Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Vegas, Zion Road Trip

So Dave and me decided to road trip to Vegas and make a couple of stops on the way there and back. Vegas is about a 12 hour drive from us if we were to go straight there.

We left Friday night around 8 pm and had decided we were just going to take turns driving and sleeping through the night and go straight to our first stop, The Grand Canyon!

Boy was that a fun drive...not. Once we got into Utah and began to head south there was like nothing for forever. We saw a lot of deer, mice, and a few jack rabbits... and I hit one. Sad day. We got to the Grand Canyon a little after 6 in the morning local time.

Its SO big. You hear people say pictures don't do it justice and man is that true. It's so deep and huge and just amazing. It was nice that we got there so early because we were able to enjoy many of the first few overlooks just us two. It was super windy and that made it kinda chilly but as the day went on it warmed up and was absolutely perfect. Blue sky and probably around 75. It was a little bit hazy because there was a fire but it wasn't too bad. Just made some of the pictures less pretty than they could've been.

We found the visitors center and hopped on a free shuttle bus that takes you further into the canyon to other overlooks that you can't just drive to on your own. We took a ton of pics and still couldn't believe how big it was. On the drive back to the visitors center Dave and me both fell asleep. People probably thought we were weird but they were probably people that didn't drive from Colorado the night before ;)

The pictures of the Grand Canyon we got in the early morning were the best

Later in the day at one of the shuttle stops

We left the Grand Canyon once we finally found a way out. Like seriously there was a sign that sent us in a circle and it was super annoying how hard it was to find our way out. But we finally did and headed to Kingman, Arizona about 3 hours away to stay in a hotel for the night. We checked in and then headed to the In N Out that was nearby. I had somehow forgotten how delicious it was. God it is SO freaking good. We went back to the hotel and got in bed by 8. It was amazing to sleep in a bed.

We woke up at 6am and Dave asked me what time it was and I told him 6 and he said "That's it?" and we both slept for about another hour. We got breakfast at our hotel and then headed to the Hoover Dam about 1 hour 20 minutes away.

We got to the Hoover Dam and I had no idea it was literally on the Nevada/Arizona border. We walked out on the bridge to look at the Dam and it was soooooo windy. But it was also really hot so I guess it was kinda nice that it was so windy. After the bridge we parked and then walked across the Dam.

This is the view of the Hoover Dam from standing on the bridge

This is the view of the bridge from standing on the Dam

After we finished there we headed to Vegas where we were staying at The Flamingo on the strip and staying for 3 nights. So much about our hotel was stupid and we will never be staying at The Flamingo again. Anyways, the first night we walked around the strip after resting in our room for a little while. That's one thing I love about Vegas is that you can wait until late to go out and not worry about missing anything and everything closing. The strip is so pretty with all the hotels and lights. So after we walked around a while we came back to our room and went to bed.

Next day we slept in then went to the pool, then rested and walked the strip some more. There was an awesome Michael Jackson street performer and he was friends with an Elvis impersonator. We watched them for a while and it was really entertaining especially after this drunk homeless man came up and started hovering around their money bucket. Michael Jackson was pissed! It was so funny.

You can tell Michael had enough. He's got his hands on his hips haha

Pretty much did the same thing the next day except we played some penny slots just to get drinks and that was fun to see inside some of the nicer hotels we hadn't been in yet.

Our last night in Vegas we went to In n Out for dinner again because WHY NOT?! It was even better than it was when we had it in Arizona. Plus its really cheap. Delicious and cheap what more could you want? We went to bed pretty early because we were waking up and leaving super early the next day.

Our In N Out mmmmm animal style everything for me :)

The next day after a hassle of a checkout we were on the road and headed toward Zion National Park in Utah which was about a 3 hour drive away. When we got there we hopped on the shuttle bus that was going to take us to the trail head of our hike, The Narrows. There were so many people hiking the trail. It's really only a trail for about the first half mile and then you literally are hiking in a river through the canyon. It was amazing! We could not have asked for a better day. Blue skies, perfect water temp and air temp. It was the coolest hike ever. So different from any hiking we'd done before. The trail is just an out and back trail so we knew we needed to turn around because we still had 10.5 hours left of driving before we got home that night and because The Flamingo prolonged our checkout process we really needed to get back on the road. But we just couldn't turn around. It was just so much fun hiking through the water and it was just the coolest hike ever. Finally we came to a fork in the river and decided we better turn around and head back to the bus. So sad. We just wanted to stay longer and do the whole thing. We will definitely be back though.

