A Large Hole in the Ground and the Grand Canyon

Good morning,

     Turns out we were only about 15 miles from the Arizona border yesterday.  

 At our first stop we checked out the Painted Desert Visitor Center, but didn't actually go to the Painted Desert or the Petrified Forest.  Caleb said we would save that for the trip back, and Hayley said the Petrified Forest was pretty boring anyway.
  So then we headed to Meteor Crater which is a seriously large hole in the ground where a meteor hit the Earth.  Pretty amazing to see, but caused mass confusion for the kids.  Where is the rock?  Why was it on fire?  I want to see the rock, let's find it.

 Here are the kids at the bottom of the crater mural...

 After the crater we headed to the Grand Canyon.  As we got close we saw this elk out the window.  I got the camera out of the glove box, turned it on, lens cap off, window down, and picture taken in, I kid you not, less than 10 seconds.  I have mad fast elk photography skills.

 Here we are at Mater Point, I think....

 The Grand Canyon with Joe is pretty stressful.  There aren't rails for the most part, and the ones they do have he can walk under.  So we spent a lot of time saying, "not so close Joe, stop jumping, please don't swing on the rails, etc..." Caleb ended up just holding on to the back of his shirt the whole time.  If ever there was a reason to have one of those kid leashes it would be Joe at the Grand Canyon.

We spent about 3 hours walking and riding the buses (I think the kids were more excited about the bus rides) and then headed back to Flagstaff to see Mama J and Papa Tim who are spending the week in Sedona.  By the end of today we should officially be in California!!