Our Trip Part 2: The Grand Canyon

After we drove around Vegas and finished up seeing what we wanted to see there, we started heading for The Grand Canyon. It was a three hour drive from Vegas to Williams, AZ - where we would be staying for the night. We loved that we were staying in Williams being as we ARE the Williams'! :) The drive was great. We drove over the Hoover Dam which was pretty cool (you cross over into AZ right in the middle of the Hoover Dam), through the desert - The Mohavi Desert, on into Williams, AZ where it there was snow on the ground! It was crazy to leave 60 degree weather to 40 degree COLD, WINDY, SNOWY weather.

Passing Lake Mead

Getting ready to go over the Dam





The Mohavi Desert

On the way to Williams, AZ there was NOTHING! I felt like we should have had our Bear Grylls Survival Handbook and Flint - any Man vs. Wild watchers out there, you know what a mean!

Historic Route 66 - This was for Harrison - he's a big fan of the CARS movie and if you remember the city that Lightning McQueen gets stuck in is Radiator Springs off of Route 66. Interstate 40 really does pass right over these little towns, just like the movie said! :) After Route 66 was established as a Historic Marker they say it's been busy ever since. People come just to see Historic Route 66. There is VERY LITTLE commercialization so the local restaurants are all there is to choose from. It was very quaint, like going back in time really.

We ate at Pancho McGillicuddy's - a local Mexican restaurant.

The restaurant is an old saloon called The Cabinet from back in the 1800's. It was really fun to read the history and imagine what it was like way back then! We stayed in Williams that night and then headed to The Grand Canyon the next morning - which by the way, it was FREEZING!!! 40's, snow, WIND, COLD!!! Anthony sure was glad I talked him into bringing his coat...he wanted to bring a little jacket...he would have been SO MISERABLE! Good thing he has me around to keep him straight! :)

See, desert to snow...weird, huh?

If you haven't been to The Grand Canyon, I can promise you these pictures just do not do it any justice! It is absolutely amazing and I was just in awe of God's creation the whole time we were there. We stopped right as we got into town and watched The Grand Canyon IMAX movie. It was so good! We knew we wouldn't be taking any tours so it was great to hear the history of when it was discovered and the exploration of the canyon over the years!







these railings seemed a bit rinky dink to me! let's just say i was glad i didn't have kids to worry about falling over the edge. they don't actually have railings everywhere...just in the MOST dangerous places but believe me, falling over the edge wouldn't take much effort at all!

This is how I looked for most of the day! It was SO COLD!!!



"Do nothing to mar it's grandeur for the ages have been at work on it and man cannot improve it. Keep it for your children, your children's children, and all who come after you." Theodore Roosevelt

what a FUN anniversary trip this was! :)



I was SO SQUEEZED into this coat! It could barely zip over my prego belly but I made it work, it was too cold to not work! :)

I didn't go down these stairs, everything was so slippery because of the snow and with my pregnant clumsiness, I didn't want to become famous as the poor pregnant woman who slipped to her death at The Grand Canyon on her anniversary!







Anthony being Anthony, trying to pretend he's falling over the edge!



It really was the most incredible and amazing place I've ever been! I truly hope if you haven't been you can some day! It was AWESOME!!!

We had to go back on our way to Vegas and get a picture of the Williams sign!



Williams is known for the Grand Canyon Railway. What are the chances of that??? A city named Williams and known for the railroad??? We have to be related to this Williams guy some how!

Our Trip Part 1: Las Vegas, NV

We left our our Anniversary Getaway on Friday morning at 6am. It was a good day of flying in the fact that we made our flight, but it was a bad day of flying in the fact that the flights were completely FULL so Anthony and I were separated. I don't do well flying when I'm pregnant so the flight into Vegas was pretty awful. But, we made it there and all the fun was able to begin! :) When we arrived it was 11:30am Vegas time (2:30pm East Coast time), so we were hungry. We got our car and went and found a place to eat at one of the malls. All of the casinos have these huge, gorgeous malls connected to them. Everything is done on such a GRAND scale so it's all very beautiful.

This is inside the mall we had lunch in. The murals on the ceilings were amazing! It actually felt like we were outside they were so believable! After we ate lunch it was about 3:00pm so we headed to our hotel, we stayed at a Residence Inn by Marriott right off of the strip. We thought about staying at one of the nice hotels but we got ours for free with our Marriott points so we just couldn't pass that up! :) It took a nap because our bodies felt like it was 6:00pm and we had been going since 4:00am. We headed back out at about 6:00pm and stayed out till 11:00pm.

Here I am waiting for the fountains to start at the Bellagio - you've probably seen this on TV before. It's incredible! It was my favorite thing we saw there. The fountains played to a Celine Dion song while we were standing there and it was truly magical!









This is a picture of the Paris Casino - absolutely beautiful!

Inside the Bellagio - these casinos were just decorated amazingly!

Inside Caesar's Palace we walked to the Forum Shops and ate an appetizer and desert at The Cheesecake Factory - Lettuce Wraps and my favorite White Chocolate Caramel Macadamia Nut Cheesecake! Yum, Yum!











Here's the "I Do Wedding Drive Thru" if you know of anyone that's interested!

The Mirage

MGM Grand

New York, New York



The Luxor

Mandalay Bay - We stopped and parked and walked around Mandalay Bay before we headed out of town. It was REALLY fun just looking and walking all around to these huge hotels that you always hear about. We just had such a good time being together! There were a few times where I would get sad in my heart for the people around us. It's a very interesting place to people watch. If you haven't been, it's a really fun place to visit! I wish we could've seen a show...that would have been a highlight for sure! I can't imagine living there, raising a family there, and so on. Such a different life and clearly exposure to many things that aren't all that great, of course. But it was fun and exciting to see! We had a BLAST! :)