Thanksgiving and on

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! Or, as I like to call it "see how much food you can pack onto your plate and not have to go up for seconds for atleast 20 mintues" or better yet "eat until you feel like your food stops in your throat and you slowly slip into a diabetic coma on the couch while watching football." Any of these descriptions will do. This year, much like the last, I had to work. I went to Flagstaff, Arizona with my team to play in a tournament. It was a really good trip. Before I left, Ryan went with his team to Anchorage, Alaska and did really well at their tournament. So, Sunday night was the first time I had seen him in a week.
Flagstaff was awesome. We got there Wednesday and ate at a coach's uncle's house. They had traditional Thanksgiving grub along with some authentic southwestern cuisine. Nothing like turkey, stuffing, and tamales! When they said they had tamales I thought of stuffed peppers, or something hot like that, but actually it's meat prepared, wrapped in a tortilla, which is then wrapped in a corn shell. We all had to get specific instructions on how to eat the tamales. "Take the corn husks off first! Please dont try to eat them!", was repeated to us ignorant non-southwestern residents that poured the beans and hot sauce topping on the husks. Good thing we didnt break a tooth.
The next day, we drove about 2 hours to the Grand Canyon. I've never been before and felt a lot like Clark Griswold on his way to WallyWorld. "Who's the moosiest moose you know? Wally Moose!" Calling it the Grand Canyon really doesnt do it justice. I was amazing. No words can describe the magnitude of this wonder of the world. It just kept going and going and going. It's hard to believe one river and a couple of tributaries created this massive structure over millions of years! Well, I guess the Ice Age helped.
We went to the south rim of the canyon which is about 1000 feet lower than the northern rim, but it was still freezing. Everyone was wearing multiple layers and jackets. But you forgot the cold the minute you got to the edge of the canyon. Just looking down made you dizzy. I got a little nervous when I noticed that much of the path along the edge has no railing. I guess it would be hard to put railing along the entire 277 miles (in length) of canyon.
We wandered and took pictures for over an hour and some of us even became brave enough to stand out on some ledges to take pictures.

This is me and my student, Amber, standing on a cliff over looking the rim of the canyon. When I get more pictures uploaded, I will put them up.

Oh yeah, thanks to everyone who called, emailed, sent cards, etc. for my birthday yesterday. I'm still wondering how I got to be 29? Wasn't I 10 just yesterday? Many thanks!