This picture I took from the bus. See what a gorgeous day it was!

Hiking The Narrows

This is probably my favorite picture from that day

Random stranger took this for us

Dave standing in one of the deeper parts of the hike

We got back to our car and headed home. With still more than 10 hours to go we were going to get home at 2:30 AM. Southern Utah is actually a really pretty drive. There's nothingness and then theres these canyons that just keep going and going and its just crazy.

This is Devil's Canyon overlook which was one of many overlooks off the highway

The one thing that made us want to go home was that we would get to see our kitties. Dave's mom was watching them at her house for us so we went at 2:30 to get them from her house. They were so happy to see us and definitely happy to be back home with us.

State count so far this summer
     1. Colorado
     2. Utah
     3. Arizona
     4. Nevada
many more to come...

Update

So it's June 2014. I am halfway done with nursing school which is awesome. The first 2 semesters went by SO fast so hopefully the next 2 do as well. My favorite clinicals so far were my pediatrics at Denver Health and my labor and delivery clinicals at North Suburban. My patients at Denver Health were all so cute and I just love working with kids. My instructor at North Suburban was awesome! The first birth I got to see was a c-section and I teared up when the doctor pulled the baby out. I ended up seeing 2 vaginal deliveries too. It is so cool to watch a baby be born. They're all so little and cute even the 10 lb-ers!

I don't think I could make it through nursing school without Kim. She's been by my side since 1st semester clinicals and makes dealing with all the stress of nursing school a lot easier.

Kim and I went for drinks after we took our last final of 2nd semester

Laura is another great nursing buddy.

This is us on one of our presentation days when we were forced to look presentable for class :)

And I definitely could not make it through nursing school without my love, Dave. I just can't even explain how amazing he is. I am so lucky to have him. He takes such good care of me.

Also adding sunshine to my days are our perfect kitties, Nugget and Bailey.

Nugget 

aka Nuggy, The Nuggs, Nuggliest Nuggs, Big Fat Nuggy

He is the sweetest kitty in the world. He is such a big kitty and he loves to cuddle. He is definitely a momma's boy and he loves to patty cake anything soft and especially my penguin pillow pet that he likes to take over when he's cuddling me to death. He is obsessed with hair ties and loves to play with them until they are soggy enough to eat (yea gross!) He loves rolling around on his back and showing off his big belly and he seriously just has the cutest sweetest face.

Bailey

aka Bairey, Bairey Bae, Bailey Girl

She is the cutest, prettiest little girl kitty. She is a trouble maker. Because she is so little and athletic it's easy for her to get up onto everything she's not supposed to. She's knocked over 4 plants and gets into drawers and cabinets and loves to steal by snowboarding socks out of the drawer in our bedroom. I have no idea why, but it's impossible not to love her cuz of her adorable little face. She loves to play fetch, yes fetch, with her toy mice and she makes the cutest little noises when she does.



First vacation of the summer is coming up soon. More on that later :)

Ke$ha Concert!!!

For Hope's birthday and also cuz I really really wanted to we went to see Ke$ha in concert! It was Ke$ha and Pitbull but we could care less about Pitbull. Ke$ha was awesome! We loaded up on glitter and dressed Ke$ha style. Hope met me and I drove us to pick up our friends Whitley and Lauren who we were going with. The concert was at Fiddlers Green Amphitheatre and it was so hot that day I was scared we were gonna be miserable but it was actually nice because we found a shady spot. Lauren and Whitley met up with other friends so it was just Hope and me singing and dancing to some Ke$ha. Unfortunately, she came out before Pitbull and it was still daylight out which made it hard to see and it didn't feel as concert-like since there were no cool lights and stuff. Still we sung and danced our a$$e$ off and had a great time.

