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Last week, Utah lost one of its most famous (and photographed) arches in Arches National Park to time and gravity. Visitors to National Parks are down, due to what is believe to be increasing competition from theme parks, high gas prices, and a sedentary lifestyle.

Theme parks may make it easier to entertain kids with low-attention spans from electronic gaming, but they can never match the feeling of awe one gets when viewing the vastness of the Grand Canyon, taking a tour of Mammoth Cave, or discovering a waterfall after hiking in the mountains.

It's easy to take natural wonders for granted. But as Wall Arch reminds us, these marvels may not be around forever. Instead of going to Disney again, why not spend some family time exploring some of Mother Nature's parks?

Most National Parks offer free activities and information packets geared toward children and have friendly rangers on staff trained to answer any questions about the natural world kid campers might have.

• Just tell me the truth and you won't get in trouble.
• Do this or you won't get [something big you possibly can't take away anyway].
• Big kids eat their vegetables; aren't you a big kid?
• You'll make more friends if you play nice.
• Mommy and Daddy are "taking a nap."

10 Places to Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up

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Little Levi Alves McConaughey just made his mommy and daddy a wee bit richer. The newborn son of actor Matthew McConaughey and Brazilian supermodel Camila Alves earned $3 million for his first photos, which the proud parents have sold to OK! Magazine.

Whether or not you agree if it's appropriate for the parents to be pimping out selling the photos of their young son to the press for some cold hard cash, there is one thing upon which I think we can all agree: that baby is cute. No doubt, given the serious hotness of both his parents, this will be the first of many times he graces the pages of a magazine.

Apparently the real winners in this deal are the folks at OK!, who allegedly also get first shot and the family's first Christmas and the wedding should McConohottie and his girlfriend decide to tie the knot. I find that very, very odd. I mean, I sent pictures of a holiday photo of my new family at Snapfish and sent those around to friends and relatives, but having OK! parade them around to millions seems a little out there to me. What do you think?

• Mister Smith Goes to Washington -- Jimmy Stewart is wonderful (as always) as a naive and idealistic senator who finds himself surrounded by greed and corruption in Washington. Stewart, however, sticks to his guns and tries to do the right thing and, in the end, prevails. In America, every man counts and one man can indeed make a difference.
• Dave -- When a corrupt president falls ill, his good-hearted doppelganger is tapped to fill in so the American public don't find out. Instead of being a patsy, he comes to take over and turn the presidency around. It's a fun little film that shows what the presidency should be about -- helping people.
• Young Mister Lincoln -- A classic, fictionalized look at one of our greatest president's early days, this film is fun and uplifting. If only all our presidents could be this upstanding, we'd be a lot better off. Henry Fonda is wonderful as the man he felt was almost too great for him to play.
• The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming -- I first saw this when I was younger and was impressed at how the Americans, after first going into a tizzy when a Russian submarine runs aground on their island, come to understand that regardless of where you come from, we're all just people.
• My Fellow Americans -- Two ex-presidents, running for their lives, get to meet the real people who were affected by their presidencies. It's a reminder that our politicians are there for us, not the other way around. Of course, this is wrapped up in an adventure with danger, corruption, and, of course, a ton of laughs.
• 1776 -- Imagine how much more our founding fathers could have accomplished if only they had broken out into song now and then. Actually, after watching this powerful portrayal of the days leading up to the signing of the declaration of independence, I'm convinced they did. Every time I watch it, I get choked up thinking about what these men went through and what they sacrificed to make this great nation possible. If you only watch one patriotic movie in your life, make it this one.

Happy 4th of July! Welcome to the one holiday nearly as fun for kids as Christmas, only with fewer financial obligations for parents but with the painful twist of the grand finale (fireworks!) at the very end of the day instead of first thing in the morning.

If you aren't the lucky owner of a cottage or waterfront property (or related to someone who is) it can be really tempting to let the kids plop in front of the television while you work on marinading the steak and prepping the potato salad for a cookout.

However, with just a few craft materials you probably already have lying around and some easy instructions, you can quickly throw together a last minute 4th of July Kid Parade that will be the talk of........well, everyone who was actually around on the 4th! (And if you keep the neighbor kids occupied for a few hours, their parents might even invite yours over to burn some daylight out of gratitude!)

Every kid has some set of wheels, whether it is a bike, stroller, scooter, wagon, or even a just skateboard. Decorating their ride is a great outside activity that will keep kids busy and the mess to your home to a minimum.

Have your kids gather whatever neighborhood kids are available while you gather the following materials:

• Red, white, and blue construction paper
• Pipe cleaners (any color)
• Paper plates
• Red, white, and blue washable paint
• Plastic straws
• Red, white, and blue curling ribbon
• Red, white, or blue gift wrap, bows, buttons, beads, glitter, or whatever other embellishments you can scare up in your crafting/gift wrap supplies
• Kraft paper or any other large roll of paper (used newspapers or an old sheet would work too)
• And to keep the mess from coming INTO your house: A large bucket of warm, soapy water (with a washcloth or fingernail brush in it), a large bucket of warm, clear water, and a couple towels

One of the first things you can share with the children is how to fold an ordinary sheet of construction paper into a perfect five point star that can be tucked in between bike tire spokes, taped to the side of a wagon, or strung together on a piece of curling ribbon to form a garland. To accomplish this simple act of origami magic, you'll need the construction paper.

