Family Fun--Part One

I took the kids back to the Midwest to visit family and friends on a fun trip. We covered a lot of miles in a relatively short time, and I'm so glad that we have some photos to help remember what we did.

There are so many contrasts between our desert home and the area where I grew up. Going from the wide open vistas where you can see a car ten miles away to crowded interstates and lots of stop lights is one big difference. Another is going from our scant six inches of precipitation to a year to 35 inches a year--folks don't have to water their gardens, things just grow. To think how many years I took water for granted.

One of the highlights of the trip was introducing Emma to her cousins, aunts, uncles, and other relatives and friends. She had a little cold at the beginning of the trip and also had two teeth emerge, so she wasn't exactly the fun-loving kid she usually is. Nevertheless, she had some good moments where she showed off her happy spirit.
Desert Boy enjoyed all sorts of attention, even when he was being squashed.

After a delicious dinner and catching up a bit with wonderful relatives, we headed to bed on our first night relatively early.

The next day Uncle Phil and Aunt Roberta helped us schlep all our stuff to downtown Chicago. We went on the "el," the elevated train. As soon as we had paid and were on the platform, Desert Boy declared he had to pee.

Of course there was no bathroom in sight, and I knew he wouldn't be able to survive the 30 minute ride downtown.

So he got to pee on the tracks.

Apparently Mythbusters has done a segment that shows that peeing on the third track, the electrified one, will not kill you. Good thing.

We were able to make it to our next train, the South Shore Line, with no problems. Thanks so much, Uncle Phil and Aunt Roberta, for all your help!

Desert Boy was having a great day--two trains!!

He and Emma enjoyed looking out the window on the 2 and 1/2 hour trip to South Bend. Fortunately we weren't on a rush hour train, so we had extra space to move around.

We saw lots of things we're not used to, like the big smokestacks at U.S. Steel.

And a nuclear power plant.

The fall colors were great, with lots of red leaves, and provided a nice interlude along the industrial corridor.

The ride was smooth, and soon we were meeting up with our friends.

We had fun eating out and trying some different food.

Then we went for a lovely walk along the river. The scenery was beautiful, and the weather couldn't have been better.

Desert Boy had to pee, of course.

And there was no bathroom around.

It's a good thing he's not worried about modesty.

My friend Kristen brought her daughters, and Desert Boy had so much fun playing and going off with his new friends.

Ruther and Amanda helped get Emma and her stroller up and down the stairs.

We found a playground and the kids played until it was dark. We did some group shots and then decided we better head back, since it was a school night.

Desert Boy didn't have to go to bed early, so he played a raucous game of hide'n seek with Caesar, the dog. I'm not sure which had a better time!

To be continued...

A Walk in the Woods

Last Sunday we decided to go up high on the mountain to enjoy the aspen leaves. My friend Jenny had captured such beautiful photos earlier in the week, and I was hoping to get some snapshots of the kids with the vibrant yellow background. But alas, most of the leaves had fallen in just a few short days.

We went for a walk along the nature trail, which is stroller accessible and had fun logs for balancing.

It was chilly, but a beautiful sunny day.

We found the same tree Desert Boy had posed at a couple years ago. I need to dig out those photos!

We tried a posed photo on this big rock, but the impromptu goofing around turned out much better.

I handed the camera to my husband so I could be in some photos, and Desert Boy and I found this nice tree stump chair.

Then we had fun playing balancing games. When I was a little girl, I loved walking on the curbs in my town. (And walked into parking meters, my mother tells me.) I still like walking on narrow things where I have to balance.

Desert Boy seems to be learning balance well.

We even tried a little dancing.

Desert Boy had so much energy that we decided to do the loop trail again, but run this time. So I guess maybe I should call this post a run in the woods! It takes a little extra energy at 10,000 feet!

Sub-alpine Hike

A couple weeks ago I wanted to go on a hike. My husband was at work, which meant that it was going to be me and the kiddies. So I mentally geared up. Even though it can be a bit of a challenge to go for a hike with two young ones, I really wanted to get out of the desert heat and escape to the mountains. So we packed our backpacks (Desert Boy is required to carry one now, although I take out most of what he puts in it), and headed up to 10,000 feet to the trailhead. The temperature was fabulous, in the 60's.

The trail I selected was a loop, about two and a half miles long. I carried Desert Girl in a baby carrier, which meant Desert Boy was going to have to hike the entire way by himself. I knew physically he could do it, but mentally he would have to be persuaded. So we played games, and he remembered one from a previous hike, where we looked for hollowed out stumps.

The flaky bark on this Engelmann spruce caught my eye, a victim of spruce beetles.

I showed Desert Boy all the flaky bark at the base and the numerous holes in the bark on the tree. He probably won't remember it at all, but sometimes I can't muffle the ecologist in me! Even if my audience is a three-year old.

Bridges and elevated walkways are automatically counted in the fun category, and they don't take any extra persuading to cross.

We spotted this unusual knot in an aspen tree. Where I grew up, the Native Americans and early settlers sometimes twisted trees like this to mark trails, but I'm not sure what caused this one.

