From the beginning of our parenting days we have firmly believed that kids could do many jobs around the house, and that they would benefit greatly by working with us. We followed the adage that if something needed to be done, we all worked to get the job completed. Afterall, we all live in our home and we all would do the necessary work that needed to be done. However, we never assigned chores or made out a chore list. I really saw no need for it. For instance when the bathrooms need to be cleaned I've left it up to the boys to decide who does which task or which bathroom. Same with cleaning common areas in the house or performing outside jobs. I have visited homes and seen one child who is dusting, vacuuming, mopping the kitchen floor while the other kids are watching tv or playing pc games because it was that child's day to do the house chores. That doesn't happen in our home, we are a team and we work together, and play together.

For us though the boys haven't just joined in on the household chores but have helped tremendously on the many remodeling and maintenance jobs around the home over the years. These have ranged from replacing the cars brakes to laying patio tile to tearing out the old kitchen earlier in the summer. So when my friend Michele sent me a link to The Washington Posts article about how important it is to challenge teenagers to do HARD THINGS I just sat and chuckled. Look at the latest task the boys have been given.

Located just off our kitchen is a half-bath with fixtures that DH just doesn't care for. Its days are numbered but for six long years I have looked at the previous owner's paint job and wanted to change it. DH asked me to wait, wait till the kitchen is being done. Its days are over.

Boys the toilet must go.

DH loves fine cabinet work, and this one just didn't have a chance.

Boys the cabinet must go.

We have new ideas for how this half-bath will look and gave the boys the responsibility of gutting the room. They have handled the task from beginning to end.  Today they tackled the tile floor.

"Teens are extraordinarily competent."

Taking out all these fixtures and the floor tile is a hard thing that has taken taken them out of their comfort zone. .

Teamwork and collaboration -- just look at this 16yo and 12yo working together to get a tough job done.

Ever tear out a bathroom toilet, not very exciting but it will build character.  Maybe this is why we haven't experienced teenage rebellion although they did try to rebel about this job.  Neither one ever wants to do this job again but they got this hard thing done. 

Tomorrow they lay tile and put the room back together.

Remember the kitchen, that lovely ugly room where I was required to preform miracles using equipment that did not work?  If you don't just click on the kitchen category and visit that ugly space.  Then DH performed a few miracles while I was out west.

This is still a work-in-process but here's what I came home to! The major change is a simple move or kitchen-stretch. We transfered 3' from the eating area of the kitchen into the work area by simple moving the island 3' away from the sink. This has made a huge difference.

But let me take you on a little tour of the new space. The tile floor is new and was laid by my talented DH. The pattern is called a pinwheel and I love the layout. And that's what matters, right? That I love it.

Cabinet doors are coming. The backside of the island will hold the microwave and shelves for all my cookbooks, and a wine-rack. The trashcan will be hidden in the finished kitchen.

So, back to the tour. See that doorway, that's where I was standing when I took the first photo.

The refrigerator is counter-depth which means there isn't anything sticking out into the work-zone or walking aisle-way. It is shallow and I hope it works out. The stove is a 4-burner gas unit with a center grill. Our last kitchen had a grill and we constantly used it through the winter. Below the stovetop are two deep drawers, and on either side are two deep drawers for all my pots and pans. See that giant hood, it can really suck the smelly air right out of the kitchen.

The very top cabinets will have glass fronts and will display my ceramic pot collection. Yes, they will have lights and if you look closely you'll see the wires that DH is pulling through.   There will be under the counter lighting too.

I haven't decided what to put in the space above the refrigerator though. If you have a suggestion please leave it in the comment section. I'd love some ideas.

Oh, all the cabinet shelves are totally adjustable too.  DH's going to start making the cherry cabinet doors in mission style soon.  He's made all the cabinets too.  What talent.

Look at that corner cabinet. Do you see that it is curved? DH did that! He is such a woodworker!

I love the countertops but really need information on the do's and don'ts of owning granite. If you have any tips please leave them in the comment section. I could use some advice like when do I need to seal it again? What cleaners can I use on it and which ones should I avoid?

