Category: Out & About

It’s Finished!

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Okay, Baby Katie — here’s your sweater.  Now, where are you?

We spent a few evenings last week taking walks around various indoor locations (the State Capitol building, Trolley Square) in order to get contractions going.  At Trolley Square, the kids ran into Pottery Barn Kids and then immediately began to beg . . . for things for Katie.

Jeffrey spent a good half hour in the baby girl bedding section, giving serious instructions about how we needed the beaded lamp, the rocking chair, and the matching butterfly bedding set.  (Had he forgotten that we already have the nursery pretty much ready?)  “Excuse me, madam,” he asked a sales clerk, and held up a pink bunny blanket.  “Is there a way we can buy this but put Baby Katie’s name on it first?”  Of course, the clerk replied, and then nattered on about online purchasing while I tried not to sigh.

Pottery Barn exists in a parallel sales universe that subsists on a healthy mix of the rich and gullible.  That bunny blanket retailed at $30.  Diaper bags were $168.  It’s cute but insane, right?

Eleanor, meanwhile, fell in love with the canopied little girl beds.  “When Katie turns five like me, we have to get her one of these, Mom.  Please please please?”  Oh, thank goodness I have five years to go.  A tepid “we’ll see” satisfied her completely.

In the meanwhile, I’m getting all kinds of tiny contractions, bizarre advice about how to induce labor (apparently rubbing my heels with my thumbs can do the trick) and the kids are obsessed with watching the documentary Babies.  Little Katie, where the heck are you?  It’s time!

Assault on the Mouse 2010

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For our family vacation this year, we decided to do something different and took Jeffrey and Eleanor to Disneyland.  (William stayed behind with his sainted grandparents.)

Here’s the lowdown:

Biggest Surprise: We followed the recommended itinerary set by our guidebook, The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland, and IT ACTUALLY WORKED, even though we had to wake up at the crack of dawn to be at the gate before the park opened.  We were able to do SIX of the rides in Fantasyland in FORTY FIVE MINUTES, and throughout the trip we rarely had to wait in line for longer than 10-15 minutes.  Get this book, people.  It doth rock.

Other Biggest Surprise: Our kids were frightened of rides like Pirates of the Caribbean but LOVED the roller coasters.  Jeffrey adored Space Mountain, and Eleanor loved Splash Mountain so much that she insisted we go on it three times, even though her reaction to the ride was usually this:

Note how Eleanor and I have matching expressions of horror.  Darn briar patch.

Most Adorable Moment: Both Jeffrey and Eleanor were picked to participate in the Jedi Training Academy in Tomorrowland.  In addition to receiving valuable lightsaber instruction, Jeffrey got to duel Darth Maul . . .

. . . and Eleanor got to fight Darth Vader!

Eleanor was also picked to use a “force push” to send some hapless stormtroopers flying through the air.  Probably my favorite part of the whole trip.

Best Show: The crazy “World of Color” fountain show at the Disney California Adventure.  It’s designed by the same engineering team that built the famous fountain display outside the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas.  The water jets shoot up higher than the Ferris Wheel.

Best Production Design: I was in love with the adorable “A Bug’s Land,” also in the California Adventure.  Look!  The benches look like they are made of popsicle sticks!!

Best Obscure Attraction: The Davy Crockett Canoes in the Rivers of America.  They are people-powered; that is, the boats are motor-free.  We paddled them ourselves.  It was a nice upper-body workout in the middle of the day.

However, I will say that watching “Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln” came in as a close second for this category.  Eleanor sat through the biographical information about Lincoln, looking bored, but when the curtain lifted to reveal the animatronic Lincoln she sat up, leaned forward, and whispered “What the what?“

Best Bizarro Moment #1: Watching Mary Poppins and Bert dance to Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock & Roll” during the afternoon parade.

Best Bizarro Moment #2: Did you know that in the original “Steamboat Willie” cartoon, there’s a moment where a goat eats a ukulele?  I wish I was making this up.

