Grand Spring Break, pt 1

Whenever spring break rolls around, I'm really itching to get some warmer spring-like temperatures. Unfortunately, Mother Nature rarely obliges here, so we usually have to head south. This year the Mr. could not be away for long, so I bravely/stupidly/crazily decided to try a single parent vacation to Arizona with the kids. Mainly, I wanted to see the Grand Canyon before our parks pass expired this month, and we had some friends to visit in Phoenix. We left on Saturday and stopped after a full day of driving in Kanab, UT. I'm always amazed by the playground settings these kids get to play in.

And we already knew that our kids love hotels! Between TV in bed, sleeping in the same room, endless breakfasts, and a pool, I think we could just stay in a hotel in our town and they'd be fine. Note to self...

The next morning, we awoke to quite a surprise! 4-6" of wet, white stuff all over. The hotel employee said that was the first good snowfall they've had all season. Of course it was! Nothing like breaking out the snow brush on a heat-seeking vacation!

 It did provide a beautiful highlight on the red rocks though.

Our next stop was just an hour down the road at Page, Arizona. To get there, we had to go over the Glen Canyon Dam, which was worth a view, overlooking Lake Powell. So impressive! Hadley wanted to take the tour down inside; Owen did not. We compromised by watching the video of how they made the dam, which was pretty interesting.

After some PBJ in the car and a few more miles, we did a short hike to the Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River. It was incredibly stunning and hard to believe there is no railing or any safeguards, except signs saying as much. (They did appear to be constructing a safer viewing platform.) With Hadley's track record, I was pretty nervous for her and all of those rocks. One trip and whoops!! But we all survived. Phew!

All of the rocks and foot traffic made for some cool red dirt to play in, at least until the wind picked up.

And then it was on to the biggest stop at the Grand Canyon! We went in the east entrance on a Sunday afternoon, and it wasn't crowded at all. 

The easternmost overlook is at Desert View and has a unique watchtower with lots of windows and balconies. Of course, the kids had to check out every level and view.

I kept thinking the windows were pictures, but I had to keep reminding myself that I was really here! All of the views felt like I was standing in a painting. Truly amazing!

Here's the same view from the lowest overlook outside and from the highest overlook in the watchtower. You can see the first overlook in the second picture's right corner.

On the way back to the car, we went in the gift shop. Only my kids would want ice cream after being whipped around by the chilly wind outside and stepping through snow!

Here's a couple more viewpoints: Navajo and Moran. The clouds provided interesting changes in color, and I could see why people like to come at different times of day for variations in light and perspective. It's hard to put into words the vastness and stark beauty of this place. And we only went to a handful of viewpoints! Someday I hope to make it back there and stay a while to really soak it all in.

For a bit of a change and more education, we stopped at the Tusayan ruins (800 years old!) museum and trail on the way out. It helped the kids to imagine life so long ago and how everything surrounding Native Americans had a special purpose, sometimes even multiple ones. We couldn't stay very long because our hotel for the night was in Flagstaff, still an hour and a half away. So long for now, Grand Canyon!

The Snow is Back!

Winter, it seems, is back from its vacation and ready to make up for lost time. This past weekend, it pretty much snowed all 3 days for about 6" of accumulation.

Which means sledding time! (I was going to take H up to Targhee for skiing on Sunday, but the roads were too bad, so we turned around. Later we heard the mountain got another foot of snow that day over just a 5 hour-span.) Anyway, it was nice to be home and to lay some fresh tracks on the sledding hill instead!

There was also an attempt to make a snow fort in the yard, but the bricks kept breaking when trying to remove them from the form. I think they got 3 bricks built in an hour!

Owen didn't have school on Monday either, so we did a trek to the other sledding hill in the neighborhood. There were a few jumps set up here from the weekend. Owen liked getting air in the sled, but the landing is always a bit jarring.

Here Owen demonstrates the track he said was like a bobsled run... 

And here, I opted to take you along for the ride! Feel the wind in your hair? Now you see that the ride down is about 1/20 the time it takes to hike back up to the start...

Birthdays and Engineers

Well, I was having a rare illness-free winter and thought I was home free, but the flu caught up with me for the last week of February. Ah, well. Looking back at February, we had a birthday to celebrate! Might be the last one we count for a while. ;)

There were a few events around town celebrating engineers' week, so I did manage to get the kids out to see Dream Big when the mayor brought it to town for free last weekend. They also had some hands-on projects for the kids to try beforehand, which was fun. It was a nice change up from the usual rigamarole of birthday parties, soccer games, and long indoor staring contests, all of which we did that day, too!

Oh, before I forget... we did a mini-Valentine's celebration. The kids both get parties (and lots of candy) at school, so I set up a scavenger hunt for them at home. There were about half a dozen rhyming clues that sent them to different locations around the house until they finally found bags with a book and sweets inside. It was fun to watch them try to decipher the clues, and they really enjoyed figuring it out!

