Surprise Sedona!

I don’t even know where to begin, other than by just telling you that Brian whisked me off my feet again with a surprise vacation to Sedona, Arizona to celebrate our upcoming 10 year anniversary. You see, life since we’ve said our I Do’s has been a little crazy and fun — even sad at times — so when it didn’t seem like it was going to work out to plan a trip for just the two of us, we were happy to schedule a week of camping in the Big Horns for all four of us.

Much to my surprise, Brian has been secretly browsing the internet (when I thought he was studying) and making a plan since January. He had to show me the ticket confirmation email before I believed him, and then I think I said the same words as when he asked me to marry him — Are you serious? You better not be kidding me!

So off we went, after getting the kiddos to grandma’s of course, on a late flight down on Friday. Once we got rolling the next morning we navigated the Valley’s freeways and made our way north. About 3-4 hours later, longer than Brian thought it was going to take, we landed at the gates of the Grand Canyon. The views were breath taking. We both have been there a few times (surprisingly once together before I even liked Brian, but that’s a story for another day), and each time Brian says it correctly when he says “looking at this makes me feel so insignificant. A 1,000 years from now, this will still be here, and I will not.”

We had lunch and stopped a few times in the park but needed to boogie down to Sedona to check into our B&B, A Sunset Chateau, and then find a place to make dinner reservations hopefully before sunset. As we left the park we swung in to take our famous picture by the national park sign when we were stopped by a young Japanese couple who were experiencing some rental car issues in a place where they didn’t have any cell service. Even after Brian helped get a tow truck on the way, we knew deep down inside that we couldn’t just leave them, and their 20 month old son, abandoned in the hot sun, without a phone. So we stayed. For 5 hours, until the misdirected tow truck arrived. And then we loaded them into our rental car and took them to their hotel, which was on our way anyways. Ward, the tow truck driver, said we have Midwestern values. We just felt we were right where we were suppose to be. And we didn’t even miss a beautiful sunset or a great dinner.

Of course we didn’t make it to Sedona before it was as black as night in the desert so we were pretty surprised to look out of the window of our Casita the next morning to see a panoramic view of beautiful red rocks wishing us ¡Buenos Días! The first stop of our Sunday morning was the Chapel of the Holy Cross where we sat for a few minutes and prayed — for our past, our present and our future, as well as all of you.

We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around the rock formations and walking around downtown Sedona. Our evening ended as we enjoyed a beautiful plate of salmon while watching the panoramic sun set at one of Sedona’s newest fine dining experiences, Mariposa – Latin Inspired Grill.

The whole trip was nothing but amazing. We laughed and cried over our ten years of memories and milestones. We looked ahead at what the next ten years might bring. And with our stresses miles away, we were able to connect with each other again. Words are not enough to say how grateful I am to have such a wonderful husband. He sure knows how to make a girl feel special.

All The Sunny Shots:

Click SL for Slideshow & FS for Full Screen.

[flagallery gid=110 w=600 h=600 skin=lightgrey align=center]