Best Bizarro Moment #3: In the Penny Arcade, there’s a game where children can push buttons to mercilessly force Pinocchio to dance.  Dance, Pinocchio, dance!

Best Bizarro Moment #4: If you take the time to ride the Disneyland train the entire way around its circuit, you will eventually pass through tunnels that show you dioramas of the Grand Canyon (complete with taxedermied animals and a miniature cliff dwelling) and animatronic dinosaurs.  Again, wish I was making this up, but I have to admit the endless flow of lava in the dinosaur tunnel was cool.

Now we’re back home, with Jeffrey wistfully saying “Goodbye, Disneyland!” on our way out of the park, and Eleanor spending her time at day camp drawing pictures of Splash Mountain.  It was really a wonderful vacation: everyone told us that travelling there over the 4th of July weekend would mean terrible crowds and unbearable heat, but we never so much as saw either thing.  It’s good to be back home, though.  Lo, I am tired.

Mesa Verde, HO!

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The children had been begging for a trip to Mesa Verde for months.  Jeffrey is obsessed with all ancient cultures, while Eleanor and William just love sleeping in a tent.  Over Memorial Day weekend, we decided to oblige them.  For those of you who don’t know, Mesa Verde National Park is home to one of the oldest and best preserved collection of Native American buildings, most dating from between 500-1200 A.D.  In my opinion, living in the West and skipping Mesa Verde is like going to Peru and skipping Macchu Picchu.

Here is the basic theme of the entire park:

Yes, let us speculate.  Because the Ancestral Puebloan people (not “Anasazi” anymore) kept no written records, everything we know about them is 90% conjecture.

And what does the park feature?

CLIFF DWELLINGS!

PIT HOUSES!


NATIVE AMERICAN DANCERS!


PLUS, THE WORLD’S MOST DISGUSTING MUSEUM EXHIBIT!


This looks more like old cheese than bread.  Brian and I initially saw the “Chewed Bread” exhibit when we last visited Mesa Verde in 2001.  We thought it so bizarre that it became a running gag for the rest of that trip . . . and for the rest of our marriage, really.  Whenever we see a museum exhibit, diorama, illustration, or film that depicts native-type people grinding grain, one of us leans over and says, “Mmmmm, chewed breeeaaaad.”  And the other is obliged to shudder.  It’s good to see some things never change.  (Oh!  Oh!  And notice the alternate recipe for “Chewed Bread Rolls” in the upper left corner.  Shudder.)

The kids were THRILLED with this trip, although Jeff may have been occasionally disappointed at times — I think he thought our explorations would be something more along the lines of Indiana Jones and the Metate of Doom.  I didn’t sleep a wink the entire time we were there (can’t sleep in a draft, which is what tents do best), so I’m more than a little happy to be home.  Onwards to the washing machine, O campfire-scented clothes!

Oh, and keep in mind that the Ancestral Puebloans did all of the above with no pack animals, no metal tools, and without the wheel.  Yeah.  They never got around to inventing the wheel.  Chew on that.

Valentine’s Day Weekend at Zion’s National Park

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The kids had a four day weekend over President’s Day, so we decided to head down south and take advantage of the mild winter weather and cheap hotel rates.  (Really.  A place called the Bumbleberry Inn gave us a room for $45 a night.  Wowsers.)

Highs were in the low 60s, and it was great to shed our coats and go “walking in the top of the mountains,” as William had been begging to do.

Best of all, it wasn’t overbearingly crowded.  In summertime, Zion Canyon feels like an amusement park, with hikers shuffling through on each other’s heels.  During our winter stay the park wasn’t anything near empty, but it was uncrowded enough to give us some nice solitude on our hikes.  Brian has declared that he never wants to visit Zion again in the summertime.  Hear, hear.

The downside of the warm weather was muddy trails.  But Eleanor found this rather thrilling.  She purposely trod through the thickest, stickiest ruts, singing “Mud!  Mud!  Mud!  Mud!” at the top of her lungs. 

