Fourth Grade 2016 - Age 9

Fourth grade is feeling a bit *weird* to me. In the past, I've felt each grade to be an exciting new page in the book of Tessa. This year feels more like we've started a new paragraph on last year's page. I can't quite pinpoint why. Maybe it's our curriculum. Maybe it's Tessa's age. Maybe we've hit some sort of homeschooling plateau. Maybe it's the gloomy skies. Maybe it's simply the nature of fourth grade. Whatever the reason, the plan is pretty simple this year...relax, march on, and enjoy.

Tessa's Third Grade 2015 - Age 8 pic. - Look how much her hair has grown!

Tessa's first day of fourth grade!

Introducing Growing Girls Scouting Helpers on Teachers Pay Teachers

I am super excited to introduce Blue House School's new Growing Girls Scouting Helpers store on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Growing Girls Scouting Helpers TPT Store

I have immensely enjoyed sharing my daughter's Girl Scout badge-earning efforts these past few years on Blue House School blog. In this time, I have been both humbled and delighted to learn that other leaders and parents have found these posts useful in our shared pursuit to help girls grow into strong, independent women. Understanding just how overwhelming and time-consuming researching and planning badge projects can be has led me to want to help even more.

Growing Girls Scouting Helpers offers printable paper activity packs designed to fulfill various Girl Scout badge steps with minimal supplies, ink and time. They are perfect for the leader on the go, or a quick-and-easy way to squeeze one more step into a troop meeting. Many are also ideal for multi-level troops where a leader's time may be divided, for home use, badge make-up packets, and Juliettes.

Shop Growing Girls Scouting Helpers at Teachers Pay Teachers. Be sure to click the green star under my name to follow me and receive new product updates and sale announcements.

Follow the Growing Girls Scouting Helpers Pinterest board for new product updates as well!

Last-Minute Beach Getaway (Seagrove Beach, FL) - July 2015

What do you do when the beach and blue seas are calling your name, but your pooch is too old to stay at her usual digs? Take her with you, of course! I'm not sure why it took us all year to figure this out. It wasn't so much that the thought hadn't occurred to us, it was more committing ourselves to driving hundreds of miles with an elderly dog in tow, finding a nice, yet affordable place walking-distance to the beach that would also accept a dog, plus the logistics of doing so. (Not to mention, accepting that a cruise or trip to Disney just wasn't in the cards this year.)

A little over two weeks to vacation time, we knew if we didn't buckle down very soon, it was going to be a staycation for us and no one wanted that (well, Sweetpea probably would have been okay with it). Not long after, we logged onto VRBO.com, closed our eyes, and booked us a vacation. While not our most exotic getaway, it was a good and memorable trip.

Woohoo, no June grass! These were some of the clearest waters we have seen anywhere in Florida. (The dark blotches are gigantic schools of fish!)

In our many vacations to Florida, we had never tried tubing the emerald waters. The waves were such that we found it to be a most relaxing way to spend our days.

Tessa delighted in daily visits from the ice cream truck!

Previous guests at the condo we stayed at had graciously left several new kites. Tessa selected her favorite and enjoyed several minutes of kite flying on the beach. This was another first for us. She was really good at making it perform loops. Me? Not so much. 

Tessa insisted on breakfast on the balcony. Who could blame her?

I think Florida weather agreed with Sweetpea, our thirteen-year-old wire fox terrier. Her arthritis improved to the point that she walked like a youngin again. A few days upon returning from our trip, her lungs started gurgling. We found out that she has congestive heart failure. My husband has another week of vacation coming up. We're trying to decide whether she can handle one more trip, as she did so well and seemed so happy.

After one sun-drenched day, we enjoyed an early dinner at Pizza By the Sea, a favorite Fort Walton Beach eatery of ours.

Staying a little further west on the Panhandle this time, we discovered a new ice cream haunt. Blue Mountain Beach Creamery makes their own ice cream and features creative flavors. The banana pudding cone I had was so good I ordered it both times we stopped by.

Third Grade 2015 - Age 8

A bit of a slow start this morning, but we got 'er done. Tessa's quite excited about starting so many new curricula this year. Wordly Wise 3000, CLE Reading and Beast Academy were big hits. Hopefully, that enthusiasm will endure. Tomorrow, we attempt New American Cursive and CAP's Writing & Rhetoric Book 1: Fable. Wish us luck!