The sink is HUGE and DEEP and a single bowl. Ahhh, it is fun to use. And that double oven will get lots of use when we go baking cookies or having a Thanksgiving style meal. The space above the oven has vertical slots so that my cookie sheets and other flat cookware can easily be stored.

This end of the island has a lift mechanism for my kitchen aid which will swing the mixer up when I'm in need of it and down and out of sight when it isn't needed. The large open spaces will have pull out shelves in those cabinets. Nothing to be lost in the back corner anymore.

And here was one of the kitchen surprises. My TV, located on the wall, out of the way. Now if I could just lock it on HGTV.

Here's my latest decision issue. The space above the cooktop, this 36x36" space, calls for something special. A picture. A design. Something that pulls the kitchen together. In our last kitchen I had ceramic tile as the backsplash material and I loved it. I loved how easily it cleaned up and always looked fresh and new, never old like painted dry wall.

On Saturday I visited my tile guy and spent some time searching through his wares. Here's what I came up with, a 24x24" marble medallion for the vertical area behind the cooktop. The tumbled marble 4x4" square on the lower right is what we are thinking of using as the backsplash material, between the countertops and cabinets.

Does it fit?

A little over a year ago we were visiting my Dad, enjoying the State College Art's Festival.   It seems like ions ago.   At one point Mark shared with my Dad that he didn't like an expression that I was using.  "Granddad", he said, "Mom says CRAP all the time and I don't like it.  It is a four-letter word too and she shouldn't use it."

Dad replied to his grandson, "Tell her you don't like it, afterall,  An intelligent man does not need to use four letter words."

Ahh, such an often heard saying through my teen years but never spoken to me.  Dad would say this to my older brother as he spoke those forbidden words, GOSH, DARN.   It was late in the 60's and definitely a different world of forbidden four-letter words but the message resonated as my Dad repeated one of his favorite sayings:  An intelligent man does not need to use four letter words.

The only time I ever heard my Dad utter a four-letter word was when he was telling an off-color joke and that only happened well after I had kids.  Working as an engineer in the male-dominated engineering world and working in manufacturing meant too that I was not naive about the scope-and-sequence of four-letter words but my Dad's saying resonated with me often as I listened to co-workers speak.  Oh I thought as I listened to the worst offender, my Divisional Manager John, if he only knew my Dad's saying perhaps he wouldn't pepper his language with all those F#(& and SH($.

I like the saying and as my boys approached their teen years I repeated my Dad's saying to them.  This time however it was while we watched a TV show, or when we overheard some person speaking.  An intelligent man does not need to use four letter words.    We've had fun with the saying too; WAIT, Mom, you can't say that word since it is a 4-letter word.  HAHAHA   The message has gotten to them though that an intelligent person would have a wide-range of words at their disposable to express their feelings and as such should not need to resort to using those F#(& and SH($.   I'm not going to sit here and try to get you to think that I've never used a four-letter word since sometimes the audience seems really to only understand four-letter words but they are few and far between for sure.   I do like that saying though and like that my boys have caught onto it too.

Growing up my parents had a couple more sayings that while heard were not repeated as often to us.  My mom often said;   If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.    I can't ever remember saying this to my boys.  

My Dad ended most every meal with;

I've had an elegant sufficiency, any more would be an overabundancy

Nice intelligent words.

While I heartily agree with Frankie at KitchenTableLearners that the freedom homeschooling provides us is one reason I love homeschooling, at this moment it is not the one foremost in my mind. And even though we did take full advantage of that freedom this past year when we went to State College to care for my dying father, and then when we left for a 2-month west field trip in mid-May while our area schools were all still in session, at this moment it is not the one foremost in my mind.

No, the reason I love homeschooling can't be summed up in one word but let me share the ramifications of homeschooling that I saw throughout our west trip that are the reasons I love homeschooling.

