Month: June 2025

Saving this spot for last was a great decision.

We drove to Sedona on Wednesday morning, excited about relaxing, and we were coming dangerously close to over-filling my kids’ cup with family time. They stayed together in close quarters the entire time….so I suppose them getting tired of one another was to be expected. 🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪

We went to Mariposa to eat on our first night. It was delicious and beautiful!

I had a spa afternoon! It was amazing.

Night Two was Cress restaurant. It was also delicious. Maybe a tad too froo-froo for us, but we had a good time.

Morning two we ordered the coffee pot to our room. The first morning we tried to use the Nepresso machine—it was disgusting!! Like, what is that crazy stuff that comes out of there? It was NOT coffee.

I enjoyed the pool after breakfast. The rest of them went to ride ATVs.

Went to a casual dinner on Friday night—a local, authentic restaurant recommended by a friend. It did not disappoint!

Loved being with our family of five for such a big chunk of time. Lots of emotions and opinions. None of us are quiet and chill—makes for a lively trip!

Our last morning, I got up early for coffee and bible time by the pool as the sun came up. And I didn’t leave until 3:45pm!! It was awesome. Pool side lunch is amazing!!! I even ordered the big chocolate chip cookie and hazelnut crunch ice cream!!

These are the highlights and the photos. I have more thoughts and The Lord was very near to me—I will share more as He leads. But this is the end of our vacation photos. What a gift to be given time together in such fun and beautiful places! Like Christy Nockels sings, “But look what we have here, these are moments of gold!”

Random videos:

During the daytime hours of our time at Under Canvas, we went to Grand Canyon. As Mack said, “I feel like I should be way more impressed with this than I am.”

And it’s true. It is amazing. And beautiful. And I’m glad we took the kids. But I was unsure how long we needed to walk the rim and look at the Canyon. We decided two miles was good.

Josh and I came to this area in 2002; we had been married a year and a half and he had won a trip through work. I shared a few pics with the kids after we saw this Fred Flinstone and I remembered taking a pic with it. 24 years have flown by!

And that’s our Grand Canyon piece of the trip!

Josh is my coffee angel. I have called him that for years. He usually sets the coffee the night before or makes it in the morning so I always wake up to hot coffee. And on trips he makes sure I get coffee. He knows my first question about any spot we stay is, “What’s the coffee situation?” Amazingly, Under Canvas provided the tastiest and most unique surroundings for enjoying coffee and my Bible.

Under Canvas was special, and I am glad we made this experience a part of our trip. And just for clarity, we didn’t all sleep in this tent. This was our tent, and the kids slept in one next to us. Mack got the pull out sofa (again) here, but he did get a real bed at our next stop! He will always be the little brother—good and bad come with that position!

Seeing the beauty of the night sky reminded me of Genesis when God made the sun, the great light….then the Bible says, “…and He made the stars also.” Like it was no big deal, and yet there’s untold numbers of them! Amazing. ✨⭐️✨⭐️

Edited to add:

We were amazed at the scenery as we drove towards Under Canvas Grand Canyon. We didn’t realize there was a mile trek to get to Horseshoe Bend, so stopping in the heat of the day (and wearing jeans🙋🏼‍♀️) was not the best decision. Molly had taken Dramamine because she is easily car sick, so she felt delirious on the walk back and only wanted to lay down and close her eyes. Ruby was certain the view at the end was not going to be worth it. And Josh was shirtless by the end of the walk. lol! A few shots on our way out….

The drive from Horseshoe to Under Canvas was gorgeous and unique. GPS wanted to take us down a dirt road for like 30 miles but we opted for a few minutes longer in the car and staying on a real road.

Jury is still out if it was worth it to walk to Horseshoe Bend🤣🤣 but I think we’re glad for the memory!

All smiles as we started out with full bellies from Oscar’s Cafe and with decent temps at 8:00am!

The views were spectacular the whole way!

The switchbacks were wild.

We met a veteran on the way up who was super inspirational!

WE MADE IT TO THE TOP!

And we made it back to the bottom!

About halfway up I was telling Josh how many spiritual parallels there were—he quickly told me there were many, but no one wants to hear them right now. So I just treasured them in my own heart🤣

Now we took off towards The Narrows. I let them go get wet while I stayed with our bags and took pics for random folks!

It was a great day!! We rested up after dinner and got loaded up to head towards the Grand Canyon!

We just had the best vacation! The whole family was able to take ten days and enjoy time out west. We landed in Vegas, then drove our rental car down the strip—taking in all the sights. A little too much when we noticed the mostly not dressed ladies dancing around on the sidewalk. Good grief! The drive was um, enlightening, and I am glad we didn’t get out until we made it to In-N-Out Burger. It did not disappoint. And was the beginning of too many burgers and fries for me!

We drove on, making our way to Zion National Park. We stopped along the way for some photos.

We made it Zion National Park where we stayed at Cable Mountain Lodge, conveniently located at the gate of the park.

We rented e-bikes for a couple of days here. Such a great way to see so much of the park!

We ended the first day by the pool with an amazing view. And then slept like babies!

We’re heading home from an amazing vacation! Can’t wait to catch us up on the blog soooooon!!