Our "Grand" Grand Canyon Spring Break Adventure, Pt. 1: Arriving At The Canyon

Our family has wanted to visit the Grand Canyon for a long time now. We live in Arizona, the "Grand Canyon State," for goodness' sake; surely we owed it to ourselves to see what all the fuss was about? Nathan and I took a short trip to the canyon with my parents many years ago, when Lorelai was still a toddler. For a while now, we had been seriously considering a return trip. Our kids are now mature and independent enough that they would both remember the trip and enjoy it.

But due to this and that, a trip to the Grand Canyon had always remained a "someday trip" in our minds...at least, until early this year. When our family was writing up our New Year's resolutions in January, we put "Camp At The Grand Canyon" on the list. For some reason, writing it down galvanized our resolve. We felt the need to finally take on this challenge (for us, all camping trips are a challenge; look at our trip to Puerto Penasco as just one example).

So, to get the ball rolling, we chose an actual date: we determined to take the camping trip over our kids' Spring Break in mid-March. We booked our campsite online for March 12th & 13th (good thing we booked it online; when we got there, we discovered the park's campsites were full to capacity!). Between finishing up the school play, Aurora's soccer season (more on that later), and the usual rush at school leading up to Spring Break, we fell behind schedule in our preparations a bit, but we managed to pull ourselves together and get the car loaded up in time.

From our home, it was about a five-hour drive up to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We stopped about halfway up, in northern Phoenix, at a very yummy place called Cafe Zupas. Technically, it is just a soup/salad/sandwich place, but it was all so fresh, creative, and flavorful that it ended up being a great find.

Plus, they have an Italian soda bar at their drink station! Who doesn't love that? And they include a chocolate-covered strawberry with every meal! What I'm trying to say is, Cafe Zupas is worth at least one visit.

After finishing our lunch and finally making our way out of Phoenix, it was fairly smooth sailing until the end of the trip. We had to make a quick stop in Flagstaff on the way up to pick up a few small items we'd forgotten; we arrived at Grand Canyon National Park right around dinnertime.

Even though we needed to set up our tent before dark, we still decided to zip over to Mather Point (located just outside the park's main visitor's center). Nathan and I reasoned that the kids would at least like a glimpse of the canyon that day...the reason we had driven all that way!

We were all suitably impressed. I think evening is a terrific time to get a look at the Grand Canyon; the descending sun creates an impressive riot of colors and shadows all along the canyon's walls. There is so much of its character revealed at those twilight hours! We didn't stay long to admire it, though...we had to hurry to our campsite and get ourselves squared away for the night.

We reserved a spot at Mather Campground, about a mile's walk from the South Rim. As campsites go, this was definitely one of the cozier locations we'd stayed in. There were plenty of trees/shade around us; we had a picnic table and a fire pit; and we had plenty of room to pitch our tent. Some of the tent poles had gotten pretty twisted around during our windy Rocky Point trip, but thankfully we got it all straightened out and the tent went up with no problem. We even managed to get our fire going and dinner cooked (carne asada, beans & tortillas) before it got too dark.

This is just some of the snow we saw dusted over everything

There was just one catch with this lovely campsite: it was pretty cold. I mean, cold. When we booked our camping trip (back in January), we knew we were risking chilly weather by visiting at that time of year. The Grand Canyon's South Rim is located more than 6,000 feet above sea level, and is a few hundred miles north of our sunny corner of Arizona. It follows that winter would last longer in that area. (In fact, the canyon's North Rim is completely closed to all campers in March due to the harsh conditions.) As we were driving between Flagstaff and Tusayan (the small village outside the park), we saw patches of snow everywhere along the ground. Once inside the park, we saw several places which were dusted with old snowfall. Clearly, the weather hadn't "warmed up" to a comfortable level yet.

As usual, our girls didn't well heed our warnings when we told them to wear their coats outside. When Lorelai got out of the car to check out Mather Point, she didn't put her coat on, insisting that she wouldn't need it. About 15 minutes later, she was shivering and very cold. After dinner was cooking, I warned Nathan that he'd better go buy more firewood, so we could have something to warm up to the following morning.