She was such a good little hiker — halfway through our first hike, she turned to us and cried, “Do you know what?  I haven’t whined a single time during this hike!”  It was true, she hadn’t; Brian and I hadn’t even realized it before she pointed it out.  After that, whenever she was about to get cranky on the trail, we reminded her of how she didn’t whine, and she quieted down.

Mud!  Mud!  Mud!  Everyone’s shoes got a nice little coat, as if we’d all been dancing in a bottle of Burnt Ochre.

One of the trails we chose had a lot of spur trails and no directional markers, so we ended up going the wrong way, all the way to the top of one of the little valleys in the Court of the Patriarchs.  It was still beautiful, even if the trail eventually disappeared. 

Jeffrey loved the Emerald Pools, so much so that he did not heed our warnings about hiking with wet shoes.  Alas and alack.

Brian’s dad, Randy, joined us for the Emerald Pools hike (he had caravanned down with us, in order to visit extended family in Cedar City) and was invaluble when it came to holding children’s hands on the steep parts of the trail.  At one point, he was occupied holding both William and Eleanor’s hands, and an older, white-haired gentleman who passed us took the time to tell Randy that “you should enjoy them when they are so young like this — they grow up so fast!”  Apparently, the white-haired man was under the impression that Randy was the children’s father!  Randy decided to take it as a compliment to be taken for a 32-year-old, although when we later bumped into that white-haired man again, he took care to say “Come along, grandchildren” in as distinct a voice as possible.

The only real challenge to the trip was finding places to eat for dinner.  Most of the cheap restaurants in Springdale were closed for the season, or only serving lunch.  But a exploratory drive to Hurricane revealed a Chinese buffet place that was, we thought, a perfect way to ring in the Year of the Tiger.  Plus, they had Jell-O.  You haven’t really lived, cuisine-wise, until you’ve watched your seven-year-old try to eat Jell-O with chopsticks.

In the evenings, we holed up in our hotel and watched the Olympics while munching on microwave popcorn.  I don’t know if we got very much rest, sleeping all together in the same room, but we certainly returned to Salt Lake feeling much less stressed.

It Made Me Want to Ride a Tauntaun

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Two weeks ago we made the trek up to Midway to see the ice castle that’s been making a lot of local news.  It’s a series of towers built using an underground sprinkler system, hoses, PVC pipe, and loads of ingenuity.  It was absolutely beautiful, even if it unforunately caused me to get “Theme from Ice Castles (Through the Eyes of Love)” stuck in my head.  You know:

Pleeeeease, don’t let this feeling eeeeeeend . . .

I’ll spare you the rest.

This tower had a tunnel going through it, which I think is impressive as all get out.

The towers were built by Brent Christensen, a local businessman who has no background in art but is pretty darn amazing anyway.  He was inspired to make these towers after he saw the results of a broken sprinkler head spraying water into long icicles on someone’s lawn.  The building began back in November, and he’s still working on them — even on the day we were there, he was climbing on top of the towers, fusing icicles together and tinkering with water systems.  It’s gorgeous work, I hope he does it again next year!

So how long do you think it will take to melt come spring?

Snow Days

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Remember how Brian made snow sculptures of dinosaurs last year?  Well, this year he’s doing large African mammals.

Behold the mighty lion!  It is seated among the remains of the elephant sculpture he made a few weeks ago.  Like it’s feasting on its carcass or something.  Mmm!

And the thing de resistance — a towering giraffe!  There are no structural supports inside of it.  All snow, all the way through. 

He had to use a ladder to build up the neck, and the head fell off twice before he found one that stuck.  I especially like the way it looks as if it were nibbling on the tree. 

Today the snow was wet once more, and Brian made a snowrilla.  There’s no word on whether or not it plans to snatch up Eleanor and climb a skyscraper.

Initially, we couldn’t decide if the yard need this gorilla, or a snow rhino.  I argued that a rhino would fall apart too quickly (big heavy head) whereas Brian said a gorilla wasn’t visually interesting.  In the middle of this discussion, Jeffrey scampered through the room and shouted, “Why not a rhinocerous with a gorilla riding on TOP of it?”  But Brian asserted creative control over the project.