Point #1 --- As we hiked along the boys would hike side-by-side discussing whatever they felt like talking about. I never told them to hike side-by-side but they chose to be that close. I really doubt that they would be such good friends if we didn't homeschool. The boys, being four years apart, would never be in the same school if they attended our local public school. Never ride the bus together, never run into each other in the hallway, and probable never have the same teacher. Since our local town is growing by leaps and bounds the younger would never even be in the same building as the older one had attended. This would mean different buildings, different teachers, different life-experiences and what common ground would they have to relate to each other when the vast majority of their childhood would be spent having different experiences? Having been in such a situation growing up I know that with my siblings this created a chasm between them and me. We did not have a common educational experience which meant that we also did not have common experiences to bind us together. Having parents that abide by the 'Siblings without Rivalry ' book's directives helps their relationship too, but being homeschooled together has given them time together to have many common experiences.

Point #2 --- At Lassen Volcano National Park we sat at the trailhead and discussed whether or not we should hike up the mountain to the top of Lassen Volcano. At the trailhead was a huge sign warning hikers that there was snow on the trail and an ice axe was advised. We had none and even if we had one, training is needed to learn how to use one properly. In the car next to us a woman was gathering her gear and she looked like she was going to go hike the trail. She looked my age, or slightly older, and carried at least as much extra body weight as I did. Geez, if she could do this trail then maybe we could too. At least we could try. We talked with her. We all talked with her. Time and again I have seen this happen. My boys are comfortable speaking to persons regardless of their age.

While she headed up the trail we sat and ate lunch before we too headed up the trail. It wasn't too long before we met up with Cumba and she joined our hiking trio. We made it to the volcano top, 5 miles round trip and 2000' elevation gain and lots of snow to hike through. Once there we enjoyed the view, ate some trail food and invited Cumba to join us for dinner at our campsite. The boys chatted with her as they would with an old buddy, taught her their favorite card game and invited her to join us for dinner the following night too. I wonder if they would be so comfortable with persons outside of their grade-group if they were in public school. I really doubt it and so I love this about homeschooling: they are comfortable being with older folks, younger folks and even folks their own age. To them age does not matter and I love that homeschooling has enabled this to happen.

Point #3 --- During those two dinners and on the trail Cumba, a public school employee, continuously praised my boys actions to me. She admired their manners, how polite they were, how well-spoken they were, how well behaved they were, how pleasant they were to be with, and how nice they treated each other. I love homeschooling because it has meant that I am with them reinforcing behaviors that I want there and correcting negative behaviors. Being polite, being thoughtful, being well-behaved, speaking without using curse words and exhibiting nice manners to others are characteristics that being home together has given me the time and opportunities to reinforce those behaviors. I love homeschooling for giving me time, lots of time to develop well-mannered young men and it is really showing these days.

Point #4 --- Driving into Glacier National Park with the window wipers going my thoughts were only on finding a campsite and thinking through, planning out, what I needed to tell the boys about setting up a tent in the rain. In all our many days of camping this would be the first time they were going to set up a tent in the rain. To say I was preoccupied with this is an understatement. I did not want our stuff to get wet and that was all I was thinking about. We found a campsite, started unloading the trunk to get to the tent and were greeted by Ann from the neighboring campsite.

It took the boys no time at all to strike up a conversation with Ann, a public school teacher and by the evening she was sharing dinner with us and learning from Michael the ins-and-outs of making S'Mores. Ditto Points 2 and 3 again.

And that's why I love homeschooling, for the time it has given me to be with my sons to help them develop appropriate social skills.

Do you know how much energy a 16yo male has? Well, if you have one, and one who is very weight conscience and concerned about being in great-shape then you already know that their energy level far exceeds their mom's. At least mine far exceeds my energy level.

It is fruitless to explain this little fact to them too. At least it is pointless to waste time explaining to mine that a 50yo just might not have the same get-up-and-go that a 16yo has. Since that didn't stop him from expecting me to keep right up with him and be able to hike 15 miles one day, 10 the next and 20 the day after, we hiked. And we aren't talking about little walks in the parks either. When we hike we each carry a pack containing 3 liters of water or 6.6#, food, rain gear, warm jacket, first aid kit, flashlight, matches, camera, binoculars, and a bit more food. Our day packs added on about 20 pounds of gear to be carried on our little hikes. Little, right <grin>. That extra weight sure adds to the effort it takes to move, to walk, and particularly to climb up a mountain.