The cold ended up being quite a shock for our kids. It's one thing to warn them of the impending chilly weather while we're all sitting in our warm, comfortable home in Sahuarita. It's quite another thing to sit around a fire while the temperature drops below freezing, and the only thing protecting you from the elements is a thin tent and a (hopefully warm enough) sleeping bag. It didn't really sink in what a night we were in for until we were in the middle of it. Poor Aurora didn't even put on extra layers when she went to sleep that night; as a result, she woke up several times shivering and crying from cold and discomfort.

When I checked the weather later on, after our trip, I discovered that the overnight low temperature was a chilling 24 degrees Fahrenheit. When I was a teen, I was snowed on at my first Girls' Camp, and that was a very cold night. Other than that, I can't remember ever being so cold at night in my life. It was a shock to the system, and very difficult for all of us. But somehow, we survived! We were definitely nervous going into the evening, and I would never call our sleep that night "restful." But now that it is all over, we can definitely say it is something we "survived"! It will be a story to tell our friends and family in years to come. The next morning, we had a lot of excitement planned, but first we had to regain feeling in our toes and fingers...they felt numb for hours!

Over The Rainbow

Wow, I am so behind on blogging. Better get going! Sorry about being a terrible blogger lately; I promise to not give up on blogging, but with a busy life, things may slow down a bit.

Way, way back at the beginning of this school year, Celeste got a part in Great Expectations Academy's production of The Wizard Of Oz. This was a dream come true for her: she has been a huge fan of Oz since she was very young. She's been watching the 1939 movie since she was old enough to talk; and while she doesn't watch it now as often as she used to, she has never stopped loving it. It inspired her so much she had a Wizard Of Oz-themed birthday party at the tender age of three! Celeste has started seeking out other "Oz" properties in recent years as well, like the movies Oz the Great and Powerful and Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return). And of course, Celeste loved the heck out of the musical Wicked when we watched it on stage last fall...she had a birthday party based on that play just a few months ago!

Perhaps, then it was fate that Celeste was able to participate in this year's school play; it helped her take a personal "journey" to Oz, in a way. Even if "Oz" was mostly made up of cardboard sets and felt flowers, it was enough; every Thursday after rehearsals, it seemed as if Celeste was returning from a visit to a marvelous fantastical world.

On a personal note, it made me so happy that she got to be a Munchkin; it was a perfect fit for her! It wasn't just her age (she was one of the youngest kids cast in the show). It is her sweet, youthful enthusiasm for life and her intense optimism that made her a perfect fit for the jubilant, childlike Munchkins. That, plus she looked so darn cute in her costume.

Celeste (and her friends Elise, left, and Elsie, center) were members of the Munchkin Lullaby League & they had their own song and dance solo, just like in the movie!

 Lorelai chose not to try out for the play this year. She'd had small parts in Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, the two previous school plays. Even though she had a great time participating in both shows, Lorelai decided she wanted to try some other extracurricular activities this school year, and wanted to "take a break" from the play so as to free up her schedule a bit. She didn't participate in the audition, but she instead signed up to be a crew member. Diana, the play's director, was initially going to let only middle school students be crew members, but she trusted fifth-grader Lorelai enough to make an exception in her case. Luckily, this turned out pretty well for everyone (a little more on this later).

This year, the main parts of the play were double-cast (just like Cinderella two years before). The smaller parts, though, like the flying monkeys, Winkies, and Munchkins, were played by the same kids for every show. But even these "lesser" parts still had a lot to do, so Celeste and her fellow Munchkins ended up attending every rehearsal. Each rehearsal had three different focuses: acting, singing, and dancing...and each of these focuses had its own instructor. As a result, the performers were getting a more intense, rounded instruction than they had had for previous plays. In my opinion, this strategy worked out to the benefit of the whole show; as the date of the play drew near, the cast appeared more prepared than in previous years.

There were two big differences in the school play this year. First, the show was performed in a different location than the previous two years. Instead of using the large LDS stake center closer to our neighborhood, the director decided to put on the show at the older LDS meetinghouse instead. There were several reasons for this, many related to scheduling complications. Although the cultural center/gymnasium is a lot smaller in this older building, the actual stage is a lot better than the one in the stake center. (it's deeper, and it has better lights and curtains, for instance). The smaller gymnasium also meant the sound system worked a lot more efficiently than it had at the stake center (the surround speakers and wireless microphones had fewer technical difficulties, and it was a lot easier to hear all the performers at showtime). Finally, the older meetinghouse is located very close to Great Expectations Academy, which made it easier for students to move between the two locations.

