Grand Canyon is Grand

So, this is my second time writing this post.  I apparently didn’t save my draft last night when I went to bed, and so when I restarted the computer this morning I deleted the entire thing.  GROWL.

Well, I have a lot of pictures like this, but since I know I”m only a so-so photographer, and I imagine myself to be a much better storyteller, so I’ll tell stories instead.

Now, when you first get into a national park the first thing you should do is go to the ranger station and get the junior ranger guide.  Then your kid has to complete 4 activities and go to a Junior Ranger program and then they can become junior Rangers.  It’s a very cool program.

So, they had a lot of fun running around and looking for different types of rocks and wildlife.  It’s a really good program, and
Huh, I stopped in the middle of a sentence and I’m not quite sure what I was going to say.  Needless to say I’m planning on trying out this program at any other national parks we come to.

I learned that 94% of the people who visit the Grand Canyon never go below the rim.  I am proud to say that my entire family is part of that 6%, granted Superman, Princess, and I only made it about 30 feet below the rim, but still we made it below.  Now Batman and Jeff kept going much much further.  I left the camera with Jeff for this part, so here’s his pictures:

  Jeff and Batman walked down about a half mile or a mile or so, I’m not sure below the rim, and then hiked back up.  They agreed they’d come back in a few years and hike all the way to the bottom (which is an overnight stay).  I was so proud of how well both of them did, but in particular Batman.  I’d say from Superman’s response he has inherited my fear of edges, which I thought I had done a good job of hiding, but apparently not good enough.

We finished up the afternoon by having the kids draw pictures of what they could see and what they liked best.  Batman drew a picture of him in the cave he walked down to.  Then he added ninjas that were attacking him.  Princess drew a very involved picture of the ravens we kept seeing (I think) and Superman drew Blue Arrow fighting bad guys.  We tried to explain he was supposed to draw something he’d seen, but he insisted he’d seen Blue Arrow.

Then we sat and waited in the hot sun for the bus to come take us back to the welcome center.  Batman entertained himself by taking pictures.  Princess took pictures too, but I don’t want to share the 20 shots she took of my legs.

We ended our day at the Grand Canyon with the kids being sworn in as Junior Rangers and getting their badges.  They promptly put them on their shirts, and then told me how it was actually a (insert the name of their favorite super hero) badge.

We went back to the town of Williams, that we were staying in, and watched a wild west shootout.  Which the boys loved, and Princess was okay with until the bad guys came up and tried to steal her dog.  Then she didn’t like it so much.  And the day ended with a meal that took two days to get there and then was cold.  Which was a real shame.

So, that’s the Grand Canyon.  Jeff and I are already talking about going back there in a few years (read when kids are old enough to do some serious camping and hiking) and also not doing it in the middle of summer, so I won’t end up with another sun burn that took me most of this week to recover from (my own stupid fault).  And hopefully tomorrow night I’ll get in early enough to write about the zoo.  We just have been out so much and not in the hotel room (because we’ve been over at my friend’s house) I haven’t had any time to be on the computer.  Which in the long run is probably good for me to be away from, but has my Mom screaming for more pictures.  Hi Mom!