See how she's grown! - Tessa's Second Grade 2014 - Age 7 pic.

Tessa's first day of third grade!

Tessa Makes "Big" Hair Donation to Wigs for Kids

It was high time for a hair cut! After mentioning to Tessa about a month ago that I thought her hair might be long enough for her to donate to a child in need, she decided this was something she definitely wanted to do. Committed to providing long enough pieces of her hair to help make a "girl wig," she donated five ponytails 13-14 inches in length each to Wigs for Kids. Wigs for Kids is partnered with Girl Scouts to help bring awareness to the great need for hair donations. Participants have the opportunity to "learn more about illnesses that cause hair loss" and can help "make a difference in the lives of other children." Any Girl Scout may also receive a custom patch to commemorate her hair donation.

Tessa donated five ponytails 13-14 inches in length each to Wigs for Kids. It can take 20-30 ponytails to make one wig.

Tessa wanted to donate enough of her hair to help make a girl-length wig.

Wigs for Kids custom Girl Scout patch

Second Grade 2014 - Age 7

Five weeks off and we're back again! How crazy is it that this is our fourth year homeschooling? Some days it seems like yesterday that we unwittingly started this adventure. Other times, it seems every bit that long. You may remember we didn't set out to homeschool. Our original plan was to help Tessa develop some basic reading and math skills at home that would give her a leg up her first year at public school. As is often the case in life, we ended up on a much different path than the one we began. Thank goodness that path led us right back to our front door. I don't often proclaim this or that to be a blessing, but homeschooling has been just that for our family.

Taking Tessa's first day back pic always precipitates a deluge of memories. This year, though, I was simply awestruck by how much more mature she looks than in last year's photo. As I mentioned in a previous post, seven seems like a magical age for Tessa. I know it's not just her body that has grown leaps and bounds this past year but her brain too. I expect great things from Tessa this year and can't wait witness every one of them.

Tessa's first day of second grade!

T Minus 2 Weeks and Counting...

Although we pretty much homeschool year around, we decided to take a much-needed five-week break from everything except for some leisurely summer reading this year. Let me rephrase that. Tessa has been enjoying a break. I, on the other hand, have been diligently (perhaps "frantically" would be a better descriptor) finalizing our second grade schedule and lesson plans. I have been at this since January, but this year has proven to be especially challenging.

Seven seems to be a magic age for Tessa. Her talents and capabilities are really starting to blossom. I want to take advantage of this new potential during school time, but keeping everything I want to explore with her within a four-hour window has been tough. My solution is to try block scheduling for our "elective" subjects, plus reading this year. Every six weeks, we will rotate between Composer Study/Music and Artist Study/Art, plus Chemistry and Early Modern History as well as what we use for reading. I think this will also help me stave off burnout. In previous years, I had to research and request between 50-75 science and history books, DVDs, etc. from the library every couple of weeks. Now, I will only have to order six weeks worth for one subject or the other at a time (and make sure I keep them renewed). Keeping my fingers crossed that it all works out.

We'll start back August 18, 2014.

A quick pic of Tessa enjoying summer. Climbing the chunky rocks at our local park helped fill the lulls of waiting for Forth of July fireworks to start.

Tessa's Second Grade Schedule

Daily

Vocabulary - A Word a Day, Grade 2

Grammar - Preparing to Build, English 2
Writing - Writing With Ease, Levels 1 & 2

Reading - The Elson Readers: Book One (Block 1), historical fiction (Block 2), literature study (Block 3), All About Reading, Levels 3 & 4 (Blocks 4-6)

Spelling - All About Spelling, Level 2

Math - Singapore Math 2B & 3A, Didax Daily Mental Math, Grade 3

Logic (Friday only.) - Primarily Logic, and then Mindware Analogy Challenges: Level A, Perplexors: Basic Level

Spanish (Tuesday & Thursday only.) - Song School Spanish

Electives - Blocks 1, 3 & 5

Composer Study/Music (Monday, Wednesday & Friday only.) - The Story of the Orchestra

Chemistry - Building Blocks of Matter + Hands-On Chemistry Experiments + Fizz, Bubble & Flash!

