Category: Tori’s Bucket List

Tori’s Bucket List: See the Grand Canyon

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We had been planning for over a year to visit the Grand Canyon during our trip to Arizona, so this became an easy addition to Tori’s Bucket List. What made it even more special was that it was Brennan’s first time to see it as well.

If you’ve never been there, it’s truly a must. You can stand there looking for hours on end without becoming bored. Amazing that so many people come to see this gigantic hole in the ground!

This was the first stop for our Arizona experience. We drove from Southern California that morning and made it just in time for sunset!

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We spent the night there and went back to the Canyon Rim the next morning, and we got some great family photos.

I am so thankful that we got to experience this with Tori. We don’t know how well she can see, but that won’t stop us from showing her whatever we can while she is with us. ❤

Thanks to the Miks family for making this possible! ❤️

Our Southwest Adventure: California

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This trip had been planned and anticipated for over a year, so the fact that it has already come and gone is astounding!

It all started in Pennsylvania with my parents flying across the country so that my mom could turn around and fly back to California with Tori and me (to assist with all of Tori’s things). The guys remained in Pennsylvania working on our bathrooms – our long-awaited remodel! We’ll blog about that soon.


The girls spent 2.5 days in Red Bluff seeing family and friends before heading south to Central California to see more family and friends. We stayed with Uncle Rob and Aunt Susan (and forgot to get a picture!) and enjoyed our visit. It was so great to see my college roommate, Leslie, and her family, as well! It has been YEARS.

Friday morning we headed to Southern California to show Tori where Mommy went to college (APU), and to meet up with many college professors and friends.

Read about our APU adventure here!

After a wonderful afternoon there, we headed to my favorite outdoor mall in Ontario – Victoria Gardens. We met up with so many dear college friends and their families that evening.

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After spending the night in Ontario, my mom, Tori, and I picked up Brennan and my dad at the airport and headed to Disneyland! It was very crowded, so we didn’t get to ride very many rides, BUT the “Paint the Night” parade made it worth the heat, the crowds, everything.

See pictures and read about Disneyland here!

The next morning we began our journey to the Grand Canyon!

Tori’s Bucket List: Kayaking on the River

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Since Tori loves being outside, and she seems to really like water (both being on it and in it), we thought kayaking would be a perfect addition to the bucket list!

Thankfully, Brennan has cousins – Sarah and Adele – who kayak frequently so they are practically pros. They helped us figure out how we could do this safely with Tori, since she obviously cannot paddle herself 😉

We also decided to do a unique family photo shoot while kayaking, since Brennan’s cousin Sarah is a talented photographer and we had been gifted a session with her (special thanks to Justen and Lisa McCollum!) – and it was SO fun! Sarah had never done a shoot like this before, and neither had we!

To reassure those who might be concerned about the safety of this activity: we put in at a location on the Susquehanna River that was fairly shallow and really calm. This allowed for us to safely have Tori in our arms while being towed by another kayak (thanks, Adele!). We didn’t go far because the river is really shallow in spots this time of year, but our little area was SO perfect!

It was another amazing bucket list adventure – and this one was on Brennan’s birthday, too! Now he wants to look into buying kayaks so we can do it more often. 🙂

Here are Sarah’s photos (click on image to enlarge):

And a few from my phone/perspective:

Thank you, Sarah (and Avey), Adele, Justen, and Lisa for making this possible! ❤