Hello everyone and happy April showers from sunny Arizona! I’m actually back now; got back pretty late last night and was greeted instantly by the cold Seattle breeze. This is the first vacation I’ve been on where I actually didn’t want to come back. It was way overdo and much needed. Spending time with my family, relaxing by the pool, reading a good book while soaking up the sun, going on adventures everyday… everything about it was a breath of fresh air! I’m so thankful that I was able to get away for a week and spend some time with my family 💗 I haven’t gone on a real vacation in at least two years and it was much needed! I learned a few things while I was gone: I learned that sometimes it’s necessary to get away from our normal surroundings and explore new things, sometimes we need to take a break, ditch the schedule/routine and take some time to breathe and enjoy doing the things we love. We often get lost in a world where we place value on stuff and things… and because we need all these things, we often spend our lives working to acquire them, rather than enjoying the simple things and the beauty that surrounds us. We are here to enjoy the beautiful world that God has gifted us, and enjoy it with those we love. I also learned that I have been living in the cold for far too long and it’s one of the reasons I have pain in my hands and joints. Aside from some minor pains from sleeping on a couch and a different bed, I didn’t have any pain in my hands while I was gone, and I didn’t have numb fingers at all. It’s nice to not have to deal with my fingers turning blue and having pins and needles in my fingertips everyday.
I think my favorite part of the week was the hot air balloon ride. We woke up around 4am that morning and drove about an hour to the Rainbow Ryders Hot Air Balloon place where we signed a waiver and were quickly thrown in a bus and driven to the launch sight. The entire week was a series of being tossed about either in a car, a shuttle, a plane or a hot air balloon! Sometimes it felt like the ground was still moving. I think the most surprising and scariest thing about the hot air balloon was how close the flame was to our heads. The heat from the flame felt like it was going to burn my hair off my head, but I figured it’s probably never happened to anyone before. I thought I might get motion sickness while we were going up, but it didn’t really feel much different than being on the ground. There were some kooky characters in our crew, a woman who kept saying that a hot air balloon would be the perfect place for someone to go psychotic and throw everyone overboard 😲 It was pretty funny the first time she said it, but after about the fifth time, I began to wonder if she was the psycho Lol It was an Amazing experience seeing the sun rise over the hills of Phoenix and seeing the wildlife(mostly bunnies) scurry along the country side. The air was calm and tranquil, a beautiful way to wake up. The landing was also much smoother than I anticipated, as we all grabbed onto the straps in our quadrant and braced ourselves for the landing. Our driver was very experienced so we were only dragged along the ground for a minute or so, while the rest of the crew grabbed one side of the basket to keep it from tipping over. After we all jumped out of the basket, our pilot Brooke poured us some glasses of champagne and we all toasted to a safe landing. One we polished off a few bottles of champagne we all loaded into our vans again and made the ride back to where we started, where we were given a certificate of flight! This is just one of the perfect days I had while on vacation and I will be posting more adventures throughout this week 🙌 What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t yet? What’s the number one thing on your bucket list... share your thoughts and story in the comments below!
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