Grand Canyon, Vegas and A Few Peruvians

Last week, Justin had some visitors from Peru come into Phoenix for a week full of what they like to call "work" :) I always like to tease Justin about how fun his work is even though I know how tiring traveling and hosting groups like this can be. Anyways, since I speak Spanish Justin wanted me to help him hosts this group of guys and join them in all of their fun adventures!

First stop- The Grand Canyon. White Water Rafting.

On our way down to the river, we stopped for a pretty photo op...

The group! Jose Eduardo, Sal (he is Justin's distributor down in Peru), Carlos, Felix and

Ale-Ale-jandro. I couldn't resist singing the Lady Gaga song to him :)

Justin in front of our awesome bus that we drove down the canyon in. It had at least 2 inches of dust all over the seats and floor and it was quite a roller coaster ride going down the canyon in that thing!

As soon as we got down to the river, we boarded the raft- type boats and headed toward the rapids!

Oh, it was SO much fun! We hit some 4s, 5s, 6s, 7s and one 8 ranked rapid!

The water was nice and refreshing at a year round temperature of 45 degrees. Ok, the water was freezing! I had to wear a poncho to try to keep the water off of me due to my super weird disorder called cold urticaria <-- you should read this.. it's really strange. We all got drenched though. It was well worth it :)

After a while, we stopped off the side of the river and hiked up to some pretty water falls...

This pic below is where a fault line runs which is why the rocks are crooked.

Oh please dont notice my pathetically white chicken legs and lack of make-up in any of these pics :)

We did it! This was at the end of our rafting adventure... Don't these guys look like so much fun?! They were a blast and we were very sad to see them go home. We felt like they were our children (since we left ours with Grandma Smith).

We then flew out of the canyon on a helicopter and they landed us at the SkyWalk!

The SkyWalk was pretty cool to do (once in your life). I didn't think I had a stomach problem with heights until I started walking around on that thing.

That night, we drove up to Vegas. Needless to say we were super tired once we got there after a full day of rafting! We stayed at the Monte Carlo and we were quite impressed with the rooms...

It may not look like it but that is a huge jacuzzi tub you see. Not one of those wimpy ones...

This was the view from our room of some of Vegas

We shopped at the outlet malls, walked around the strip at night, and stayed up WAY past my usual bedtime. We also were able to make it to 2 shows...

Justin got us tickets to Phantom of the Opera and I must admit... we loved it! It wasn't the full broadway production (it was an hour shorter) but I couldnt even tell you what they cut out! It had all the songs and the theater was amazing! Built especially for Phantom.

It was at the Venetian... I would have loved to go on a gondola ride but will never pay 45 bucks for it.. I'll just wait for Italy itself :)

We saw the volcano erupt at El Mirage which was pretty cool..

And we saw the water show at the Bellagio. Love the guy totally ruining our picture in the background :)

This picture remind me of another one kinda like this...

Oh yes. There we are. 6 years younger (and me 20 pounds heavier). What a lovely couple :)

I think we were all pretty wiped out by the end of the trip...

We had so much fun and loved getting to know these awesome guys! Justin works with such great people both in and out of the country! HUGE thanks to Mom Smith for watching our cute little hoodlums. We owe you one. Or two. Or ok, more like fifty :)