Grand Memories

Our son, Jon and his Sarah went to the Grand Canyon to celebrate the end of this semester's studies. Apparently they gazed over the edge and some ladies watching them were so concerned they took their photo and e-mailed it to them after a friendly chat. I really think this is a gorgeous shot. It's been minimized quite a bit and you can't get the details, but I love it.

This reminded me of the trip to the Southwest that we took with the kids in 1993.

We hiked down the narrow Grand Canyon trail. I was out of condition even then. Art and Jon continued on down quite a bit more, and Tiffany and I started climbing back up the trail to the car.

I was out of breath, but had to laugh when Tiffany started coaxing me with, "Come on, mom. You can do it. We can have a drink of water on the next switchback turn."

Who's the kid now?

We stopped to take this photo which made it look like she was in a precarious position just like the top photo. (Although knowing my son, it probably wasn't as safe as I would like).

When we neared the top, Tif suddenly shouted, "RUN!"

"What?" Was she nuts?

"Run, Mom! We're on flat ground! You can run. Hurry! We need to get to the car!"

OK... My daughter had lost her mind, so I figured I had to stick with her to make sure she was OK. I ran after her. We reached the car, got in quickly and plopped down out of breath. Tif rolled down the window.

I heard a thundering of footsteps rumble past the car, Jon barely able to check his speed and Tiffany burst out laughing hysterically.

She somehow realized that knowing her brother, he would try to beat her to the car. He almost did.

Art came up several long minutes later a little (maybe more than a little) annoyed that Jon had run up ahead carrying all the heavy water bottles without quite explaining the reason for his urgency.

When he saw Tiffany bowed over in the car laughing, Art realized why.

We both already knew we had crazy children. This just confirmed it.