Winter Break in the Desert

Neither rain nor snow nor gloom of United Airlines officials could stay us from our winter break vacation in Arizona. Although a snowstorm canceled our Feb. 14 flights, we were able to push our entire trip back three days, giving us an extra weekend at home to drink hot cocoa and make a snowman.

Our trip was based around a generous endowment of one of GiGi and Grandpa's timeshare weeks at one of the many participating locations. Kate got the idea to go to Sedona and, with a little research and trip planning, we made it happen.

Sedona, as some of you may know, is a picturesque village in the red rocks of Central Arizona that is famous for its vortexes, or places where New Agers with crystals around their necks and tarot cards in their pockets go to absorb the mystical properties of mother earth. We went because it was a warm and sunny place to go in the middle of February ... and it was close to the Grand Canyon, which neither Kate nor I had been to.

Below, in a chronological, is a photographic summary of our trip:

Minigolf lessons by GiGi at our timeshare location 

E's melon is blocking a 'gorge'ous view of the Oak Creek Canyon

A family stands in front of the mountains on one side of the canyon 

Side trip to Bearizona!

It was sunny and windy at the Grand Canyon ...

... hence the need for these awesome shades

E came down with a case of camera face

I gave a thumbs down to the 50+ mph gusts of wind (literally)

This looks like we posed in front of a green screen. In fact, it's the Little Colorado River Gorge

We arrived early for our tour of Antelope Canyon ...

... hence the hijinks

And here's the famous slot canyon. Beautiful pictures follow.

Just around the bend ... was Horseshoe Bend

What a shocking pose!

Which is a better photo of our kids in front of Cathedral Rocks: A

... or B

or C?

I found a vortex!

Or D?

E?

F?

Or, finally, G?

GiGi was very happy with our great view of sunset above Sedona

And the kids were happy synchronizing jumps into our heated pool

All walks in the woods should require handholding

H thought this spot looked a little parched

Montezuma's Castle, which has nothing to do with Montezuma or castles

On our last night in Sedona, we made a somewhat dangerous climb to the top of a very tall and precarious peak

It was really beautiful up there, despite these two mugs

For our last full day in Arizona, we stopped by the nation's #1 Native American museum

And visited the Desert Botanical Gardens

And caught a beautiful sunset on a warm night in Phoenix