Electives - Blocks 2, 4 & 6

Artist Study/Art (Monday, Wednesday & Friday only.) - Picture Study Portfolios + Home Art Studio

Early Modern History - History Odyssey: Early Modern, Level 1

Extracurricular Activities

Gymnastics

Girl Scouts - Brownies

* Titles listed are primary curricula only. Updated March 14, 2015...things changed a bit.

Read-Alouds - 2013-14

While we have read to Tessa from birth, it's pretty much always been picture books...lot and lots of picture books. Not that that's bad. Because it's not. It's just that ever since I read The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease, I've been thinking about adding longer, more literary read-alouds to our repertoire. I think I have finally adequately motivated myself to do it. It's not that I have a problem reading longer selections. Heck, I do it all of time during school. And, it's not that Tessa won't sit and listen. The issue is time. Between schooling, planning school, keeping our blog up to date, creating curriculum helps to sell on Currclick and ensuring that the house doesn't fall in around us, I simply don't have a lot of any time left. That's means extra reading gets pushed off to bedtime. Since I'm a read-to-the-end-of-the-chapter kind of girl, I know that if I don't stay motivated, I won't be able to muster up the energy required to read an entire chapter from a longer book so late at night. That's why I'm posting our read-alouds here...to keep me going.

My goal is to read through one major read-aloud a month. Since we are studying Medieval Times this year, most will probably revolve around that theme. However, I'm going to try to squeeze in some shorter, non-related read-alouds here and there.


April 2014

Tessa adored The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Having never read the original myself before, I was surprised (and delighted) by the vast differences between it and the movie (which, I hate). The book is so good! The superb Kindle version linked below includes original color illustrations by W. W. Denslow, which are simply charming. I highly recommend it. It's cheap too!

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum

March 2014

The style and unfamiliar Polynesian vocabulary made this book a bit challenging to read aloud, but Tessa and I both enjoyed it. Tessa's a sucker for animal sidekicks, so she particularly enjoyed the pictures with Uri in them. It was a bit like a game of Eye Spy for her. Be sure to select a copy that features Sperry's original art.

Call It Courage - Armstrong Sperry

February 2014

Another book I was just so-so about. Actually, I didn't really care for it at all. There never seemed to be much going on. Luckily, it was a short and easy read...aside from having my tongue twist up saying the names of the three cats every other sentence. Of course, Tessa liked the book and begged me to read it on the nights I wanted to skip out. She enjoyed the fair number of pictures too. Although this book is set in 1420 Spain, I think the educational value is on the limited side.

By the way, this title is out-of-print, so I had to track down a used copy.

Three Swords for Granada - Walter Dean Myers

January 2014

I'm learning that Tessa loves the classics. Another winner in her book!

Robin Hood - Paul Creswick

December 2013

Meh, we didn't love it (or maybe it was just me who didn't). Tessa liked it enough that she wanted me to read it even when I didn't feel like it. At least she's been exposed to the story.

Ivanhoe - Marianna Mayer

November 2013

Loved, loved, loved Odd and the Frost Giants!! Highly recommend.

Odd and the Frost Giants - Neil Gaiman

October 2013

As far as read-alouds go, The Adventures of Thor the Thunder God is quite short. It took us only three nights to get through. Traditionally, I would have read something like this during school time, but we just didn't have time. The stories and illustrations are wonderful. Tessa adored it. I highly recommend it!

The Adventures of Thor the Thunder God - Lise Lunge-Larsen

Viking Adventure is another book that's hard to come by on the cheap. (I'm not a fan of paying $8+ for a paperback copy of what is essentially a chapter book.) Luckily, I churned up a 1950-60's edition at PaperbackSwap. Viking Adventure is written at about a second grade level, I would say, so it's a quick-and-easy read. It's a good little introduction to the Viking world. I like that it aligns nicely with information from our history spine. Tessa is enjoying it.

Viking Adventure - Clyde Robert Bulla

Castle Diary is nearly impossible to find new, particularly if you want it in a timely manner. Amazon currently has a 1-2 month estimate for the ship date. It was out-of-stock everywhere else I checked. I finally found a place to order it, then received an order cancellation notice due to insufficient stock. Oh sure, you can buy a "good" used copy for about the cost of a new one, but who wants to do that? After well over a month on our library's wait list, our turn finally popped up. I would have rather read it at a more appropriate point in our study of Medieval Times, but I didn't want to chance turning it down. Moral of my story? Start looking early, if you want this book. And, if you come across it used for cheap, grab it!