Lastly, I just had to share something I found one afternoon. Hadley had gone downstairs to practice piano, and I turned around to discover her lovey, Kitty, penned in by blocks while she was gone. I asked her later why, and she said, "to keep her safe." Not sure from whom or what, but I left it at that. Kitty, rest assured you are in good hands.

Grand Targhee Weekend

For our long Presidents' Day weekend, we headed east to Driggs for snow and friends. Our first stop was south of Victor, where we found a free cross-country trail at a resort's golf course. It was pretty quiet, just before a storm, with only a handful of other skiers enjoying the trail. This was my view behind: Hadley inching along in her plastic skis with Dad keeping her company.

And my view in front: our fearless leader, who only fell a few times. It was a pretty trail with a few loops that followed a creek flowing into a pond. It was too cloudy to see the Tetons, but still surrounded by mountains and cabins. The kids were done after the short loop, but my spouse was kind enough to stay with them while I went on the remaining larger loop solo.

Then we met friends at their condo. The kids all get along great, and they let us crash with them for a night. Too bad this was the only picture I got of them, wedged between the couch and the wall with a game!

The next morning we drove up the mountain where the kids reported for ski lessons. Because of their age difference, they were in different classes.

Both lessons ended at lunch, so after we ate our sandwiches, I skied with the kids on the bunny hill. We started off on the magic carpet (a gently moving belt). I think I rode it at least 10 times, at which point Hadley requested to go on the lift. (Absolutely!) Owen probably rode this thing 40 times between his lesson and our afternoon together.

Here's O going down the little hill back to the magic carpet. He was in the zone, on repeat, but I had made him a deal that he could do whatever he wanted, no pressure. So, this was what he wanted to do! And I was glad that he found something he liked (since he was nervous from a couple of crashes in his short skiing history).

Hadley really enjoyed her lesson, even though according to her it was full of "toddlers". She seems to really like skiing! Yea! Here she is leading me after we rode up the chair lift on the beginner hill. (The group she passes is her class from the morning - the ones that did full-day lessons. Her instructor says "Look at that unicorn!!" as she zooms by. He liked her helmet.) We went up a few times, and she showed me a "bobsled" run, a "mouse house" door cut out of wood, and a lot of moxie! She was excited to be the leader and was really the happiest I've maybe ever seen her when she was shouting, "Follow me! This is sooo fun!!"

And at the end of the day, we met up with Hadley's friend, Ella, who lives down the street and goes to H's school. They were pretty cute little snow bunnies together!

They went down the hill a couple of times together, along with Ella's dad (and me for a bit!). Since everyone was going, even Owen left the magic carpet for a trip up the chair lift for his last run of the day, so I stuck with him pretty closely. When asked if they'd like to ski again, I got a "yes!" and a "maybe". Ha!

Grand Teton Winter

I have been wanting to go cross-country skiing in GTNP all winter, since hearing that you could do so. I don't know why it didn't cross my mind earlier! John had obligations in town, so Owen and I ventured out for a mom-son day. Although we are clear of snow in town, they certainly have plenty still up in the mountains. Owen got a little carsick over the pass, so we took it easy and had lunch in the car in the parking lot for a while. Luckily, I think the best view was from the parking lot!

When he was feeling better, we decided to get some fresh air and just walk around a bit. Turn out, the snow was crunchy and hard enough that we didn't really need skis or snowshoes! So we kept walking. Owen had a great time making new tracks off between the trees and over little hills.

I went into hiking mode and wanted to see how far we could get up the mountain for the views, but kids have a way of making you slow down and see things you wouldn't otherwise. Every boulder was a climbing adventure. Every track was a potential squirrel or rabbit hiding nearby. Some of the creek had thawed and was running under the snow, so of course, we had to kick in more snow and watch it disappear.

And the hills were sledding opportunities! I think this kid has been missing snow fun this warm winter. See his tracks down the hill? He called this "butt slides" and could have done this for hours! I gave it a try too, but he was way better at it!

My selfie game needs work! I can never figure out how to get faces and background in the same frame... I'm going to say that my arms are just too short. Ha! 

So I let the 8-year old take my portrait to get the mountains in the back! Not bad!

I love Jackson, so we had to stop for some hot cocoa and pastries before going back over the pass. Wish we could spend more time doing this kind of thing! It was a fun, if long, day! 

Skater Boy

Not to be outdone in a winter sports video, Owen has his own skating clip now. He really enjoys it and can turn and accelerate pretty well, just on the cusp of control. We do need to work on stopping though. He kind of run-skates and as a result, is a pretty loud skater (that's him clip-clopping across the ice). He won't be sneaking up on anyone on skates, that's for sure! It's definitely given me renewed awe at the Olympic athletes that make it look so easy.