Kicking off Earth Week

Some of you may know that my family traveled to California this week to attend a wedding. Since we had to drive (airline tickets for 6 people not being in my budget!) we decided to make a real vacation of it and stay for a week. It's about a 20 hour drive from Oklahoma to California, so we broke it into two days. We drove through some beautiful countryside in New Mexico:

We made it to Flagstaff, AZ on Saturday, and were totally astounded by the snow! Luckily we got a hotel before the roads got too bad, but when we woke up in the morning we saw more snow than we had seen in Oklahoma all winter!

Snow is not what I generally think of when I think Arizona lol. We were woefully under dressed, having come from 80+ degree temperatures and going to California where the weather forecast said 75 degrees for the week. I didn't even pack any shoes except for my heels for the wedding and sandals for walking around - my toes were freezing!

The next morning we decided to take a small detour and visit the Grand Canyon. The kids and I had never been before and my husband had only been once when he was really young. It was totally worth the extra drive time! In fact, I think that we'll go back again and just make a vacation out of visiting the park - there was so much to see and do, and we were very reluctant to leave. If you get a chance to go, make sure to bring your school id card - I got an educator's pack for my classroom with some interesting brochures and ideas! You also get an extra teacher discount when you buy a membership. Plus, you get a super cool recycled-from-plastic-water-bottles bag:

I also picked up this book to read to my kiddos when I get back - I loved the rhymes and beautiful illustrations:

I thought that seeing one of the 7 Wonders of the Natural World was a great way to kick off Earth Week! The Grand Canyon was a ton of fun for my kids - even though we were a little cold and we were rushed to get back on the road, we had a blast. There's a program for kids to become a Junior Park Ranger and my kids were begging to be allowed to do it on our way home at the end of the week.

Our new goal is to visit as many national parks as wee can! We checked our state, and there are several  National Parks in Oklahoma that we will try to visit this summer. In honor of Earth Week, why not see if there are any National Parks in your area - either for a family getaway or a field trip! If it's too far away, consider doing a webquest about the park!