The 16yo also is not satisfied unless we are hiking to the top of a mountain which usually meant we were climbing 2000, or 3000, or even 4000 feet UP, in addition to hiking 10 or 15 or 20 miles. In a day. And a hike means that the trail you are following might be a nice slippery mud surface, or gravel, or rocks, or as was the case on most of our hikes snow. Snow is not fun to hike through for any distance at all. No, not at all.

It isn't a bad thing having an energetic 16yo by any means. We saw so much more, and obtained an up-close-and-personal appreciation for each place we visited that we would not have had by just car hopping from park to park. I did enjoy the hiking and by the trips end we had hiked 300 miles, which translated into a nice weight loss for me. A very needed weight loss for me. I dropped from size 16/18 to size 14/12. Not bad at all. It also translated into a body that is in rather good shape now too. To keep this up and continue on the weight losing cycle we have exercised for at least one hour every day since we returned home, and most days it is closer to 2 hours.  On the exercise machine the settings are all much higher too which tells me that my muscles are much stronger.

I've got a bit more to take off and when we go on our next trip I want to be in shape before we leave so that maybe, just maybe I can run up that trail with the 16yo.

We arrived back home last Wednesday night from our 2-month cross-country camping trip. A great adventure but with very sparadic internet service at best I couldn't blog. And without electricity my pc couldn't run for me to journal and then transfer the stuff for you to read later. Oh well, I'll bring up what we did and how it affected us over the coming weeks and months, maybe.

Coming into the house late Wednesday night we found some things better then I expected---the toilet did not need to be cleaned before we used it. That was a huge improvement over its condition when we returned from our last west trip. Some things were not quite as we expected either.

The kitchen, ahhh what a space. It is not completed but it is very functional. The to-do list is long and once I find my camera I'll shoot some photos of the space. I do love the new counters, the tile floor, and appliances, and the extra-deep sink that you could bath a 5yo in. Not that I would bath a 5yo out in the open but it is that big. The cabinets are going to be beautiful once the shelves and doors are in place. And I love how the kitchen seems so much larger just because we moved the island 3' away from the sink. It is going to be a fun place to cook in.

I didn't waste anytime and spent Thursday and Friday cleaning the mud room. TWO days to clean the dust and dirt from the cabinets, walls and floor. OK, I did a few loads of laundry too but not much else. Saturday I cleaned the upstairs hallway, stairway, living room, and foyer. They weren't as bad but if you've ever had drywall work done in your home then you know what kind of dust and dirt I was dealing with. Sunday I started in on the school room and finally today I am finished with this dumping-ground-room. Every book was dusted, 106 books were removed from the shelves and offered to some homeschool friends, and two huge trashbags of junk were removed. The room looks ready for school to begin.

School. It hit me though as I dusted off our books that this past winter/spring I hadn't spent any time gazing through the Sonlight catalog or longingly searching hs sites for just the right history or science books for this coming year. I must have reached that old-homeschool-age where one knows that they have most everything they need or that everything will be alright if we don't read or do what everyone else is raving about. Strange since I have never been in this spot before. It is a comfortable spot to be in, sure of what we are doing, aware that everything will be just fine if we don't have the item on our shelf. Really, it will be.

Oh I did place a Rainbow Resource order but it was for a few workbooks that Michael (ScienceKid) had used and now I need a set for Mark (MilitaryKid) but there weren't any other items in the order. No fluff, no books that I knew I just had to have to make this coming year just-right. Nope. Those days are past. The books we have will do just fine, we'll make them work or do without. Flexibility, oh my, did we ever learn to be flexible on our trip. But that's a post for another day. Michael has finished pulling the staples from the kitchen floor which means he is waiting for me to give him his next job.

The family room awaits us. All the furniture must be moved from the room---into my clean living room---the carpet pulled up so the hardwood floor that will run from the kitchen eating area into the family room can be laid.

