I finished the first blog post and folded the laundry on our first full day in Mesa Verde. During that time, Spencer took Emmett and Josie to the visitor center to get the materials for becoming Junior Rangers again. The kids were both very enthusiastic about the program after their experience at Great Sand Dunes.
After the boring morning of laundry and cleaning up, we skipped nap and took the kids to the park's museum so that E & J could start on their Junior Ranger work. The museum and visitor center at this park were great - there was so much to learn about our location and the kids really got into it. We saw our first glimpse of the ruins built by the Ancestral Pueblo people. Without a nap, though, we cut our visit short and headed back to camp for a quick dinner and bed. Emmett was excited to meet a friend, Atlas, whose family is from Albuquerque, NM and who was around camp at dinner time as well as other meal times throughout the Easter weekend. They threw snow balls, built forts and climbed trees together. Having other kids around certainly makes for a more pleasant experience for our kids and for us.
Our second full day in Mesa Verde was Easter Sunday. The kids didn't realize it was Easter since we had celebrated the holiday the Sunday before our departure, but there was something special about celebrating the equinox and spring and new life that day. We played in the snow, chased down bugs with nets, and thought about trying to do a tour of some of the ruins, though Josie's and Emmett's sleeplessness put a damper on any major or strenuous exploring we might've thought we would do. Instead of a tour, we headed back to the museum in hopes of completing a driving loop that would allow us several opportunities to see ruins. The kids were enthusiastic until about the third time we had to re-buckle their seat belts. But we saw some ruins, got to have some fresh air, and had a little picnic lunch at a viewpoint of the most famous Mesa Verde village ruins - Cliff Palace. We tried to have the kids nap in the car on our way back to camp (the park is huge and the drive is long), but since neither of them have ever been good sleepers in the car, that didn't happen. So that meant for another early dinner and bedtime.
While driving around Mesa Verde, Josie had her first experience with a pit toilet. She was terrified of sitting on one (who can blame her?) and has since then regressed to using diapers throughout the day again. I guess potty training can wait until we get back.
On Monday the 22nd of April, we packed up our gear and continued our journey west. Our next stop was the Grand Canyon, and the most exciting part for Emmett was that we would be meeting up with his friends from school, Rio and Sierra, and their family.
We had to stop at the visitor center on our way out to pledge to be great junior rangers then headed out over the mountains. We listened to LOTS of Disney's Frozen soundtrack and we stopped at the Four Corners monument and ate our picnic lunch after the obligatory photos of us standing on four states at one time. Then we met up with Rio and Sierra's family just before the turnoff into the national forest just outside the Grand Canyon - they had driven from Moab that day. We found a place to camp on a forest road just outside the park. Since we weren't in a campground and therefore didn't have toilets, we had to dig holes for our toilet. Emmett loves this - Josie did not.
As usual at this point, we were lacking sleep for our first full day at the Grand Canyon so we had a rough morning. We had hoped to hike the rim walk with the kids, but Emmett had several major meltdowns so instead we saw the visitor center and completed the Junior Ranger packets there. We got to see some elk, a couple of awesome views of the canyon, a great movie about the canyon and its history and formation, and then we headed back to the camper for naps. The kids napped hard and we had a delicious dinner then headed back to one of the visitor centers to catch a ranger talk and complete our Junior Ranger requirements. Due to the long line at the entrance into the park, we just missed the talk, but luckily the ranger worked with us to complete our badges anyway. We spent some time exploring the Watch Tower at the Desert View visitor center and headed back to camp for dinner and bed.
On Wednesday, we said "so long," to Rio and Sierra's family for a day (we would be meeting them the following day at Joshua Tree National Park) and we headed further west to see if we could get a campsite inside the park. Joshua Tree was in bloom this year, due to the flooding earlier in the season, so the campsites have been booked for months. We were hoping for a first-come first-served site on a Wednesday.
