We went for a walk up the canyon a few minutes away and beyond the usual enjoyments like blackberry flowers, birdsong, fresh air and tossing sticks and rocks into the creek, we discovered something new this time.
As we were leaving we went down to the creek in a different spot and spotted a swing across the water. Lilah crossed the logs and swung, and then we spotted a rope hanging from a tree right in the middle of the creek. So we tried that one too.
We left Utah for a week and visited Joshua Tree National Park, a barely visited place for Chris and I; a new place to the kids.
There was climbing
exploring
photographing.
Lilah took this one:
Gavin took this one:
There was lizard spotting, oasis hiking. The palm trees in the far right of the picture are at the 49 Palms Oasis, at the end of our hike.
The frogs were singing when we arrived at the oasis and there were birds settling in the for the night. We hiked back in the twilight and at the end, the moonlight.
We stopped at a free air art gallery of Noah Purifoy’s work near Joshua Tree, preserved since the artist’s death, to look at a huge variety of art made with things used and thrown away. Toilets, metal trays and tires were some of the most used objects in his creations.
Between Joshua Tree Park and San Diego we stopped through the Anza Borrego desert preserve to see wildflowers in bloom. We were a bit early for the full effect but it was still amazing.
In San Diego we visited tide pools nearby
and the beach.
We made forts out of driftwood
and watched sandpipers and cormorants
and played in the water
and collected shells.
While tidepooling we spotted lots of snails of various kinds
and hermit crabs and bigger crabs, and fish, tiny and medium, one itty bitty sea star, lots of sea grass and kelp, tops, a few cowrys, a shrimp, mussels and barnacles, a huge keyhole limpet,
anemones,
lots of sea hares
and several nudibranchs of the Spanish Shawl variety plus one other I think was a Red Sponge nudibranch.
We saw a few seals swimming about offshore and then in La Jolla we visited their pupping beach and there were so many mom and baby pairs, swimming and sunning and enjoying life.
It was a lovely trip. We finished listening to Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan while driving.
When we got home were greeted by spring weather! The tree over our deck has burst into blooms and smells lovely and is bringing bees and butterflies to visit. There are so many visible buds and we’ve been eating outside every evening.
We’re between trips, trying to catch up with friends and relax between heading off out of state again.
We went to the Utah State Fair with friends. We saw bees and asked a bunch of questions about bees living in a big glass case. We saw butterflies, caterpillars and pupas of the monarch species.
We saw calves, tiny piglets, chicks just hatched and very small goats and were able to pet some of them.
The kids went on rides after rides with friends, thoroughly enjoying themselves until we bowed out, happy and tired.
We hiked up to Cecret Lake again, to spot salamanders and to enjoy the mountainous beauty of Utah.
It’s such a calm place except when the pikas start calling out in their strange squeaky voices. This one ran right out between us to perch above us and watch us.
We went to the park with friends to bike and play and hear from a man who keeps bees in his living room.
We drove up to the high mountain where it’s cool already to see lakes and smell pines. We were incredibly lucky that day… Lilah spotted a porcupine! We watched it clamber through wild raspberries and rocks to a hidden spot underneath several large boulders. She was so, so proud that she spotted the porcupine first! (I often am pointing out wildlife.) The kids started telling me about North American porcupines and African porcupines and how they differ. I think they learned about them on Wild Kratts, a favorite tv show of theirs.
We continued on our hike, passing meadows filled with colored leaves.
We hiked further than the kids have gone before to new lakes and enjoyed discovering new places and coming up with our own names for some of the spots we found as well as referring to the map we had on my phone.
On the way down we passed the hiding spot of the porcupine and it was still there, so we quietly, slowly observed and then continued on.
At the bottom of the descent there’s a lake filled with pond lilies so we went to look for salamanders which were all over at our last visit but we didn’t spot any this time. Lilah was asking why they are in some lakes but not others in the same area so we talked about possible reasons. I suspect elevation and depth of the lakes make a difference. And then, as Lilah is looking at the lilies, I spotted a beaver, diving, eating lily roots, twenty feet away at the edge of the water. We watched for a while and then headed home, happy.
We played some games. Here’s Gavin playing Ghosts with me.
We biked.
We visited the library.
