Day 5: Grand Canyon!!!

On to the Grand Canyon...

We had a somewhat chilly night (there was frost on the cars in the morning), but the heaters in our camper made it comfortable. Nathan slept well, thankfully (considering our close campground quarters). We woke in the morning and were finally able to cook our first camping breakfast! (We've been having hotel continental breakfasts the past few days.) We had delicious breakfast sausage, eggs and pancakes. One of the tricks of camping is to cook the sausage (or bacon) first and the smell....yum!!! (wakes everybody up ;)

We had decided to ditch the "no campfire" campground and head somewhere else for the night. In order to do that, we had to be checked out by noon. So... while the kids played in the dirty snowpiles nearby, we spent the next 2 hours organizing (much needed from 1600 miles of travel and hotel stays) and repacking. Then we headed to town for some sight-seeing...

Needless to say, the Grand Canyon was gorgeous! There are free shuttles that took us to about 25 miles of various scenic outlooks. We hopped on and off the shuttles and hiked some paths in between the stops. The day before, the weather called for rain in the afternoon, but it turned out to be a sunny, beautiful 65 degree day! Perfect weather!

Nathan got the best deal of all... a ride on daddy's back!

Paul and I have both been to the Grand Canyon before. I came when I was 18 and fearless of sheer cliffs that could plunge me to sudden death. Now that I have some brains (and six kids), whenever any part of my family got too close to the edge (whether it had a railing or not), I went into a panic. My stomach started churning and my knees got week just watching them! I guess that's the "mother" coming out of me.

That is an actual cliff! Way too close for my liking...

Many of the paths had no railing at all. They just assume you're going to be careful, I guess. It DID make for great photos!

My Men...

I am very proud of my beautiful family! We get so many people commenting on our large family. They usually ask, "Are these all your kids?" And that question is many times followed by, "I grew up in a family of 8." or "What a beautiful family!" or "Wow, you have your hands full!". I guess people just don't see large families very often anymore and it is somewhat of a curious attraction to many people.

Just after walking up to the Grand Canyon, Noah did a wind up to see how far he could toss his apple core into the Grand Canyon. It was at one of the scenic outlooks and an older couple was standing there watching. Thankfully, Caleb called, "NO, Noah!" and he didn't wing it. Within a minute some other older gentlemen walked up and commented on how well-behaved our family was... I said, "Thank you" and just chuckled to myself. To be honest, I had a desire to pick up rocks and see how far I could throw them too.

After a few hours at the Grand Canyon, we headed south toward Flagstaff, Az. We took a chance at a KOA campground and struck gold. It is a very nice, clean camp with an indoor pool, trees and lots of space. We are set up right across from the playground, pool and BONUS... we get to have campfires! Ahhh, now this is camping.

Ok, this sounds like a no-brainer, but as you can observe from the pictures...

On-the-Road Homeschooling Tip #4: Flip-flops are NOT suitable for all occasions and should NOT be worn when hiking around 1000+ foot cliffs. (Another...DUH!)