Moon, Venus, and Jupiter

This was the sight to the west just a little while ago: a crescent moon with Venus hanging out a little below, with Jupiter looking down on them. It was noteworthy because all three are so bright! Tomorrow night (Sunday), Jupiter will be about even with the moon soon after sunset. You can learn more about what's coming in the night sky here.

And although I tried various camera settings I didn't get a very good photo. Fortunately Sky & Telescope offers a free astrophotography primer. Here's hoping for some warm nights to try out various settings!

Four-Year Old Attitudes

The other day we were fortunate to have Ava and Isaac come over for a play date. I get a kick out of watching the kids' interactions. At lunch time Desert Boy and Ava were delighted to have their own little table and they had quite the conversation.

First Ava got to say her piece.

It looks like Desert Boy had a different opinion.

I think he thought if he stared hard enough, he could get Ava to change her mind. Somehow, I don't think that would work. They're both stubborn kids!


It all ended well and they moved on to the next point of discussion.


Meanwhile the little kids were just peachy-happy eating their lunch. They don't have such long conversations--yet!

Then it was time to go play on the gravel pile in our driveway. Again there were some serious discussions and battles over who's in charge.

Ava finally decided she had more important things to do.

 We went over to Jenny's and the kids still had lots of energy, so we headed to the trampoline to wear them out. Jenny showed off some of her trampoline tricks. Cool!

Wow, those kids sure have a lot of energy! It was a fun day, and it's nice to try and have them wear each other out, because they do a much better job of it than I do!

Train Cafe--Nephi, UT

 We had so much fun at a train cafe a few weeks ago. When we were coming home from the city and my husband mentioned that there was a train cafe on the way, we jumped at the opportunity. It's J.C. Mickleson's in Nephi, Utah. We've been through Nephi quite a few times, but with the restaurant at the other end of town, I had just never been there. (Plus they don't say anything about the trains on their website--they should!)

As soon as we walked in, we knew that we were in the right place. We immediately saw lots of trains, some elevated above our heads. (I was trying out a new gizmo with a camera, hence the somewhat fuzzy photos.)

 We could watch the trains the entire time we were eating. (Or in Desert Girl's case, the entire time she was applying spaghetti to her face and clothes.)

 This was the view from our table of the very long freight train.

 We tried to get Desert Boy to count the cars, but he lost interest somewhere in the twenties.

The freight train even had construction equipment and tractors. It made a big impression!

I'm thinking we will be back to the Train Cafe sooner rather than later!

Maze Madness

Ready to do some shopping for President's Day? If you have kids (or know some), this is something you might be interested in. Desert Boy has been trying out some mazes, and this has been a great book for him:

The book is 108 pages long, which will give a young'un plenty to do! There are four mazes per letter of the alphabet, so it's a fun way to learn letters.

For slightly older kids, here's a more difficult maze book:

And for age 10 to adults, here's an extremely cool looking maze book:

Click on any of the images above to be connected to the Amazon page. If you're interested in learning more about how they were created and a special coupon code to buy them from Create Space, click here.

Great Backyard Bird Count Starts Today

Some friends reminded me that the Great Backyard Bird Count starts today. Fortunately it's a four-day event, so there's still plenty more time to be looking for birds. This is a great citizen scientist project, because you can do it right in your backyard. Or you can go on a special outing (read--good excuse to get out of the house!) to go find some birds.

Then you submit them on the GBBC website and scientists will look for trends. What birds are where and how does that differ from other years? Are certain species more predominant (like those blasted Eurasian collared doves that have nearly overtaken the mourning doves around here?)? What differences are there between cities, suburbs, and rural areas?

Despite the cold weather, there are birds nearly everywhere. Today I've seen mountain bluebirds (like the one in the photo above). I love the vibrant blue of their feathers. I've also seen a couple northern flickers, the most plentiful woodpecker around here, and with a conspicuous white rump easy to identify as it flies in its undulating pattern. I've seen dark-eyed juncos flitting in the trees and showing their tails with the white on the edges. A golden eagle was on the pole on the way to work. They are so much bigger than the other raptors around here (other than bald eagles) that it's easy to identify them.

Happy Birding! 
Let me know what you see.