I decided to read only the story part of the book to Tessa (the end is a mini encyclopedia of the main character's time), which was only about 60 pages long. It's written with a Medieval lilt, so it was a little tongue-twisting at times. I wasn't sure Tessa was catching it all, but she seemed to really enjoy it. The numerous quirky pictures spread throughout the version we read were a fun touch.

A quick heads-up...there was an instance of light profanity in the book. I have no idea why the author included it, but be ready to swap out the h-e-double-hockey-sticks word for something more palatable. I think there is also a not-so-politically-correct reference to a donkey as well, if memory serves.

Castle Diary - Richard Platt

September 2013

The Minstrel in the Tower was recommended to me by several people. Tessa enjoyed it, but I thought it was just eh. It moved quickly, lacked a detailed plot and didn't feel wholly authentic. Then again, I can't be too hard on it...it's technically an early reader, and age-appropriate books set in the Middle Ages are hard to come by. Overall, it was a quick read and a decent first introduction to the time.

The Minstrel in the Tower - Gloria Skurzynski

August 2013

I decided to start with a sure winner. Plus, we already had it on our bookshelf. I had previously read the entire My First Little House Books picture book series (or, at least as many as our library had at the time) to Tessa, which she absolutely loved. She never tires of hearing about Laura. We started Little House in the Big Woods earlier this month and have about a third of it to go. I plan to finish it up this week.

Little House in the Big Woods - Laura Ingalls Wilder

Ongoing Read-Aloud

This one will take us a good while to get through, so I've listed it as an ongoing read-aloud. Tessa adores Bible stories, so I try to read through a different, quality Bible storybook ever so often. Each story only takes a few short minutes to read. Tessa and I both love all of the wonderful, detailed pictures. Most Bible storybooks suffer from stagnant, unimaginative graphics, but not this one!

The Action Bible - Doug Mauss

October Fun Week

I'm trying something new this year. There are so many "fun" electives that I want to study with Tessa, but we don't have time to cover them on a daily or even weekly basis. After scrutinizing our schedule, I found that if we drop science and Spanish and cut back a little on history one week a month, we will have time to study some of these electives. I have dubbed this week "fun" week.

We studied the following during October Fun Week.


Literature

• Studied Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins with Reading & Writing with Picture Books, Grade 1 by The Mailbox (pages 5-10).

"Rosie's Walk" is chocked full of cause and effect. After matching cause and effect cards, Tessa chose her favorite to illustrate.

Tessa demonstrated her ability to recall the route Rosie took during her walk by matching hen-shaped cards. I was not surprised to find that her memory was much better than mine.

Hands-On Language Arts

• Completed "Chips and Dip" (Punctuation, page 29), "Nifty Notebooks" (Nouns, page 50), "Caterpillar Parts" (Writing Sentences, page 28), "Spin a Vowel" (Short-Vowel Sounds, page 23) and "Flipping Flapjacks" (Rhyming, page 20) with Super Simple Independent Practice: Language Arts, Grade 1 by The Mailbox.

Tessa pulled paper potato chips from the "Chips" can, read the sentences and then placed them into the proper punctuation dip bowls.

Tessa sorted word cards into two piles...one for nouns and one for not nouns. Then, she wrote sentences, which she also illustrated, for the nouns in a notebook.

Tessa loved flipping paper flapjacks. The flapjacks had pictures and words on them that she "flipped" over to draw and write complementing rhyming words on their backs.

Logic

• Studied logic with Analogies for Beginners, Grades 1-3 and Logic Safari, Book 1 by Prufrock Press.

Tessa completed Lollipop Logic two summers ago, which she absolutely adored. I promised we would study logic again one day. After a very long wait, one day is finally here.

Atelier Art

• Completed "The Four Seasons" from Atelier Art, Level 1 - Module B, Lesson 3.

Fire Prevention Week

Fire Prevention Week happened to fall during our "fun" week, so we took a couple of days for Tessa to learn about fire safety. Visit our Fire Prevention Week - Oct. 6-12, 2013 post for details.

