camping

My husband enjoys camping. Read this post for more back story about this.

But despite his trying over and over to get me to go, I still hadn't agreed. I just didn't see it working very well with Rachel.....trying to get the complicated tent set up while trying to supervise her in the wilderness, trying to get her to sleep when it's light outside (her bedtime is strictly enforced....8:00!), having a campfire (open flames!?) with Rachel running around it, trying to cook in an unfamiliar place without a kitchen while trying to supervise Rachel....just lots of unknowns and difficult variables I didn't want to deal with.

But he kept insisting, and I knew it was important to him. So we made a compromise. We'd start out by trying it in our backyard. That way if things went awry, we could come inside.

So last Friday night was the night.

We bought Rachel a new sleeping bag (she had her choice of Tinkerbell or Princesses....you can guess which she chose!). We bought supplies for s'mores. We put up the tent (with Rachel safely within the confines of our fenced in backyard, not running wild in the wilderness--she actually did really well, wanting to help us so badly!), blew up air mattresses, and resigned ourselves to the fact that she'd be up past 8:00 and we'd be going to bed earlier than normal.

S'mores were a huge hit.

So was the sleeping bag,

except that once she was in it, she didn't like the feeling of being "stuck" in it, so she really didn't sleep in it.

She and Daddy had fun with the headlamps:

Her air mattress was on one side of the tent and ours was on the other. She wanted to be right up next to us. I moved her a little closer, but needed some space. We all got in bed at 9:00. 9:00!!!! I figured it would take her awhile to fall asleep, and then I'd get up and read awhile (I brought a book and book light out with me). My husband fell fast asleep, as he always does within seconds of his head hitting the pillow. I pretended to be asleep while listening to my daughter sing and toss and turn. At 10:00 she needed to go potty (no, she hadn't been asleep yet), so we went inside. Around 10:30 she finally stopped making noise.

At midnight I was still tossing and turning, listening to dogs barking, sirens blaring, people talking, cars driving by.....you name it, I heard it. My husband woke up around that time and asked if I had been asleep yet. "No," I sighed. So he told me I should just go in and sleep, which I gladly did, after taking ten minutes to open and close the zipper on the door as slowly and quietly as I could so I wouldn't wake Rachel up!

Soon after getting inside I heard Rachel have one of her night terror episodes out in the tent. My husband has never dealt with those before and didn't know how to handle it because she's completely out of it. I laid in bed contemplating going back out to help, but there's really nothing either of us can do in those situations except let her settle herself down again, so I didn't. She stopped after a few minutes.

At 6:30 the next morning I heard her little feet running on the deck outside, making her way into the house. It was a successful camping trip....for two of us, anyway! I felt horrible about not making it through the night, but my husband was just glad that I gave it a try. I'm not against trying again (the air mattress made it not that bad, comfort-wise)....but only close to home....and maybe with some ear plugs. And two tylenol PMs instead of just one. But I'm certainly not ready to venture out into the wilderness.

phrase of the week

Just a quick post....

This weekend Rachel's been outside without shoes a couple of times. She finds this terribly funny, because you're always supposed to wear shoes outside, of course. Daddy and I made comments about her being barefoot, to which Rachel responded each time, in all seriousness,

"Yeah, I have a bear foot."

all grown up

My camera broke while we were on vacation. Somehow I managed to crack the screen. It still works, meaning I can take pictures, but the screen doesn't show anything, so I have no idea what I'm getting in the picture. Case in point:

I was trying to take pictures of this, Rachel's new hair do today. I decided to try a single ponytail, since it's long enough now to reach all the way to the back. I think it makes her look so much older.

She's laying in our bed watching a show (while I was drying my hair), which is why she's looking so intently at something besides the camera.

the beach

On Sunday we took an impromptu trip to the beach....of sorts. It's just a reservoir with a small beach, but it's a beach, nonetheless, and Rachel loved it. We didn't have plans to swim--the water was really cold--we just thought she'd enjoy playing in the sand (which she did). But she also plopped herself down right at the edge of the water, so she rode home with a towel in her car seat. But she had a great time.

I couldn't find her beach hat (we were leaving in a hurry) so I had to use this much-too-big-for-her hat that I ran across. I thought it looked hilarious, but she kept it on and it did its job!

a new plan

So for the last month I've been planning this trip to Disney World. But now plans have changed. Instead of going to Disney World, guess who is starting school in August!?