The other big change was in the performance schedule. Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast were both performed in mid-April. But The Wizard of Oz was performed the first weekend in March, almost a month and a half earlier. The reason for moving the performance date up was, again, a matter of ease in scheduling. Not only was it easier to reserve the LDS meetinghouse for those dates, but there were fewer conflicts with important school events as well. Late March is when the school has its two-week Spring Break; this long break has tended to kill the momentum of the show's development in years past. In addition, April is standardized testing month; besides that, the school's jazz band (which usually includes a large number of cast members) attends a jazz festival in California every April very close to showtime. It was nice to get the play "over with" a little earlier in the year, so as to avoid crowding the kids' schedules too much.

The catch to the earlier performance, of course, was an earlier start in the year as well. In previous years, play try-outs weren't held until late August or early September. This school year, tryouts happened just a week or so after school began (which for us is late July). In addition, there were more rehearsals held over holiday breaks; a few were held during our school's three-week Christmas break, for example. As a result, the rehearsals were a little more "urgent" and intense than in years past; thankfully, it all came together at the right time and the end results were great, as usual!

 

 

As in previous years, I wasn't able to attend rehearsals or help out much, due to my piano lessons after school. But I was able to attend the odd rehearsal that fell during a holiday break. I love seeing plays come together, bit by bit...it is fascinating to watch the actors grow into their roles and the crew to start creating magic. During the final week leading up to the show, I was able to help set up some of the sets and work backstage with scenery and props.

 

The last couple of weeks before showtime were a little bit hectic for everyone, but everyone was still very excited anyway.  By the night of the technical rehearsals, I could sense the kids' nerves, but also their determination and dedication. It seems to me that with every year that passes, the kids get more and more "professional" and prepared for the show. I think Diana is slowly but surely turning the kids of Great Expectations Academy into bonafide performers!

 

And the crew members (especially Lorelai...no, I'm not at all biased) did a good job this year, too! For the first couple of months on the crew, Lorelai helped out assembling costume pieces (many of the Munchkins doubled as "trees" for the scary forest scenes, and the crew spent a lot of time sewing the "bark" pieces together). She also helped out a bit with painting sets. But during one rehearsal, Diana asked Lorelai if she wouldn't mind operating the CD player with the musical soundtrack. That way, Diana could help the performers get their parts right without having to worry about the musical cues.

 

Lorelai happily complied, and did such a good job that she was asked to help with the musical cues at the next rehearsal...and the next. One week, when crew was not required to attend practice, Lorelai stayed home...and I got a message from Diana the next day to "please send Lorelai next time, and every time until the performances." Apparently, she had been very helpful for them. I was so proud of how responsible Lorelai was, and how determined to do a good job. She paid close attention to everything going on, almost never missed a cue, and stayed focused on her task for the entire rehearsal. In the end, she was rewarded by being chosen to cue up the soundtrack for the actual performances as well! She did an amazing job, winning the respect of the other adults who were handling the technical side of things. 

 

There was one other big change in the performances this year; instead of putting on two shows, the cast put on three shows! Their first performance was on Friday morning, March 4th (the morning after the late-night tech rehearsal; Celeste and many of her young Munchkin friends were pretty tired out by this point!). This morning performance was exclusively for the students & teachers of Great Expectations Academy. The whole school traveled to the church building to see the show (the kindergartners took the bus, while the older students walked).

There weren't enough chairs for everyone, so everyone sat on the floor of the gym to watch. Everyone was a bit nervous, and this performance was a bit sloppy, both on-stage and backstage. However, it was a good opportunity to "work out the bugs" and fix the mistakes before the two evening shows. And despite the shakiness, the kids loved the show. I'd been worried about having all the young kids crammed so close together in the gym; I worried everyone would lose interest and start goofing off and causing trouble. As it turned out, I needn't have worried; even the young kindergartners were completely entranced by the performance and didn't miss a word!

Look, they even made the Lifetime section of the local paper!

 After that daytime performance, the kids went back to school (glittery makeup and outlandish hairdos intact!). That afternoon, we tried to let the kids rest up for the evening show. When we made it back to the church building that night, we discovered that someone had done a little decorating in our absence:

 

It was fun to "follow the yellow brick road" into the meetinghouse to find our seats!