Just like the dinosaurs, the snow critters are causing a lot of slowed traffic and picture-taking on our street.  Almost every day my work in our front room is interrupted by some sort of flash going off.  But what we’re really excited about is that other kids in the neighborhood have begun building their own snow creations.  The two girls who helped us with the elephants have made a little bear and duck in their yard, and the family around the corner have constructed a big robot and a series of redrock-inspired arches.  Yesss! 

What’s really amazing is that both of these creatures are still standing; it’s been so cold that they haven’t melted (although the giraffe’s ears are looking a little thin, and its legs grow more lopsided by the day).

We also hosted a sledding party last week, attended by Brian’s parents and two of his siblings.  The kids adored bossing around their aunts and uncles, dictating who got to go down the big hill with them.  Grandpa even pulled Eleanor back up the hill (can you tell they are the only grandchildren on that side of the family?).

The weather was sunny and warm, but the snow was packed down hard, making for a perfect sledding day.  Afterwards, we made ultra-thick hot chocolate and homemade doughnuts.  Mmmmm, delish!

Arches and Canyonlands in October

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Hooray for the Utah Educator’s Association!

They schedule their annual conference for the first weekend in October, giving all the schoolchildren in the state a four day weekend.  Brian and I decided to take one last camping trip for the season and head down to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in southern Utah.

Arches 2009 moon2

The only downside to our plan is that the first big cold front of the year swept into town the day before we were supposed to leave.  We had a 1/4 inch of snow on the ground the morning we were packing!  Not very encouraging.  But despite the sleepless nights (for me; I can’t sleep when there’s a draft anywhere around) and very cold mornings (William started screaming when his hands turned purple, so we ended up going to a diner for breakfast two of the mornings we were there) the trip was just lovely.  The high temperatures were in the 70s — it was like hiking through an air conditioned room!

Day One: Arches

William loved the Windows area of Arches.  He kept pointing at them and happily cried “Big Wok!  Big Wok!” (big rock!) over and over.  Later, he saw a group of pointed sandstone fins on the horizon and exclaimed “Mountain!” while holding his hands over his head in a little mountain-shape.

 Arches 2009 north window

Our big hike in Arches was to the Double O Arch — two round arches stacked on top of each other.  We had to scramble up a series of sandstone boulders to get to the main part of the trail, which the children loved (in fact, they were the only kids we saw on that part of the trail).  One part of the hike requires walking on the edge of a tall narrow fin.  There were ledges on either side of us, so it was safe, but it still induced a good sense of virtigo.  Eleanor, on the other hand, found it exhilirating.  “I’m flying high like a bird in the air!” she exclaimed.

 Arches 2009 double o 1

When we got to the Double O, Jeffrey climbed on a boulder and sang a song about how a double O makes an “oo” sound, like in “book.”  Cute.

Arches 2009 double o 2

Arches 2009 double o 3

We had a camp stove, which allowed us to cook our dinner at a picnic table in the park and watch the sunset at the same time.  Hot dogs always taste better when you get to watch this while eating them:

 Arches 2009 balanced rock

Day Two: Canyonlands

Canyonlands is about 30 miles away from Arches, and is divided into three different districts, each more rugged than the last.  We spent our time in the most accessible district, Island in the Sky.  It is named as such because it is an enormous mesa that climbs above the canyons to an elevation of 6,ooo feet.  Looking out at the seemingly endless mazes of rocks and ravines really does give the feeling of being on top of the world.

Canyonlands 2009 grand view point

Our most challenging hike in Canyonlands was called Aztec Butte, which scrambles up a sandstone hill to a series of ancestral Puebloan ruins dating from about 1200 A.D.  Archaeologists believe they were used as granaries.  In retrospect, we probably shouldn’t have taken the kids on this hike, because the climb down was kind of scary. 

