Palm Springs Road Trip

We left at 9:25 for the first time and had to turn around 5 minutes later when April called to ask, “did you forget the pizza?”  Doh!  My friend Ed loves Lou Malnati’s pizza so there was no option but to turn around for it.  Luckily we wern’t far from home. After jamming the pizzas in the car we left for the second time at 9:38. We came very close to being forced to deploy the alternate transportation method (bikes) just north of Springfield after pushing the gas gauge to the red and beyond.

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Day 19: July 5th, 2013: Flagstaff, Arizona

Our first dispersed camping site

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Day 20: July 6th, 2013: Flagstaff, Arizona to Sedona, Arizona

So I was able to provide some early morning entertainment for the family.  Scott handed me my camp chair in it’s bag so I could sit down to eat breakfast.  Thankfully I dumped the chair out and didn’t shove my hand in to pull the chair out.  As I dumped my chair out, a little too close to Cody’s head, out popped a furry creature.  Then I squealed.  The mouse never made any noise.  In fact, the mouse stood on this stump and stared at me as if to say, “For goodness sake lady.  Why did you have to get so excited?”  Then he disappeared down the hole next to the stump like Alice’s white rabbit.

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Day 21: July 7th, 2013: Flagstaff, Arizona to the Grand Canyon

This morning we were greeted back to the world with the sound of galloping horses. After we had cleaned up breakfast, as I was working on Brooke’s hair, the horses and their riders came to visit. They let the kids pet the horses and offered for the kids to get a picture on the horses. The horses from Tucson were named were Lilly and Keta. Brooke caught right away that those are the names of Ed and Kayla’s dogs.   Scott told Brooke to smile for the picture on the horse.  Her smile was already from ear to ear.  A nice surprise to start the day.

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Day 22: July 8th, 2013: Grand Canyon - Desert View to Mather Campground

Scott put together a plan last night so that he could bike the entire South rim of Grand Canyon National Park.  I was a little hesitant about the plan for three reasons: 1) the last road adventure in Taos led to Scott having a four hour bike ride instead of a two hour bike ride (he was a little faster than he thought) 2) there are just a few people at the Grand Canyon on a daily basis, I wasn’t sure how we would connect up 3) cleaning up the camping mats, sleeping bags, tent, pulling down the hanging laundry, feeding the kids breakfast, cleaning up dishes, and driving 25 miles all before 9:45 seemed a bit of a stretch. There are days at home that I am just excited to get myself and the kids dressed, fed, and out the door on time. Adding camping gear to the equation?  Despite my apprehension before he slipped out this morning I whispered, “Have a great ride!”

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Day 23: July 9th, 2013: Grand Canyon South Rim to the North Rim

We had a breakfast guest roam across from our campsite this morning.  Cody has really been loving his wildlife guide from the Visitor’s Center backpack.  He woke us up all excited, “There’s another raven!  I just heard an owl!  See that little blue bird?”  Often times with excitement comes elevation in voice volume.  We thoroughly confused the kids this morning in the very open tent by saying, “Inside voices please.”

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Day 24: July 10th, 2013: Part 1 - Grand Canyon North Rim to Utah

Happy Birthday Dad!

Four dinner potatoes tucked next to the engine. This was a tip from some camping neighbors we met last night.  Fingers crossed we’ll have delicious potatoes for dinner.

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Day 18: July 4th, 2013: Bluewater, New Mexico to Flagstaff, Arizona

Scott was up before 7 this morning.  I had to ask if he has been setting an alarm as he seems to be getting up at exactly 6:45 every morning.  At home I am usually up later than him and up earlier. Unfortunately ever since we have had kids I have been easily woken up and not so easily gone back to sleep.  Consequently with the nighttime rainstorms and extremely strong winds I spend quite a few hours of my sleep time thinking about how nice it would be to be asleep.  It is a great time to get some reading in though.  Between taking care of the kids’ needs in the van and working on the blog there isn’t as much time as you would think to read.  I have been making a conscious effort the last few days to spend more time sitting between the kids and looking out the windows watching the world pass by, so I am a little behind in the blog.  This means more errors and less thoughtful insights, but at some point I need to strike a balance with being present in the moments while I have them.