Goblin Valley

We didn't have as much time in Goblin Valley
as we would have liked,

but the kids definitely enjoyed climbing on the rocks.
Ethan and Benjamin wanted to go off and do their own thing,
and Sophie was feeling a bit left out,
so I went around with her and we discovered goblin houses.
It's a terrific place for the imagination.

Tents and Smores

We had hoped to camp in Goblin Valley,
but even on a weekday, the campground was full.
So we found a nice nearby BLM spot.
The kids were pretty good about BLM camping--
careful with their litter,
and not too many complaints about the lack of bathrooms.
I even trained them to retrieve their used toilet paper
(and I was expecting a fight about that one,
but they were good.)

We had fun hanging out in the tent
(thanks again, Dad, for that tent!!)

Benjamin also built us a nice fire,
with firewood we bought at Goblin Valley state park.
We had forgotten the roasting sticks,
but we improvised with forks.
Everyone liked the s'mores.
Especially Sophie.

Natural Spotlight

As we came around the corner of one of the slots,
the light fell in such a perfect way
I had each of the kids take turns for a 'glamor photo.'

Slot Canyon Paradise

A slot canyon is a perfect place for kids to romp.
And climb in holes.

Sometimes it's so exciting they just can't stay still...
but it's a good place to be climbing the walls
(literally!)

Sophie and sand

Yes, the way to get this girl happy is to put her in a sandbox...
or take her hiking up Little Wild Horse slot canyon.
She was a pretty good hiker.
Of course we only went about 3 miles total of the 8.5 mile loop,
and we took several hours,
and stopped a lot to play.
I figured, why press things?
Quit while you're ahead, then everybody has a good time.
Especially with kids.
She was tired the last half mile or so,
and I had to bribe her with candy.
But though there were some moans of 'I'm tired,'
there were no tantrums or tears,
so I got off lucky.
Even Ethan didn't complain too much
(though his feet were wet and sandy from the puddles.)
They all did very well.

Kids and Puddles

We went to central Utah to play with rocks and canyons.
Our main slot canyon experience also included puddles
(to my surprise- I wasn't expecting them!)
They weren't very deep but they were cold and muddy.
I had chacos so I just waded.
Benjamin practiced some basic canyoning skills and went above the water.
Ethan waded, reluctantly.
Sophie waded with great enthusiasm.

The photo above is a good example of the contrasting approaches
to trying to avoid the water.
The photo below is probably my very favorite of Sophie.

Sophie is hard to photograph because she puts on
a very obvious 'camera smile' and it is hard to capture her real smile.
This was pretty good.
Also it shows her passion for dirt, mud and water.

Taking Kids to the Price Dinosaur Museum

Today on our way home from camping (more on that later),
we stopped in Price to go to the dinosaur museum.
I had often wanted to go,
but today we happened to have time and were passing by,
and thought, why not?
It turned out to be a great day for a museum visit--
admission was free.
We spent a happy hour and a half in the exhibit halls.
I could have stayed longer, especially on the archaeological stuff,
but I figured we'd better quit before the kids got too tired.
There were a lot of impressive skeletons,
including this very cool mammoth (above).
Also there were a lot of interactive things,
like this reproduction Ute tipi:

Sophie especially liked the 'excavation sand boxes'
in the kids' corner.
She made all the little plastic dinosaurs circle around neatly.

They had a lot of fun in the sand boxes.
There were also large magnetic puzzles
(with dinosaur body parts)
and coloring pages and hand puppets--
it was very well designed for kids.

Baby on the Trip

My niece, the Rabbit, on the Great Move
(inside the car of chaos).
She was mostly a good traveler,
except for the last few hours of the last day,
when we were all fed up with being in the car so long.

The Rabbit likes to be in charge.
At the rest areas when we let her out of her car seat,
her preferred spot was the driver's seat.

Here's my favorite Rabbit incident.
When we stopped overnight in Denver with Sarah's friend Alex,
the kids had a blast playing with Alex's two boys.
They looked so cute dressed up for Sunday church.
The youngest patiently ate the cheerios the Rabbit wanted to feed him.

