Grand Canyon Rim to Rim Hike x2

Tuesday, this week, I completed the Rim to Rim hike of the Grand Canyon for the second time. 21.5 miles of pure endurance. I know I know what was I thinking, right? Well I had planned on doing the Rim to Rim last October, but the weather turned bad, so that didn't happen. I continued to train for this May. I went with my dad and my cousin Chandler, my sister Kaye was our driver. While we hiked from the North rim to the South rim she drove the car around to pick us up - THANK YOU!!!!! My mom stayed home and took care of Karlee and my sister's little girl Malia, again thank you! This hike was amazing, it is such a beautiful hike. You go thru so many different layers/colors of rock, and the views are spectaular. This time I didn't bring my camera so all the pictures I will post were taken by both my dad and Chandler. We went from the North rim to the South rim.

North Rim - Trail head

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We started our hike at 5:40 am at the North rim of the Grand Canyon. We hiked 7 miles down to Cottonwood, a drop in elevation of 5841', we had a 20 minute rest/snack. We continued on for another 7.5 miles to Phantom Ranch, we again had another 20 minute rest/snack. We hiked up 7 miles to the South rim, a climb in elevation of 4780'.

Some views of hiking down the North rim

Phantom Ranch - getting geared up for the South Rim Climb

Some of what we climbed out


Switchbacks we climbed on the South rim

We all finished the hike in less than 11.5 hours, this was pretty darn good. I finished the 21.5 miles in 10 hours and 40 minutes, beating my previous time, by a couple hours. What a personal accomplishment this is for me. The last 50 feet of the hike is always such a great feeling. You have such a burst of energy come over you, your body almost doesn't even ache . . . almost.

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Here we are in our victory lane . . .

Me climbing out at the South rim.

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Chandler and my Dad climbing out.

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This was my cousin Chandler and I's 2nd time going through the canyon, and my dad's 10th time going through. My dad is AMAZING!!! The weather was beautiful, minus the 1 hour of 40-50 mph winds that we ran into climbing out of the South rim (no thank you!).

Here we are! Showing the # of times thru the Canyon.

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Lessons I learned this time around:

• Drink Lots of Water (Chandler got 'Charlie Horses' in both quads, with about 4 miles left to go - Poor guy)
• Wear good shoes
• Trim your toe nails (I did, and still I think I may loose some toe nails. oh well...)
• A Good Attitude makes for Good hiking
• Train - lots and lots of cardio
• Second time around more enjoyable - knowing what to expect

Grand Canyon Rim to Rim Hike May 2009

My Grandma - Glenda Pearl Worthen

My Grandma with my dad

This past Saturday we celebrated the life of a very special woman, my grandma, Glenda Pearl Nielsen Worthen. My grandma passed away Tuesday May 19, 2009, at the age of 89. She was born in Moroni, Utah on October 29, 1919. She married Clive Herbert Worthen on December 3, 1943, in the Manti Temple. They had 5 children, 30 grandchildren and 74 great-grandchildren. The funeral was held this past Saturday May 23, 2009, and it was beautiful. It was a time to say goodbye, but also a celebration of her life. My grandma was an amazing woman. She served 2 full time missions for the church, one at an early age in the Western States Mission, and one later in life to Louisiana with my grandpa. I guess that is where I got my desire to serve my own mission. My grandma had a love for many things: a love of the outdoors, a love for our Savior, a strong testimony of the gospel, our family, and temples. I have many memories of my grandma that I will hold close to my heart. She had a special gift of making you feel like you were her favorite grandchild. Her passing is a blessing as she has lived the past 13 years without her best friend, my grandpa. It is wonderful to think of the two of them together once again, what a wonderful reunion that must have been. I will miss my grandma, but I will never forget the things she has taught me and I will forever hold her memory in my heart. I love you grandma.

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Here are just a few memories of the day and of my grandma.
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My grandma's missionary picture

Beautiful flowers - Grandma's Favorite

My family -Product of an amazing woman

Highlights of the past couple weeks

Disclaimer: WARNING !!! This post may contain an overload of pictures and information. Pace yourself, take a water break if you need too.

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So for the past couple of weeks we have been up north and totally off schedule. Which has completely thrown me off, and to make things worse our computer (as earlier posted) crashed. Our lives are so dependent on this little computer, talk about walking around in the dark. We took it up north and are glad to say that we were able to just upgrade the Hard Drive for much cheaper than purchasing a new computer. whew . . .

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Here are some of our highlights:

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While we stayed up north we really had the best of both worlds. When Rob's parents moved a couple of years ago they bought a home that happens to be just a 10 minute walk to my sister and her family. So we were able to spend quality time with both families.

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At Rob's parents home Karlee fell in love with her big cousins tricycle. Every time we went outside she insisted to ride along on it. Funny thing is that that darn tricycle desperately needed some WD-40 because it had this lovely high pitch squeak, so the whole neighborhood was able to enjoy the time Karlee was out as well.

Karlee got to practice and practice the dreaded STAIRS. Our home does not have stairs so the only practice she gets is at family. By the end of our time away from home, she was getting pretty good. Not quite the stair master yet.

Spending time with grandpa was another fun highlight. Karlee would get really excited when her grandpa got home, because she knew that once again she was going outside. Here is a cute moment that I was able to capture.

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Playing with cousins Bo Daniel and Cody was not a disappointment. I know I have probably said this before but Cody and Bo just LOVE their little cousin Karlee. They definately know that she is a girl and therefore treat her so differently. They are always so soft to the touch, and little Cody will without fail go up to Karlee and kiss her on the head. Awe! so darn cute. Karlee had a fun time playing with Cody and his ever so protected turtles. Bo Daniel taught Karlee something new... To eat sand, Yep thats right. They have this little sand station outside and Bo Daniel loves to eat the sand from it, so while playing with Karlee she followed by example. THANKS!!! too funny though.

Playing with Bo Daniel (love this picture)

Monkey see. Monkey do.

Playing with Cody and his ninja turtles.

Most of the time up north the weather was beautiful so there were many days spent outside, enjoying the warmth. My sisters family got a trampoline and so we spent a couple of hours on it. However, I paid for it being somewhat dizzy the rest of the day.

Its time to jump!

Karlee loved to play on the trampoline.

Karlee and I drove into town to visit my grandparents. This was a lot of fun, and Karlee kept my grandpa pretty busy going up and down the stair in their home. It is also so much fun to see my grandparents. They are too people that are always so busy, but when you show up they stop whatever they are doing to spend time with you. Great Examples.

Grandpa & Grandma Jenkins with Karlee (naptime hence the binkie)

My sister invited me to spend a Saturday morning with them at the soccor fields. This was pretty fun, and their kids love to play. Yet another beautiful morning.

On one of our trips home we had somewhat of a delay as approximately 700-800 head of sheep were being moved to a new location via the back road we were taking. We hurried to grab our camera. This was only a delay of maybe 10 minutes. Pretty funny though.

Up Close and Personal if you ask me.

Now we say approx. 700-800 head of sheep, because we saw 7-8 black sheep. And I thought that I have heard somewhere in my lifetime that 1 black sheep = 100 head of sheep. It was pretty fun to see them come and swarm our car.

Oh yea the smell was delightful!!!

We are HOME!!!! . . . So in celebration I got busy cleaning, unpacking, and doing some laundry. Karlee decided that she would help me out. I know not the safest place to have your kids play, but makes for a pretty darn cute picture.