A January Hike

 It was a beautiful Friday afternoon and I had spent too much time sitting all week, so I took the afternoon off to go hiking with the kids. Desert Boy was glad to go out, but had a couple tears because he wanted to have friends go hiking with us, and they were all busy with other activities.

 I'm not sure what Desert Girl was thinking. She was keeping warm in her coat. Not that it was all that cold--it was upwards of 50 degrees.

I wasn't entirely sure where to go, but ultimately decided to go towards a canyon not too far from our house. I couldn't get too wild, as I was driving the low-clearance two-wheel drive soccer mom van.

 On the way I spotted a large bird and noticed it had a white head. Brakes!! We stopped to admire the beautiful bald eagle. We usually have a couple that spend the winter near us, and it's always so cool to see them.

Then we continued on our way, and instead of going up into the canyon, decided to climb a "mountain" that juts up from the bench on the way up to the canyon. The "mountain" doesn't have a name, but when I deigned to call it a hill, Desert Boy was quick to disagree.
"That's a big mountain," he said.
Okay, I wasn't going to disagree.
"Do you think we can climb it?"
"Yes."
Good. Because I knew he could. But it would be better if we wanted to.
Before we started the hiking challenge, we had the fording the creek challenge. In the low-clearance two-wheel drive soccer mom van.

Momentum was our friend, and we made it across. Good thing, too. It would have been really embarassing to have to go for help and tell someone we had gotten the van stuck in the middle of the creek.

 Before I had gotten out of the van and Desert Girl strapped on me and the camera ready, Desert Boy and Henry had charged up the mountain. This mountain is known for lots of rattlesnakes in the summer, so it was nice to be climbing it in winter and not have to worry about them at all.

 When I finally caught up to Desert Boy, he was trying to scale the sharp limestone on a "huge" cliff. He made a good start of it, but eventually slid right down the face of it. He skinned part of his hand, getting a "blood owie." Then it was time for more tears because I didn't have a bandaid with me. I know, what an unprepared mom I was!

I convinced him we could continue, and despite great protestations, we ascended.

 We could measure our progress by how much smaller the sheep camp below looked.

l

 Yep, it's tough to climb a mountain with a blood owie. Really tough.

 I was amazed that there wasn't any snow. And looking up the canyon, we could hardly see snow at the higher elevations.

 We hadn't gotten too far when the kids decided it was snack time or else. So we plopped down and they happily sipped and munched away. Afterwards they were slightly more willing to continue.

 They got much more excited when we found some fossils.

 Here I am holding one for scale.

 Then the whole mindset for the hike changed. Now we were on a mission to find cool fossils.

 And cool caves. This one was big enough for the kids to climb into it.

 It turned out it had a sunroof so I could look down at them. We found several other little holes to investigate, and Desert Girl got really good at spotting them. Unfortunately my camera battery died and the spare was back in the low-clearance two-wheel drive soccer mom van, so the photo taking part of the trip was over.

We made it to the peak and enjoyed the view. Then Desert Boy was really concerned about how we were going to get back down. I told him there was a special way. And lucky for me, there was. We went down a little gully, and on the way, we saw some bones. Desert Boy entered his dinosaur paleontologist mode and immediately declared we had discovered some dinosaur bones. He asked if he could take them home. I told him that if he carried them, he could. Then we found more bones. And more. It turned out that the gully was full of sheep bones, including some recent deaths with lots of wool all around them. Desert Boy had to pick and choose what he wanted and filled up his backpack. He decided he was going to make an Emmasaurus with that day's finds, and then we might have to go back to gather more to make a Henryosaurus and a Daddyosaurus and a Mommyosaurus.

 Here are some bones he had at the end, while he's looking at a large sheep dog with a blood-covered face that came up to check us out. Fortunately she was very friendly. I tried not to dwell too much on why her fur was blood red. It wasn't too appealing.

 I tried out my new camera lens.

Hurray, we survived the mountain! Then we went home and promptly all took a nap.

