Barf Bag

I know, an unappetizing title for this blog post. I actually have two reasons for it.

First, I've been rereading Louis Sachar's Holes, and there's a character named Barf Bag in it. I rarely reread books, but I enjoyed that one so much, I decided to give it a try, and it's nearly as good the second time around. Part of the reason I'm rereading it is to get a feel for how he put it together, as November is fast approaching, and November is NaNoWriMo.

That's the crazy acronym for National Novel Writing Month, where over 50,000 people try to write a novel of 50,000 words or more in a month. In 2008 I did it, too, and it was a wonderful feeling. In 2009 I only managed 35,000 words, but that was still a great feeling. I'm trying to decide if I should make a go of it in 2010. Will I have time with two little kids? Can I get a novel planned in a few weeks? I have one in mind, so we'll see. Do you want to give it a try with me? Please?

The second reason to mention barf bag is that we're on vacation.

Sounds bad, doesn't it? I'll explain.

I took the kids and traveled back to the Midwest to visit friends and family. Now that Desert Boy is toilet trained, it makes traveling easier. For the most part.

On the plane he had to pee. So I took him and Emma to the cramped little lavatory. Then he had to go again, but Emma was sound asleep in my arms, so I sent him back on his own. A mom was sitting next to the door, and bless her heart, she let him in and ignored everything that went on as he left the door open behind him.

We were in the final descent when Desert Boy informed me he had to pee again. I remembered back to a random thought I had had pre-travel, when I had decided to put him in a pull-up for the plane flight. But that random thought had fluttered away as quickly as it had fluttered in. He wasn't wearing a pull-up, he was wearing baseball underwear, with little absorbing power.

I told Desert Boy he would have to wait a little bit, and since he usually gives me a 10-minute warning, he was okay with that.

We got closer to the ground, and he told me again that he had to pee. I told him he'd have to wait a little bit longer. He made a face, but didn't protest.

We landed and taxied forever. Finally we got to the gate and I let him out of his car seat. He stood up in the tiny space between the seats.

"Mama, I really have to pee." His eyes were bigger than usual. Uh oh.

This was an emergency. People were already standing in the aisle, so I couldn't even take him on a mad dash to the lavatory and beg for forgiveness. If I didn't do something immediately, I was going to have a wailing kid with very wet clothes and a smelly puddle on the plane.

My mind flashed to a bottle. If I just had a bottle, he could pee into it. That's what we use on long trips in the cave. (Note: Do not also take lemon-lime gatorade into the cave if you also take a pee bottle. They are the same color in the glow of a headlight. Just saying.)

I had a bottle, but it was half-full of water and buried in my bag, and by the time I pulled it out and dumped it out somewhere (but where?), it would be too late.

I had no ziplocks.

Emma's diapers were buried.

But I did have a barf bag, conveniently located in the seat pocket. I whipped it out, told Desert Boy to pee into it, and did my best to provide a modicum of privacy as people shuffled their way off the plane.

Desert Boy peed, and peed, and peed. He peed like three inches in that bag.

By the time he finished, everyone else had gotten off the plane. A flight attendant asked what he could do to help me off. I was so tempted to give him the barf bag of pee, but I resisted. Barely.

We made it off the plane and had to wait for the stroller, and lots of other people were waiting for their bags. I managed to focus all my attention on the kids and ignore the little white bag I was gingerly holding. I also tried to avoid eye contact with other passengers. I didn't want to know what they were thinking.

We finally got to the terminal, and I made a beeline for the nearest garbage can. I released the barf bag, and heard the plunk as it sank all the way to the bottom. If any of the passengers waiting were wondering what I had just deposited--or why the garbage can was smelling a little rank--I didn't stick around to find out. It was time to get out of there.

We had just survived another pee adventure, and that made my day a good day.

Picnic Lunch

After we had our walk last Sunday, we went into the nearby campground so we could have a picnic lunch complete with a fire. Desert Boy loves picnics, and Desert Girl loves sitting in the dirt and eating it and sticks and bark.

