Vacation Reflections

Each morning Ross and I started our day off with a walk on the "Interpretive Trail".  It was a 2.5 mile trail created by our resort that wound it's way through the desert, near the golf course, road and man-made river of the resort.  At the beginning of the trail there is a sign warning of rattle snakes, coyotes and scorpions.  The whole time we are walking, there is a lot of skittering in the desert bushes and to be honest I hated it! Ross jumped a time or two and we both found ourselves trying to walk as much in the middle of the trail as two people can ... I like walking, I don't like walking wondering what is about to come out of the bushes and get me :) ...  All of the mornings we saw lots of little lizards running in and out of the bushes so I just convinced my self all the rustling noises were coming from the little lizards. The first morning we saw a road-runner bird and Ross was very excited.  The second morning we saw nothing but a bunch of jack-rabbits.  The third morning we were on our way back down the trail towards the hotel, talking about life and the entire time I am scanning the path several feet ahead of us.  Suddenly I see a snake in our path and I quietly stopped, turned around, tugged on Ross's sleeve and began quickly walking the opposite direction.  Ross, walking with his vision only a few steps ahead of us, didn't see the snake at all until I pointed it out and once he saw it, he wanted to get a little closer.  It was definitely a rattle snake with distinct tail markings, funny shaped head and a rattle.  I decided I did NOT want to continue on the path walking past it's hiding place in the bushes, so we struck out for the road and rejoined the path after we were safely away from the rattle snake.  Thank goodness I like snakes or I might have really screamed or fainted or something crazy. :) We actually saw another, larger snake a few minutes later but after looking it up at Barnes N Noble, I think that was a King Snake. So on our THIRD morning we saw TWO snakes and didn't have a camera to document it.  :) Needless to say, we took a break from walking the path this morning and stuck with staying safe by the pool.

The snake sighting quickly became filed into the 'potential sermon illustration' file of Ross's brain as I made an analogy to our relationship.  I thought it was very interesting how as we walk I always was scanning the bushes and path several feet away while Ross was more focused on the immediate path.  I think that is very illustrative of our personalities and life together ... I am often asking the 'future goal planning' questions and Ross is very good about being in the present and taking things one day at a time.  I am much more proactive in preparing and thinking about the future and Ross helps balance me out in the present ... these both have their benefits to our marriage.

(END OF SNAKE STORY)

We stayed at an amazing place and we are thankful for our travel agent, Gladys Nordstorm.  She is great and if you live in MN, I highly recommend her.  We ended up being able to eat both breakfast and/or lunch/snacks and smoothies by the pool with the room credit we got through the deal she booked for us. Our servers were very attentive at both the pool and Ko'sin (the restaurant we ate at for breakfast).  The front desk people were also great with any questions we had and all in all we'd recommend the Sheraton at Wild Horse Pass.  It was a quick drive (15 minutes or so) from the airport which saved us a bunch on gas for our rental car and allowed us to enjoy our hotel for more time on our travel days.  Our daily routine was walking, breakfast, pool time, getting ready to go out time, hitting up the $5.25 AMC movies in the afternoon/heat of the day two days (Toy Story 3 and Robinhood),  finding some dinner, heading back to the hotel for late night pool time or HGTV :) ... and then bed time.  One night we went on an adventure and found mini-golf and Cold Stone.   At the pool, we read books, played scrabble, and spent lots of time floating in the water because it was so hot.  We were reflecting on how well we travel and vacation together.  I'm also thankful Ross had just returned from getting lots of 'wiggles' out in the Boundary Waters because he was really ready to relax so it was easy to just chill together.

We had a fabulous time and we are especially grateful for our parents who watched E-man for us so we could relax and not worry about him one bit while we were in AZ!