiful Michael Kors dress, but I had some concerns about it being white. I was assured several times it wouldn't be offensive at a wedding with the red and black, so I went for it. My sister-in-law did my hair, and I should have taken a picture of the back of it because it was beautiful.

We took a sickeningly turn-filled road to a town called Jerome. I found some candy coated popcorn I used to eat as a kid, and it was delicious.

We went to Sedona and went for a small hike to get a closer look at the giant red rocks. 

We got lunch at this nice resort outside of town. I had salmon with mango and black beans. Oh my word, it was so good. The bottom right corner of this series is our lunch view.

In Sedona, I found Kinder!! My parents brought this back from a trip overseas when I was younger, and my brother and I were crazy about it. We would ration out the little bars, and I haven't had one since. I was so excited to find these. 

We visited a chapel that's built directly into the rock of the mountains in Sedona. It was incredible. 

Rob freaked out when we got to our terminal on the way home. There's a long hallway that ends with a wall of windows and you can watch planes take off and land. We giggled about it for 5 minutes. We had an hour to kill because, of course, if you're running late to the airport, you'll end up facing the longest lines. If you're an hour early, though, you'll get through in about 3.2 minutes. 

The plan ride home. The white smoke is from forest fires, though I don't know if they were in Arizona or New Mexico. The smoke was serious and I swear it had to stretch multiple hundreds of miles. 

This trip was a much-anticipated and much-needed vacation for us. We spent a lot of time by the pool, relaxing. I don't think I would ever choose to go back and vacation in Arizona (though I do still really want to see the Grand Canyon), but it was definitely a nice trip. I also didn't remember how dang humid it is in North Carolina until we got back. I didn't break a single sweat in Arizona and my makeup stayed perfect even though it was in the high 80's. NC is a completely different story.

I absolutely love flying. I love being in airports and having layovers and the excitement of traveling. I love reading on the plane and watching tiny little towns go by. My ears, however, do not love planes. They'll pop alright on the way up, but on the descent, no matter what I do, there is no relief from the pressure. If anyone has tips other than chewing gum, yawning or holding your nose and violently blowing, please let me know! I still don't have my full hearing back today, and I'm sure it will take another couple of days.

Throughout the trip, I read one of the books from CS Lewis' science fiction trilogy, and I highly recommend reading it. I find that reading his fiction does far more for me spiritually than almost any other kind of book. You should definitely check out Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.

Well that's it! I'm happy to be home, but Arizona was a lot of fun. Next month, we're going back to Maryland for some business training, and I'm hoping we'll go to Washington DC again. Are you traveling anywhere this summer?