We’ve been looking at new houses and thinking and dreaming about what we might find and how things might be the same or different in a different space. The kids are ready for their own rooms now and are very happily planning what their personal spaces will be like. After much looking and dreaming we fell in love with a house only a block away from where we are now. It has the yard, the deck and the privacy I’ve been dreaming of, the office Chris has been wishing for, the bedrooms the kids have been asking about and many more things to exclaim happily over. We made an offer and negotiated and are under contract for a house with an apple tree with hundreds of yummy apples to harvest. (Gavin has been asking for an apple tree in the yard for years now as it’s his favorite fruit.) We are even allowed to begin picking now!
We played at our nearby park.
We spotted a caterpillar in our garden and the next day it seemed to be getting ready to change form, hanging upside down.
We went to Yellowstone National Park over a weekend and then, we went again the next weekend with family! It was a little crazy, being home for 3 days to do laundry and grocery runs and then head back the same place but it was so much fun to be in the park.
We lounged in hammocks with friends and the kids played a game based on Pokemon for hours together.
We walked up the road to the lake shore and the kids swam and kayaked and played in the sand.
We huddled under a canopy and played games while it rained and then roasted marshmallows as it sprinkled.
We dipped our feet in the Firehole river and picnicked with the company of jays, ravens, chipmunks, a deer.
We walked miles and miles and waited and waited to see several spectacular geysers as well as really wonderful smaller ones. We admired hot springs and fumaroles.
There are all kinds of surprises in Yellowstone, but I didn’t expect this one: a smily face out of nails in the boardwalk.
We even got a game or two in while camping! (We LOVE games in this family!)
We spotted bison, including two who were head butting each other. We saw elk lounging by the river and crossing streets. We saw deer and a fox. We heard Sandhill cranes in the mornings. We even spotted a swallow landing in a hole in a post on a walkway bridge. We looked inside and saw two baby swallows looking back!
The kids built a fire with minimal assistance and happily tended it while Chris and I worked to make breakfast and pack up camp.
It’s a beautiful place and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
We’ve been so busy this summer! It’s one of those things I struggle with; finding a balance between enough time with friends and things to do and enough time to sit, relax, wonder, read and be at home. My personal inclinations are often along the lines of more time unscheduled at home but since we’ve been forming new friends and community we’ve been doing so many things to facilitate that. Sometimes I am tired of doing so much. Always I am grateful for the opportunities we have to go out into the world and spend time with people. Many weeks I am thinking about how much to do. I think we will speed and slow with the weather and seasons probably, as well as what stages the kids are in.
Here are some of the fun things we’ve been doing.
We spent a weekend at a cabin in the mountains with my parents and some moose and the best swing in the world. It was quiet and the air smelled like pine. Mmmm. I dream of a time-share in a cabin in the woods, in the desert, by the sea.
I found a new favorite toy: an app on my phone called prisma that alters pictures into new, artistically styled versions. The kids love it too. Yesterday Lilah spent a good 45 minutes filtering on photo over and over.
We went the local aviary and visited with lots of birds in exhibits and also a few there of their own choice. There were some barn swallows hanging out in the bathroom building, one on the hinge and some others in a nest in the back. This is the bird Gavin wanted a photo of.
We took the kids to some MLS soccer games, one with fireworks on the pitch afterward. They enjoyed throwing streamers, chanting support songs and watching fireworks.
The kids and I drove up into the Uintah mountains to an area full of lakes and explored. There were salamanders in the lakes and water lilies, wildflowers and also lots of flies (which were quite obnoxious). There’s an area there where there is floating grass that will very slowly sink into the edge of the water if you stand on it so I showed the kids that. It was fun for me but they were nervous. Some of the salamanders were striped and some had frills on their necks. I’m not sure if there were multiple species or just different ages and sexes. The kids tossed rocks toward the lake edge and a butterfly kept landing on Lilah’s skirt and trying to find nectar.
Some of the salamanders were striped and some had frills on their necks. I’m not sure if there were multiple species or just different ages and sexes. The kids tossed rocks toward the lake edge and a butterfly kept landing on Lilah’s skirt and trying to find nectar.
Here’s Lilah watching the butterfly coming to land on her skirt:
All four of us took a hike with the local unschoolers group. That was really fun to do with friends. The kids chatted all the way up and encouraged each other. Lilah and some friends tossed dirt in the air in puffs at the top. Gavin and Chris and I sat on the rocks and watched the water ripple under the wind and the chipmunks scurry around looking for hiker’s snacks.
We’ve been enjoying walking and biking to our neighborhood library, checking out lots of books. The kids have both very much been enjoying various books of poetry by Shel Silverstein lately, which is really fun!
Lilah made this friendly looking cat…
that changes into this fierce creature!