First Grade 2013 - Age 6

After a very nice and much needed three-week break, we officially kicked off Tessa's first grade year today. My goal is to keep school as light as possible and to make it a wee bit more fun this year. Not that last year wasn't fun. It's just that Tessa is still so young that I want to do more just for the fun of it. To accomplish this, we will swap out science, Spanish and a few pieces of our language arts program with arts, crafts, games and other fun electives one week a month. We are adding quite a bit to Tessa's studies in the way of language arts, so I'm going to have to stay focused and keep a tight schedule.

Tessa's first day of first grade!

Tessa is working at a slightly accelerated level and will be studying the following subjects this year. For a more detailed listing, visit Our Curriculum.

Language Arts
Math
Earth Science
Medieval History
Spanish
Logic
Art
Gymnastics

Ready for School!

We were inundated with school supply catalogs this summer. Tessa looked at them for days...weeks even. She oohed and she awed. She fell in love with one cutesy bulletin board set after another. So, I thought, why not? Let's decorate our schoolroom!

Since wall space is a premium for us, I wanted our decorations to be mostly educational. After a good bit of searching, I finally churned up some Medieval Times and geology cut-outs that fit the bill. I plan to leave up the history decor all year and swap out the rocks and minerals decor for weather and then space decor later.

Some of my favorite things from the supply catalogs are the learning charts. But, boy are they ever huge! So, I designed a much more appropriately-sized vowels chart myself.


Our Schoolroom Decor

• Edupress Medieval Times Bulletin Board Set
• Trend Enterprises Rocks & Minerals Mini Bulletin Board Set
• Blue House School Vowels - Charts & Sorting Mats
• Carson-Dellosa Celebrate with Moose & Friends Bulletin Board Set
• Carson-Dellosa Moose & Friends Cut-Outs
• Carson-Dellosa Boho Lettering
• Pacon Fadeless Paper Roll - Violet 

* Some of these items were hard to come by, but I found a surprising, great source. Drum roll here...Staples.com! While Staples doesn't carry a lot of teacher supplies in their brick-and-mortar stores, they have an impressive array online. Way better than Amazon. Gasp! And, here's the really great part. Shipping is free with no minimum order when you sign up for their free Staples Rewards program.

I decorated our primary school space with Medieval and geology bulletin board sets. Since most bulletin board sets are designed for the huge bulletin boards you find in tradition schools, I had to get creative. My Blue House School vowels chart is above the globe. Our Better Binders are all ready to go too on the bookshelf.

The Celebrate With Moose & Friends Bulletin Board Set was Tessa's most favorite find from the school supply catalogs. She'll swap out the moose's antlers and other accents for more festive ones every holiday. Unfortunately, the first holiday Carson-Dellosa supplied decorations for is Halloween, so I bought some inexpensive letters and matching animal friends cut-outs to tide us over until then. It's hard to see, but the squirrel is holding Tessa's name. She liked that.

"Lost Egypt" - St. Louis Science Center

To cap off our study of the ancient world, we visited Lost Egypt, St. Louis Science Center's current featured exhibit. While there, we also watched Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs, an Omnimax film. Tessa enjoyed the many hands-on displays. There were also several small, but interesting artifacts...mostly amulets, shabtis and sculptures of various Egyptian gods. A replica of the Rosetta Stone too. (To see real mummies, visit the St. Louis Art Museum.)

May 25 - September 2, 2013

Tessa thought about what kind of things from today's world she would want to take with her to an Egyptian afterlife. Using a magnetic board and picture tiles designed after artwork commonly found on the walls of Egyptian tombs, she placed those items in the hands of servants who would bring them to her in the afterlife.

Broken pottery is a common find for archaeologists. Tessa tried her hand at piecing together the fragments of an "Egyptian bowl." 

Tessa tested how the Ancient Egyptians may have pulled massive stone blocks up ramps to build their pyramids. She found the block on a sled and pulled over wooden slats beneath it was much easier to move than the one without any such device.

On our way home from the Science Center, we stopped by Culver's in Eureka where Lollypop the Balloon Artist was twisting balloons. After patiently waiting almost an hour, Tessa finally got her balloon butterfly. There were over 80 kids that day!

Cool Critters

Tessa came across a couple of cool critters while playing outside these past few days, which lead to some impromptu nature study. She also saw an ornate box turtle in our front flowerbed, but it crawled out of sight before I was able to grab my camera.

This picturesque little guy posed for several minutes before hopping off. I tried looking up "red toads, Missouri" with Google, but came up short in identifying him. 

