April Happenings

 As I went through my April photos, I realized I had a lot of odds and ends that I hadn't blogged about but wanted to include for when I print out my blog book for the year. April was a fairly busy month, with a train ride, t-ball, lots of bike riding (including Desert Girl without training wheels), cave rescue class, junior cave scientists, and lots of bird sightings. We also had wonderful clouds, although most of them didn't produce much in the way of precipitation.

Fortunately we had clear skies for the lunar eclipse. Generally I only take Milky Way photos during the new moon, but with the eclipse, it was dark enough I could get the galaxy (plus some light pollution from Las Vegas) plus the eclipsed moon all in one shot).

The moon turned so red during the eclipse. It was really beautiful, and I was glad I had gotten up to witness it. (If you didn't, there's another lunar eclipse in September!)

The photograph-the-full-moon challenge is going well, although I feel like in some ways I've reached the limitations of my equipment. But I will try to keep getting full moon photos in interesting locations. The next full moon is coming soon!

The kids were so excited Easter morning. We had a little Easter egg hunt in the house.

Then we got all dressed up to go to church. The kids sure clean up well!

And since we don't get enough of these, we did a family photo.

Later Desert Girl got a haircut because she was having trouble taking care of her longer hair and I was no longer willing to battle. She got a super cute haircut from Chandra. She has been taking really good care of it. And then last night she cut her own bangs quite noticeably. Sigh. Actually I laughed, which didn't make Desert Girl happy. I'll post a photo soon.

I have about four hours of EMT training every month to keep up my continuing education hours. This was one of the trainings, about pediatric emergencies taught by a pediatric nurse. It was really good training.

In the same location not much later we had a fun baby shower. It's so great to be welcoming a new baby into our community!

One of our frequent destinations is the post office parking lot, where we ride bikes, run around, and play on wagons. This photo must have been taken during spirit week, on pajama day.

The kids and I take various adventure walks. They love climbing trees, jumping over the creek, and building forts. And Desert Boy is very much into guns. I try not to roll my eyes too much.

The great horned owls are frequently in the yard. We welcome them. They are much preferable mousers than the mama skunk with her four young I saw last night.

Although we had such a dry winter, we did get a little extra snow in April, worrying us because all the fruit trees had blossomed so early. The snow looked pretty on the willows.

It's hard to believe May is almost over now. Maybe I'll catch up with it a little sooner than April!

Our Little Solar System is Restored!

 A year and a half ago the kids and I made a little solar system in the neighborhood. It was so neat to see the scale of the solar system over two and a half miles. Those outer gas planets sure are far apart!! It was also mind-blowing to me when I asked an astronomer where the end of the road would be and he said it would still be in our solar system, in the Oort cloud, a comet-forming area way far away from Planet Earth.

Unfortunately, last fall someone removed the further reaches of the solar system, Saturn to Makemake. (They missed Eris, which is easy to miss!) I had several people tell me we should redo the solar system, and eventually I found the time to find the boards, paint the background, paint the names, gather planets, have my husband cut the boards, and go hang everything up. On the "hang up" day, we decided we would go check on everything, and Desert Girl was the photographer for the day.

The sun, which to scale would be so huge would require a massive board that we don't have, is just partially represented. It's hanging in there, but is in need of a little TLC. Desert Girl also had fun photographing the nearby fish. I guess they would be called sunfish? Ha.

Okay, so do you know the order of the planets in our solar system? Without further ado, here they are:

Having fun with wire cutters

Pausing for a selfie

Ceres is a relatively new dwarf planet, found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter

We'll see if Saturn's rings stay on better this time!

Pluto has a really fun ball for its representation (and a little on the large side, but we didn't have many options!). It's across from the Ranching Exhibit, so easy to check out.

Haumea

Makemake

We didn't quite make it out to Eris (well, it is so far away, and our spaceship was running low on fuel), so here's the photo from 2013.

And, oops, did you notice our mistake? We reversed Haumea and Makemake from last time, but it turns out we may be more accurate now, as Makemake's orbit is longer than Haumea's (310 years vs 285 years), according to this table. And Eris? Well, it takes 557 years to get around the sun once!

We hope this model solar system will encourage people to learn more about the bigger picture of where we live. I also find it a great place to ponder when I'm facing something difficult. As I travel from planet to planet, it helps put things in perspective. My problem is really, really tiny in the scope of things.

Great Basin National Park is offering astronomy programs every Saturday night, and once Memorial Day rolls around, the programs will be every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday nights. They are a great way to learn even more about the amazing world--no make that the amazing solar system/galaxy/universe.

By the way, the Little Solar System is open to additions. Want to put in a spaceship? How about a UFO? There's already a great comet. Add anything you like, this is a community project, open to making it better!

Desert Boy's Eighth Birthday

 Desert Boy recently turned eight, and we were blessed to have a beautiful day so we could hold the party outside. His friends came over for a simple lunch. Then it was time for the outdoor activities. First up: zipline! We just recently installed this, and it's a lot of fun.

Although it's a little intimidating the first time!

There was plenty to eat, including some mushy frosting perfect for smearing all over a face and hands.

We brought out Desert Boy's birthday cake...

…but the wind was too strong to light the candles. So Desert Boy had to make do with blowing out a match.

 Then it was on to more activities, including playing on the swingset and hide'n seek.

Some of the girls played ship on the hammock. They were on stormy seas, with sharks circling.

They started capsizing, which made for a perilous trip.

The next game was how many kids can you fit in a hot tub. They liked that one quite a lot. Sharks may or may not have been present.

The little kiddie pool was the spacious one. Ha!

The slip'n slide had them running and cooling off, then they'd get back in the hot tub to warm up.

In the evening we had family over for a BBQ.

It was low-key fun.

Desert Boy enjoyed all the attention.

And then things got charged up with a water fight. It wasn't just any little waterfight, this was a get soaked-to-the-skin waterfight.

Desert Girl wisely chose to put on her swimsuit.

And then proceeded to chase her cousin. It was a good day!

Happy Birthday, Desert Boy! It's been a fun eight years and I'm looking forward to lots more!