Then Desert Boy started in on the "Are we there yet?" questions. I had told him that we were going to visit two lakes, and although it was apparent that we weren't at a lake, he couldn't resist asking the question.

Repeatedly.

So we started a new game: throwing pine cones.

It was a pretty good game, lasting about five minutes.

Then it was back to, "Are we there yet?"

Fortunately we found some more distractions: some deer and then this Uinta chipmunk.

Then we proceeded with more of the same question.

Finally we got to the lake, and both kids were delighted. Desert Boy was mainly happy because I would finally let him eat a snack, and Desert Girl was happy because she could sit.

She cooperated with me for a scenic photo.

And then she said, "Come on mama, isn't that enough? I think you're taking too many photos."

Desert Girl can be opinionated like that.

Besides taking photos of my adorable kids, I also took lots of flower photos. I've been able to keep up my A Plant a Day blog better than I expected this summer, and in the process have been able to learn many more plants. I even jumped into the grasses, a plant family that has intimidated me in the past.

Oh, and if you're wondering what the flower is, it's some kind of aster. I'm not actually one hundred percent sure which one. I have a few (or more than a few) photos of plants that I still have yet to identify. So when it's all cold and snowy this winter, I'll be able to reminisce about the warm summer weather by looking at my 'unknown plant' photo file.


It was obvious that winter isn't all that far away by the low level of the second lake. Most of it had evaporated or drained away during the summer.

Some other people were at the lake when we were, and Desert Boy decided that they were his friends (we had never seen them before, but Desert Boy didn't let that stop him). He wanted to hike back to the trailhead with them. So when they left, we scurried to pack up our backpack contents and started running after them.

Desert Boy followed closely for a long way. Then he got distracted by some logs.

He wanted to walk on the logs, and I told him to go ahead.

He was balancing carefully. Oh, and if you're wondering about the outfit, he picked it out. He really wanted to wear the pajama bottoms, and I didn't see that it mattered, so I told him fine. He has quite the fashion sense.

He continued playing on the logs until he fell, then we managed to catch up to the other hikers (who had stopped to talk to other hikers). We followed them back to the trailhead, Desert Boy entertaining them by pretending to be a train. He was a very loud train, especially since he had packed his train whistle, but they fortunately didn't care.
It was a great hike, especially once Desert Boy stopped asking, "Are we there yet?" He didn't ask that any after the first lake.

Thank you to all hikers who encourage little kids--it does make a difference!

Mountain Home Range-Part Three

After our fun insect-collecting and relaxing stop, we headed even higher up the mountain range. The road was a faint two-track in pretty good condition.

We saw these neat cliffs behind beautiful lupine, and I couldn't resist stopping. The nieces and nephews were up to the challenge of climbing up the cliffs.

Grace and Alyshia looked for handholds

We made it to the top and the view was great. There's nothing like being up high in the mountains in the cool air and looking at the hot desert floor down below you.

Desert Boy also made the journey up the cliffs. He loves to climb, but flowers can get boring quickly.

When it was time to go down, we found a less steep way, and Kayli joined us. Desert Boy was delighted.

Some parts were steep enough he had to sit down.

And Henry was glad to meet up with us, for he hadn't been able to scale the cliffs.

We heard some noise from the cliffs and found Alyshia and Ruby chunking huge rocks over the edge. They bounced spectacularly.

Then it was time to go to the end of the road. A deer crossed our path. We had noticed much more elk scat than deer, but we didn't see any elk.

Chris walked out to the edge to enjoy the view of the valley on the other side.

Ed enjoyed the company of some old bristlecones.

None of the bristlecones were super old (more than 3,000 years), but there were several that could easily have been more than a thousand years old.

It just boggles my mind thinking about something living that long, and all the different conditions it must have experienced over its lifetime.

The bristlecones were patchy, not a very large grove.

The kids had elected to stay near the vehicles and play in the shade of the bristlecones rather than hike up to the top with the adults. They were quite creative in their games.

Then it was time to head down. We crossed the mountain range and came home via another valley. It was so much hotter down low! So when we got to the lake, we couldn't resist and jumped in, with our clothes on.

It felt great, and we didn't really want to leave, but we still had things to do.

Lola and Caleb had switched vehicles, and both Desert Boy and Desert Girl were delighted to have their cousins nearby.

What else did we have to do on this long day? Why, shuttle tractors, of course! Tom was going to make the most of having a big crew. My brother Ed volunteered to drive one of the tractors.

Tom explained to him how to drive the old tractor. "It has no brakes, so if you need to stop, just shift down."

"The front tire is bad, but I don't think it will blow out."

"You can't really tell what gear you're in, so just try moving it around and you'll eventually get something that works."

Or something to that effect. Ed was grinning, wondering what he had gotten himself into. But he was up for a little adventure, especially one that he would never have back in D.C.

So after a little false start, he got it into some kind of gear and took off down the road.

Meanwhile Chris was showing Grace how to drive another tractor. Grace is learning to drive so was eager to be behind the wheel of some big farm equipment.

And they're off!

Alyshia and Ruby took another tractor, but my camera battery had died so I didn't get any photos of them.

But Ed managed to take a photo as he was driving down the road.

Yeehaw, good times!