1. With the short side of the paper on the top, fold it in half to meet the bottom. (If you want to get fancy, you could use a Popsicle stick or the flat side of a spoon to make your folds extra flat.)
2. Fold the paper in half from the top down (the first fold you made) down again.
3. Unfold that last fold. All you needed was that line.
4. Grasp the top right corner (it is a folded corner) and bring it across the entire width of the paper and line it up with that center crease.
5. You should see a perfect triangle in the top left corner, fold that triangle down toward you.
6. Now fold the sides of the paper together like you are making a paper airplane.
7. There should be visible crease marks on the front and back of your paper. Cut along the longer crease.
8. Unfold your lucky star!

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To decorate large buntings for wagons or strollers:

1. Measure and unroll enough Kraft paper (or old white sheets or taped together the newspaper in a pinch)
2. Holding four four pipe cleaners in a bundle, fold them in half.
3. Twist them together a few times to form a little loop at the folded end. This will serve as a handle.
4. Arrange the pipe cleaners in a circle. It should look like an octopus when you're done.
5. Fold up the ends of the pipe cleaners to make them roughly the same length
6. Repeat making octopuses (octopi?!) of various leg sizes for variety
7. Pour washable paint on the paper plates and use the pipe cleaner octopuses to stamp fireworks on the paper.
8. Add glitter to wet paint if desired
9. Trick we discovered: a plastic straw makes interesting dots on the paper as well.
10. After the painting is done, let the kids scrub up in the soapy water, and rinse in the clean water and you're good to go!
11. After the paint dries, tape the paper to sides of wagon. The Red Flyer never looked so good!

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Other easy decorating ideas for bikes:

• Plastic straws are a super easy way to spiff up bike tires, just trim the straw the correct length for the spoke and then cut the length of the straw. Kids can easily cut straws with even blunt-nosed scissors and it's extremely satisfying to snap them on the spokes!
• Cutting long lengths of curling ribbon and folding it in half and cutting it and repeating that process is a quick and easy way to make some impressive handlebar streamers.
• Leftover wire-wrapped garland can also be woven among bike spokes for some pizazz. The metallic kind adds a lot of sparkle!
• I ran across some really nice, thick felt stars in the dollar store. Some kids simple attached those to their bikes with masking tape and it was simple and nice.
• Old plastic bead necklaces in patriotic colors were looped around handlebars for a bit of color.

Let the kids go and see what sorts of great decorating ideas they can come up with. The only rule is that the gears and brakes need to be kept free of obstructions (like curling ribbon, we learned that one the hard way!) so the bike can function properly.

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After the 4th of July entries are all properly prepared, assemble the neighbors and invite over local friends to enjoy the rare and special sight of kids being kids and having some old-fashioned fun. Treat your parade participants to a plate of Star-Spangled Strawberries. In spite of the small ingredient list (only three ingredients: strawberries, white chocolate, and blue sugar crystals) these little nibblers have big, juicy flavor that kids and adults will love!

• Wash the strawberries thoroughly, keeping their caps on. Let dry.
• In a double boiler (I set a glass bowl above a small pot of bowling water because I don't have space for fancy things like double boilers in my small kitchen!) melt the white chocolate
• Pour 1" of blue sugar crystals in a small bowl
• Holding the strawberry from the top, dip in the chocolate until the bottom half is covered
• Immediately put the bottom tip of the strawberry in the blue crystals
• Set on a wax paper lined plate, and allow chocolate to harden completely before eating.

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Hopefully these ideas will keep the kids happy and busy and help them make some fun childhood memories while they wait for darkness and the REAL show to begin!

Looking for an, er, interesting way to celebrate the 4th of July holiday this year? How about with food! Sure food will play a crucial role in your celebration--it generally does--but why not toss things up a bit this time around, and even make it fun for the kids?

We're considering doing a menu of all red, white and blue foods. Yes, blue foods. Now we all know there are no naturally occurring blue foods--unless you count blueberries amongst your tally--but it's a fun treasure hunt to think of and then collect foods that are blue (if not naturally so) along with their easier to uncover red and white versions, all in the name of patriotism.

Red foods include strawberries, tomatoes--if you're feeling adventurous, and I'm decidedly not this holiday weekend--as well as cherries and various other kinds of fruit. One could twist on that and include red meat in the menu along with ketchup. White foods, while not that healthy, are in abundance. You have white bread, potatoes (and therefore potato salad?) as well as eggs (sans the yolk), milk, yogurt and various kinds of cheese. You could also go the white meat route with this one. And the blue foods? Well, other than the blueberry and some types of edible flowers, the only blue foods I can think of are Popsicles and Icees. You could dye pasta blue, as I did once, for blue pasta salad, but I don't think anyone would eat it. There are also blue potatoes and blue Terra Chips as well as blue corn tortilla chips. Dessert could always be blue--no one seems to fear blue icing.

Can you think of any 'blue' foods to include at a picnic or celebration this Fourth of July?