Aunt for the Afternoon

Emily had a lot to do today, so I volunteered to have the kids over.
I took them swimming,
then fed them otter pops while they were on the driveway and still in their suits,
then I put Sophie in the bath
and told Ethan to take a shower
and made them lunch.
After lunch we played with Lady Mortimer
and any toys I had around.

I don't have a lot of little kid toys,
but I have a large basket full of stuffed animals
and plastic crocodiles.
Here is Sophie going through the collection.
And below, here are Sophie and Ethan playing dress-up:

Ethan gravitates towards the cloaks (and anything wizardly).
Sophie likes fluffy sparkly princessy things.
In this incarnation of dress-up
(she went through several)
she is wearing Aunt Elaine's old velvet house robe,
a belly-dancer scarf with jangling spangles that I picked up in an Egyptian market visit,
and my wedding veil
(I recently made the decision to add the veil to the dress-up collection--
it's not like I am ever going to wear it again,
and I know how much my nieces love stuff like that.)
I much prefer a day of this to TV.
Emily came over later in the afternoon
and took us all back to her house for dinner.
After dinner I read Ethan several chapters of
"The Hobbit"
while he played with his Legos:

And Sophie dug about in the yard and got dirty again
and needed ANOTHER bath.
She is so cute in the tub,
but she is getting old enough that tub pictures can be embarrassing,
except I figured that this one is still pretty safe:

I did have a great day.
For one thing, we did physical things rather than just TV,
and I needed a mental break.
It felt good to do absolutely NO academic work for 24 hours.

No, No, Darling

Sophie likes Lady Mortimer,
except now and again when she (Sophie) gets spooked
(see my post below for a classic spooked-Sophie face).
She is also very motherly toward her.
(Sophie is this way toward her toys too-
her favorite thing is to tuck toys into bed.)
She has overheard me calling my snake all sorts of pet names,
and remonstrating with her when she begins to slither off.
It didn't really register with me
that anyone might find my behavior odd,
until I saw Sophie see Lady Mortimer slither off to the bed edge,
and catch her and scoot her back,
saying in a very concerned voice,
"No, no, darling!"
It was pretty funny to hear Sophie imitate me, dead on.

Snakes as Bookmarks

Hey, Lady Mortimer, Ethan can't read his Greek myths!
(Ethan is really into Greek myths,
courtesy of the Rick Riordan books,
which we all think are GREAT.)

Sophie seems less perturbed that "A Child's Garden of Verses"
now contains a snake.

But when Lady Mortimer comes slithering up taking Sophie by surprise,
she does get a bit nervous:

We had a great time playing with Lady Mortimer today.
The kids really enjoyed it.
She was very mellow about being handled,
but all the noise and excitement frazzled her a bit--
she didn't want to eat.
Sigh.
Now I have four noisy mice in my back bedroom,
waiting for Lady Mortimer's system to calm down
until she can fancy her dinner again.

Kids in Cougartown

Dave and Emily had a thing up the canyon this evening,
and their babysitter bailed last minute,
so they asked if I could take the kids for a few hours.
Given the time overlap,
Dave dropped the kids off on campus at the end of my last class.
So I took them on a tour.
We went to see the cougar.
I love the cougar.
The cougar was a big part of my childhood.
I remember being Sophie's age and going to see the cougar.
(And Dad's office.
And getting ice cream.)

So of course we had to go for ice cream, too.
Ethan told me I was the best aunt.
He always tells me this when I buy him treats.
Guess what?
(if you will forgive the Ethanism)
I buy him treats a lot.
I love to hear that I am the best aunt.
Yes, this kid has me all figured out.

We got cones, but the cones were sloppy,
so I asked the server to put them in dishes.
I got some pretty hilarious pictures of the kids eating ice cream,
but this is my favorite,
Sophie trying to feed Ethan a bite of her ice cream,
and Ethan taking control of the spoon himself:

And of course we had to show Sophie the "Y" on the mountain.
She thought it was pretty cool.