We went to a farm that makes essential oils and watched their process and afterward visited a fish hatchery to hear about what they do there, which is grow and tend fish until they get big enough to release into lakes and rivers in the area. They had rainbow trout this time.
Lilah wove a tapestry, a Doodle Crate project. She loved it! I think there will be more weaving happening.
We tie-dyed with friends. We dyed towels and a shirt for Gavin, a dress for Lilah and a shirt for me. They came out beautifully! Well, except my towel which needs another round of dye. It’s hard to get enough dye into an absorbent towel tied up! The heart Lilah has been wanting to accomplish for years came out so nicely. Gavin researched techniques and settled on a “sunburst” pattern for his shirt and a “crumple” pattern for his towel.
We’ve been playing Pokemon Go on my phone, walking to find pokemon and balls to catch them in, collecting pokemon, feeding them candy, evolving them. The kids have been interested in pokemon for years so they are pretty excited about the game. I get to ask them all sorts of fun questions as we play. We figured out the different types of pokemon you find have to do with the local terrain, like water pokemon are near lakes, ice pokemon in cooler places. Here’s the first one we caught and a favorite:
We’ve been biking to the library, playing games, taking care of our pets, playing with friends, going to the water park,
celebrating three friends’ birthdays in a week’s time, listening to Polly Horvath’s Mr. and Mrs. Bunny– Detectives Extraordinaire! and Lord and Lady Bunny– Almost Royalty! We loved both.
We’ve been visiting an elk ranch where we fed elk and learned about them and saw lots of beautiful elk plus a blind lamb that loves to eat weeds,
making dinosaur paper dolls for one of our friends.
We’ve had long conversations about big news stories with the kids, trying to give them information about the world we all inhabit together. We watched a short video about consent as explained by cups of tea. (You can offer someone some tea, but if they refuse or can not answer or don’t answer positively, then you must not make them drink the tea.) We’ve been talking a lot about the presidential election and candidates and process of choosing a president. We had a great conversation about vitamins, what they are and where they come from and what they do for our bodies and conversely what happens to us when we don’t get certain vitamins.
We’ve been hiking,
picking strawberries from our garden,
watching hummingbirds collecting spiderwebs and drinking nectar.
Gavin went to a birthday party with biking and water play while Lilah, Chris and I decorated stacking dolls. Lilah’s are two cats and a mouse, Chris’ are aliens and a human and mine are a bear, a bird and a cat.
They played in a big tube that my sister found for the kids. Grandpa helped them explore possibilities.
We talked about the fact that it’s the summer solstice, the longest day of the year and the kids asked when the light started and stopped so we looked up sunrise and sunset and calculated how many hours and minutes of light (sun up) there were: 15 hours and 7 minutes.
That’s a brief and very truncated peek into our last week or so. There’s always something to explore, enjoy, wonder about!
We enjoyed a long weekend at Arches National Park.
We were able to obtain a permit to head into Fiery Furnace one day and spent hours exploring winding passages, caves, huge boulders, hidden passages and arches that many don’t ever see. I can’t wait to go back in!
At the park we were:
hiking
climbing
exploring
enjoying
playing
spotting ravens, tadpoles,
caterpillars,
lizards, several kinds of rabbits, flowers of many kinds,
snakes
climbing
& more.
It’s a good life, filled to the brim with light and learning, love and wonder.
We headed south to Goblin Valley for the weekend to spend time outside with Chris.
While setting up our site, we saw a part of a sunshade or tent blowing up in the sky, probably 60 to 70 feet up, almost over the mountain behind the campground. We were happy our tent does well in wind, though it wasn’t nearly as windy as it has been on other visits.
These rocks in Goblin Valley are so much fun to climb, jump from one to another, explore and play hide and seek in. We went in a direction we hadn’t on previous trips and found a window to another valley.
We got caught in a quick rainstorm which was exciting and a little upsetting for the kids. Afterward we found a nice cave to wait out some gusty winds.
The second day we packed up camp while Gavin did some rock balancing and then invited Lilah to help him with some heavier rocks. They engineered a whole bunch of these while the car was packed up. I love to spend time balancing rocks and am so glad Gavin and Lilah enjoy it too. It’s a great way to spend a few minutes slowing down, getting your hands dirty, practicing trial and error methods and getting creative with nature.
Then we headed to Little Wild Horse Canyon, a slot canyon very close by. We climbed up and explored and enjoyed the sun and shade, flowers and ravens and lizards and sand.
We headed back to the goblins for dinner and a few last games of hide and seek in the rocks before heading home. The kids are specks out there among the goblins.
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