We've decided to send Rachel to preschool.

Back in February/March (when you're supposed to enroll your child in preschool for the following fall) we decided not to send her next year for a variety of reasons. But last week I was watching my friend's two little girls for a few days and it became painfully obvious that Rachel doesn't know very much about playing with other kids. She tried, but was terribly disappointed when they didn't want to play what she wanted to play or do things her way (she's obviously an only child!), and it brought back a lot of bad memories of my own childhood and feelings of rejection, watching her be so disappointed. She kept coming over to me in tears saying, "Mommy, I want to play!" because she didn't know how to enter in to what they were doing.

So anyway, we revisited the preschool discussion and decided it would be a good idea for her. So instead of doing Disney, we enrolled her in school today. She's going to the small Christian school where I used to teach, which I LOVE. They didn't have an opening when I first called, so we were on the waiting list, but the next day they called and had a spot! I'm thrilled. Today when we went she got to see the classrooms and play a little bit, and loved every second. I'm fairly sure she'll be so excited for Tuesdays and Thursdays, come fall!

puzzles

I don't think I've mentioned one of Rachel's favorite past times lately. She's a puzzle fanatic. Our fireplace is covered in piles of them and we're desperately in need of some puzzle racks!

There are no puzzles too hard for this girl. Well, that's not actually true. I bought two 60-piece puzzles at a garage sale a few weeks ago that require a little more help from Mommy or Daddy, but this 48 piece puzzle is a snap for her all by herself.

Sometimes she'll spend an hour going from one puzzle to another (and often the same one over and over and over). And she does them all herself (except for the aforementioned 60-piece Arthur puzzles).

She's such a fan that the only souvenirs we brought her from our trip were five different puzzles--this one and a boxed set of four little ones. (And a Grand Canyon t-shirt, but she doesn't really care very much about that).

She still has trouble with this 48 piece one. But just give her time. A few tries and she has them down pat.

When we went to the Day Out with Thomas, Grandma bought her this one.

We thought it would be too hard for her. We were wrong. She zips through it.

And her all-time favorite is a 24 piece Disney Princess puzzle (of course!). It's a breeze for her, but she does it over and over again. I couldn't find an exact picture, but it's almost just like this,except hers also has Snow White and Ariel on it in addition to these princesses.

I've decided that libraries need to have puzzles to lend--they're too expensive to buy a million of them (especially the wooden Melissa and Doug ones she particularly enjoys!), but most kids would love to have different ones to do now and then, wouldn't you think? But since libraries haven't caught on to my idea, I now scour garage sales for them (hence, the huge mess around the fireplace!). Anyone with a puzzle fan nearby want to have a puzzle swap??

the rest of the trip

Saturday

It was my husband's birthday, and we were heading to the Grand Canyon. Someone told us they had been there the day before and it was completely fogged in, so we were worried that would happen to us too. As we drove the couple of hours from Page to the Grand Canyon we drove through rain and low lying clouds, so we were really doubtful. But as we turned west to get closer to the Grand Canyon the skies started to clear and we were excited that it was clearing. When we arrived at the entrance to the park the skies were clear as can be.

But as we walked up to the first viewpoint, at the Watchtower, we realized that yes, the skies were clear, but the canyon was covered in fog. These are the views we got.

It looks cool, but not when you're only there for a short amount of time and you're there to see the canyon! We thought our whole day would be filled with lousy views, but after driving into the village and getting some lunch, we set out for a tour of the canyon and the fog had lifted. I posted a few pictures of this tour here, but here are some more views. Pictures just don't do it justice, though--it's just so massive and incredible.

Sunday

Sunday morning bright at early we got up for Brian's hike. I had to drive him to the trailhead. I wrote more about the hike here and here. Here are a few pictures he took on his hike, as he crossed the Colorado River.

After he got back, showered, and rested awhile, we walked around (yes, he walked some more, after hiking for hours and hours!!) enjoying the view, waiting for our dinner reservations at El Tovar (this is El Tovar).

Dinner was nice--not as delicious as expected, but the ambiance was great and it was a fun celebration of his birthday and his big accomplishment.

After dinner we took the bus around to some places I had visited earlier in the day without him and we shopped for souvenirs.

