A Sunday Picnic

We wanted to get out of the house on the weekend, so we decided for a little picnic. Once we found our spot, we settled in. And Desert Girl made faces. She's good at those.

Desert Boy was quite contented with carving sticks with his pocket knife. He's managed to nick his fingers a few times, but overall he's been doing well with the knife.

One of the fun parts of picnics is eating foods we don't normally eat. The kids love Go-Go Squeezs, but I cringe at all the extra packaging that is thrown away. Fortunately, some enterprising companies have made refillable squeeze containers, and on Ebay I was able to get ten new ones for about $15.

After we ate, it was time for a nap. At least that's what we parents thought!

 The kids had some other ideas in mind. Eventually we told them to go climb the trees. Or something like that. Whatever we said, the next thing we knew, they were actually in the trees.

 Up, up and away!

 Desert Boy figured out how to slide down the smooth white aspen bark. It was a rather fun diversion and he did it several times.

Of course if her big brother does it, Desert Girl has to give it a try! (Even if she is wearing sparkly red dancing shoes.)

Sometimes I wonder if the picnics and hikes are worth all the effort. It's a lot of work to pack up and then clean up afterwards. But when we're in the great outdoors, something memorable usually happens, like the tree climbing on this trip. I think that makes it worth it, even if I have to go home and take a nap afterwards!

A Jaunt through the Woods

 Back in mid-May I took the kids and their friend Charlie for a quick hike on the trail between Grey Cliffs and Baker Creek Campground in Great Basin National Park. It was a cold day, so we had to bundle up, but we were all eager to get outdoors.

 I had my camera in tow and took a lot of flower photos. A lot. But I'll refrain from posting them all and just include a couple of the best, like this beautiful Erigeron (fleabane--such an ugly name for such a beautiful flower!).

 This short trail has a fun bridge on it. Bridges are always fun.

 We stopped and took a closer look at these tent caterpillars (at least I think that's what they are) on the rose bushes. I was surprised how many tents were there, and when I got closer I saw the caterpillars crawling. The kids loved that!

 Charlie and Desert Boy puzzled over the huge skeleton under a pinyon pine. They examined the very large hoof, and with some help determined that it was an elk skeleton. A few years ago a mountain lion killed it, and it's so cool to still see the remains. The reminder of the mountain lion makes me tell the kid to stay close enough that they can see me.

 We progress further up the trail to a huge meadow with a pyramidal contraption in it. I know it's part of an old grazing study, but the kids decide it's a trap. They take long sticks to poke whatever might be in it.

After a long snack break, we head the short distance up to the trailhead. We get to it and I tell the kids we can turn around.

 They take off running down the trail. I guess I hadn't worn them out enough!

 I really like the aspens with their newly leafed-out appearance. They seem so gentle and romantic. The kids actually pause long enough that I can take their photo.

Okay, one more flower photo, a shrub with reddish bark that is now bright with white flowers: Saskatoon serviceberry.

Just thinking about what other flowers makes me want to grab my camera and head back in the woods. In fact, we're going to do that in just a couple hours. Have a great weekend and week, and I hope you can get out and enjoy some wildflowers!

A Sweet Relish Package from Tales of a Mountain Mama

One of the benefits of entering the 25 Outdoorsy Moms Competition was reading blogs by other outdoorsy moms. One I particularly like is Tales of a Mountain Mama.
Amelia is based in Yellowstone National Park and not only loves being outside with her kids, but also reviewing gear and giving it some of it away. I signed up for one of her giveaways, and lo and behold, I won! This was a fantastic giveaway sponsored by Sweet Relish, a website that gives you ideas of products and lets you put together your own lists.

I couldn't wait for the package to arrive. When it did, I thought the packaging was really cute.

Desert Boy was eager to help me unpack it and when he saw The Real Deal Brazil Hat, he put it on immediately. It' made from tarps used in the Amazon to cover products on trucks, so each hat is original. It also has the added benefit of looking cool, so it doesn't matter how much more we wear it or get it dirty. Choosing who gets to wear it may be the hardest task!

The other products were quite interesting: Zipz to hold your sunglasses (or glasses in place), a Ruff bowl that is compact and easy to take along on dog walks and to provide a drinking bowl for your dog, disinfectant spray and wipes, and Stuffitts to help dry out and de-smell wet boots (wow, we have just a few of those around here!)

I grabbed the disinfectant spray and wipes to put in the car right away. Thymol is the active ingredient, which is the same ingredient I use in my Seventh Generation disinfectant. We like that a lot lot! The spray has 225 sprays in it, which I think is a much nicer way to apply than a goopy alcohol-based disinfectant.

Well, I feel on top of the world having won this giveaway and getting such neat prizes. Thank you, Amelia! If you're interested in other outdoorsy gear, be sure to head over to Tales of a Mountain Mama. She has frequent (several a month!) giveaways with really cool gear. She also has all sorts of great advice about how to enjoy the outdoors with your kids.

Thanks also to Sweet Relish! This looks like a really cool website.


p.s. I actually have a giveaway right now, for a free digital magazine subscription from Zinio. If you haven't signed up yet, do so quick, it's almost over!

