Not many things can make Robby look short, but the Saguaro cactus can. This one is around 14 feet tall and around 75 years old. It hasn’t sprouted its arms yet, but is old enough to start some. We didn’t see any wildlife while we were out in the afternoon for the hike and drive other than bugs eating from old cactus flowers. By dusk, we saw in increase in animal life and saw several bats and a Gila monster on the road. The Saguaros bloom all summer and had stopped by the time we visited, but we did catch a few blooms still out. It would be an amazing thing to see them all in their evening blooms.

We spent several days in the desert landscape visiting different places. One of our stops was Saguaro National Park to see the often depicted Saguaro cactus up close and personal. They are amazing plants which surprised me when we looked over the landscape. I’m not sure what I expected, but I liked how the plants covered the hills and valleys like a pine forest would in a mountain region. It was a forest of the prickly trees.

We talked a lot about the cactus with Emily. I was a little concerned that she would try to touch one. They look so cool – I wanted to touch them even though I knew better. We successfully kept Emily from touching just about everything while we were there. I think she even left the dirt alone. While it was quite warm there was a breeze that kept us a little cooler for our nature hike. Emily loved the play area in the visitor center and was quite interested in going back inside to play.

We had an ongoing conversation with Emily about the sun and whether it is going up or down. I don’t think she has quite grasped the concept yet, but she will proclaim whether she thinks the sun is currently going up or down at any time in the day. We traveled a lot after dark and Robby photographed many sunrises and sunsets which seemed to also encourage the discussion. I think that Emily is heavily influenced in the thought that sun is going down from her need for a nap or bed. She would proclaim that the sun was going down around 1pm when it was time for her afternoon nap. It makes for a really funny conversation to have with her.

Julia has grown up so much! On this trip Julia has graduated to loving restaurant high chairs. She has discovered the fun of interacting with other diners, waiters, and her family. She tries to grab for anything that is close by, waves her arms when given water out of a straw, enjoys trying table food, and enjoys dropping things on the floor even more. I really feel bad for the staff that has to clean up after Julia and what she drops on the floor. More than once we had other diners stop by and visit with us on their way out and compliment Julia and her easy going personality. We are grateful for this personality because it makes it possible for us to travel to such cool places.

We stopped at Watchtower to take in our first views of the Grand Canyon. I guess Emily thought that Dora needed to see it too because she brought her along. Emily enjoyed playing on the roof of the Watchtower store while we took in the views. She also walked up and down all the stairs to the top of the tower to look out the window. I hope all of the other people didn’t mind walking at a 2 year old pace up and down the stair.

We were privileged to spend four days visiting the Grand Canyon. We stayed on the rim for two nights at the Thunderbird Lodge and also two nights at Yavapai Lodge. We hiked at least five miles of the rim trail with the girls and Robby covered many more while he was photographing the rim. We were glad that we had the extra time to spend at the park. Traveling with kids definitely slowed us down, but we allowed ourselves enough time to see and do what we wanted even at our slower pace. Emily loved riding the shutle bus around the park. Nature visited us every evening as the elk came in to graze on the grass, the bats ate the bugs drawn to the porch lights, and the stars shown like artwork in the sky.