Since luna moths fly at night, Tessa had the entire day to enjoy this incredible creature.

OpenLibrary.org

I recently stumbled across OpenLibrary.org, an awesome resource for free eBooks. I find it especially helpful when searching for out-of-print books, which are often recommended within our history and science curriculum. Or, for when I discover at the last minute that I've forgotten to order something from our local library.

Check it out! You can borrow up to five titles at a time for two weeks.

Arizona Vacation 2013

Field Trip to the Desert

With Tessa recently turning six, we thought it finally time to hit some of our nation's majestic national parks and monuments. Taking into consideration Tessa'a age and interests, we chose to start with Arizona. All of our previous vacations had been to Florida and Disney World, or various cruises around the Caribbean. This was our first true driving vacation. And, drive we did...all across Arizona and up through a teeny bit of Colorado, and Utah. We saw so many amazing sites, it's difficult to pick a favorite. It's clear that Tessa enjoyed them all. We couldn't have asked for her response to our little field trip to the desert to have been anything more.

Friday, May 10 - St. Louis to Phoenix to Tucson

• Arrived in Phoenix by air.
• Ate dinner at The Fry Bread House.
• Drove to our hotel in Marana, just outside of Tucson.

Tessa tried the children's cheese fry bread meal, which is a lot like an open-face quesadilla, except on fry bread. The Fry Bread House serves authentic Native American food and is owned and operated by the Tohono O'odham Nation of southern Arizona. While we enjoyed our entire meal, we especially liked the chocolate fry bread dessert...fry bread with chocolate syrup drizzled all over the top. Mmm!

Saturday, May 11 - Tucson to Phoenix

• Ate breakfast at Bisbee Breakfast Club.
• Visited Saguaro National Park - West.
• Visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
• Ate dinner at Rawhide: Western Town and Steakhouse in Chandler.
• Drove the rest of the way back to Phoenix to our hotel.

Tessa on the trail to Valley View Overlook at Saguaro National Park - West.

A stand of giant saguaros at Saguaro National Park - West. It can take more than one hundred and fifty years for saguaro cacti to grow this tall. It takes fifty years for them just to bloom and fruit, then another twenty-five years after that before their first arms appear. Amazing!

Saguaros start blooming in May and fruit mid-summer. Their large milky-white flowers open at night and then close by early afternoon the following day. Bats and doves are their primary pollinators.

We saw many petroglyphs as we traveled across Arizona, but this small grouping atop Signal Hill Trail at Saguaro National Park - West were the most accessible.

Before we left home, Tessa said she hoped to see a scorpion on our trip. She got her wish at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. One exhibit featured scorpions that glowed beneath black lights!   

Sunday, May 12 - Phoenix to Camp Verde to Clarksdale to Sedona to Flagstaff to Williams

• Visited Montezuma Castle National Monument.
• Visited Tuzigoot National Monument.
• Drove through Sedona.
• Ate lunch at Wildflower Bread Company in Sedona.
• Drove through Flagstaff to our hotel in Williams.
• Ate dinner at Cruisers Cafe 66.

Southern Sinagua farmers built what is known today as Montezuma Castle during the 1100s CE. Built in a cliff recess, the dwelling is five stories tall and features twenty rooms.

Montezuma Castle stands one hundred feet above the valley. Although large in size and definitely worth seeing, we enjoyed the cliff dwellings at both Walnut Canyon and Navajo National Monument more.

Tuzigoot National Monument is a remnant of a Southern Sinagua village that was built between 1125 and 1400 CE. It rises one hundred twenty feet above the Verde Valley. The original pueblo is believed to have been two stories high in places and boasted seventy-seven ground-floor rooms.

Tuzigoot was my least favorite ruin. It has been extensively excavated and rebuilt. So, it's less authentic in my mind. Plus, the landscape is not as impressive as all of the other ruins we visited. Having said that, Tessa liked it because she could walk into several of the rooms. Tessa pretended to grind corn in what she calls a "corn chopper."

A quick snapshot of Tessa at a roadside overlook in Sedona.

Tessa cabbaged onto a couple of Sedona "red rocks" for her rock collection.