Food

On our first trip west we took a cooler, and the reason was simple, didn’t everyone always take a cooler with them? After all, didn’t we need fresh meat, milk, juice, cheese and butter? For the first three days we filled the cooler with ice, constantly. It was hot and the ice melted quickly, a pain-in-the-butt. The ice melted too quickly, and we quickly had spoiled meat and milk along with a cooler that stank. We ditched the cooler, gained valuable cargo room, and simplified our lives tremendously. Of course I wondered what we would do for food but with a little thinking outside the box we came up with some great alternatives to the refrigeration-needy foods.

Many years ago I was a backpacker going out for excursions as long as fourteen days. Without a cooler. We survived, and on our backpacking trips we often dreamed a bit too about what we would eat when we arrived back in civilization. Car camping is simple really compared to backpacking since we had access to a grocery store every once in awhile. And best of all, I would not have to constantly search for ice and wonder if I was keeping all this refrigerated food items cold enough.

Camping without a cooler has been an advantage into creativity for sure and required us to think outside the box. Often times the boys will exclaim that we are eating better than we ever do at home! While I don’t agree our meals are simple and here’s a sample of our meals for the last week.

Breakfast --- you have your choice of hot oatmeal, hot chocolate, granola bars, peanut butter on graham crackers or bread, and/or cinnamon raisin bagel and cheese if we have it. Mark usually chooses a bagel with magarine while Michael and I take instant hot oatmeal with cheese.

Lunch --- summer sausage with cheddar cheese on a bagel if you’d like. PB sandwich, tuna sandwich with a little mayonnaise. We found a source for individually packaged mayonnaise and since it isn’t opened it doesn’t need to be refrigerated. Sometimes we choose to have our lunch items for dinnertime too.

Snack ---- nuts, dried fruit, raisins, beef jerky, lemonade using dry powdered mix

Dinner menu for the last week----

1. Chicken Chow Mein with an extra can of chicken added to the mix.

Rice

1. Ravioli

Wheat bread with squeeze margarine

Canned peaches

1. Taco Dip with Nacho chips --- mix one jar salsa with 4 oz cheddar cheese and 1# ground beef. (We stopped at the General Store just outside the NP we were visiting and picked up a pound of beef at the end of the day and just prior to dinner)

Wheat bread with squeeze margarine

Canned pears

1. Cheesy Chicken Helper --- Use one box Chicken Helper, two large cans chicken breast meat, one can evaporated skim milk

Wheat bread with squeeze margarine

Canned peaches

1. Chili over macaroni ---- We use canned chili without beans and sometimes add summer sausage to the mixture to boast the protein level of the dinner

Wheat bread with squeeze margarine

Canned pears

1. Chicken glop --- into one pot place two cans chicken, drained, uncooked rice, Chinese vegetables, can green beans, can corn. Heat and serve

Wheat bread with squeeze margarine

Canned peaches

1. Rotisserie Chicken

Salad

Wheat bread with squeeze margarine

Bananas, strawberries,

The key to thinking outside the box has been to shop in the packaged food isle, a place I avoid when we are at home, and searching for items that can be substituted for refrigerator items. Evaporated skim milk in a can is a great substitution for milk. Many hard cheese can go a week without refrigeration although we try to purchase small quantities, around 8oz, and use it within a couple days. Fresh fruit is always purchased at the store and eaten within the first day or two. Many National Parks have their own General Store where fresh fruit and perhaps some fresh meat can be purchased for the evening meal.

In a couple days we will stay overnight in a hotel and our conversations have centered around the hot showers and food, should we eat steak or BBQ, and where can we go that will have an endless salad bar.

So there’s how we have thought outside the box using tons of canned and boxed items.

Monday June 2 to Wednesday June 4

From lovely Bruce Canyon we drove to Zion Naional Park, in a round-about way since we needed a Wolly-World Stop. We were low on food, and Michael needed a new jump rope. Keeping a 16yo boy stuck 24/7 with his mom and younger brother content has become quite THE challenge on this trip. Michael desires exercise, lots of it, and our hikes just don't do the trick for him. He wants to sweat, and to breath hard and to stay in-shape so that when he returns to his speed skating team he will still be in great shape. Also, if he is able to exercise hard then he is happier and is more content to be with his mom and younger brother 24/7.

