Grand Canyon and Bearizona

The Arizona portion of our summer vacation was a last minute addition.  Thanks to school being three days longer due to snow days, the last day was a Monday instead of the prior Wednesday we moved our vacation back one full week.  Then I realized I'd have to send William to summer camp for four days, then unenroll him to not pay the weekly fee when we were on vacation and then enroll him again.  Instead of all of that, we just went on a longer vacation!  All we had to do was turn our Southwest roundtrip into a three-legged flight and book our passage on the Grand Canyon Railway!  I got the idea from Arizona and California friends who had blogged or posted on Facebook about taking their families.  I'm really pleased we did it.  John was in charge of the rental car and surprised us by booking Silvercar.  We were right at home, because they only rent a single type of car: the same one we have!   John just liked zipping through Sedona and the mountains in a fast car!

 

First stop once we got to Williams, AZ ("Gateway to the Grand Canyon") was Bearizona - a drive through wildlife park!  They had sheep, deer, bison, and bears.  I'm sure I'm forgetting other things. . . We missed the last raptor show of the day, but we did get to do the drive thru, walk thru, and the petting zoo portions.  Feeding the baby goats was a highlight of the vacation! .

Williams, AZ is a tiny town (about 3,000) but they did have a Pizza Hut in front of our hotel, so William was thrilled!  He has been begging to try Pizza Hut; apparently he has seen TV commercials for its "best tasting" pizza.  He was not disappointed!  Mom and Dad weren't impressed with the salad bar that only had 4 ingredients and 6 dressings.  Day two was our roundtrip to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon on the "just corny enough" (my assessment) Grand Canyon Railway.  

We spent about 3 hours hiking the rim and doing a little bit of one trail into the canyon before boarding the train and heading back.  It was a great first glimpse at the canyon and a great way to tackle it with an out of shape mom nervous about her six-year-old falling in!   Maybe when he's an Eagle Scout he'll do a real hike in!

What I Did on my Summer Vacation

Ate In-N-Out Burger:

Photo ops in Sedona:

Saw wild animals at Bearizona:

Hiked at the Grand Canyon:

 

Played at LEGOLAND:

Toured an aircraft carrier:

Swam in the ocean:

Had FUN!

 

William's Grand Canyon Journal Entry

As part of William's summer reading program, I want him to do some journaling.  We're only one page in with his recap of the Grand Canyon.  I added some additional information to supplement his writing and photo.

Six Year Old Stats

We took William in for his six year old well-child check and he continues on his normal growth trajectory.   He is in the 20th percentile for weight at 41 pounds and the 10th percentile for height at 3 feet, 7 inches (43 inches).   He's never been greater than 50th percentile for weight and 25th percentile for height, so he is tracking well according to the pediatrician.  I didn't realize how short he was relative to his peers already until I saw all those really tall boys at the Kindergarten Celebration!   We're going to try to push more milk and more veggies this summer to see if he gets a growth spurt!  :-)  But let's face it, he's going to be a short kid based on genetics.

William S. and William B. 

YMCA and soccer buddies!

 

Facebook Kid Survey

This survey was floating around online this week, so I asked William to answer them questions as we were riding to dinner on Friday night.

1. What is something mom always says to you?  I love you.
2. How does your mom make you laugh?  Tickle me
3. How old is your mom? 36
4. What does your mom do when you're not around?  Miss me. (A little prompting from Grandma riding in the back seat with him.) 
5. What does your mom do for a job?  Work
6. What is your mom's favorite food? Tacos
7. What do you and your mom do together?  Play
8. How are you and your mom the same?  We have the same family and the same skin.
9. How are you and your mom different?  You're a girl and I'm a boy
10. How do you know your mom loves you?  She tells me.
11. What does your mom like most about your dad?  They love each other.
12. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?  Starbucks....to get a cappuccino.
13. How old was your Mom when you were born?  First he said I don't know, so we made it a math problem since he knows his age and mine.  

Pretty spot on results.  I was curious to hear what he would say about the job.   I thought it would be something about my computer or Chicago.   It's really hard to describe my job to a kid.  Adults, too, frankly.

Last Day of School

Monday is the actual last day of school, but I'm going to be traveling and William was supposed to wear his school shirt for Field Day and Kindergarten Celebration, so in my mind today is the last day!   Is had been a great year!

 

June 2015

 

 August 2014

 

Field Day

I volunteered at field day, which was a lot of craziness for one morning!  I was on station 5, so had the 5th graders to begin and ended with the kindergarteners.   It was semi-controlled chaos, but everyone seemed to have fun.   And my little guy was happy I was there!  Good or bad (good, I think), I volunteered at most of the events this year that a parent could help at (class holiday parties, art awareness teaching, field trip chaperone, office greeter, and Field Day), so he started to expect me to be there.   Luckily I can be flexible enough with my schedule that I can do that, because it's good for both of our souls!

 

 

6th Birthday Party

Once the switch was made to Star Wars theming, we returned the Power Rangers/TMNT/Transformer party favors.  Instead we sent everyone home with a balloon and cupcake.   Although I've been to at least four other birthday parties at Brunswick Zone, I had never hosted one.  It's crazy hard to keep track of all your party guests in this place between the rides and the arcade!  But everyone seemed to have fun.   The only picture I took outside of the party room was our neighbors riding the roller coaster. We were exhausted by the end of the day, since we started the morning with soccer, then went to Brunswick early to attend a classmate's birthday party, then transitioned to our party. 

After the party we fell into two camps:  resting (Rachel, Ryan, my mom, my dad, and me) or building (John and William).   It turned into a rainy day, so resting and playing inside were a good fit.  A super fun party, but I think next I'll lobby for Chuck E. Cheese like we did last year.  Strangely, that felt more in control!  Haha!

Turning 6

I can't believe what a big boy lives in my house now!  We had a lot of fun leading up to his birthday.  A few weeks in advance we hit up the party store to figure out the birthday party theme.  He liked the goody bag trinkets of a Power Rangers cup, TMNT slime, and a Transformer skate board.   When we finally went to Target to pick out a cake, they only had Transformers and it wasn't very cool.  He did love the Star Wars cake with Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker toys with light up lightsabers, so he picked that and we changed the theme. 

We made our annual trip to the mall for birthday pictures and a ride on the carousel.   My son is an expert negotiator, so we also had a Baskin-Robbins smoothie as dessert AND he got to pick an early birthday gift:  Build-a-Bear.  Iron Bear is his new BFF and has been a great addition to the family.   I just love that the little boy that seems so mature someday is a little boy who loves to cuddle his teddy bear at night.

On his actual birthday, we had donuts for breakfast and let him open the toys from us before school.  We gave him a bigger tennis racquet, a set of flashlights, and a Halo toy, which he has been coveting since Christmas.   Of course he wanted to stay home to assemble his Halo set, but I promised him I would pick him up from YMCA early.

I worked from home for the day and got to walk William to school and be the PTA greeter.  All birthday kids have their name called in morning announcements to come get a sticker and pencil from the principal.    I was very excited to get to see him at school.  He was excited to see me, too!

After school, Grandpa Roger and Grandma Joni arrived from their long drive and brought another round of gifts.  More Halo!  And another Nerf gun!  Yay!

After dinner at William's choice (Buffalo Wild Wings), we had birthday cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday.  What a great day with our 6-year old!