Shuffling through all the photos I took from my road trip is so overwhelming right now. But, I really want to share with you how incredible of the time I had. Chris and I drove down to southern Oregon really late at night to bunk with his family, and so we could get a 3 hour head start in the morning. This was us leaving the driveway!
We drove 13.5 hours the first day-from Grants Pass, Oregon to Salt Lake City (519 miles on one road). It wasn't so bad either (this is coming from a girl who had never driven over 5 hours consecutively in her life)! But, there was one freaky part... having the gas light come on in the middle of nowhere and having to make it 55 miles to the next gas station with no cell service if we broke down! Besides that mini-drama the rest of the drive was easy-going. I was entertained by an audio book called Under the Banner of Heaven that was one of the most captivating books I have ever heard, but I love non-fiction and I love hearing about twisted extremists. We spent 2.5 days in Salt Lake City visiting Chris' brother who recently moved there to work for the VA. Day one was my dream day as we shopped for 6 hours and hit up a sushi bar to replenish. Day two we watched a baseball game and day three we went to the zoo. This is Chris, Aiden (Chris' nephew) and I at the Salt Lake City Bees baseball game showing off our blue tongues from all the cotton candy we ate! 
Here is Chris and Aiden at the zoo. Being on Chris' shoulders is definitely the way to tour the zoo! You can cruise above the crowds and you never get tired!
I was so sad to leave Salt Lake City, but we had so much more country to discover! Since we didn't have an itinerary (on purpose) we got a lead on an incredible place in southern Utah called Zion National Wilderness. So on we went!
For scenery, I thought it was equal to the Grand Canyon! I enjoyed it more than the Grand Canyon because there were less crowds and better hiking. Here is the view when you first enter the park:
Our first night camping was in Zion and we had so much fun making a fire, roasting brauts (bad idea), drinking wine, and stargazing. Zion had the most star-filled skies I had ever seen.
Here is Chris roasting a brauts. They were no good, so we had to use the camp stove on the rest of the package.
Enjoying the Brickhouse N.V. Pinot Noir out of plastic kegger cups!
Chris being the sommelier he is! haha.
The next morning we woke up and tackled the Observation Trail aka 4 miles of straight uphill climbing. Look at the trail below:
View from the top! We climbed 2600 ft in elevation, so we were standing at about 6600 ft.
From Zion we drove to the Grand Canyon to witness more exquisite views. We only stayed in the Grand Canyon for one night. We did a 3 mile mini-hike, but the thought of hiking downhill first to see what we already saw up at the top to then turn around and huff-and-puff back up wasn't so appealing to us! But, seeing the biggest hole in the ground was pretty dang amazing none-the-less!
After the Grand Canyon we jetted over to Albuquerque, New Mexico (I learned how to spell it on my own!!) to visit a bunch more of Chris' family. The first day there we drove an hour up to Santa Fe and had lunch at a restaurant that Chris' cousin is a chef at. It was so spectacular that I can't think of adjectives good enough to describe it. La Boca is located in downtown Santa Fe and is a quaint restaurant. We were so surprised they were able to fit us in for lunch on such short notice.
Here is Jonah, Chris and I outside La Boca.
Santa Fe is celebrating their 400th year anniversary with non-stop fiestas! I love mariachi bands! The cream outfits are so adorable!
We planned our trip around a major event- his Grandpa's 80th Birthday. To celebrate we all went to the University of New Mexico football game. Chris' Grandpa, Mike, was the kicker for the team in 1952 and received the nickname "Goldentoe." Here is the whole crew tailgating before the game:
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