How in the world has it been 5 years already?! Tannan and I celebrated half of decade of sharing last names this past Friday, May 18th, 2018! And we did it in the brightest, sunniest place we could think of…. ARIZONA!!

After a couple weeks of rain here in Northern Indiana, it was a nice little escape to go to a place that gets an average of 8 inches of rain per YEAR!! That’s right…. per year!!! I think we got 8 inches in the last 2 weeks! Ha!

We said goodbye to social media and to any outside communications (which we had only done one other time on our honeymoon) so it was a sweet, uninterrupted, time away together to reconnect before baby girl comes in July… and during both of our busiest time of year!

Here’s a little bit of a look inside our adventures for the 5 days that we got to get away!

On Wednesday morning we were off!!

He really loves boomerangs… and Starbucks 😉

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First thing we did when we got off the plane…. In-N-Out Burger… SO GOOD!

It was their blooming season, so basically I was in photography heaven all week with all these beauties everywhere!

Our hotel, Courtyard Scottsdale Salt River, did the sweetest thing! They had asked what brought us into town when checking in and so when we came back from dinner we had a plate full of cookies and two notes (one for our anniversary and one saying congrats for our upcoming newest addition)!

For Thursday, our first full day, we started off at The Original Pancake House and YOU GUYS… these pancakes were AH-MAZ-ING!! Clearly by the photo you can see that once I started eating the pancakes I could care less about the omelet. I wondered why they didn’t give any other option like toast or something instead of pancakes, but I soon realized why!! If you’re ever in Scottsdale, PLEASE go and have some of these!!

And because we had just had such a nutritious breakfast (not), we decided to go and hike one of the tougher trails in the area, Camelback!

That little yellow diamond sign down there reads “Extremely Difficult”….. so needless to say, I made it about 1/3 of the way up and realized I am not quite in the shape at 31 weeks pregnant that I thought I was ha!

So this is where we parted ways… Tannan went to finish the rest and I went down the mountain, sat and made some friends 🙂

The views were amazing!!

That night we tried out this place called Yard House… it was SOOOO good!! And we happened to get there early enough that we got our appetizers and meals half off for their happy hour… so we went to one of the nicest restaurants we ate at during the trip for the cheapest night out! #winning

Friday morning was our actual anniversary and this was definitely the highlight of the trip for us both! We started out on the road towards Sedona, Arizona to see the red rocks…

This is a little more accurate! Tannan with his DD and me with my SB 🙂

The drive in to Sedona was so pretty!

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We finally made it to the trail we wanted to hike, Devil’s Bridge! You’ll see why it’s called that in a sec!

We had to walk about 1.5 miles to get to the actual trailhead, but that walk alone was so beautiful! So we (ok, ok so I) of course had to take some photo opts!

Finally made it to the trailhead!

The first spot we stopped at on the trail was almost worth the whole thing itself!

But then we finally made it to the bridge!! It took me about 20 min, but I finally convinced him to go out there with me to do a pic!! There was about a 15 min wait in line just to get your photo taken out there…

After that hike we hopped back on the road to head to the Grand Canyon!! But first we found a sight seeing overlook that was too pretty to pass up! And they had a little flea market going on there as well!

Now off to the Grand Canyon!!

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The whole ride he was looking for any sign of mule deer or elk or ANYTHING and it wasn’t until we pulled into the parking lot for the Grand Canyon that we saw any…. and then we saw TONS of Elk!

And then this…..

Pictures and words can’t even begin to describe how amazing it is!!

Some self timer action 😉

More elk…. everywhere!!

People had to step around them because they were on the paths! ha!

Isn’t he so handsome?! He loves when I take these pics! haha!

Maci girl got to join along for this trip!

Love this man so much!!

We will DEFINITELY be going back!

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Saturday we chilled out since Friday was a pretty long day… so we hit up the pool and then went to Cheesecake Factory that evening! If you guys haven’t been…. go! Like tomorrow! 🙂

Sunday, our last day, we went to see pastor Mark Driscoll at his new church, The Trinity Church, in Scottsdale and then went to In-N-Out Burger for our last time!

Then we headed to this awesome local donut shop, Desert Donuts, where they have specialties like Lemon Bar, Bacon Blast, Strawberry Lemonade and so much more!

Tannan got the Bacon Blast and I got the Cinnabon!

We went back to the hotel then to relax by the pool for the last time and then get ready for a couple desert sessions that evening!! When in Arizona, I found out that one of my past brides and grooms, Kaylie + Jordan, actually had just moved out there RIGHT around where we were staying!! So I contacted them about a super impromptu anniversary session since their 2 year anniversary is coming up in July! It was SO great to see them! I’ll be posting some from their session SOON! Then I got to meet a sweet new friend, Trisha with Trisha Rose Photography, as we swapped sessions for each other in that beautiful desert glow!

She had us go out to this trailhead, called the Apache Wash Trailhead in Phoenix, for the shoot… and man oh man was it beautiful!!

A HUGE thanks to Trisha for these photos that we’ll cherish forever!!

So thankful for this time away together… and I think it’s safe to say for both Tannan and I, that we will definitely be back!! Next time maybe with our little ones!

Until next time, AZ!

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