Canyonlands 2009 aztec butte2Canyonlands 2009 aztec butte1

But Jeffrey, who has a fascination with ancient cultures, thought it was wonderful (and bombarded us with questions about the Puebloans for the rest of the trip). 

Canyonlands 2009 aztec butte4

Canyonlands 2009 aztec butte3

We all had a big adrenaline rush when we came back down from the butte.  Eleanor skipped down the last ten yards of the hike, singing “Stay on the trail, stay on the trail!  Do what the ranger sayyyyyys . . .

Again, we used our camp stove to cook up some dinner (barbecue sandwiches!  Mmmm!) in the park at sunset.  We sat near the edge of an overlook (there was a ledge underneath, don’t worry) and saw this spectacular view:

 Canyonlands 2009 sunset4

It really did feel like we were floating miles above everyone else.  I love Island in the Sky.

 

Day Three: Sand Dune Arch

We had a sprinkling of rain on Sunday morning, so we quickly struck our camp and headed back to Arches for one last visit before saying goodbye.  I wanted to take the children to Sand Dune Arch, one of my favorite places in the park.  It’s an arch that is nestled between a group of sandstone fins, but what makes it fun is the enormous piles of fine sand that have collected around the base of the fins.  It’s like a giant sandbox, with lots of boulders, nooks and crannies for exploring.  Whenever I’ve been there before, the place is usually packed with people, but for some reason it was deserted for about 45 mintues after we arrived.

Arches 2009 sand dune1

The light rain had left the top layer of sand wet, which made it perfect for building sandcastles.  The kids were of the opinion that this was the best place ever.  Don’t worry, they knocked the castle over before we left. 

Arches 2009 sand dune2

The big rainstorm hit just as we drove out of the park.  The kids were a bit sad to go, which made me happy — I’m so pleased that they are developing a love for the outdoors.  It was a wonderful trip, and I can’t wait for another visit!

Arches 2009 wimmy     Arches 2009 jeff&ella

On Their Toes

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In the past two weeks, our kids have begun their very first extracurricular activities: dancing and soccer.

(Well . . . extracurricular besides piano, which doesn’t seem to be as much an activity as a prolonged “someday this pain will be good for you.”  No, really — piano’s going great, except for when it’s mindbogglingly awful.  But I digress.)

Eleanor, who has been twirling and skipping around the house since she could walk, has begun creative dance lessons.  My mother in law has been generous enough to sponsor her at an excellent nearby school, and she has been in heaven ever since.  I was able to go with her to her first lesson, and the adorableness factor was sky high.  There are six girls in the class, inlcuding Ella, and they spent time having an “underwater adventure,” including eating imaginary “seaweed sandwiches” (a creative way of making the stretching exercises more fun) and pretending to be hermit crabs with different kinds of shells (a way of learning to vary dancing to match emotion). 

Eleanor was a veritable pixie in her little pink leotard and footless tights.  At the end of each exercise, the kids were encouraged to make a “beautiful shape” with their bodies.  Eleanor stretched high and low, skipping about merrily with joy through the whole class.

Each morning she asks if it is the day of her dance class again.  She’s so excited.

In the meanwhile, Jeffrey joined his very first soccer team this week.  His team, which has recently been dubbed the “Red Dragons” by the players, is mostly comprised of other boys from the neighborhood, most of whom Jeff already knows.  They only have the vaguest idea of how the game is supposed to be played, and so they don’t even bother using goalies in competition.  This morning they had their first game, and the kids spent time alternately running in packs back and forth across the field and wistfully staring at the nearby forest of climbing trees.  Jeffrey had to be coaxed out of the forest and back to the sidelines whenever he was taking a break.

Once, after scoring, two of the Dragons gave each other a “chest bump,” which all the other kids thought was really cool.  So then, instead of wandering into the forest during breaks, the boys spent time chest-bumping each other into oblivion.  Jeffrey’s chosen method was to hop up and down with his eyes closed until his friend rammed him backwards. 