Got that glitter on our eye$

I made my shirt with just some tape and gold glitter spray paint :)

ready to party

 We were excited if you can't tell ;)

 We had fun when Pitbull was on too but I felt like he was on longer than Ke$ha and its annoying because 95% of the songs he plays he's featured in and doesn't even play the whole song. It's dumb. Anyways still a good concert and I am definitely seeing Ke$ha whenever she comes back because I love her!

Warrior!

Having a great $ummer so far ;)

Connor's Visit Part II

The second weekend Connor spent with us we went down to the Royal Gorge and went white water rafting. We arrived at the place after a 3+ hour drive and got our life jackets on and helmets and it got really windy and then started storming before we loaded up the van. We went inside and our guide told us about safety and everything and at this point I was thinking there is no way this is happening. It's raining like crazy outside and its windy and theres thunder! Well it died down a little and we loaded up to head down to where we were going to start rafting. By the time we got to where we were getting in it had stopped raining but started up a little bit right before. But the crazy thing is that literally right when we got on the raft it stopped raining and just cleared up and ended up being a beautiful day! And it was so much fun! Erika and me were nervous about falling out because of the way the guide talked about the rapids but we never came close to that. It was a lot of fun :)

The next day we went up to Granby to go horseback riding. I was sore from rafting and we were on horses for almost 2 hours so I was hurting pretty bad but it was still fun. Dave was nervous about riding horses and of course he got the crazy one. His horse knocked over a trash can while Dave was on him before we even started the ride!

Us with our horses...

Connor

Erika

me

Dave

a pic of all of us taken by our guide :)

We had a great time while our nephew was here. Hope he comes back soon! He will have to let his aunts teach him to snowboard next time :) 

Connor's Visit Part I

My nephew, Connor, just graduated high school. Yeah I have an 18 year old nephew! Crazy! So as a graduation/birthday gift my parents sent him out here to Colorado for 10 days to spend some time with his awesome aunts :)

We did a lot of stuff! It was so fun but exhausting. He flew in on Friday and that evening Erika had a softball game but that next Saturday we drove up into the mountains to Estes Park and went into Rocky Mountain National Park to drive up Trail Ridge Road-the highest continuous paved road in the United States. It is closed in the winter and opens Memorial Day weekend. We were up there the weekend after and there was so much snow it felt like we were in another country.

Erika, Connor and me

After freezing on top of the mountain we headed back down into Estes where it was green and warm.

For dinner we went to our favorite place in Estes called Mama Rose's. It's italian and delicious. We all ordered the same tri colored pasta and and yummy bread and salad too. It was delicious!!!

After dinner we went to The Stanley Hotel which is supposed to be haunted.

Since it's haunted we decided to take a picture of us making scary faces behind this window. We'd done it before and it was hilarious because the second we stand there to try and be serious Erika starts dying out laughing and can't keep a straight face for a second! The same thing happened this time. We did end up getting one pic of her serious but I like this one where she is cracking up the best. 

Silly Titer!

After we left Estes Park we decided to drive up the mountains to this spot where there is a beautiful overlook of the mountains and watch the sunset. We made it to the spot in the nick of time to see the sun setting behind the mountains. Then we took lots of goofy pics. 

This is us doing the duck face-and again Erika couldn't stop laughing...fail.

  

Sunday we spent the day in Denver. We ate brunch at the most delicious little place called Jelly Cafe. They have amazing everything. Twas delicious.

Then we walked around 16th Street Mall. And we had our photographer Erika take our kissy pic :)

The next off day I had Connor, Erika and I went hiking in Boulder. We did the Royal Arch trail. It is a hard hike all uphill but when you finally make it to the Arch it really is worth it.

This is the view from the top where the arch is, oh, and a chipmunk. This little guy came right up to us. Erika was ecstatic. She had been trying to get a picture of a chipmunk for days and they never stayed still long enough. This guy was very cooperative. So cute too :)

Us with the arch in the back

  

After working up an appetite hiking we went to Casa Bonita for dinner. I picked up Dave when he got off work and we met Erika and Connor there. 

We enjoyed unlimited amount of mexican food and the cliff divers and the corny as ever skits they put on while you're eating.

And we took another pic outside of Casa Bonita to add to our collection. 

I love him so much.

To be continued...