Oh, let's add pinecones to that list.

She has mastered the contemplative look.

Desert Boy was eager to help with the fire. No surprise there. It took awhile to cook the hamburgers, but they were worth the wait. It kept getting colder while we were there, so we appreciated the hot food.

Desert Boy had decided to bring his umbrella and then found where he wanted to set it up. He and Emma had their little picnic in the dirt.

Afterwards, Desert Boy had a lot of energy again, so I took him for a bike ride around the campground. Some of those hills were a little challenging, and I was expecting him to biff on one of the downhills, but he stayed upright.

As you can see, most of the aspen leaves are off the trees. They must have known that it was going to snow the next three days.

A Walk in the Woods

Last Sunday we decided to go up high on the mountain to enjoy the aspen leaves. My friend Jenny had captured such beautiful photos earlier in the week, and I was hoping to get some snapshots of the kids with the vibrant yellow background. But alas, most of the leaves had fallen in just a few short days.

We went for a walk along the nature trail, which is stroller accessible and had fun logs for balancing.

It was chilly, but a beautiful sunny day.

We found the same tree Desert Boy had posed at a couple years ago. I need to dig out those photos!

We tried a posed photo on this big rock, but the impromptu goofing around turned out much better.

I handed the camera to my husband so I could be in some photos, and Desert Boy and I found this nice tree stump chair.

Then we had fun playing balancing games. When I was a little girl, I loved walking on the curbs in my town. (And walked into parking meters, my mother tells me.) I still like walking on narrow things where I have to balance.

Desert Boy seems to be learning balance well.

We even tried a little dancing.

Desert Boy had so much energy that we decided to do the loop trail again, but run this time. So I guess maybe I should call this post a run in the woods! It takes a little extra energy at 10,000 feet!

A Study of Aspen

Last Friday I took the kids camping, and the next morning we got up and went for a hike. It was a little chilly, so Desert Boy had to put on a hoody and was ready to walk fast.

The aspen have been beautiful this fall, although the color has been short-lived. The trees started turning the second week of September, and many leaves fell off this last week, the first week of October, as a storm system moved through.

Nevertheless, last Saturday morning we were still able to find a lot of beautiful aspens at middle elevations.

These are quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), so-named because they have flattened petioles that make them tremble in even the slightest breeze. The colorful leaves really stand out against the conifer background.

Desert Girl looked a little concerned as we began the walk, but she soon fell asleep.

The leaves are nearly circular, and a few dusted the ground.

When Desert Boy spotted a bridge, he got excited and ran across.

He ran so fast that he crashed on the other side.

I wouldn't mind having just a thimbleful of his exuberant energy.

(By the way, if you see typos that have the letter r missing, it's because Desert Girl got hold of the computer keyboard one morning. Despite repeated attempts to fix it, it's just not the same, with the letter r permanently handicapped.)

The sunlight danced across some of the leaves, illuminating their paper-thin wisps.

I liked this tree with its crooked trunk.

Aspen are fast-growing, but often don't live more than 100 or 150 years.

I noticed some elk scat near these aspen leaves. I was hoping we might see some elk or hear them bugle.

Unfortunately we didn't, but we did see some more elk sign: bark rubbed off the aspen.

This aspen leaf was nestled on the yellowing leaves of a snowberry bush.

Some of the leaves fell in the creek and were washed downstream. Cobbles slowed or stopped the movement of some of the leaves.

While most of the aspen leaves were yellow, some had orange or red tints to them. Since aspens are usually clones and are genetically exact to those around them, it's common for whole groves to turn the exact same color at the exact same time.

A problem aspen are facing is that fire suppression has allowed conifers to encroach on their habitat, crowding the aspen out of their old habitat. Trees can't exactly walk away, so if their neighbors take over, they're out of luck.

Oh my, those aspens were beautiful!

This one was particularly red.

We don't have many deciduous trees displaying fantastic fall colors, but we sure do appreciate the ones we have.

Happy autumn!

Downward Dog

This is Emma's version of crawling...

...or maybe an early yoga move...