Carnival Coming to Town

The Snake Valley Festival is starting Friday, and we are so excited! Who can resist delicious food (ice cream Friday night, cinnamon rolls Saturday morning, an assortment of lunch choices, lavender lemonade, all-you-can-eat cookout dinner, Sunday morning bake sale)? Or the small-town parade that everyone can be in? Or the water fight in the playground on a hot afternoon, complete with water troughs? A wine-tasting for those who can hold their pinkies out? Or cool items for sale at the yard sale, book sale, silent auction, and live auction? Plus plenty of astronomy festival events. And cowboy poet Mike Prince coming to town and some of the Valley's most talented folks entertaining?

But wait, there's even more! A last-minute addition is a carnival. Here they are starting to put up the scrambler.

They have several other rides, including a roller coaster. I don't think there's ever been a roller coaster in Snake Valley.

There will also be carnival-style games and food. This is a small-town carnival, but still, can it really be happening? I'm not sure who's more excited, Desert Boy or me.

More assembly. They should have it mostly set up by tomorrow night and open for business Friday afternoon. Come join the fun!

Astronomy Festival

 We joined the gathering at the Transit of Venus party at Great Basin National Park on June 5. Folks were taking a break from the telescopes to let clouds go by.

Once they cleared, we peeked through the telescopes. To me, the Transit of Venus isn't a spectacular sight, just a little dot in front of the sun. What I do really like is watching Venus move and thinking about the history of what it's represented to the astronomy world.

To see that change in movement, we took a break and went into the visitor center to see the exhibits.

 Desert Girl was ready to run! Her babysitter had done her hair in French braids, and it was absolutely adorable.

 Desert Girl liked the border collie resting under the sheep camp.

 She also liked the kangaroo rat.

The spadefoot toads were another attraction. I always get a little uneasy when Desert Girl pets the fake rattlesnake, and try to make sure she knows that she should never do that in the wild.

Then it was time to head back outside. Ranger Steve was really helpful getting the kids positioned looking through the telescope.

 
We're all set to join in the activities for the Astronomy Festival at Great Basin National Park June 14-16. And as a bonus, the Snake Valley Festival will be held June 15-17, so there will be lots of great things to do this weekend!

Does Anyone Else Do This?

I was trying to convince my kids to eat so I made a little creation out of dinner one evening. Can you tell what it is?

The green beans are the railroad tracks, the pesto mini rotini are the wheels, and the meat is the engine. I was quite impressed with my artistic skill. The kids thought it was cool, but it didn't really help them gobble it all down like I wanted. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Bristlecone Hike

 We headed up to the Wheeler Cirque bristlecone grove after our night of camping this weekend. I had forgotten Desert Girl's backpack, so we tried to get her to walk most of it, and she did walk quite a bit, albeit with frequent bribes. Fortunately Desert Boy has gotten to the point where he's a good hiker and he did well, although we had a few "Are we there yet?" questions. I almost never answer those seriously, so he gets frustrated and stops asking them. I'm not sure if that's good parenting or not, but it works.

Finally we were there, amidst the millenia-old trees. These ancient trees are really mind-blowing. How can something be that old and still be alive? What have they witnessed? How much longer will they continue to live?

 While my husband and the kids were taking about the fortieth snack break of the morning, I wandered off to spend some quiet time with the trees. We hadn't exactly gotten an early start so the light wasn't magical, but with the bristlecones, just being there is magical, no matter the time of day.

 When I'm around bristlecones, I always wonder if they're sentient beings. What do they think about all that has happened around them year after year after year?

 As we continued our hike, we stopped at every sign along the short interpretive trail. Both Desert Boy and Desert Girl enjoyed feeling some of the old wood. Desert Boy liked finding different textures on the same tree.

 The snacks were kicking in and they had revived and were full of boisterous energy as they posed by this 3,000+ year old tree.

 I asked my husband to take the camera so I could get on the other side of the lens with my cute kids.

 I think I could easily spend a whole day just roaming the bristlecone grove and admiring all the shapes.

But the others had different ideas. With the infusion of energy, we decided to hike to the glacier sign, another half-mile or so. Desert Boy and my husband went ahead, and I hiked with Desert Girl, letting her go at her own pace. She knows I won't carry her (except for a rare occasion), so she toddles along.

 She was absolutely adorable touching more trees. We never managed to get her hair done after she woke up from camping, so she's wearing the disheveled look well.

 Those dang sunspots appeared in the photo (maybe due to my filter?). Anyway, I couldn't help but snap a bunch of photos of Desert Girl hiking in such gorgeous scenery.

 Does anyone else see her mischievious side?

 Finally we made it to the sign, where Desert Boy and my husband were waiting. It looks like late July with the amount of snow left.

 Some alpine phlox. We didn't see very many flowers on our hike or even around the campground.

On the way back, we found Ranger Corey. Desert Boy always likes to think up a question for a ranger. This time he asked, "How do glaciers form?" It didn't look like he was paying attention to the answer, but when I asked him the question five minutes later, he remembered almost all of the answer. Hurray!

It was beautiful visiting the bristlecones. Desert Girl hiked over half the distance. We'll have to keep doing hikes and build up our endurance for more adventures this summer.

Camping to Escape the Heat

 It's gotten hot here, so yesterday Desert Boy talked us into going camping up high in the mountains. We packed in the afternoon and managed to pull away close to 6 p.m. (Yep, one-day weekends for my husband make camping a little (or maybe a lot) trickier.) I could have left earlier, but after having to do all the packing and setting up the last couple of times, I decided this time we would wait and let him have some of that fun.

We brought coats, which was a good thing, as it was chilly. Hurray!

 Desert Boy was delighted. Before long it was dark. My husband was tired so he went to bed and I took the kids for an adventure walk in the woods with flashlights. The nearly full moon added a lot of extra light, and we had a fun time winding our way in and out of the trees.

 The next morning I awoke early and took our dog for a leash and then went back to sleep. We all slept in, which was really nice.

 Then it was breakfast time. My husband cooked, so that was great!

Next we decided to pack up camp and go for a hike before descending down to the heat.

 Desert Boy was eager to get ahead and started off being a train (wearing an appropriately-themed shirt).

 Desert Girl did quite a bit of hiking. We're trying to toughen her up (so we don't have to carry her so much), and she walked about 1.5 miles on this trip.

 The kids were delighted to have Daddy on the trip.

They were even more delighted to find some snow and have a snowball fight!

There are more photos, but I'm worn out, so they will have to wait for another day!
Hope you've had a good weekend.