a wedding, and a honeymoon

after literal months of planning, and anxiously (not patiently) awaiting, i married the light of my life. everyone had warned me that my wedding day would fly by, to soak it all in, and they were right- not only did my wedding day pass right before my eyes, but so has this honeymoon! or so it seems...

we took off from our home in oklahoma city sunday night around 9:30, planning on driving through the night/morning until we reached flagstaff, arizona. i'm writing this from "wildflower bakery company" here in flagstaff only 24 minutes past six on a monday night, and it honestly feels like days since we left oklahoma. tyler was a champion and drove the majority of the way while i (probably don't even need to waste time saying this) slept. he finally got tired around 4:30am in albuquerque and woke me up to take over for a few hours. once the sun started rising in western new mexico, things got easier, but having just woken up and hardly rubbed my eyes, it was difficult for me to adjust my focus. driving through scary new mexico wasn't helpful either considering the desert fields, and dry weird plants reminded me of "the hills have eyes". every lonely building was a nuclear testing zone, every trailer was home to mutants, and my sleeping husband and i were victims. 

but after whining, many more miles traveled, coffee breaks and gas stops, we stopped at the meteor crater in meteor city, arizona! i caught onto tyler's excitement once we were inside, but the $16 entry fee had me reconsidering looking at a giant hole in the ground. it was legitimately neat though, i really liked it.

i'm still unsure whether my enjoyment from it was from my genuine interest or if i just loved seeing tyler's face light up as he played with the planet termination simulator they had there haha. either way, it was $32 well spent. $33 if we count the dollar i spent on a little glass bottle full of rose quartz that i bought for mariah. 

arriving in flagstaff was the most glorious feeling- seeing actual buildings and being able to recognize it as a city was strange after the desert stretch between home and here. we found the cheapest hotel nearby and crashed for an hour or so. the trend of buying bell pepper pizza from dominos continued when we woke up from our naps, because there's nothing so quickly satisfying as bell pepper pizza, trust me. still wanting to lounge in our hotel room, we watched 50 first dates. felt funny just laying down in a hotel room when we had plans to see the grand canyon and explore the city, but i think we needed it.

we left our hotel room feeling rejuvenated. it was only an hour drive to the grand canyon from flagstaff, and it was a very pretty drive. i always have the initial issue of adjusting to higher altitudes, so driving through mountains at 8,000 feet wasn't fun for me at first, but the pine trees, birch trees, funny little chapels with hobbit doors, and all of the wonderful landscape was well worth it, especially when we actually reached the grand canyon. mine and tyler's family kept telling us not to be anticipating much because it's just a hole in the ground, which now i find really shocking to think about someone saying. the grand canyon was the most majestic thing to me. tyler and i walked around the south rim, went to all of the little guard rails to look into it, and at each stop, the two of us would pause and marvel at the whole thing.

even looking at the canyon from afar was enough to give you vertigo, but tyler got gutsy and climbed down this hidden/beaten path to a ledge deeper into the canyon. he finally stopped when he was about a foot away from the ledge, and from the top i watched him outstretch his arms. the gust of the wind was enough to nearly blow my sunglasses off my head, and he was standing in the middle of the canyon, arms stretched wide, and trusting his two legs to hold him there. 

but now here we are, both sitting in this cafe in flagstaff, arizona like we live here. i'm writing, he's reading, and just enjoying this quiet time together. there is nothing like feeling perfect in the situation you've been blessed with. there's nothing like feeling god's honest love in everything you do; it's apparent in all of nature, in tyler and i, our family and friends back home, and in this beautiful weather outside of this cafe.