From Zion we drove to Cedar City and when Michael, my navigator, asked me whether I wished to go the scenic route or the route Streets & Trips recommended I opted for the scenic route. WOW!!!! We traveled up and over a mountain and found ourselves passing through Cedar Canyon National Monument. Cedar Canyon looks like Bryce but on a grander scale. Sitting at over 10,000' snow was still everywhere, and the views down into the valley, sitting at 4000' were breathtaking. We opted to camp here for the night until we learned that the campground was still closed. Too muddy from the snow that had just finished melting. ugh.

At Cedar City we picked up all our food needs and continued on. I made a quick call to my friend AnnMarie having thought of her as we drove through a small Utah town having a Quilt-Walk-Festival and found her to be with a mutual friend from WA. A few words later and we have a new stop for our trip at Ann's home close to Mt. St. Helen's. It will be great to see her again.

Arriving to Zion we grapped the last camp spot, set up camp and headed to the visitor's center. Zion has steep sandstone walls, sandstone laid millions upon millions of years prior to Bryce, and as a result is harder and denser than Bryce. Weathering and erosion play the role of shaping this canyon and each shutter bus drivers pointed out different recent landslides that had reshaped the canyon walls.

Tuesday we hiked to the 'tourist' spots; emerald pools, river walk, weeping rock, canyon overlook and py'rus trail. Wednesday we planned to hike to observation point which would have been a terrific 8-mile hike up the 2500' canyon walls but when we got up the sky looked nasty. A few phone calls to friends with www access confirmed that Zion might have thunderstorms. Quickly we decided to pack up and move on. Off to CA we headed.

The drive was easy to Vegas with the exception to the very rocky start we had. Michael needs time alone, time to re-group so when we stopped in to REI to purchase a new tent I said OK to Michael purchasing a solo tent. We still have 6 weeks on this trip and that's plenty of use-time and hopefully will provide him with a space to go to to get some alone time for him.

Yes, we had to purchase a new tent on this trip. Our tent is around 20 yrs old and the all the wind storms had taken their toll on this tent. WIND! oh my, little did we know what waited for us west of Vegas.

WIND. High Wind warnings were what we heard on the radio about 30 minutes outside of Vegas, gusts to 65mph were coming, and I believe it. For 5 hrs, or about 300 miles of our 550 miles of driving were in high head winds, and white-out conditions. It was the hardest driving I have ever done, the worst-driving conditions I have ever been in, just awful, awful, awful. Dust flying everywhere, and most the time you couldn't see more than a few cars in head of you. Just awful, awful, awful.

Finally we arrived in a little town outside of Kings Canyon National Park, ate some real food, took very needed showers, got a good night's sleep and will get out oil changed this morning before we head to our next destination.

Friday to Monday, May 30^th – June 2

Bryce Canyon’s scenery is unique they say however it reminds us very much of the Badlands in SD, but bigger and grander.  Beautiful.    Bryce is a canyon and much like Grand Canyon to the south you arrive and drive upon the plateau or rim of the canyon.  That’s where the similarity ends.  At Bryce the canyon is filled with hoodoos, a natural column of rock in fantastic form, formed by forces of nature sculpting the brilliantly-colored Claron Formation into a series of beautiful and unusual erosion features.  Bryce Canyon’s beginnings can be traced back to a network of braided rivers and streams, which transported a variety of sediments into a large freshwater lake that once covered SW Utah.  Over time the lake disappeared leaving behind the multicolored Claron Formation. 

About 10 – 15 million years ago a period of uplifting began in the region known as the Colorado Plateau, faulting and stretching and fracturing creating smaller plateaus.  Bryce has been craved from one of these plateaus.  Faults and earthquakes initiated the sculpting process by breaking the rock with vertical mini-fractures called joints.  Bringing in the forces of weathering and erosion with a meager 18” of rain a years and it’s amazing what has resulted.  At a rate of 1-4’ of erosion per year they estimate that Bryce’s hoodoos will disappear in 3 million years. 

