Our Spring Break included a visit to Carlsbad Caverns, 2 MLB baseball spring training games in Tucson, a visit to a Desert Nat'l Park, a Mission in Tucson, then to Flagstaff where we saw Grand Canyon, a Pueblo Nat'l Monument, a day of snow play, then a trip through the Petrified Forest Nat'l Park on our way home. 
We usually go snow skiing for Spring Break. We usually book it before Christmas, and drive to the snow in March. It is nice that way... we know what to do, where to go, how to proceed. It is exhausting, but we stay in one place for at least 5 days. We are very well trained for taking a family of 6 to the snow.This year, due to the economy, we did not plan our usual ski trip in advance. We did not expect a job loss or catastrophic event, but John is mr. conservative, always prepared, so we waited to see what the Spring would have in store before we committed. Plus... being the frugal man that is my husband, I think he expected to find a last minute "deal". As March approached, there really were not any great deals to be found. We surveyed the kids for their wishes for this trip, and they started to think about trips other than snow skiing. Disney was one request. Hawaii was another. We needed a driving trip due to our last minute planning and large family. Maggie requested that we go somewhere that we could take our puppy Marshmallow and hike and do outdoor activities. Grand Canyon was one idea. We wrote it off because it seemed too far (20 + hour drive).
This is Carlsbad Caverns. We were speedy tourists here! We will have to visit again one day when we don't have 20 other National Parks and Monuments to hit in 5 days!
Anthony wanted to go to MLB Spring Training in Arizona or Florida. The other kids could care less about baseball. We started to think about Big Bend National Park in southern Texas. About an 8 hour drive, it didn't see too bad. I began to research and ran into a problem with finding accomodations for our family of 6 that accepts kids AND pets. I tried every lodging facility I could find, and they all laughed when I asked about a date so soon, with the criteria of 4 kids and a dog, then I gave up on that location. It wouldn't be a fun trip if we couldn't find a place to stay. We like camping for 1-2 days, but a whole week is a bit much. I turned my search toward Grand Canyon. This was the moment when John became "Clark" (Grizwold") John then says..."well... maybe... we could just "swing by" Big Bend on the way, then up to Carlsbad Caverns, then into Tucson, then we should "go by" the Grand Canyon on the way home. If you look at a map, this seems quite comical. 2 adults, 4 kids, and a puppy, with all of these detours. I protested... and of course my vote has a lot of weight in this family (yeah, right!) HA! Well, at least we missed Big Bend.
We did, however, "swing by" Carlsbad Caverns on our way to Tucson, where we got in 2 MLB Spring Training games, then toured a National Park in the desert, a Pueblo monument on the way to Flagstaff, then Grand Canyon, snow skiing, and the Petrified Forest "on our way" home..
Maggie loves her Puppy (and her mommy -- sometimes), Marshmallow was so good on this long trip.
Check out the missing fence behind us in this picture... Little Ben could have gone over in a millisecond! I was a nervous wreck!
We went for a day trip to the Grand Canyon. It was so beautiful. My mom had warned me when we first started to plan this trip that Ben could just slip under the barriers. She said she would be a nervous wreck if we took him there. He is so busy. As usual, we had to see it for ourselves. We went... we saw the beautiful canyon and scenery (truly one of the great wonders)... then we decided our hiking in the Grand Canyon would have to wait until the kids were teenagers. Even the 8 yr olds didn't really grasp the danger of that huge canyon.
(Note to self: Listen to Mom more often)
Anthony tried to tease me by putting one foot up on the rail like he was going to climb... then the others would follow, and they laughed when I freaked. My stomach sank every time Ben or Alexander got close to the barrier. Some areas don't even have barriers, which I am sure some visitors prefer, as it is great for pictures and scenery. This momma would have liked a prison fence around that canyon. I have never held on to my children so tightly. It was gorgeous, but I was so relieved when we called it a day and we still had all 4 children and a puppy. I breathed a big sigh of relief. We are glad we went, but we will look forward to a more relaxed visit when the kids are older. On our second and last day in the Flagstaff area, John and the twins visited snowbowl ski area for a day of fun in the snow. Because the March temperatures were around 60 degrees at the base of the mountain, the beginner ski school was closed, so our little guys were out of luck. Mommy hung out with them all day. We found a small snow patch and played in the snow for a while. That was all the little guys needed... so easy to please at age 3 and 5. Can't we just freeze this moment? Pretty Please? We rented houses in both Tucson and Flagstaff, through VRBO.com, a company that we have used before for renting private homes for our vacations. Our Flagstaff home was a little too far south for us to really get a lot of time for exploring in Flagstaff, but it was in the mountains, and had a great game room, so the kids enjoyed it. Ben called both houses "our camping house". The kids really didn't even want to go to dinner... they just wanted to cook at our "camping house". It is so easy to please them at this age.
Finally after about a month of activities in only 6 days, we were ready for our journey home. John doesn't like to sit around on vacation... he is a machine! I was like a horse heading for the barn. I was ready for home! I stayed up and loaded the car on Friday night, then I was up at 5:30am on Saturday, ready for our driving home day, and couldn't seem to get John out of bed. I thought we would just get dressed quickly and throw the kids in their pjs in the car and go. He wanted to cook pancakes and bacon on this last morning... we were not really on the same page here. After a great pancake breakfast, we were on the road by 8am, but we would lose 2 hours on our 20 hour journey home.
John is the main driver, and it just works better that way. I make him nervous, and he annoys me with helpful suggestions if I drive, so I usually only get a shift if he is desperate for a rest... then he quickly learns that co-pilot with 4 kids in the back is not really a resting place either, so I think it really doesn't involve my driving as much as he really can't hack the co-pilot chaos. It is really much less stressful to be the driver! Ben has been potty trained since Christmas, but his bladder is just small, so he needed frequent potty stops, and Alexander doesn't give a lot of warning for his needs for stops, so it seemed like we stopped every 30 minutes for a while.
Just when I thought we were cruising, John took a turn for the Petrified Forest National Forest. I love this man for his commitment to educate our children every chance we can, but I was so ready to get moving. It was beautiful, and we probably made one of the quickest trips through the park, and the kids got away with some samples of the petrified wood from the gift shop.
We were on the road again... finally. It was at this moment, that I began to beg John to just keep moving. Please, please, no more visits to parks or monuments! Then I began to work on my ploy for driving all night to just get home. He didn't want to, but he gave in and just kept going. He didn't even let me have a driving shift. I napped a little off and on, but we all were tired. Still, better to be home and tired than still on the road! We arrived home at 8am on Sunday morning. There is truly no place like home! I sent John to sleep upstairs and told the kids that whoever woke him would be grounded. As it happened, Ben let Marshmallow inside, and she ran right into the room where John was sleeping... nap was over... but what the heck... our OSU Cowboys had a basketball game in an hour! No place like home! It was a great week of hanging out and seeing a lot of things, but these trips make me appreciate home, and suddenly our busy week of sports schedules and chaos doesn't seem that crazy!
Little Ben at the Spring Training baseball game..."Mr Happy"... so easy to please
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment