Friday
I was so glad that I was able to go somewhere with my family for Labor Day Weekend, and best yet get away from school... After school, my parents picked me up at the gas station next to my school and I accidentally ditched my friend. I told her I would ask my mom if I could get something from the gas station with her but we just drove off and I never said goodbye as well. The drive was surprisingly fast, well of course it was if you are surplussed with fashion magazines, but I was also able to finish a book called The Mother Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Fredrick. I finished the book during the car ride and it was my favorite book out of the whole series. Like can we talk about how cute Darcy and Jess are together, I seriously can't even right now. Anyways, Fashionista Jane (the website that Meghan makes) actually inspired me to make Chic Soah and I am so glad that she did influence me because I love writing, I am obsessed with art, traveling, and of course fashion. I ate a really yummy push pop that was actually so freaking good especially when you get to the bottom and everything turns to like this weird sugary stuff, is life! When we arrived at Flagstaff for the night it was pretty late, but the stars looked so beautiful I could not my resist. I got out a mat and I laid my head on my pillow with a pair of binoculars. I was able to see Orion's Belt and I felt really proud with actually being able to remember something from school. I also wrote a page of the story I was working on and then I said goodnight to my mom, dad, and puppies and went sound to sleep. The next morning my mom was going to hike rim to rim on the bottom of the canyon (which is something I could never ever do.I can't even even run outside for five minutes without dying)
Saturday
The next morning I had a breakfast of brown sugar oatmeal and some strawberries, then we were on the road again. We were driving to the South Rim and truthfully I was actually super duper excited. The drive was just full of talking with my parents. When we arrived I felt really sick. It isn't motion sickness, I feel like it is the smell of being in a car for too long, I don't really know for sure but whatever. We had to wake up really early in the morning so that we could have a good parking spot in the lot (haha rhymes) and we got a great spot as well. We sent my mom to do her walk, I was really proud of her and I kissed and hugged her a good luck and a good bye and then my dad and I headed back to the RV. I made a healthy lunch (microwave food) and then we packed our cameras, art supplies, snacks, water, etc then we headed out to see some radical views. I thought the views were absoulutley amazing. I took some really artistic photos for my photography class. I was able to sketch three drawings of the Grand Canyon and I even met someone who I fairly dislike from my school. She was a girl from my homeroom class. We talked for like five minutes and then I basically told her that I did not want to talk to her, but like in a lying, nice way (if you can even do that). We stalked my mom walking on the side of the hill, you knew it was her because you could see her bright neon shirt. That shirt will really make people look twice I'll tell you. We walked around and my dad wanted to take pictures of me jumping so it looked like I was jumping over the canyon and the pictures that he took were stunning. It actually looked like I was flying, I was obsessed with them. The fashion choices ranged from hipster and chic, to mix-matched and gross. Some people did not have a fashion sense at all. I mean there was a woman who wore an old shirt with stains on it and then I saw an Asian girl who wore a black crop top with fringe on the bottom. She also wore black All Stars, denim shorts, and a black floppy hat. I loved her outfit. While I wore a overlarge pink salmon shirt, ripped leggings, and a navy coat, with black booties I was pretty eye catching as well. After that we headed back to the parking lot and it was packed with people. There were a bunch of cars looking for parking spots and my dad told me that he saw cars roaming around for an hour looking for a spot. As my dad drank coffee and checked his email I took my dogs for a walk and picked flowers (which I actually got told off for but that is later in the story). I was going to press the flowers, but they ended up looking like shriveled tomatoes. I took some tumblr-ish pictures of flowers and the my dad told me that we had to drive over to the North Rim today which wasn't the plan at all, meaning that we had another four hours of driving. The drive was scary, that is all I am going to say. The villages that we went through were literally like they were from a horror story. They were about the size of my room, the paint was peeling, the windows were smashed, there wasn't a door, and was that blood I saw? Nah, just kidding about that last part, but everything else was very true... To make matters worse, it was raining so hard that we couldn't see the road, but that was partly because we had some crappy window wiper situation going on. My dad went out of the car and then changed the window wipers. For most of the time though, I stuck my head in another Mother Daughter Book Club Book. It felt like we were never going to get out of the horror movie and to make my part worse, I declared this trip an electronic free trip for me which was probably the most stupid thing I have ever done because my dad and I were going to spend most of our vacation just driving around place to place. When we were finally across the bridge that the Colorado River was under we stopped and took a few pictures and stuff. After that, we went back into the RV and we drove on. We decided to stop at a scenic view and eat dinner outside while watching the sunset which was really beautiful. My dad also took a few amazing pictures of me and we had a really nice dinner together. When we actually got to a camp site close to the North Rim we settled down and explored a little. We were both exhausted (mainly my dad) so we went to sleep. The upside to this was that my dogs got to sleep on my bed, which my mom never lets me do, but my dad does! They were really cute curled up on mu lap and all.
