And then we made it to the Grand Canyon.  It was big.  Very big.  Really, unbelievably massive.  It was amazing.  It was gorgeous.  It was awe-inspiring.  It was, well, for lack of better words...really something.

In fact, it was so completely, enormously, 'grand' that it created a little problem for us.  It brought out the trigger happy fool in each one of us, trying to capture the absolute coolness of each little lookout we stopped at.  And then, don't even get me started with the number of photos we managed to snap on our walk around the rim.  It was foolish, be we couldn't stop ourselves.  To make ourselves feel better for filling up our memory cards with a million different shots of the same, big, hole in the ground, we started adding ourselves into the frame.  All of us.  Even the dog.  Over and over again.  

Look...here we all are at stop #22.  And again, the whole family at stop #45.  You won't believe it, but we got all of us Jones' gathered together at stop #119.  It was complete, unbridled lunacy, but there was no stopping us.  In 24 hours, we managed to record ourselves from nearly every angle possible.  Granted, the backdrop was amazing, but seriously.  What silliness.  

Now, Sara informed me that there was no number of photos that I could put up on this blog that would induce sudden Jones family overkill.  To this, I say, "Challenge accepted."  

Behold.  A minute by minute photo melee of our every waking moment on our short excursion to the Grand Canyon.  Let me know how far you get through the repetitveness before your body revolts in grand mal seizures while trying to make the madness end.  

Good luck, friends.  

The most handsome red-head I know.  (His hair blends into the red rock behind him.)

Fly, Lainy-girl!

The kiddies.

 

5 monkeys hanging from a tree.

The three amigos.

Bird watching tours led by Ethan Jones.

Aww.   Sweet baby hug.  Take that moment and freeze it forever.

See Robert and the kids enjoying the view and taking pictures?  Wait.  If he has the camera, who took this picture?  Good thing we had a spare, otherwise we would have only taken half the pictures we ended up snapping.  That that would have been TRAGIC!

Rico.  Suave.

Check out Austin's hair.  You can't dream up a 'do this awesome.

We've got another flyer.  

Yeah, we like to live on the edge

(But not close enough to the edge that I'd get a heart attack.   For instance, this picture was taken with Ethan jumping on to the pathway, although it looks pretty close to the edge, it wasn't.  I was shocked to see just how close to the edge so many people went....just for a picture.  The Ranger told me that they lose, on average, 6 people over the edge every year.  That is one death every other month.  Crazy.  The majority of those who fell were males in their 20-40's.  Not saying that women are smarter, but, women are smarter.  :)  

I love this picture.  We were waiting for Robert to set up the camera.  I'm not usually one for the candid shot, since I usually am found with my mouth open and some weird look on my face.  Someone must have said something funny, though, because we all seem to be happy in this picture.  (Little did Alaina know that she was being bit by at least 6 misquotes while we hung out in that tree.  Poor thing has sweet blood.) 

Second Junior Ranger badge of the trip.  If you look close you can tell what different opinions each kid has of his badge. 

Ethan:  "I'm so cool, now that I have two of these badges.

Alaina:  This badge represents all the wonderful things I learned about nature and how to preserve its beauty.

Austin:  Is that it?

Yeah.  That's it.