Every Kid In a Park

 
   We'd hoped for another trip to D.C. for spring break this year.  But, because our clothes washer had been smelling like a boy's locker room for several years and the drier now needed three rounds to get towels done, we decided we needed to do something grown up.  We bought appliances with our would-be-plane ticket money.  But, because I have friends who home school, I'd found out about this awesome thing called the "Every Kid in a Park" pass.  If you haven't heard of this, it's the coolest thing ever!  The park service grants every kid a free National Parks Pass for their entire fourth grade year!  You just have to ask their teacher to sign them up to vouch for them.  https://www.everykidinapark.gov/ If you asked any of us what our favorite thing to do together is, we'd all say "Go on an adventure!" So, this was right up our ally.  We had a place to stay, thanks to Dan's Uncle Ron, who let us borrow his Muntz Park cabin.  And, having found out about the Junior Ranger program, we even had a common goal.  We couldn't wait for our two little guys to be sworn in as official junior park rangers!
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My mom told me not to take my work with me.  I didn't listen.  Me, my husband, the hefty Vacation Bible School leaders manual, the lemon-colored sticky notes and my backseat focus group buckled up and began our Spring Break getaway.
After arriving and settling in at Uncle Ron's place, we spent most of the afternoon driving and walking around Flagstaff.  Then, back at Uncle Ron's Cabin we sat in the porch swing and read "The Prince Warrior", counted blue jays and played games. 
Each evening we talk about how every day has highlights and low lights and that's just how life is.  Here's ours-
Highlight- Reading with my boys.
                  When Moses lost his full mind at bed time and I said, "No more blue Gatorade for you." and he simply answered, "It probably wasn't the Gatorade.  It was probably the cotton candy."  Whoops...
Low Lights-  I forgot my tooth paste and had to use the boys' bubble gum flavored all weekend.
Allergy Note-The burger place, Diablo Burger, uses peanut oil for their French fries :(.  Bummer.  No French fries for Mo.

Thursday was the main event, our trip to The Grand Canyon.  You would not believe how excited our boys were.  They talked about things I did not even know about erosion and big words like "Paleozoic" and animals I'd never heard of.  I'm thinking of calling my representatives and asking that they go ahead with defunding PBS because I'm getting worried that the little people will take over the world soon if we don't make them stop learning.  We made a nostalgic stop at the true source of all knowledge of prehistoric life, The Flintstones Camp, but they were only minimally impressed.  Guess it's no "Dinosaur Train".

Our first stop at the Grand Canyon was to the visitor's center for the boys' junior ranger books.  https://www.nps.gov/kids/jrRangers.cfm.  Both boys were interested but Moses, especially, took the directions quite seriously and even enthusiastically showed me a picture of a group of kids being sworn in by a real ranger with a view of the Grand Canyon in the background.
The boys were real troupers as we hiked and bussed from view to view.

  The kids filled out questions about animals, rocks and the history of the park while we waited for a lift or an ice cream cone.  We met interesting people from all over and we held our breath each time someone decided to act like a 20 year old with a selfie stick. Every time I would look at the boys and remind them, "You know that's a REAL canyon.  You know people really do fall down it, right?"  It's not Disneyland people.
 Near the end of the afternoon we decided to add just one more short hike in just west of the El Tovar hotel and we found it was not as "short" as we'd planned and yet, as the sky began painting the view a different shade, we decided it was worth it.

However, getting back from the trail head to the car on the park bus system proved even longer than our walk.  Moses was getting anxious to receive his badge and Dan hoped to catch a sun set.  At 5:30 Dan rushed to fill water bottles and we rushed towards the ranger's station only to see dark windows and locked doors.
"It closed at 4," I said and IMMEDIATELY Moses crumpled down in a ball of tears.  And this kid has dealt with some big disappointments in life with grace and dignity so this, of all things, just broke my heart.  I wanted to cry too.
Getting in the car I began to worry Dan might burst into tears too if we missed that sunset picture.  Just in time we reached a nice pull-out area, and jumped out to join a cluster of tourists, seated and ready for "The Show".  God put on a great performance for us, turning the sky pink and cliffs purple and red.

Fellow tourists offered to take pictures for each other and we all smiled and laughed together, even Moses, as though we'd all traveled here together.

  When we got back into our car and drove off we found yet another turn-out, one Dan had read about, and actually still had a few more moments of even more spectacular lighting before the sun sank below the horizon. 

Highlights-The Canyon at Dusk
Low Light-Why isn't the ranger station 24 hours?
Allergy Note-The Bright Angel Lodge restaurant is peanut free.

Friday- Bright and early again.  HAD to finally stop and check out http://brandysrestaurant.com/ .  Can I just skip ahead and say it was my highlight?

  I love good, local creative foods.  I had the red velvet mocha and Daniel and Dad special drinks as well.  The Benedict must be the big thing there because there was a huge list of them.  Dan and I each got different ones, mine with crab, his with a bagel, and they were both delish. And it came with the option of potatoes or a pancake.  And the pancake was the size of Uncle Ron's cabin and had delicious, fluffy gluten in it.  Sometimes I forget what real pancakes taste like. Daniel decided he needed to order off the adult menu (yes we are there...) and had a Chrisy quesadilla.  They agreed to special make the yummy bacon in a separate dish for Mo and he also had oatmeal.

We had a long list of adventures on our to-do list but when we arrived at Sunset Crater we discovered that THEY had a junior ranger program too!  So, of course we fine tooth combed that work book and spent hours, exploring the visitor center, hiking the trails and interviewing the park ranger.  I'm not sure exactly how to describe the place but it was different than what I expected.  Maui like lava rock and blackened hills in the middle of the forest.  Cinder cones and lava caves.  A volcano in the middle of Arizona! 

We found out we could drop off our junior ranger notebooks at the next stop, the Wupatki ruins.  And maybe we were meant to finish there all along.  Because this poor, lonely ranger in the middle of nowhere took his job as junior ranger swearer inner EXTREMELY seriously.  Imagine Barney Fief or Al on Home Improvement but WAY nicer.

He quizzed them, put on his special hat, did the solutes and hand movements and all the things.  I wouldn't have been surprised if he had pulled out a trumpet and started playing the national anthem, it was that serious.  You really should've seen Moses, and actually Daniel for that matter.  Their reverent awe of this tiny ceremony made my day.  Adorable.

The ruins are definitely on a must-see list.  Not just because the ranger's awesome.  Pictures can hardly capture this fascinating village camouflaged into the painted desert area. 

And, Dan and the boys' favorite part was this awesome blow hole, shooting cool air out of the earth.  Unbelievable!
Highlights-I already told you.  Red Velvet Mocha trumps everything.
Low lights-The time we stopped at another less excavated ruin in the middle of the desert and there was this creepy man just sitting all alone up at the top and I was sure he was waiting for someone to stop so he could murder them and take their car.  Turns out I was totally wrong, thank goodness.  Must. Stop. Watching. 20/20.
Also, don't waste a good day of exercise on Sizzler.  And your nine-year old does not need to order a meal with his salad bar.  Its not actually a salad bar, it's a chicken strips and mac and cheese bar.

Allergy note-Don't leave your epi-pen bag at breakfast because you will have to turn around and go get it.  Also, don't be afraid to ask for bacon in a separate pan.  I'm rarely told no if I ask really sweet.

Saturday we had two officially sworn in junior rangers with us so they were pretty sure they could get a ways with everything.  We took it easy and then took the long way home through Strawberry, Pine and Payson to visit family. 
Highlight-family
Lowlight-It's HOT in Mesa now!