The game was great.  Jeff ran and ran until his cheeks turned an adorable shade of pink, which is what I love the best.  Yesterday we took him to the sporting goods store and bought him a pair of cleats and shin guards, which thrilled him to no end.  It was all I could do to coax them off of his feet at bedtime!

Yellowstoned

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Two weeks ago we returned from our first big vacation as a family that didn’t involve visiting relatives.

Really, this was one of our chief reasons for moving back to Utah — so we could go somewhere else for a change.  This year we decided to visit Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, staying at a campground between the two parks (in a rented trailer!  With heat!).

I’ve decided to be bold and experiment with technology.  Here’s my first stab at creating a slide show via YouTube.  With subtitles!  (No music, however.)

Here are the vital stats:

Number of Junior Ranger patches earned: 2 (Jeffrey wore a jacket proudly displaying all of his ranger patches.  He has four of them now.)

Number of Tourists Jeffrey Personally Warned about the Dangers of Geothermal Features: 4

Bears Sighted: 1 (a grizzly, he’s in the slide show)

Moose Sighted: 5

Wolves Sighted: 0, alas

Coyote Sighted Whom Many Tourists Thought Were Wolves: 3

Eagles Sighted: 2 (one of them was an immature bald eagle, and lifted out of a meadow just as we walked by)

Elk Sighted: oh, who cares?

Bison Sighted: dozens and dozens and dozens

Books Read Out Loud While Driving: 3 (A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson, The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope and When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead)

U.S. State lisence plates sighted: 48 (we couldn’t get Delaware or West Virginia, although we did see Hawaii, Maine, and Rhode Island).

Marshmallows Toasted by Wimmy: 6

Marshmallows Wimmy managed to take off his toasting fork and eat: 0

Miles hiked: Um . . . perhaps something like twenty, over the course of the week

Times Eleanor complained that her legs hurt: too many to mention

Ice Cream Cones Consumed by Family: 20? 25? I lost track after the third day.

Minutes Eleanor lasted in boring ranger-led lecture about Native American Art: 10

Minutes Jeffrey lasted: 45

Minutes William lasted: 0

Number of four-year-old girls we met on the trail who are also named Eleanor: 1  She and my Eleanor became friends, and held hands for much of our hike, how cute!

Toy moose that William stripped of antlers and fuzzy fur, rendering them into creepy shriveled lumps of pink plastic: 2

Parents who had a great time and are a little sad to be home, although happy to have a comfortable bed once more: 2

Viva Las Something

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This past week we went to visit our friends, Tim and Becca, in Las Vegas.  Tim is a freelance musician.  Becca is a freelance writer.  They are overwhelmingly creative and fun to visit.  Here’s a quick summary:

On the way down we went for a short hike in the Kolob region of Zion’s National Park.  It isn’t for the faint-hearted, owing to the heights.  (Don’t worry — there really isn’t a dropoff behind us, it just looks that way.)

 Zion's 2009 Kolob Area 1

Ella was  a Ranger Girl (if you couldn’t tell from her shirt).  She and Jeffrey both recieved their Junior Ranger badges while we were there.

Zion's 2009 Kolob Area 2

Brian and I are not fond of casinos.  So, when we weren’t hanging out with Tim, Becca, and their five kids (they are nocturnal people, so there was lots of time for this) we went to the Natural History Museum (where Jeffrey “dug up” this fine pot) . . .

 Las Vegas Natural History Museum

. . . and saw the Hoover Dam.  We’re standing on top of it.  The cool suspension bridge under construction in the background is unrelated to the dam, albeit very cool.  I’ll admit that the dam is not really at its most spectacular from this angle, but it’s difficult to photograph in its entirety.

 Las Vegas Hoover Dam

Then we went home.  Eleanor was very sad to leave Anda, who is the only girl in Tim & Becca’s family.  The children of both families were all of similar temperaments, so they made friends easily, and played together spectacularly well.  Aren’t the girls cute?  I hope we see them again sometime soon.

Anda and Ella