HAPPY Birthday & New Year!!! & Grand Canyon Pics Part 2

Mom came up this past weekend for my Birthday! Neil apparently couldn't stand to wait on me to open my present so Mom called me over to Rachel's to open it when she got up here.....just a few hours early.  Rachel apparently knew what I was getting!  After slowly opening it up I found 2 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TICKETS!!!!  I was in shock and Mom went bananas when she found out one of them was for her!!  What a great way to start my Birthday weekend!  Plus the game will be a great way to start off 2012...but I still had an airplane to jump out of in 2011...plus FAB's Birthday/New Year's!!!

Nope I wasn't in NY at midnight...I was actually in bed-exhausted from a full fun day of Skydiving!  That's right I actually JUMPED!  Unfortunately they had to push the date back from my birthday to the 31st, but because it was so clear yesterday I was able to go 4,000ft higher!  It was like nothing I have ever done before and the rush-WOW!  It was beautiful, scary, exciting, thrilling, and breathtaking.  I must give credit where credit was due-Aaron my instructor was fantastic and super nice!!

I had a fantastic videographer-a little strange, but I think you have to be to jump like that every day! Unfortunately I can't get pictures or video until they mail it out.  Hopefully they will be mailed tomorrow!

As for the rest of the Grand Canyon pics-I guess it's a good thing I was off work today so I could get them posted!!

The second day at the Canyon was SNOWY!!  It was amazingly beautiful!  We went on about a 2 1/2 mile hike to this overlook, because of the snow and ice we bought these things to put on our shoes that reminded me of the old golf shoes with the metal spikes.

On the way to the trail head we walked down one of the trails into the canyon just a short distance...

Looking up at Mom as I walk down into the canyon

It's like "Where's Waldo" Mom is up there!!

An opening in the rock for the mules to get down into the canyon on the trail

Once I trekked back up the trail into leading into the canyon we started on our hike!  Just so you know Mom is in blue and I am in the red...huge snowflakes started falling!!

I am in the red...HUGE snowflakes!

The sun tried to peak out a little!

This is one of my favorite pictures!! Just looking into a crevice with the snow everywhere

Making a snow angel

Finished the snow angel!

The back of the lodge with fantastic icicles before leaving for Flagstaff

Montezuma's Castle...or the Cliff Dwellers-can you believe people used to live up there!!

There were so many pictures that it was really hard to choose a few specifically!  It was a fantastic trip and memories with Mom that I will have with me forever!!!