McFarland Family: Ain't it Grand

I am in shock from my actions over the past 30 hours!! I do now know what came over me!!!

Yesterday was "Field Trip Friday", although we had nothing planned due to Will having an appointment in the morning.

However, school went wonderfully and we were done with ALL subjects by about 10:30am! I guess we are getting into a routine or something! We were about to start fixing lunch when Will said that he was pretty much done for the day. I asked if he wanted to head down to Canyon de Chelly in Chinle, AZ. I have had that trip on my mind for quite a while. We threw some snacks into the car and took off, right at 11am.

This picture is for my dad; he knows why.
You can't see the rope that it holding her on the other side.

It was just after 1pm when we got to Chinle. Sunny and warm!! (Always a good thing; and why I did not want to head north.)

There were so many view points at this national monument!! We only went around one half of it. And it was free!!! Another good thing.

We enjoyed ourselves for a couple of hours here and then I made a joking comment about going ahead and going over to the Grand Canyon (another that has been on my list for quite a long time). We found us a route that involved a little bit of backtracking and took off. We traveled across land that could easily be mistaken for Mars. Seriously!!

At one point, we needed our old wagon back because things almost took a "Griswald-ish" turn.

We were driving into the park when dark was falling. Everyone else was on the way out and we were the only ones heading in the other direction. The kids were asking about this....
We had assumed there would be someplace to stay in the actual park, but we saw no signs for lodging as we continued to drive.

These guys were everywhere. Will got a tons of pics of them!

When we reached the entrance it was fully dark and Will decided to call someone. The signal was iffy and barely worked, and sometimes didn't. We had to drive through the entire park; in the dark, in order to finally find some civilization. It all worked out well though.
The part I am shocked with myself about it the total and complete lack of planning!!! I do not function this way. We had no extra clothes. Some snacks, but not a lot. This is something I would have spent weeks planning. We almost had to lay our van seats down and sleep in it!!

It was one of our most fun trips to date!!

FYI: we can get to the Grand Canyon in less time than it takes to get to SLC.

All photos will be posted on FB.

Here are some others from the month of March.