Volcano Hill

 We have a large mound of dirt in our yard, and I thought it might be the perfect place to try out our volcanoes, as I didn't want to repeat the inside explosion. Desert Girl was happy to dig.

Desert Boy was given the task of burying some plastic bottles, aka magma chambers.

 Then his friend Neto came over to help with the volcano eruption. I mixed a little food coloring in with the vinegar to give it some extra oomph.

 I never did find the exact proportions of baking soda to vinegar we were supposed to be using, so I just guessed. I also had the kids make a "forest" on the hill.

 Eruption time! Looks like the forest was spared.

That was so much fun we had to do it again and again until we had used up all the baking soda and vinegar.

 A few days later, after resupplying, Ava came over and we had to show her volcano hill.

 The kids were looking forward to what would happen.

 Ava and Desert Girl don't look so sure about the eruption, but Desert Boy is clearly enjoying the mess.

We kept going with more explosions. We are still trying to perfect the technique and see a two-foot high explosion. So if you have any ideas, let us know. In the meantime, we'll keep experimenting. It's nice to be outdoors!

What Every Kid Needs in the Backyard

We went to a party at some friends' house, and the kids were instantly enamored with the fun new toys. Desert Boy loves trampolines and jumped and jumped. Then Grandpa took Desert Girl up there for her turn, and she thought it was pretty fun, too.

But a trampoline, fun as it is, isn't what every kid needs in the backyard. After all, trampolines can be a little (or a lot) dangerous, and out here in the desert they have a nasty habit of blowing out of yards when dust devils come and stir up the yard ornaments.

So what is it that every kid needs in the backyard?

Well, for this model, we started out standing on a 55-gallon drum.

Notice the red rope? It's connected to a pulley.

And the pulley?
It's on a zipline.
A zipline that goes all the way across the yard.

Now how cool is that?

Desert Boy was a little short to disembark by himself, but fortunately his cousin Caleb was willing and able to help him.

Desert Boy agreed with me that this was an awesome thing, and repeated the zipline over and over. I had never seen him hold on to a bar that long.

We have discovered the solution to improving American youth's fitness: install ziplines at all schools. If the kids have fun playing outdoors and have to be strong to do it, they will!

To see Desert Boy in action, check out the video.

Mirror Lake Scenic Drive

On the weekend my husband and I visited Midway, Utah and Homestead Crater, we also took a scenic drive to Mirror Lake, located in the Uinta Mountains. To get there, we headed north from Midway and then east along the south edge of Jordanelle Reservoir. This huge reservoir is relatively new, from the 1990s. There have been many water projects in central Utah to transport water from the mountainous areas that receive lots of snow each winter to the Wasatch Front, where the majority of Utah's population lives.

Along the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway, which starts in Kamas, UT, we stopped at a sign denoting the Duchesne Tunnel. This six-mile long tunnel can carry up to 600 cfs of water, although late in the fall it was running less than 20 cfs.

We could just barely see the tunnel from the end of the little walk.

As we traveled further up the road, we passed beautiful meadows, lots of ATV trails, and many campsites with hunters. By late October most of the leaves had fallen off the trees, but we did see a bit of color in the coniferous forest due to insect kill.

We stopped at the overlook for the Provo River Falls, finding an ice-covered cascade. We were the only vehicle in the parking lot, and it was obvious that on a hot summer afternoon, this place would be packed and a lot of fun.

We wandered down the trail and then back up the river to enjoy the many waterfalls.

Needless to say, it was cold!

As we went further up the road, my husband started getting worried because we hadn't seen any other vehicles in a long time. Now out where we live, we take this for granted. And usually we're on valley bottoms. But this time we were up in the mountains, and we started thinking of had all the tales of people getting stranded in similar situations and trying to dig their way out of snow and walking 36 miles in circles and cutting off their big toes to have something to eat.

We knew that even though it was a beautiful day, there was a big storm coming. And so my husband imagined even worse scenarios.

Fortunately, before too long we got to Mirror Lake, a scenic lake with tall Uinta Mountains in the background. A bit of trivia: the Uintas are one of only three east-west trending mountain ranges in the U.S., and they are the longest of the three.

Here we were again the only vehicle in the parking lot. The campground, with over 75 sites, were closed. Ice was building along the shoreline. The lakeside trail was covered with snow. And a cold breeze kept us from venturing too far. But we figured we had come this far, we had better get out and see a little of it.

I'm trying to keep my hair out of my face in this photo. This would be a fun place to go back to and spend a couple nights camping. There are some great mountains nearby that wouldn't be too hard to climb, along with fishing, hiking, and just generally enjoying the outdoors.

But for now, the Mirror Lake area is coated in deep snow. The storm that arrived not too long after our visit dumped many feet of snow. I'm sure the lakes have nearly frozen over as the cold chill takes hold on the high terrain. But next spring, as the days get longer and the sun warms the mountain air, it will all reawaken. And fortunately we won't be trapped in our vehicle, waiting.