Arriving at Bryce’s campground we easily found a site, set-up and was met by the camp host.  After she collected our money she shared that we really should check out the ranger’s programs.  In her opinion they are all excellent and after attending two I would concur.  At that point however she shared that the evening program was astronomy, with really large telescopes lead by Bryce’s Dark Rangers.   Being the astronomy buff Michael’s eyes lit up and even more so when Judy shared that this sky is dark and clear.   Being at 8000’ elevation and without cities close-by Michael knew she was correct.   We visited the grocery store just outside Bryce and then the Visitor’s Center.  This really should be high on any National Park’s visitor’s list of things to do first when entering a NP since they have a wealth of information about how the park is formed and what activities are available.

After dinner we headed over to the Lodge for the rangers talk about the night sky and then to the rear of the Visitor’s Center where four volunteers had their HUGE telescopes set-up.  I was a bit put aside by the shear number of folks there (100’s) but after an hour the crowd had dwindled to 10 or 20 folks.   Michael was in heaven, excitedly coming to find me and telling me that I needed to visit this telescope or that one to see this galaxy or that one, this globular cluster or that one.  It was fun to see these night-objects, which were so easy to spot in this oh is so dark and clear sky in Bryce; it is an astronomy’s dream-sky.  During this evening Mark kept telling me that it was time to go back to the camp since he was tired and Michael kept asking us to look at one more object and that we couldn’t leave yet.  Finally at 11:30pm the Dark Ranger called it quits and asked the volunteer’s to pack things up.  Michael and the one volunteer continued to look at objects and I know he would have stayed all night.

In the morning we hiked 11 miles on the Fairyland Trail.  Up and down and around and over; the trail took us past one beautiful and colorful hoodoo after another.  Tired and exhausted we finally made it to the General Store where the boys enjoyed ice cream and a pretzel.  Mark requested that every hike should end like this.

Sunday morning we  attended a bird hike, all of 1-mile in length it was just what we all needed after the previous long hike.  The ranger pointed out one bird after another and by the end of the two hours we had seen 22 new birds.   A couple on the outing asked if we homeschool--their daughter hs in SC, lucky woman.  They were so supportive of hs'ing and had just had their one grand daughter with them for 12 days showing her some of the west.    After a lunch of pizza from the General Store we did a little 5 mile hike through Navajo Trail and The Queen's Garden.  Nice but a bit hot.  Tomorrow morning we pull out of here and head off to Zion National Park.

Grand Canyon, Thursday & Friday, May 29^th & 30^th

Friday, May 30^th.   The boys are still asleep in the tent; the raven’s call woke me or was it the cold morning air?  I’m sitting on a wooden bench with a towel to keep my butt semi-warm, oh is it ever cold.  Yesterday we arrived at the Grand Canyon, obtained one of the few available tent sites and set out for a 6-mile hike along the canyon’s rim.  Michael declared that the canyon is too large, overpowering in size.  I enjoyed his description and added that it had way too many people too.  We walked to the Bright Angle trailhead and the boys were able to gaze upon the trail with its many switchbacks that I once hiked on a long time ago on a trip to the bottom and out.   I would have liked to arrange such a trip for us here but that would have meant having reservations months in advance and that’s not how we are running this trip.  I would also need to be in better physical shape to tackle such a hike too.

We also saw some really,  really stupid people at Grand Canyon.     Many were walking along the rim edge, or out onto rocks that even caused the boys to be concerned about.  The really stupid folks  were  the ones who went out to the edge with their little 2yo in an umberella stroller and the front wheels were out in the mid-air.  Have they never seen a little toddler  release himself from a stroller?   It was nerve-wracking to watch and thankfully they did move back to the rim trail and we walked off.   The GCNP policy is that as long as a person does not endanger someone down below then a person can go where they choose.  Not us, and I never had to caution or request my boys not to go out or ask them to move away from the rim.

We’ve seen some interesting license plates such as the one on the RV across from us; NONEEDS.  Very appropriate license plate on this RV –bus-size home.

We’ve seen enough of the canyon, did our laundry too so we are pulling out today and heading for Bryce.