CANMT Trip: The Grand Canyon

 It was lunch time and there wasn't any fast food or restaurants along the road. We ended up getting food at a gas station. In a little over an hour we were at the east entrance to the Grand Canyon National Park. As we entered we were told there was good weather here, but as we got closer to the main Visitors Center by Mather Point, the worse the road conditions would get.
 First we went to Desert View. We stopped at the Visitors Center there, where we picked up Melodie's Jr. Ranger Packet. The ranger told us that one of the requirements was to go to a ranger program. Since we were so late in the day, there weren't very many left. We chose Geo-Glimpse, which was the closest one without having to wait at Desert View for hours (which we probably should have done). But we didn't know just how bad the weather was further west. We knew we would be cutting it close as far as time. We walked to the Grand Canyon passing by the watchtower on the way.

The Grand Canyon was beautiful.

Rocky and Melodie wanted to go up the watchtower. I was still traumatized from Walnut Canyon and wasn't about to do anything that had to do with heights. Some of the fences by the Grand Canyon were bad enough.

I went part of they way up, and this was the view.

 We drove to Yavapai Point and Geology Museum, stopping at a couple of the points/views along the way. If one looked close to the road, we would get out and quickly take a look and take a few pictures.

We didn't get any pictures of me because we were in a hurry, it was so cold it was easier to just keep the camera, and we thought we'd have a lot more time after the ranger program.

 As we were driving, the snow got worse. By the time we got to Yavapai Point we couldn't even see the Grand Canyon. We watched the ranger program, which was very interesting at was even great for Melodie. We learned about DUDE (how the Grand Canyon was formed).

See that big window behind the ranger? That's suppose to be a view of the Grand Canyon. You couldn't see a thing. We kept going outside to check, but it didn't change. We talked with one of the rangers. He asked if we were going to be there tomorrow because tomorrow it wouldn't be snowing. It hadn't been snowing yesterday either. Just the day we were there.
 This is when we were very thankful that we went off-plan and entered the Grand Canyon National Park on the east side. If we hadn't, we wouldn't have seen the Grand Canyon at all. I was a little sad that I didn't get a picture of me in front of the Grand Canyon, but we actually decided that we'll just have to go back. There was so much more to do there than we thought and we have the America the Beautiful annual pass. We're going to try our best to make it back before it expires.
 We still wanted to go to the Mather Point Visitors Center. The weather was terrible by the time we got there. The bathrooms weren't actually in the VC, you had to walk to another building (same to get to the gift shop) and we didn't want to even go outside to walk those short distances (we did though). The wind was so hard that with the snow it was actually hard to keep your eyes open. We loved the new Visitors Center.

I almost had a heart attack watching the movie there. What are those people thinking standing on the edge like that? They must be crazy. (There's a short version of the movie here so you can see what I mean). We also watched Science On a Sphere and Melodie got her ranger badge.

It was dinner time, so we got ready to leave. It took some time to get to the car. First, I wanted a picture of me and anything just to show I had been there.

Then Melodie discovered icicles.

They were just at her level and she loved them. And we still couldn't get her to walk where there wasn't snow.

After finally making it to the car, we drove out of the national park and picked up dinner which we ate on the way to our motel.

CANMT Trip: Sunset Crater and Wupatki

 We woke up the next morning to this:

Looking out from the door

Our van

We threw on some jackets so we could take pictures and look at the snow.

Melodie was very excited about the snow. Rocky and I knew this was a problem though. We were suppose to camp at the Grand Canyon that night. I was not going to camp in the snow. So during breakfast I spent time looking at the weather conditions at the Grand Canyon. After confirming that it was snowing at our campsite I found a cheap hotel to stay in Williams. We were kind of bummed not to be staying the night at the Grand Canyon anymore. Then we started thinking about how we were not dressed for snow. We had our thick jackets and hand warmers (I had prepared for a cold night at the Grand Canyon) soRocky and I would be fine. However, we realized that there was no way we were going to keep Melodie out of the snow. All she wanted to do was walk in the snow, touch the snow and play in the snow. This would make for a very cold and wet (which would then turn into an unhappy) Melodie. So we went to WalMart after checking out (it was just down the street). We all got snow boots for about $20. We knew we were going to be walking on trails and we might need them. Most of their gloves and hats were on sale for $0.25 to $1.00 each. This was good because it was cheap, but bad because there wasn't a huge selection. We found a hat for Melodie and snow gloves that were a little to big. I got a headband thing for my ears and gloves too. Unfortunately, there weren't any gloves for Rocky (I had brought cloth gloves for all of us, but not snow gloves). Then we saw snow pants for Mel were only $7, so we picked up a pair of those for her. We also needed an ice scrapper from the car (we used a cardboard box that morning) so we bought a couple of those. We were now ready for the snow!
 Our original plan was to drive to the 64, stop by Flinstones Bedrock City in Valle, AZ, and go to the Grand Canyon Village. We knew we weren't going to the Flinstones place in the snow, so we decided to go to Sunset Crater Volcano National Park (on the 89) instead. Then we'd go back to the 40 to take the 64 to the Grand Canyon. The drive there was a little scary at first.