Monday

We stayed at the Grand Canyon for most of the morning, because it was such a gorgeous day, and we decided we'd rather see more of it than Sedona, where we were heading. Here are some last minute pictures....our cute little cabin (just a few yards from the canyon!) and a last view of the canyon up at the Kaibob trailhead. But then we drove down to Sedona (through more rain). Sedona was pretty, and we had a great view from our hotel room (here I am standing on our balcony), but it still paled in comparison to the Grand Canyon. If we had seen Sedona first I would've thought it was much more beautiful. This is from our balcony too, with lots of little shops below that we didn't even have time (or energy!) to explore.

Tuesday

That morning we did a quick drive through tour of Sedona, took some pictures, and then headed down to Phoenix. Once you get close to Phoenix you start seeing lots of these:a Seguaro Cactus, which we thought was cool.

We had a long day of travel and arrived home around 1:30 AM on Wednesday morning. It was a great trip.

a partial photo recap

Tuesday

We left for the airport very early in the morning. We flew to Dallas and then to Phoenix. It was clear the whole way and I spent a great deal of time looking out the window at the changing landscape down below. We arrived in 100 degree temperatures in Phoenix. Found our rental car (a Toyota Highlander, which I loved!), and set out to find a grocery store (which we found in Scottsdale). We had to buy a cooler to keep our groceries in, since it would've cost us an extra $25 to check ours at the airport, and a cooler only cost $20 (and we had to leave it at the end of the trip with a sign that said "free" because it would've cost us another $25 to bring it home!)! We stocked up on supplies for the week and then left for Holbrook, AZ, about 2 1/2 hours away.

Once in Holbrook we found our hotel, ate dinner, and went to bed really early (it was three hours earlier out there, so our normal 10:00 bedtime at home was only 7:00 out there, but we were exhausted, so we didn't care).

Wednesday

After a very bad night of sleep, we were up around 4:00 AM (7:00 at home!) and ready to go! Of course, nothing was open, so we had to hang around for awhile first. The Petrified Forest National Park, our first destination, opened at 7:00. We got there about a half hour early, so we waited in a parking lot outside the gates. In the parking lot was this really cheesy dinosaur. Since we had nothing better to do we took our picture with the dinosaur, thinking Rachel would enjoy it (she did!).

We went in at 7:00 when they opened.I had been there when I was a kid. I didn't remember liking it very much then, and I didn't like it a whole lot better this time. We saw a lot of this.

Petrified Wood. Not very exciting to me, but my husband, the geologist, thought it was interesting, so that's why we went.

We did see a pronghorn at the top of a hill not too far away.

After driving through most of the park we entered the section called The Painted Desert. It was much more interesting. The colors were beautiful.

Next we drove a couple of hours across the Navajo Indian Reservation to Chinle, AZ. It was much like the previous night--we found our hotel, found some dinner, and went to bed early. They did have a pool and hot tub there, so we enjoyed that after dinner for a bit.

Thursday

We woke up to rain. This turned out to be the theme of our trip....rain in the desert. We tried to think of it as welcomed relief for the people who live there, but it didn't do much for our sight seeing. It was usually only a light rain, though, so it didn't keep us from doing too much.

We were in Chinle to see Canyon de Chelly.

We had the place to ourselves because it was so early in the morning and because of the rain. It was quiet, peaceful, and simply breathtaking, even in the rain. I loved it.

There are lots of Indian ruins in the cliffs, which were interesting to see.

After seeing the canyon we left to drive across more of the reservation to go to Monument Valley, where lots of western movies were filmed back in the day. It was super windy, which made it really dusty and hazy, but at least it wasn't raining! See all of the dust? And if you look at my hair blowing sideways you can see how windy it was.

We drove down into the valley (which is a dirt road, and the reason we rented an SUV instead of a mid sized car for this trip) and drove around all of the monuments. The weather cleared and we got some good pictures after all.

Next we drove to Kayenta, AZ, where we were staying for the night. It was a rough night, though--there was a storm, and the power at the hotel went out. Our a/c stopped, and I could hear every little sound going on around me, and couldn't sleep. I read with my book light while my husband slept. The power finally came back on after an hour and a half and I was finally able to get to sleep.

Friday

We left early for Page, AZ. We were supposed to have a tour of Antelope Canyon that morning (I already posted about this here). Since that didn't happen we toured the Glen Canyon Dam.

Not very exciting for me, but my husband thought it was interesting. The surroundings were pretty, though.

And since I can't seem to get this recap finished, I'll just end this here and post it, and then finish up the trip in another post soon.