Sunday
The next morning I met up with photographer, Grant Bellatrix, and he took some amazing pictures of me. They haven't come in yet but I am waiting to see how they turned out and I cannot wait. We took some in a flower field and up a tree, it really was such a fun experience. After we said aurvoi I went and had Honey Nut Cheerios as my breakfast. We had a few more miles to go before we got to the North Rim. On the way we stopped for my dads breakfast at this really adorable little cafe in the middle of nowhere which had some really good cookies which I didn't get to eat. Once we arrived, the first thing I thought was that it looked nothing like the South Rim. It was basically a forest. I attempted to set up a fort using a tree, but it was totally embarrassing watching myself trying to put the blanket on the tree and then watching it fall right on top of me again, so I just settled with laying it in a nice shady spot where I could read. I was causally reading and then I hear this scratching noise. I looked around the tree and then a head pokes out at me and I pretty much had a heart attack. The squirrels there are scary and vicious. I had a bag of kettle corm chips next to me and one was on the ground and it LEAPED FROM THE TREE TO GET THAT CHIP. I seriously got up and I was screaming to my dad that the squirrels were going to attack me, because what animal does that. I cautiously went back on the blanket and read, but I made sure that whenever a squirrel got close to me I got up and left. These animals are super weird to. They like to play hide and seek and chase each other around and truthfully they are really scary. After that, my dad and I went and explored around we took a few hikes and the views were breath taking. There was a couple that I thought were getting married because the man was wearing a tux, but then I looked twice and I realized that it was actually a "casual" (if you could even call it that) photo shoot. The girl was wearing this light blue and white floral dress which was a little much but still pretty. When we got back to the RV, my dad and I packed everything up and drove over to the trail head where my mom was going to come up. This is probably the worst place that anyone could ever go. Why? Number one, it smells like poop because there is a mule farm there. Number two, there are wasps and fly's attracted to the smell that buzz around. Number three, do I really need another reason. Since I finished my second book I had nothing to do so I thought about picking flowers for my mom. I was casually picking flowers when a young ranger and his girlfriend walk up to me and start to ACCUSE me of being selfish to the environment. Like, I get that I need to follow the rules (which I didn't know) but you don't need to treat me like a three year old. I could see the grin on the girls face, I might be younger than you but that doesn't make me an idiot. Age is just a number, plus like, way to ruin a girls dream. He started going over how if I took the flowers than no one else would get to see the flowers and I said, "I am holding like three flowers in my hand" and then I frowned. I thought at the time it was something pretty good to say to a jerk like him but now I take it back (not really). I don't think he appreciated the attitude so I agreed with his promise, he gave me more baby talk and then I left. It started to rain so I was sitting in the RV doing some epic yoga moves and then I hear someone screaming my name and I know that it is my mom. Both my dad and I ran outside and attacked her with hugs. She was absoulutley exhausted so on the way to Flagstaff she napped. I finished some of my homework and then I followed her lead. When we finished napping, we talked about her basic journey and we exchanged pictures that we took. Once we got to Flagstaff if was late, so we took showers and went sound asleep.
Monday
YAY! its Labor Day today. Once we all got up we took some chairs outside and talked nerdy about the Grand Canyon. I walked my dogs and had an oatmeal breakfast. My parents asked if I wanted to go swimming and instead I reply with "I want to go to the Grand Buffet at the Casino." I think it is reasonable to call me an absolute weirdo, but it was mostly because I saw a sign for the buffet and I haven't been to a casino since I was like ten. My parents weren't very impressed but we ended up going anyways. Before we went, I worked out for fifteen minutes just for the heck of the buffet. My dad had to call my Grandpa, so my mom and I went first. Since I was a tad to young to gamble, I ended up playing in the arcade (which surprisingly fun). I probably looked like a total loser, but whatever. Yolo right? I played basketball, motorcycling, Plant VS Zombie, and I also did a few of those games where you get a lot of tickets. In the end I had like 170 points and I used them to buy a squishy brain,and a mini whoopee cushion. It was pretty rad, I am not going to lie. My dad came earlier and we played games and then all of us headed over to the buffet. Okay, so this was pretty freaking cool. I had like three servings of like food and if I didn't like something I was just like screw it, I can get more food. This doesn't count the desert table. The heaven was filled with brownies, ice cream, pie, basically anything you could imagine. Just to quickly finish the equation here when I left, there was practically nothing on the desert table. We had another four hours of driving and I felt really sick so I sat in the back of the RV about to throw up any second. When we got home I helped my mom unpack and then we all looked at the pictures on the TV. I also started to edit Soah.
Overall it was a really awesome Labor Day weekend, and I was glad to have a quick getaway from school
XOXO,
Soah