Road Trip - Day 24

Around the Grand Canyon campground there are signs informing you that you should put all of your food away as the ravens enjoy feasting on your goods. Well, we were short on refrigerated space and we knew it would be cool (okay, COLD) enough that the eggs would be fine outside. Besides, ravens won't know that there are eggs in an egg carton...pfft. They aren't THAT smart....right? (I'd forgotten that they are often smarter than chimps...whoops)

So we woke up to some cawing and wing-flapping and I thought, 'Oh man, some poor sucker left their food out, I'll bet.' Guess what we opened our door to? Yup, ravens flying away with WHOLE EGGS in their mouths...who's the sucker now?

We got bundled up, made some food (while the kids took turns trying to wrestle each other into the dirt), and assembled our things to get going so we could go hike around the canyon.

Waiting for the bus, we are excited!!

So excited to ride a bus for the first time! We could have stayed on all day and they would have been just as happy.

Then to the visitor center to see a video about the Grand Canyon. The kids loved the movie! Brooklyn especially loved the parts showing the white water rafting, "Mom, can we do that?!" Uhhh....

Then up to the Rim Trail for some absolutely breath-taking views. Pictures will never do it justice.

She thought all of the carved initials of people that had been there before were pretty cool.

After a couple of miles, we were all getting a bit grumpy.

We got to the lodge area just as the hail started and the deafening thunder claps started. So we ducked into the store where Russ and Brook decided on matching hats.

Grr, this photo is out of order, but it shows half of our journey along the rim trail...Sam in time out. The first one started when we forgot to set the "boundaries," literally. For those of you who have hiked the Rim Trail, you know there are parts along it that go right next to the edge. Add a 3 year old, energetic little boy and you get some very scary experiences... Thankfully, he only tried that once. He realized how close he was to the edge (close enough to where I saw what was happening and I was literally paralyzed--I remember thinking, "GO! MOVE! GRAB HIM!!!" and I just stood watching in horror...talk about a nightmare!) and didn't do it any more. ...that didn't keep him from sprinting at 100 mph around corners though. UGH. So yes, lots of time outs.

We went back to camp and ate some grilled turkey and mozzarella sandwiches for lunch and then Russ and the kids took a snooze while I went to the Canyon Headquarters to attempt to use the barely-there wi-fi. I soon gave up and went to join everybody for a nap, except that the kids woke up about 2 minutes after I lay down. I was feeling lazy though and told the kids to get their boots on and go play outside. Brooklyn had rain boots on, but Sam didn't...at first I tried to hold him back, but it was worthless. These kids played HARD for THREE HOURS straight.

Lots of biking through puddles (LOVE how he always has his tongue out when he's concentrating--he's done it since he was born! And this kid is a little BMX biker, he's crazy!)...

...a bit of jumping...

...and finally it was time to clean up. Good thing she had rain boots on, huh?

Then we ate some dinner and afterwards the kids were playing a game of Turtles and Condors, haha! After the day that we had, we all passed out come sundown