Day 7: Sedona, Arizona

After our restful day at a KOA in Flagstaff, we headed south. Neither Paul nor I had ever been to Sedona to see the Red Rock Mountains, so we took a bit of a detour so we could take a gander. Some people say they rival the Grand Canyon in beauty.

We started off at Slide Rock State Park. The river was high (and cold) this time of year, but during the summer, many people come to this beautiful area to play in the water and slide down the river on a "smooth" rock bed.

After that, we headed through the town of Sedona. Sedona is set right in the heart of the red rock mountains. It is a very clean tourist town. As we drove through town, I hopped out to buy some fudge while Paul drove around the block a few times. While I was at the fudge shop, I also picked up some true Arizona suckers for the boys... scorpion suckers! There were real baked scorpions cooked into the suckers (Of course they had their poison and stingers removed). Sounds tasty, huh?

The boys thought they were cool... until they started getting through to the scorpion... They they got disgusted. I even upped the ante by offering them each a dollar if they ate it. Nope, no luck. Noah thought he could do it, but ended up throwing up. What do you do with 3 three-dollar suckers that no one wants? That's right... Give them to Nathan! He ate the scorpion's head off without a second thought! (Gives new meaning to the verse... "Which of you fathers... if your son asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?" Luke 11:12. Mind you, it doesn't say anything about mothers...)

We stopped at the Red Rock State Park because the kids were wanting to earn another Jr. Ranger badge. Ugh, what a waste of time!! Note to self: Don't go to a STATE park for a ranger badge... It took them more than an hour to complete, and they got cheesy badge and a poster of the Phoenix Zoo. I was really hoping for those iron-on patches that we got at the National Park... Bummer.

Of course, we had to get a picture with the Sequoia Cactus that is famous in Arizona. There are not many other places in the world that have this kind of cactus (if any... I can't remember). They are amazingly huge desert plants!

Oh, come on... you didn't think I let Nathan eat ALL of them... I worked on that sucker for over an hour to get that scorpion out in one piece. I had to show the boys how it's done! I have to say, it was somewhat disturbing to eat. Kind of a crunchy, chewy texture. Gross.

We crossed the Colorado River into California last night and stayed at a campsite right on the river. I asked the manager if he had any "crabby baby sites" (since I DID have a crabby baby), he laughed and I don't think he thought I was serious. Maybe a lot of people use that excuse? A bit later he asked, "So, it's for two adults and... one child?" "No, six", I replied. He did a double-take at me to see if I was serious and then he said, "Well, we need a much bigger site then..." We got the prime spot in the park, I think. It was a huge site right up a small hill by the Colorado River without a camper around us! Nice.

We woke up, had our french toast, bacon and eggs and on we went... Pacific Ocean, here we come!!

A day of rest

Cookin' Breakfast at the KOA campground...

We were anxious to get a day of rest on our driving trips, so here it is... This campground was the perfect spot. Other than being a bit chilly in the morning, it had everything we needed. We are kind of taking things as we go, and didn't know if we'd stay another night, but with the nice perks at this camp, we decided to stay again and hang out for the day. Both the parents and the kids could do with a day off of driving...

Along with swimming in the pool, the kids tried their hand at the mini-golf course. It's kind of pointless to keep score with so many little ones, but Caleb insisted that the older boys keep track.

The mini-golf course had a beautiful view of the mountains around Flagstaff.

When we got back from golfing and throwing some horseshoes, we found that someone had pulled a motorhome right along side our camp and fire pit. It was a bit frustrating because there are empty sites all along our lane. Why they decided to give us neighbors so close is beyond me, but they turned out to be an interesting couple from Denmark with two small kids. They are here on a month-long holiday and rented a motorhome to tour the southwestern states. I asked them what they thought about our healthcare thing, and they thought it was good. I asked them about their socialized healthcare and she had good things to say about it, until she said how much taxes they pay in order for it to work. In Denmark, they pay 50-60 percent in taxes!!!! They are actually having trouble getting specialized workers to come to their country because no one wants to pay taxes that high...hmmm, interesting...

We had a great time around the fire tonight. We were able to start it while it was still light out, and we cooked our dinner over it. Of course, right after that we had s'mores... Although the older boys still like to cook their own, Paul had become the designated marshmallow cooker. He cooks them just right and can do eight marshmallows at a time! He can cook them faster than we can eat 'em!

