To sum it up...

( Sorry this is a little outdated... not feeling well for, oh let's say, the PAST 10 DAYS, kinda put a damper on blogging about the trip.) Let's see now, I must say that Matt's job has some perks...obviously one to mention is going to conferences around the country to learn about products and equipment they use. He has been to several during his tenure there, Boston, New York, Orlando, the list goes on... Although not all of them are scheduled to where it is convenient for me to tag along because they are either in the middle of the week or the scheduling isn't quite right for us to be able to make an extended trip out of it or something. But this time it worked out and it so happened to be my second to Phoenix, and Matt's fourth, I believe (Phoenix seems to be a popular place for engineering product conferences...lol). I love it when it works out for me to be able to tag along to his conferences and fit a mini vacation in! A little work for him and a lot of play (lounging) for me AND a little bit of fun time for the two of us!! This trip was better than my last for the fact that we made it a point to take a tour to the Grand Canyon, and better yet, took a helicopter ride over it!! All in all, the hotel was absolutely fabulous, the hospitality was superb, weather was great (although very hot!, but we are used to triple digit temps...right??) and the site seeing was amazing. What a GREAT way to celebrate our 4th anniversary (one month early)!!! Did you know that Arizona has desert, forests, the grand canyon, AND... they get snow??? Crazy!!! We learned a lot about the Arizona landscape on the tour we took up to the Grand Canyon. It was about a 3.5+ hour bus ride. but we stopped and fit in a little site seeing along the way stopping in beautiful Sedona. After that eventful day, we lounged around, enjoyed our time together, and indulged in some yummy food! That pretty much sums up the trip, I can't wait to see where the next conference will be! Below are some snapshots of the trip...but be sure to check out the Arizona albums on my Facebook page for the fun shots in their entirety!=) I will also post a video or two of our heli ride...







Birds of Paradise plant





View out to golf course




View of sunrise coming from behind us on the front lawn

Sunrise over the mountains

Off our balcony

This waterfall feature (and all really) at the resort were awesome!

Sunset

Fun Times!

So here is a little blurb about the helicopter ride.. I had no idea or even think twice that I would EVER ride in a helicopter. Even before the trip I had a few people ask me if I was going to take one when I told them we were going to see the grand canyon and I was like... "NO." Well long story short... we were riding up to the GC and our tour guide asked all of us on board if anyone would be interested and handed out brochures... and matt and I looked at each other and the conversation went a lilttle something like this...

Matt: "we're going"

Me: "what"

Matt: "we're going" ( this time with a grinny smile)

Me: "ARE YOU SERIOUS??"

Matt: "YA, we're going!"

Me, a little freaked out at this point: "oookkkaaay"

And so we went! It was definitely something to kick off the ol' bucket list.. and I definitely recommend a heli ride over the GC, or something else spectaculous you travel to in your life time. It was AMAZING!!, a little nerve racking, but pretty incredible!

I am a little nervous here...

we made it!!

Colorado River, not our Colorado though..