Overall, the kids did an amazing job. I worked backstage at both the Friday morning and Friday evening shows, and I noticed the kids getting more confident and loose with each performance. You could almost see their confidence and enthusiasm growing! I was able to watch the Saturday night show (the only one performed by the "B Cast"; the Friday shows featured the "A Cast"), and it was great to experience it with a large, enthusiastic audience.

The celebration afterwards didn't last too long; after three performances in two days, Celeste and Lorelai were pooped! But they managed to get some photos with lots of their friends and fellow cast members:

 

 

 

 

I am so happy my beautiful Munchkin Celeste got to have the opportunity to be a Lullaby League girl, and wow the crowd with her adorableness. It was really a dream come true for her to be able to participate in The Wizard of Oz, and I'm so glad she had that opportunity. Unfortunately, this version of the play did not allow for video recordings, so we don't have an official DVD of the performance, unlike the two preceding years. However, we took lots of pictures and we all know the songs by heart by now, so those good memories will have to do.

 

 

We are all curious to see what happens with the play next year. We don't know what it will be yet; Diana and her sister Cindy (who serves as co-director/choreographer) are still weighing their options. Lorelai told me she wants to try out; and even if she doesn't get a part in the show, she told me she would be happy to work as a crew member again. So she's in a win-win situation! I'm sure Celeste would like to be on stage again next year, and I'm sure she'll try her hardest to make the next show. She is definitely the more "dramatic" of my two older girls, so it would not surprise me to see her participating in these shows for as long as she is able. Either way, I'm glad this year was such a good experience for her (and for Lorelai, too). It makes for a busy schedule, but it has been a very positive experience for my kids overall.

A Rodeo Days Weekend With A Bunch Of "Firsts"

Wow, I have been busy and distracted over the last month. Better get blogging!

Rodeo Days is often a busy time for our family. Since our kids have a four-day weekend, we often take the time to go out and seek adventure. Sometimes we try something "big," like a trip to San Diego. Sometimes we go "smaller" and pick a few fun local events to attend. This year, for the first time, our family tried a combination of both approaches...by splitting up!

Now that Lorelai is in our charter school's jazz band, she is getting the opportunity to perform in public on multiple occasions. The band director, Mark, has lots of connections both in and out of Arizona, and he likes booking extra "gigs," so the kids get lots of performance experience (something that is usually hard to come by for middle-school bands!). Last fall, the kids had a gig at a local Rotary Club dinner. Then there was the Christmas school concert, at which Lorelai had a solo of her own.

But in 2016, the Great Expectations Academy jazz band traditionally starts its "touring season." There are multiple music festivals the band attends each winter semester, both inside Arizona and out of state. This means the band travels just as a high-school band would; they ride long distances in a bus, spend nights together in hotels, and spend days on college campuses performing and attending "workshops" to improve their skills. It sometimes feels hard to believe my "little" ten-year-old daughter is already old enough to go on overnight trips...and yet, here we are!!

The first band trip of the year was to Northern Arizona University's annual Jazz Festival in Flagstaff, which is traditionally held over the last full weekend of February. This also happens to be Rodeo Days weekend, but NAU doesn't care; Rodeo Days is just a weird "Tucson thing." So it was that on Wednesday, February 24th, I dropped Lorelai off at the school with the other girls, then stayed behind a bit to watch her get loaded up into the school's official bus. She had a small suitcase packed, and I even gave her a small pre-paid cell phone too, so we could contact her when needed.

 

It was heartwarming to see some of the students turn out to give the band students a "heroic sendoff" (they even made several posters for them!). It was also a little heartbreaking to sit on a bench and watch my "little girl" ride away from me (far away!) for a few days. Luckily, there were many adult chaperones along for the ride (including a few personal friends), so that helped me feel a bit better about the situation. Still, though, it felt like a significant first step in my oldest daughter's life. She's becoming a "big kid," and soon she'll be a "young woman." I am still trying to process how I feel about that!

Lorelai wouldn't be coming back until late Friday night, which meant that our Thursday & Friday off of school would be just Celeste, Aurora, and myself (Nathan, of course, would be at work). What to do? The girls were a bit jealous of Lorelai, who was off on a "big adventure," so I decided to take them to a well-known local event our family had never before attended...

...the Tucson Rodeo Parade! I had seen parts of this parade before (before the kids were born, I worked for a company located along the parade route), but I had never taken the kids before. We thought it might be fun to try it out!