But soon it wasn't so bad and was actually very beautiful.

It wasn't a very long drive, only about 30 min.

It was still snowing and windy. When we walked into the Visitor's Center they were very happy to see us. They said they weren't sure anyone was going to show up that day. We talked to them for a while and found out we had to drive further north on the 89 for the trail. So, we asked how long it would take us to drive from there to the Grand Canyon. The time was still a little longer than going back to the 64. Then they mentioned that Wupatki National Monument wasfurther north on the 89. They said if we wanted, Melodie could turn in the packet from here at Wupatiki and get both badges there instead of driving back to the Sunset Crater Visitor Center. Plus, they said it wasn't snowing at Wupatiki. I didn't quite believe them, since I knew it was snowing at the Grand Canyon, but we thought we might as well just drive to the Grand Canyon on the 89 even if it would take a little longer and stop at Wupatiki (this turned out to be the BEST choice we made our whole trip, but more about that later).
 We drove to the 1 mile Lava Flow Trail. This was a nice trail to walk. We were thankful for the snow boots, especially for Melodie who looked for all the snow she could walk in on the trail (since she couldn't walk in the snow off the trail).

Sometimes it was a little cold, but nice

and other times it would start snowing and get really windy

Those times were a little difficult. Melodie would walk backwards with her face in my stomach. Along the trail we saw the volcanic formations (which I think were beautiful with a covering of snow) and we had a great view of the volcano.

Then we drove to Wupatki National Monument. I could barely believe it when, as we were driving, it stopped snowing and then suddenly there wasn't any snow on the ground. It was still cold and windy, but there wasn't any snow.

Since we wanted to have plenty of time at the Grand Canyon, we chose to only see the Wupatki Pueblo Ruins (I think there were five at the monument). It was the closest one to the Visitors Center.

It was only a half mile trail to walk to and around it. This was one of the most informative self guided trails we had been on. Everything was numbered and we had a guide book that told us what was at each number. Melodie's Jr. Ranger packet had things to look for at some of the numbers. We enjoyed this one a lot.

Melodie turned in both of her packets and received both badges. Now we were on our way to the Grand Canyon.

Scots Fest 2012

 We're not Scottish, but yesterday was our second time going to Scots Fest at the Orange County Fair Grounds. Last year Melodie really wanted a kilt, but they are expensive. This year I went to my favorite second hand store to find a plaid skirt for her to wear. I found one for $1.
 The friends (Matt and Meghan) we go with are Scottish. Matt has a kilt. I had to get a picture of Matt and Melodie together to start off the day.

While we waited for the clan march, Melodie took a picture with the Queen. We shopped a bit, then ran into a Brave booth. We had already received paper fans from the info booth. At the Brave booth they were giving out postcards, coloring pages, a poster and a mood card that tells how brave you are. I'm thrilled that Disney advertised here. Meghan and I had debated whether or not they would. I was firmly on the side that they would and should. Meghan thought maybe they wouldn't since it's a built in fan base. I'm so glad they did!

 We got some food (banger for me, sausage roll for Rocky, Melodie ate some of both of ours) and at while listening to Brother (a favorite of Meghan's). We had met up with one of Rocky's co-workers while we were there. He camps at the fest over the weekend. He got haggis and strongly encouraged us all to taste it. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Even Melodie tried a bite, but she didn't like it. Thank you Rob for letting us try something new that we never would have paid for! Melodie loves music and enjoyed dancing to it after eating.

 On our way to the kids area we walked by the Brave booth and noticed a wig. More pictures!