We did get to sing a bit around the fire (very quietly... it IS a campground still and there ARE neighbors). It was a fun night!

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!)

Day 4: Petrified Forest

We got a semi-early start this morning... around 7:30 or so. Our destination for the night was a campground in the Grand Canyon National Park. On our way, Paul's cousin, Kyle, took us on a tour of the Petrified Forest National Park on the eastern side of Arizona. He works as security there and he led us through the whole park explaining things as we went. It was super helpful to have him lead the tour. I'm sure it wouldn't have been half as interesting if we just drove through ourselves.

Paul with his cousin, Kyle

The rock formations are very beautiful and the petrified wood sprinkled through the canyon looked like lots of sparkling glass from far above.

Behind me and the girls in the photo is the Painted Desert. The Painted Desert is a part of the Petrified Forest. Supposedly, the coloring of the rocks change with the sun's changing rays throughout the day. We didn't stay all day to find out... I'll take their word for it.

The kids are now official Petrified Forest Jr. Rangers. They had to fill out a workbook about the Park and were sworn into duty. They got badges and iron-on patches to boot!

The actual petrified trees were interesting. Many were broken and mined for their quartz before it was a National Park. They are very heavy for their size... AND it's a federal felony to take any of the petrified wood from the Park! Along with other things, part of Kyle's job as security is to make sure no one takes any wood rocks. Crazy!

After the Petrified Forest, we headed up to the Grand Canyon for our first night in our camper. The weather tonight is supposed to be around 23 degrees! We bought another small portable heater at Home Depot before we got there. Hopefully they'll do their job...

We pulled into the campground at the Grand Canyon to set up and I quickly remembered why I don't like camping (especially in a pop-up). The camp spot we got was one of the last ones, and was a bit wet. In fact, there is a long, muddy puddle just a few feet outside our door that stretches the entire length of our site. So much for Nathan playing outside. He'd go right for it. Another "bonus" is having neighbors within 20 feet on either side... makes letting your baby cry himself to sleep a bit more challenging. Oh, yeah, and the highlight of camping (the good ol' campfire and smores) is not gonna happen. $1500 fine if you try. Good news is... I think we are the ONLY pop-up in the entire RV park, which means we get dibs on the bathrooms! (since everyone else has facilities in their campers).

Here is our sleeping arrangements. All six kids are on one side of the camper (playpen and all). And Paul and I are in the "queen" on the other side. Good night for now, and tomorrow... on to the Grand Canyon!

On-the-road Homeschooling Lesson number 3: Making peanut butter and honey sandwiches in the car is much easier if the bread is pre-cut. Duh.

On to New Mexico!

Today we finished the rest of Oklahoma and drove across New Mexico. We are staying in Gallup, New Mexico (near the western border) tonight... The daytime temperature has warmed up considerably (almost t-shirt weather, but not quite). We were really planning on camping this entire trip (except for a few days in the mountains), but the weather is alot colder than planned, so we are staying in a hotel tonight too. Below is a picture of our bags that we took into the hotel with us. Since we were packed for camping and not "hotel-ing", we had a menagerie of stuff to lug in with us the first night.

We left around 9 this morning (a little later that we would normally have), hoping that the ice was cleared from the road. We only had a few small patches left to dodge in the first hour of driving. We drove from 9 to around 8:30 (7:30 mountain time) with only one stop to eat (at McDonald's! Yuk, not my restaurant of choice... but they have a playland AND a dollar menu!) and multiple stops to fill up on gas or bathroom breaks. Thankfully, we should only have around 4-5 hours of driving til we get to the Grand Canyon tomorrow!

This third day of driving was tough. Considering that they've been in the car for 1500 miles now, I'd say the kids did VERY well. Nathan is still hanging in there. A fun trick I learned at a MOPS group is to keep a jar of bubbles in the car. Whenever we're stuck in the car with an unhappy baby, we break out the bubbles and hold the wand in front of the vent and the bubbles fly throughout the car. Seth took charge of the bubbles for a while (that is until he started feeling sick from all the snacks and junk food we've eaten in the last few days).

What does a "normal" hotel room look like with a family of 8 sleeping in it (because that's all that was available tonight)? Here it is... A king bed (for me, Paul and one kiddo), a pull-out sofa and a roll-away (each sleeping 2 kids) and a playpen stuck in the corner.