We drove quickly and got there early. Some friends had told us to be there 2 hours early because of the crowds, but we made it an hour in advance, and we still managed to get seats right next to the swanky grandstand seating.

It was kind of a long wait for Celeste and Aurora, but I got them some cotton candy and that, of course, made everything better. Luckily, it was a beautiful clear, cool morning, so it was no trouble to sit waiting for everything to start.

The girls were overjoyed when it finally got underway. They love horses, and since this parade frequently touts itself as "the longest non-motorized parade in America," there were many, many, MANY horses to be seen (along with several donkeys, asses, and ponies).

 

 

One of the Sahuarita high school marching bands participated in the parade, and we tried to cheer loudly for them.

I also saw Nancy, a friend of mine, riding on the LDS Church's contribution to the parade--a float commemorating the Mormon Batallion, which marched through Tucson at one point in their long cross-country journey. 

Since every single float/carriage/wagon/what-have-you in the parade was pulled by animals, that meant the parade went on for a looooooong time. The "flow" of this parade was, to put it mildly, not that great. We would see several groups file by in rapid succession, then wait minutes at a time before anyone else showed up. At times, the girls and I wondered if the parade was over!

This "Star Wars"-themed wagon was especially incongruous...Darth Vader being pulled by horses??

 

But we managed to make it through the whole thing, despite a bit of grumbling from Celeste and Aurora on occasion. And afterwards we had lunch at CostCo and the girls went to a playdate, so it all worked out in the end.

The next day of our Rodeo Days weekend (Friday) was fairly laid-back; the two younger girls and I just spent the time doing laundry, cleaning house, and relaxing. That evening was somewhat hectic; Aurora had a soccer game that night, and we had to pick Lorelai up at the school after a triumphant return from her trip to Flagstaff!

I sadly don't have any video of the band's performance (although a few "band moms" who had chaperoned the trip posted a few videos online for all us parents to see). However, everyone came home in very good spirits. The jazz festival at NAU was not a competition between schools; however, each band had to perform in front of a panel of three judges, who then rated them based on performance. Although GEA's jazz band has traveled to this festival almost every year, their grades vary depending on the year. After all, they are competing against high school bands!

However, this year the band exceeded everyone's expectations; the judges unanimously awarded them a Superior With Distinction rating. It was the highest rating the school had received in several years! Everyone was very excited by the results, and all the parents were terribly proud as well. Lorelai had been practicing many long hours on the trombone in the weeks leading up to the recital (as had most of her band-mates, I'm sure). I was beyond happy for them that all their hard work paid off so well!

It wasn't all work on the Flagstaff trip; the kids also got to visit Bearizona, a wildlife park with many "free-roaming" animals. And, of course, they also swam a lot at the hotel pool; to hear Lorelai tell it, that was her favorite part of the trip!

Even after picking her up Friday night, Lorelai's weekend of jazz wasn't done yet. GEA had one more "gig" at which to perform--Jazz in the Desert, an annual festival put on by a Rotary Club branch in Green Valley. Mark, the director, was kind enough to give me a ticket to the event, and so I was able to see my girl (and all her hard-working bandmates) perform, fresh off her victorious Flagstaff trip.

Perhaps I am biased, but I thought they did wonderfully! It was really interesting to compare their performance with the performances of the other bands at the festival; all of which were from local high schools. For years now, GEA's band has competed at a high school level. I have always liked that aspect of our school, because of the way it encourages the kids to perform at a higher level.

I tried to compare all the bands objectively, and I honestly felt that GEA actually had a better overall sound than a few of the high school bands that attended the festival. The biggest difference I noticed was in the difficulty level of the songs GEA chose; they tended to be somewhat easier than the more difficult high school pieces. Other than that, though, I thought they were easily comparable; and GEA's best soloists were easily on the level with many of the high school soloists.

This is just Lorelai's first year in the band, but I know she wants to be a part of it in the years to come! She has blossomed both musically and socially by being part of the band, and I can't wait to see the rest of that progression. I have to give a lot of credit to "Mr. Mark," who does such a great job getting the kids to cohere as a unit and create awesome music. It should be an interesting ride.

And Lorelai still has two more band trips this year! We'll see how they go. But this Rodeo Days was filled with the sound of jazz music; and, I suspect, so will many Rodeo Days weekends in the years to come!