We stopped at the Grand Canyon campground for a quick shower, then stopped again for some groceries before the long drive. Unfortunately for us, showers and groceries took until after lunch time and so we still had a long drive ahead of us before camping out for the night. We called the visitor center at Joshua Tree and they thought we wouldn't be able to find a spot so late in the day and recommended we find a place at a private campground outside the park. We ended up staying overnight north of the town of Joshua Tree and though it was appealing to have showers and toilets in the desert heat, we really wanted to spend time inside of Joshua Tree and knew that driving in and out each day would be hard with young kids. So we packed up as quickly as we could on Thursday morning to head into the park to see if we could get a couple of sites inside.
After a bit of time exploring our options, we ended up finding 2 sites next to each other at the White Tank campground - what luck for us and for our friends! We set up camp and then took the kids for a drive in hopes they would fall asleep with the air conditioner running hard. They did - YES! We decided that at nearly $4 a gallon, that nap probably cost us over $20. But hey, at least the kids were better people afterwards. Emmett and Josie worked on their Junior Ranger booklets, climbed all over the boulders and chased down lizards. Right around bedtime, our friends arrived and we hung out with them for the following two days.
On Friday we packed some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast and plenty of snacks and took the kids right over to hike after getting dressed. With 4 adults and 4 kids between 2 and 5 years old, we managed a less-than-2 mile hike and it took us over 2 hours. Every time we stopped Emmett made sure we understood how hot and exhausted he was and we reminded him that the longer we wait, the hotter the sun will be for the rest of our journey.
We made our goal: Skull Rock. Josie decided to be scared of "Skuw Wock" and wouldn't stand with the group for a photo. But a few "cuddews" (cuddles) helped her feel well enough to get back to the car. We had pancakes for lunch and tried to get Josie to nap in Spencer's tent under a shade canopy, but she wasn't able to. Luckily, Emmett got to nap in his friends' camper and he was the only one who slept that afternoon (crazy). We let him stay up to see the stars with Josie's Christmas present - a kid telescope. He felt really good about himself for earning such a tremendous reward for sleeping. Josie got to look at the morning moon the next day - she was asleep before 7pm; long before the stars were visible.
We had been planning to stay a full day in Joshua Tree again on Saturday and head to San Diego on Sunday, but with the heat in the mid to upper nineties and lack of napping options, we decided to find a campground for Saturday night that would be closer to our next destination. We found a place just north of San Diego where we showered and slept, then we headed to our AirBnB for an early check-in on Sunday. Stay tuned for another post (hopefully soon!) that tells the tales of our San Diego adventures. Until then, tata!
After the boring morning of laundry and cleaning up, we skipped nap and took the kids to the park's museum so that E & J could start on their Junior Ranger work. The museum and visitor center at this park were great - there was so much to learn about our location and the kids really got into it. We saw our first glimpse of the ruins built by the Ancestral Pueblo people. Without a nap, though, we cut our visit short and headed back to camp for a quick dinner and bed. Emmett was excited to meet a friend, Atlas, whose family is from Albuquerque, NM and who was around camp at dinner time as well as other meal times throughout the Easter weekend. They threw snow balls, built forts and climbed trees together. Having other kids around certainly makes for a more pleasant experience for our kids and for us.Our second full day in Mesa Verde was Easter Sunday. The kids didn't realize it was Easter since we had celebrated the holiday the Sunday before our departure, but there was something special about celebrating the equinox and spring and new life that day. We played in the snow, chased down bugs with nets, and thought about trying to do a tour of some of the ruins, though Josie's and Emmett's sleeplessness put a damper on any major or strenuous exploring we might've thought we would do. Instead of a tour, we headed back to the museum in hopes of completing a driving loop that would allow us several opportunities to see ruins. The kids were enthusiastic until about the third time we had to re-buckle their seat belts. But we saw some ruins, got to have some fresh air, and had a little picnic lunch at a viewpoint of the most famous Mesa Verde village ruins - Cliff Palace. We tried to have the kids nap in the car on our way back to camp (the park is huge and the drive is long), but since neither of them have ever been good sleepers in the car, that didn't happen. So that meant for another early dinner and bedtime.
