Christmas break -Part 1 (late post)

This last Christmas "break" was a lot.  It was incredible, amazing, adventurous, and a lot.

We kicked off this EPIC with a road trip to the Grand Canyon.  My mom thankfully went with us because John ended up incredibly sick for several weeks.  We met up with close friends and family and had a lifetime trip!  My kids got to spend a week in the snow, the mountains, and the canyons at the grand Canyon.

Now, I'm spreading this into several parts, because I felt like it was TOO much amazing adventure to put into just one blog post.  This one will be Grand Canyon focused.

Now, a couple years ago, we went to the Grand Canyon on the way to California, and it was incredible!  It was fall, so the colors were breathtaking and the weather was beautiful.  I determined to go back and enjoy it for a few days more.  This time, we decided to make it part of our "Christmas Break" vacation.  The way there we got to explore Bandalier National Monument and see so many mountains and amazing desert views.

While we were at the Grand Canyon, our youngest thought for SURE we were at the North Pole.  :)  He saw Mule deer (which he promptly called reindeer), forest of snow, and incredible views.  Now, you may think, Grand Canyon is hot right??  Arizona in winter, I definitely do not think snow.  I apparently forgot the Grand Canyon is at 6,000 elevation, so yes, lots of snow, and cold.  Even though it wasn't quite what we were expecting, it was incredible to our Texas boys.

They were so enthralled with making "snow babies", snowball fights, hiking through the cold.  Yes, they wore out quickly, so taking three days to slow down and do a couple hours of hiking every day was definitely the way to go.  We stayed at the Grand Canyon (one minutes walk from the Rim), which was so much fun!  We go to come and go as we needed, ate food at the lodge, and spent a lot of quality time with board games, reading, family time, and of course, HIKING!

The last day, Samuel (my oldest), my brother and our friend and I all decided to go down the Bright Angel Trail.  I would HIGHLY recommend doing this in the winter.  It was cold, but the hiking quickly warmed us up.  We had no crowds, no overheating, and plenty of water and snacks.  As we hiked down into the Canyon, we got to see spectacular views the entire morning.  It was so fun to see how the lighting changed constantly, the views as we went down changed, and it was a lot easier than we anticipated.  We ended up meeting lots of random people, having good conversations, and had a once in a lifetime experience for sure!

I'm so glad that as a homeschool mom, I get to share these experiences with my boys.  They don't always enjoy the road trips. or what we do, but I hope that when they look back they see they had amazing adventures in their life and that they look back on these memories fondly.