Pic of blue eggs by the_moog.

"You look like a flag," my husband Tom tells me and I smile, because I know what he means. We go through this every summer in the days leading up to the 4th of July. It's a bit ridiculous, I know: cheesy and sentimental and a little over-the-top. But I can't help it.

I dress myself in red, white and blue.

It's my summer compulsion--just as surely as the days become progressively warmer, the color red pushes its way toward the front of my closet. Combine it with the already-busy whites plus the blue of my trusty jeans, and you've got the makings of an American flag.

Tiny white stars on a red background begin to appeal to me this time of year; alternating stripes of blue on a white background (or is it white on a blue background?) look lovely. And for this brief time at the beginning of July, I see red, white and blue everywhere: red flip-flops, red bandannas, ripe, red strawberries in the grocery store. Blue skies, blue jeans, plump blueberries the size of marbles. White puffy clouds, white petunias, white whipped cream. You know where this is heading, right? A resplendent vanilla flag-cake in the fridge, which is a whole new level of flaginess--not only am I wearing it, but I'm eating it, too.

I'm not usually this way. I don't have a closet full of Halloween costumes, or sweaters with hearts. I don't have any Kelly green; no pastels, no turkeys, no snowmen. Which makes my flag-clothes all the more surprising.

I could go back to the beginnings, my own childhood, when I remember my mother, my sister and I wearing matching, home-made outfits. Or perhaps it came later, in high school, during team spirit days, when everyone dressed in our school's colors.

Or maybe it began the day Tom and I became engaged to be married. It was July 4. As he slipped a gold band on my finger, we joked that everyone else's Independence Day was the day we chose to declare our dependence on each other. The ring was embedded with white diamonds and blue sapphires that twinkled in the summer sunshine.

Later still came parenthood, and other realizations: that there were places where my marriage would have been arranged for me, without my consent. That women in other countries didn't have the right to choose their family size. That even now, parts of the world do not recognize a woman as anything more than property.

And this: my middle son Avery, who was born with Down syndrome, came home to live with us. Fifty years ago, it wouldn't have been possible, even in the United States. Babies with Down syndrome were routinely sent to institutions. Today, there is no question--our children belong at home with their families.

I wear my freedoms every day--as an educated woman, as wife to my husband, as a mother of 3. They form the fabric of my life and are so much a part of it that often, I take these blessings for granted.

But not this week. The red, white, and blue in my closet has pushed itself forward. We'll go to the parade and set up lawn chairs along the sidewalk and wave tiny plastic flags; we'll eat hot dogs and 7-layer salad and half-slices of watermelon like smiles and little squares of flag-cake for dessert; we'll stay up too late watching the fireworks explode in brilliant colors across the night sky and all the while, I'll be outfitted in my flag-clothes, dressed in my country's colors, wearing my heart on my sleeve.

It's officially summer. To me that means long evenings, watermelon and picnics. Preferably watermelon served all day at the picnic and into the long evening. While I never grow tired of picnic food--burgers, potato salad and pasta salad come to mind--by the end of the summer many people do. The Minimalist over at the New York Times has compiled a list of 101 ideas to ratchet your picnic dining experience up a notch. I was interested enough in trying something new to give the menu a glance, but my critical eye looked for easy, simple recipes and ingredients I'd be able to both pronounce and unearth at a local supermarket while still tending to my number one job, being a mom.

Some of the recipes are familiar or simple enough. Make egg salad and add curry powder to make curried egg salad. That sounds yummy. If I had kids old enough to eat egg salad they might freak out though. The cornflake chicken bites seem more the kid-speed. If you're going to take the time to make fried chicken you might as well throw cornflakes on it and make it bite-sized for your little ones. I would definitely give that one a try. Other recommendations include some that can be store-bought, which is simpler and easier if not cheaper. My aunt never arrives to any event without a deli-bought relish tray. Does it really make a difference if she or someone else is cutting up the vegetables? I don't think so--they crunch just the same.

The 101 ideas provide something for everyone and some recipes are easy enough to make, to modify or to buy at the store. That makes for a good picnic. The kids might be confused by the non-picnic basics though. Worst case scenario? Make some of these for the adults and stick with the hotdogs and burgers for the kids. But perhaps try to get them to try some egg salad with curry in it, just for fun. Jsut don't forget the watermelon.

What about you? Any great ideas for a little something different at the picnic that even the kids will enjoy?

Perhaps it was the end-of-the-school year activities that threw you off. Maybe it was the start of travel baseball, because you haven't had electricity most of the week due to storms.

Whatever your week held, here's a quick and easy, yet memorable Father's Day gift (or graduation or birthday) that can be put together in minutes and is a great way to present gift cards, tickets, or special photographs.

Materials list:

• 2 paper lunch sacks (any color will do)
• hole punch
• string of some kind (yarn, ribbon, shoe lace, even garbage bag ties will do the trick if that's all you can find)
• assorted artwork and photos of Dad

Check out the gallery for the easy peasy last-minute-squeezy directions! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

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• gift cards
• DVDs, books, or music
• tools or appliances
• sports or hobby-related gifts
• travel