While driving around Mesa Verde, Josie had her first experience with a pit toilet. She was terrified of sitting on one (who can blame her?) and has since then regressed to using diapers throughout the day again. I guess potty training can wait until we get back.
On Monday the 22nd of April, we packed up our gear and continued our journey west. Our next stop was the Grand Canyon, and the most exciting part for Emmett was that we would be meeting up with his friends from school, Rio and Sierra, and their family. 
We had to stop at the visitor center on our way out to pledge to be great junior rangers then headed out over the mountains. We listened to LOTS of Disney's Frozen soundtrack and we stopped at the Four Corners monument and ate our picnic lunch after the obligatory photos of us standing on four states at one time. Then we met up with Rio and Sierra's family just before the turnoff into the national forest just outside the Grand Canyon - they had driven from Moab that day. We found a place to camp on a forest road just outside the park. Since we weren't in a campground and therefore didn't have toilets, we had to dig holes for our toilet. Emmett loves this - Josie did not.
As usual at this point, we were lacking sleep for our first full day at the Grand Canyon so we had a rough morning. We had hoped to hike the rim walk with the kids, but Emmett had several major meltdowns so instead we saw the visitor center and completed the Junior Ranger packets there. We got to see some elk, a couple of awesome views of the canyon, a great movie about the canyon and its history and formation, and then we headed back to the camper for naps. The kids napped hard and we had a delicious dinner then headed back to one of the visitor centers to catch a ranger talk and complete our Junior Ranger requirements. Due to the long line at the entrance into the park, we just missed the talk, but luckily the ranger worked with us to complete our badges anyway. We spent some time exploring the Watch Tower at the Desert View visitor center and headed back to camp for dinner and bed.
On Wednesday, we said "so long," to Rio and Sierra's family for a day (we would be meeting them the following day at Joshua Tree National Park) and we headed further west to see if we could get a campsite inside the park. Joshua Tree was in bloom this year, due to the flooding earlier in the season, so the campsites have been booked for months. We were hoping for a first-come first-served site on a Wednesday.
We stopped at the Grand Canyon campground for a quick shower, then stopped again for some groceries before the long drive. Unfortunately for us, showers and groceries took until after lunch time and so we still had a long drive ahead of us before camping out for the night. We called the visitor center at Joshua Tree and they thought we wouldn't be able to find a spot so late in the day and recommended we find a place at a private campground outside the park. We ended up staying overnight north of the town of Joshua Tree and though it was appealing to have showers and toilets in the desert heat, we really wanted to spend time inside of Joshua Tree and knew that driving in and out each day would be hard with young kids. So we packed up as quickly as we could on Thursday morning to head into the park to see if we could get a couple of sites inside.
On Friday we packed some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast and plenty of snacks and took the kids right over to hike after getting dressed. With 4 adults and 4 kids between 2 and 5 years old, we managed a less-than-2 mile hike and it took us over 2 hours. Every time we stopped Emmett made sure we understood how hot and exhausted he was and we reminded him that the longer we wait, the hotter the sun will be for the rest of our journey. 
We made our goal: Skull Rock. Josie decided to be scared of "Skuw Wock" and wouldn't stand with the group for a photo. But a few "cuddews" (cuddles) helped her feel well enough to get back to the car. We had pancakes for lunch and tried to get Josie to nap in Spencer's tent under a shade canopy, but she wasn't able to. Luckily, Emmett got to nap in his friends' camper and he was the only one who slept that afternoon (crazy). We let him stay up to see the stars with Josie's Christmas present - a kid telescope. He felt really good about himself for earning such a tremendous reward for sleeping. Josie got to look at the morning moon the next day - she was asleep before 7pm; long before the stars were visible.We had been planning to stay a full day in Joshua Tree again on Saturday and head to San Diego on Sunday, but with the heat in the mid to upper nineties and lack of napping options, we decided to find a campground for Saturday night that would be closer to our next destination. We found a place just north of San Diego where we showered and slept, then we headed to our AirBnB for an early check-in on Sunday. Stay tuned for another post (hopefully soon!) that tells the tales of our San Diego adventures. Until then, tata!
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