Secret Desert Canyon

My parents have been here visiting the last week, and I always like to take them different places so they can get the flavor of the high desert. One of our adventures was to go to a secret desert canyon. Although it's March, it's still chilly, and we had to start off by putting on winter coats.

This is the start of the canyon. It has beautiful rocks, and if you know where to look, you can spot...
...petroglyphs! These old rock carvings are a bit worn and not the easiest to see, but still it's really neat imagining the people who made them. Did they ever come in March? And if they did, what did they wear to stay warm?

Further on, Desert Boy enjoyed scampering up the rocks. He loves to climb, so we had to rein him in a bit or he would have been to the top with us trying to catch up.

Eventually we got to the end of the canyon section. Above that is a wash that curves and bends and eventually reaches a mountain range. I went ahead and was able to get a wider view. Then Desert Boy and Grandpa decided to join me.

Most of the snow had melted at this elevation, but there were still patches on north-facing slopes.
Grandpa was most impressed with how desolate this section of desert looked. At this time of year it sure looks like desert, with so many earth tones in all the rocks and vegetation.
We sat down to get a new profile pic for my blog. My favorite ended up being the unposed one (above).
But the posed one does show off the desert scenery behind us.
On the way back down the canyon, we found a little pocket with icicles. Desert Boy was intrigued.
He touched one and found out it was cold. Then he tried licking one.

Desert Boy and Grandpa continued down the canyon, enjoying the adventure.
We even found a little tunnel for Desert Boy to climb through. He liked it so much he did it twice. We made a number of analogies to Dora the Explorer since that's one of his favorite shows. Sometimes it makes the hiking much easier!
Grandpa and Grandma near the end of the hike are all smiles. Because "we did it, we did it!"
We took advantage of the scenic location for a photo op.
And then it was time to drive back out to the paved road. Grandpa was quite curious why there was a Stop sign right next to the gate. We stopped at both. Then it was time for a rest before we began the next adventure.

Hopefully we can find more fun canyons to explore on future visits.

I'm Asleep

Here's Desert Girl asleep in her high chair. The thing that cracks me up the most is her hands.
How many people sleep with their hands flexed?
She sleeps best when someone's holding her, but sometimes we have to settle for second best, especially when it's time to make dinner!

New Van

We recently decided we needed some new family wheels. I didn't want to take a photo in the driveway, so I stopped and took a photo on the way back from feeding the bummer calves. This is a much nicer background!

You can see we've already managed to find some dirt and dust!

One of the best things about it is all the space. Like some of our friends mentioned, it's hard to go wrong with the space, especially when we sometimes stock up on groceries only once a month.

And it's great for when it's our turn to carpool to preschool. Here we are with four car seats (Desert Girl's is in the middle and backward facing). We have room for one more in the back with Desert Boy. We can seat up to eight people. Ready for road tripping!

Fun at the Playground

We went to playgroup on Saturday, and the weather was thankfully nice enough to go outside and play. The three little munchkins had lots of fun hanging out and chasing each other while Supermom Nomi looked on.

They were testing all the different ways they could go down and up the slides. It was funny seeing how creative they could get.

Meanwhile Jenny and I had our babies out in the grass. Isaac is just two months older than Desert Girl, but he is already so much bigger! I didn't manage to capture it in these photos, but he has the biggest, most beautiful eyes.

It's hard to imagine that Desert Girl will soon be that much bigger.

Success!

We had success feeding the bummer calves. Desert Boy thought it was pretty neat to go back and visit the calves. They didn't seem to mind his company. They didn't even mind Henry, although Henry was more interested in chasing the ducks in the pond than spending time with the calves.

Nevertheless, he was on the lookout for any spilled milk.

A happy calf. Don't you love all that milk drool?

Desert Boy posing next to the calf. I'm not sure if it has a name yet--the main caretaker gets to name the calves. And often they become quite attached to whomever feeds them and will follow that person around or leave a group of cows to come say hi when they're older. Cows might not be all that intelligent, but they can be cute.