Happy Graduation, Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas to ME!

So in the beginning of May 2000 I came out to Phoenix for the first time.  While I was there I went up to Sedona and the Grand Canyon.  Sedona was beautiful and the weather and the ambiance was almost perfect... but the Grand Canyon on the other hand was not what I expected.  My background before going out west was I hopped a plane after my final in college in Erie, PA---home of the tundra.  So the week or so before it was snowing and around 32 degrees F and in Phoenix it was close to 90!  Such a temperature shock for my thick blood.  So needless to say, even up in the Mountains, it was still too hot for me.  So at that point I vowed that the next time I go back to visit my family I would go in the winter months.  So in 2003 I told my Aunt Amy that I wanted to hike the Canyon, but in the winter.  She agreed with it and so did her brother, My Uncle John who also lives in Phoenix, and my Aunt Nancy from Pittsburgh and some of John and Amy's friends also.  We had a total of 8 people on the trip.