Spring Break

I am starting to get more emails with comments about this blog and it is starting to get a little scary for me to write in here knowing that people are actually reading this. Most comments are congratulatory except for the one from my friend Kim who chastised me for using too many chemicals to clean my house (read my "Whirlwind" post). She's right. I shouldn't use that many chemicals, but I don't like my house smelling like vinegar all the time....

Anyway, this post is not about chemicals or housework. It's about the best time had by a family during Spring Break this year. I love traveling with David and the kids. It is so much fun to be together in the car. We sing. We read books aloud. We play games. We listen to music. We read some more. The kids write in their journals. They make puppets out of socks. They read independently. They eat A LOT. Actually, we all eat a lot. We feel so, so lucky to have such wonderful traveling kids.

The first day of our journey to the Grand Canyon was last Saturday. We packed the night before and were able to leave the house at 5:30 a.m., a first for us! We had several short stops along the way that day -- the longest stop was a 30-minute break for lunch at a playground -- but made it to Tucson, AZ by 6:00 p.m. (Really 8 p.m. our time, but it was a nice bonus to gain two hours during that trip. ) We traveled a total of 900 miles that day with three kids in the car, the youngest being only 21 months. We couldn't believe it! Wow! Now we feel like we can go anywhere in a day! We were hoping to camp during this trip, but after checking the weather we realized it would be too cold for me to camp. I don't like camping when it is going to be below 32 degrees at night. The projected temps for most of the areas we visited were in the low 20's. Too cold for me! (But not for my husband who has camped through a blizzard in Alaska!).

I am a list person and don't want to bore you with details so here's a quick itinerary of our trip and what we saw each day:

Day 1: Traveled 900 miles from Austin to Tucson.

Day 2: Visited Saguaro National Park in Tucson where the kids earned their first of four Jr. Park Ranger badges. That night we drove north 6 hours to the Grand Canyon!

Day 3: Natalia woke up at 6 a.m. begging to go the see the Grand Canyon. David took her while the rest of us slept in. We spent all day exploring the park. Daniel and Nati also got to hike down part-way into the Canyon on the Bright Angel Trail with David while Isabella and I ate ice cream and walked the South Rim Trail. Isabella spent most of her time in the stroller or in the backpack. The trail is fairly safe, but there are areas without a rail and it made me a little queasy to have Isabella walking around so close to the canyon's edge. That night we also watched a beautiful sunset. The kids earned their second Jr. Park Ranger badge that day.

Day 4: The whole family woke up early to watch the sunrise over the canyon. It was very cold, but totally worth it. The colors look majestic as the sunlight reflects and shadows are cast on the sides of the canyon. We drove to most of the lookout points on the east part of the South Rim trail and then we were ready to move on. That afternoon we drove to Navajo Nation. Our first stop that evening was in Monument Valley, a breath-taking display of red clay and sandstone formations that sore into a gorgeous blue sky filled with billowing clouds. (See picture above.) Several western movies have been filmed here. We didn't want to leave, but we had reservations for that night in Canyon de Chelly also in Navajo Nation.

Day 5: Canyon de Chelly is a gorgeous area that has been inhabited by the Navajo for hundreds of years. It is hard to explain how beautiful this canyon is. There is a lush, green valley at the bottom along the river that runs through it. I think it is more beautiful than the Grand Canyon. We hiked all the way down into the canyon to see pueblo ruins. The hike itself was only 2.5 miles round trip and it was fun for the kids to walk down these beautiful cliffs. The kids also earned their third Jr. Park Ranger badge at this park.

Day 6: We woke up early this day too and visited the Painted Dessert and Petrified Forest National Park. This was another amazing spot. We hiked the Long Logs trail and the Agate trail. The kids loved seeing the rock logs and learning how trees turned to stone. That evening we drove to Albuquerque and got a quick look at Old Town Albuquerque. Beautiful! The kids earned their final Jr. Park Ranger badge this day!

Day 7: Woke up in Albuquerque and drove all the way to Austin with one stop in Roswell, New Mexico to picnic and play in the Spaceport Playground. The kids loved the aliens!

The Grand Canyon was absolutely stunning and I am so glad that we went, but I have to admit that my favorite part of the entire trip was our visit through Navajo Nation. David found Sing Down the Moon by Scott O'Dell at the Monument Valley Gift Shop. We read that aloud to the kids on our way to Canyon De Chelly. It is a poignant story about a little girl whose entire clan is brutally escorted out of the canyon by American soldiers and taken to Bosque Redondo at Fort Sumner. It helped explain why we were seeing areas of stark poverty amidst such beautiful landscape. The book provided us with a frame of reference for the rest of the trip and possibly for the rest of our lives...

TTYL.