Monday, May 13 - Williams to Grand Canyon - South Rim to Williams to Flagstaff

• Ate breakfast at Pine Country Restaurant.
• Rode the Grand Canyon Railway to and from Grand Canyon - South Rim.
• Drove to our hotel in Flagstaff.
• Ate dinner at Oregano's Pizza Bistro.

Tessa at Hopi Point, Grand Canyon - South Rim.

It's the Grand Canyon! Just as big and beautiful as I remembered it.

Tuesday, May 14 - Flagstaff to Winslow to Holbrook to Chinle

• Visited Walnut Canyon National Monument.
• Visited Meteor Crater.
• Visited Petrified Forest National Park.
• Drove to our hotel in Chinle.

Ancestors of today's Hopi Indians lived in Walnut Canyon. Although these pictures don't do the canyon justice and the remains of the cliff dwellings aren't as impressive as others around the state, this was among our favorite stops. The landscape was beautiful and we were able to hike through part of the canyon on a designated trail. 

Tessa tested out a cliff recess at Walnut Canyon that was probably used by the Sinagua people for storage.

Tessa at Meteor Crater, the best preserved crater on Earth. We arrived at just the right time to take a "free" guided tour along the rim given by the head guide. It was very enjoyable!

Tessa sat on one of the many giant petrified logs on the Giant Logs trail near the Rainbow Forest Museum entrance of Petrified Forest National Park.

Wednesday, May 15 - Chinle to Teec Nos Pos to Bluff (Utah)

• Visited Canyon de Chelly National Monument.
• Toured lower Canyon de Chelly with De Chelly Tours.
• Visited Four Corners Monument.
• Drove to our hotel (Desert Rose Inn & Cabins) in Bluff, Utah.
• Ate dinner (and breakfast the following morning) at Twin Rocks Cafe.

Tessa sported one of her infamous goofy smiles at Spider Rock Overlook at Canyon de Chelly National Monument. We hired a local Navajo tour agency to take us on a three-hour jeep tour through the bottom of the canyon where over two thousand well-preserved ruins are tucked within the cliff walls. The canyon is absolutely gorgeous! 

Tessa at Four Corners Monument...standing in four states at once!

We ended up staying in Bluff, Utah only because there are an extreme shortage of hotels around Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park and the Navajo Nation, in general. We stumbled across Bluff Fort Historic Site while on the road to our hotel. It is brand new and well done. Tessa enjoyed perusing the many furnished log cabin replicas and covered wagons. The large gift shop offered some of the best prices around. Bluff, Utah was settled by the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints during the late 1800s, so this was quite a unique stop for us, given the nature of the rest of our trip.

Thursday, May 16 - Bluff (Utah) to Monument Valley to Tonalea to Page

• Visited Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park.
• Visited Navajo National Monument.
• Drove to our hotel in Page.
• Visited Glen Canyon Dam.
• Ate dinner at Fiesta Mexicana.

Tessa at Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. The landscape looks a bit hazy in the background due to a whole lot of blowing dust!

Navajo National Monument...my favorite cliff dwelling! So beautiful and unique. The place I would have chosen had I lived in this region almost a thousand years ago.

Tessa worked a pair of binoculars to get a closer look at the Betatakin dwelling (see pic above) at Betatakin Overlook at Navajo National Monument.

Friday, May 17 - Page to Cameron to Flagstaff to Phoenix

• Visited Antelope Canyon via Overland Canyon Tours.
• Visited Horseshoe Bend.
• Stopped by Cameron Trading Post.
• Drove through Flagstaff to our hotel in Phoenix.

Tessa at Upper Antelope Canyon near Page, which may be accessed only by guided tour. You need a four-wheel drive vehicle and experienced driver to get there!

The allure of Antelope Canyon is the stunning photography that can be shot there. Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon, so it is very narrow. It was jammed packed with hundreds of amateur and professional photographers. Most of our pictures didn't turn out. We really needed a tripod to use the camera settings required to shoot the canyon. This one did, though, and I love it! It was shot up through the ceiling of the canyon. It's supposed to look like Monument Valley. 

 

Tessa at Horseshoe Bend in Page. I wasn't about to set her closer to edge to get the better shot below.

It's quite the little hike to get to and from Horseshoe Bend. There's a lot of sand and uphills to traverse, but you are rewarded with a very nice view in the end.

Saturday, May 18 - Phoenix to St. Louis

• Flew back to St. Louis.
• Drove home.