Local Happenings aka A Rather Random Post

 Some of these photos are a little older. (Or maybe a lot older, but who's counting? :) After the fair, we had one sheep left. Sheep are social, so it followed us (and the dog) around everywhere. Including to the swimming hole!

The kids painted some rocks and found some rocks around town.

It's always a fun surprise.

Every once in awhile you should take time for a tea party. Holding your pinky out is optional.

While it was warmer, we played soccer at the playground. Actually the "we" didn't include me, but I enjoyed watching. Maybe next year I'll work up the guts to get out there and give it a try!

Desert Girl is still working on being an animal trainer. Here was some success getting Maggie to go down the slide.

One evening I was in search of sandhill cranes. I found the cows creating quite a lot of dust.

I eventually found the sandhill cranes. Such cool looking birds!

When they took flight I was lucky to get them backlit. What beauty!


Meanwhile, the cows were curious and coming to see what I was doing.

And just playing around.

Here's a fun fact. Baker Ranch provides the hay for the National Finals Rodeo. The horses, bulls, and other animals get some delicious high desert hay. 

These cows are eating a mixture of feed grown on Baker Ranch.

As you've seen, this is very much a rambling post. So why not include Desert Girl's fish imitation?

Along with her drawing of fish. She also wants to be a marine biologist.

One day, Desert Girl and I took a trip to Garnet Hill near Ely, Nevada. Desert Girl was ready with a hammer to find some garnets.

I was fascinated watching the huge mine trucks on the next mountain. The mine trucks look tiny, which tell you how big the mine is.

It's been a busy year for our volunteer fire department. This day was someone burning brush that got out of control.

Fortunately it wasn't too windy, and the fire didn't spread much.

Each year the local school kids do a Wheel-a-thon as a fundraiser. The younger kids (grades K-2) ride eight miles, and the older kids (grades 3-6) ride sixteen miles.

This year, local law enforcement from four jurisdictions came out and did some educational activities. I think they also enjoyed sharing stories.

And here's one of our super bus drivers, Carrie. She followed the kids at the Wheel-a-thon. And she takes Desert Girl to school every day. It is great to see her smiling face every day!

Rodeo Fun

Delta, Utah was having a rodeo this last weekend for three days, so we decided to go to it Friday night. Amazingly we made it on time for the Grand Entry. (I say amazingly because my husband ended up having to work late and then we had to take a potty break on the way there which is a little time consuming when the little ones that have to go are buckled into the very back of the van!)

I'm always so impressed with how easy the riders make riding a horse look!

Then it was time for the exciting riding to begin! They started with bareback riding, and many of the riders stayed on the eight seconds and more.

And here's Isaac! Jenny and her kids came with us, which made the night even more fun. Isaac loved running up and down the bleachers.

More bucking horses. Ouch. Just watching them makes me ache.

Desert Boy and Ava were keen spectators--sometimes! There was a good crowd, but still plenty of room for more rodeo fans. The weather was about perfect.

I don't know exactly what they were looking at when I snapped this photo, but it must have been good!

Then it was time for mutton bustin'. About a dozen little kids wanted to try their best to stay on the back of a sheep.

Most of them immediately fell off.

One little tyke was like a tic, though. I didn't even notice he was still hanging on for a bit, as he held on so well! (He's on the sheep second from the right.)

Then it was time for steer wrestling. In this round, the steer won.

When I asked Desert Boy what his favorite part of the rodeo was, he said the dessert. He was mightily impressed by the snowcones. You can see what color Ava had.

Back in the arena was a really bizarre show with monkeys riding border collies. I had never seen anything like it.

After running around the bleachers for awhile, Isaac finally got tired and was willing to sit still--in his mom's arms.

 

I didn't get photos of all the events, mainly because the fast action and low light were challenging conditions for my camera. Above is one of the barrel racers-they sure were fast!

I wanted to get a nice shot of all the kids, but probably waited a little too late into the night. They all stayed awake throughout the rodeo. Three fell asleep pretty fast on the way home, but Desert Boy persevered until the last half hour.

I'm really glad we went, it really brought out the spirit of the Wild West. Plus it was some downright good entertainment.