                      Pretending to shoot an arrow                                     Caber Toss

 At the kids area Melodie tried a caber toss, but was distracted by all the inflatable bounce houses, slides and obstacle courses. We signed her up for the competition, which was in a half an hour, and let her play.

When it was time for the competition, none of the other kids were there, so she tried doing the caber toss again.

A few more kids showed up, but not enough to do all the activities. So they just did a sprint.

There were actually quite a few false starts (I think this was one of them) so when the race actually started she didn't go until she heard us yelling at her to go. She came in dead last, but was thrilled with how fast she went. All the kids got a medal. She was a little confused because it said 1st on it.

 Rocky likes archery and I was definately willing to spend the money for it because if you did you could enter a Brave raffle. The prize is a screening of Brave. Woohoo! I hope we win! Melodie and Rocky each had six arrows.

Rocky helped her at first, but after a couple she was doing it on her own.

Melodie was a little sad that none of hers stayed on the wall, but I was impressed she even made it to the wall. Rocky actually hit the target a few times. Wow!

We also watched dancing, sheep herding, and the athletics. It's fun to be Scottish for a day!

Bake Sale 2012

 Every year at the GRDC dance recital there is also a bake sale and auction as a fundraiser for a charity. This year it was for Operation Homefront. I made these cookies:

 For Christmas, Melodie's Great Aunt Natalie gave her ninja cookie cutters. She loved them and could hardly wait to use them. The opportunity finally came with this bake sale. One of the numbers the kids were dancing to was "Kung Fu Fighting", so I turned the ninja cookies into karate cookies. The only difficult part was then I had to do a face. I think they turned out pretty darn cute!
 I also made cotton candy cupcakes. I used the recipe from bakingdom.com. She makes them into a Harry Potter themed cupcake by making a Honeydukes tag. I didn't do that for the bake sale, but if I ever do a Harry Potter themed party I would definately make them. The cupcakes were a little more dense than I like, but the flavor was great. I love how the recipe uses real cotton candy and not a flavoring. I think I'm going to try them again with a different base recipe (or maybe even just a box mix).

CANMT Trip: Walnut Canyon National Park

 We were driving along and all of a sudden we weren't in the desert anymore. It was beautiful. We were headed to Walnut Canyon National Park. I couldn't remember everything I had researched about it before the trip, but I knew there were two trails; an easy 0.7 mile trail and a strenuous 0.9 mile trail. When we got to the Visitor Center it was cold!

We didn't want to take time to dig out and change into pants, so we threw on jackets and went inside. Like always, we stamped our passports and got a Jr. Ranger packet. The ranger told us that the easy trail only gave you a view of the dwellings, while on the more strenuous trail you could go in the dwellings. She made it sound like it wasn't so bad, even with the 240 steps. So we chose the more strenuous Island Trail.
So we took the stairs down 185 feet to see the dwellings.

The stairs weren't bad. The rest of the one mile trail was terrible for me. We were so high up and there wasn't a railing. I was terrified. I can't believe I thought the meteor crater was scary. THIS was scary! I made Rocky hold Mel's hand the whole time and made her walk on on the side of Rocky away from the edge. I walked behind them so Mel couldn't see how scared I was. But she could tell. A few times she offered to hold my hand so I wouldn't be afraid. And I thought I was doing a good job by not screaming.

I can't believe people lived here.

It was amazing to see. The cliff dwellings are small. It's hard to imagine living in such a small area. But worse is the drop in the front yard.

There were so many. We only saw a few on the trail. Across the way you could see so many more dwellings.

All those holes are dwellings. You can also see the Visitor Center way up on top. It was time to go up the 240 stairs. This was actually the only strenuous part of the trail. It wasn't so bad. They had benches every so often. We stopped once to rest and Mel worked on her Jr. Ranger Packet. We weren't sure how far we had to go, but we heard, "I have to go potty" from Melodie. Great. There was no way I could go any faster, so Rocky jogged her up. Turns out there wasn't much of the way left. Whew!

Melodie turned in her Jr. Ranger packet, said her pledge and earned her badge. We heard the ranger talking with another lady who was coming back the next day. He said it might snow that night, so she might have to wait until they shovel the trail. Snow? What? It wasn't suppose to snow on our trip!
 We arrived at our hotel room the earliest we had arrived at a hotel room our whole trip: 5pm. We repacked the car to put all the camping stuff near the door, then Rocky brought pizza back to the hotel room. We took the opportunity to watch TV while eating pizza in the room.