Celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary at the Grand Canyon (Road Trip out West Post 5)

 We woke up on our anniversary morning, looked out the window, and this is what we saw-

What a cool anniversary gift that was!!!

 

You can probably imagine the boys excitement.  They quickly got dressed and went outside to play.

 

 

 

Happy Anniversary to us!

We checked out of our hotel and drove into town for breakfast.

 

You know we always try to eat pancakes for special occasions so we went to this little diner for our anniversary breakfast. 

I had found these silver candles in Guatemala and flew them with us to put on our pancakes for our silver anniversary.  I might be just a tad bit crazy, lol.

 

 

 

After eating, we headed over to the Grand Canyon Railway to check in for our train ride to the Grand Canyon.  

As soon as we arrived it started snowing again.  It was so beautiful!

 

I had pre-booked our tickets online. They were offering great discounted Spring travel incentives.

Before the train departs they have a wild west show.  It was a lot of fun to watch.  

The story line follows your trip into the Grand Canyon and back.  It added an extra layer of entertainment to our trip.

 

 

This was Ben's favorite character from the show.

 

ready to board

 

It was a two hour ride to the Grand Canyon. We enjoyed the scenery along the way.

more snow falling

 

There were plenty of extra seats in our car so we were able to spread out.

The "Sheriff" walks through and entertains the guests.

 

There are also several different musical entertainers who pass through.

 

We spotted a lot of wildlife along the way.

 

The train leaves Williams at 9:30 and arrives at the Grand Canyon station at 11:30.  The station was just a short walk from our hotel.  We stayed the night inside the park at the Thunderbird Hotel.   We were able to check-in early.  We ate a quick lunch and then headed out to explore.

 

The canyon view from just outside our hotel.

 

I had also flown these silver balloons with us to take photos with.

 

This was by far our best anniversary yet!

We spent the afternoon walking the rim of the canyon.  We started at the Village and went all the way to Mather Point and back.

 

The weather changed back and forth the whole day.  It would be blue skies and sunny one minute and then snowing again the other.  It was so crazy!

 

The boys stopped at every one of these lookout spots.

We loved seeing this rainbow!

 

 

 Ben interacting with a squirrel.

 

The views were simply amazing.

 

We spotted several chipmunks, rabbits, and even this group of wild pigs along the trail.

 

At the Yavapai Geology Musuem gift store we purchased a Passport book.
 

We also bought our first National Park sticker and began collecting stamps.  

That evening we walked to Maswik Lodge to pick up a "grab and go" supper.  We saw several animals along the way. 

 

We ate in our room and noticed more animals outside our window.

 

I had taken napkins from our wedding to use on our anniversary day.  

That evening we walked out to see the sunset.  It was beautiful!  What a great ending to an amazing day.