Cow Lake?

A few weeks ago, we tried out a new picnic spot. Not too far from our house is some kind of little lake or reservoir, which mapquest tells me is called "Buffalo Lake", although there are no signs anywhere naming it such. It might be more accurately called "cow lake" because there are always groups of cattle grazing around the hills and water. If you look close, you can see their black little bodies far behind us in this picture:

 

We didn't bring a blanket or anything to sit on, because from the road you can see several sheltered picnic tables dotting the area, and we assumed we'd be dining at one of those. But we forgot to take into account the ubiquitous cows. It seems that they too enjoy the sheltered picnic tables and they think they are the designated lavatories. So we had to find somewhere a little less fly infested to enjoy our feast.

 There were a few cow-pie-less areas that seemed promising, but upon closer inspection, they were home to too many gnats, and we had to move on.

Finally, we found an acceptable spot and hurriedly wolfed down our sandwiches before we found any other special friends lurking in the grass.

"Hey daddy, this spot looks great!"

Then we moved on to enjoying the water. It sure was pretty in the evening light.

And perfect for rock throwing! As long as we stayed away from the fishermen we could see dotting the shores.


Interesting fact: in the winter, we always saw people ice fishing here. Yup, sitting on buckets on the middle of the icy lake with a hole in front of them. Pretty exciting stuff. But not as exciting as the turtle heads I saw periodically poking up through the water, or the ambiguous swimming rodent near the shore.

 

Who knows? We may have to come here again! (But not for swimming.)

Newly mowed

Recently, our yard was getting a little out of control. We actually don't even have our own defined yards in our part of the neighborhood; all the wildness just kind of rolls around each house with no beginning or end. The wildness is attractive in it's own way, but we thought it might be nice to get it mowed anyway. Not only would it be easier to walk through, but it would aid a lot in keeping those pesky snakes from lurking around our house.

So we finally took the leap and bought our very first lawnmower! It was so exciting. The growth was sooo thick it took most of the day for Joseph to saw it down, so we were lucky it happened to be a nice cool day, unlike the whole previous week. Don't worry...he doesn't have to mow that whole field over there.

 

The front yard is starting to shape up! The school staff will actually mow our lawn for us, but we have to pay them $50 each time. Several local people have also offered to do it for as low as $20...yeah. As you can see, it was much more cost effective to just buy our own.

Now it's time for the backyard jungle.

 

Now that's more like it!

And in the meantime, we got a cool lawnmower box to play in all day!

see the world through new eyes

About two years ago, Elora's preschool teacher recommended we take her to the eye doctor to see if she needed glasses. She tends to sit too close to the tv (as do most kids..) as well as too close to books with small print, etc.
The doctor that year said she would probably need some in the next few years (her vision was something like 20/40), but at this age they didn't really recommend putting a kid in glasses unless their eyesight was really bad.
A few days ago, we decided to take her in for another appointment, as she's starting school this next fall and if she did need glasses, she'd have time to get used to wearing them before school this year.
The eye doctor this time said something similar to the previous optometrist, going on about how no, her vision wasn't perfect, but a child this age really doesn't need to see much farther than a few feet in front of them. Okay. But her vision was still lower than some people who should wear glasses to drive a car.
I explained how I just wanted her to be able to see the chalk board so she could do well in school this year, and the lady said, "Oh, then no, she wouldn't be able to do that without glasses." Then she went on about how we shouldn't force her to wear them, and maybe she should just have them at school or put them on when she really needs them.
Um, hello? What the heck was she talking about before then? I just nodded politely, vowing to do no such thing.
So guess what we got to pick out that morning?

 

First, they tried some dark frames on her, which she didn't like at all. We looked at several blue, pink, and red frames. Elora's favorite color is red; the lady handing them to her seemed to be partial to blue, and we all thought the pink were very attractive. I was pushing toward the metal frame styles, but I wanted to be sure we got some that Elora really loved...and she mostly liked the plastic ones.

 

I remember when I got my first glasses (at age nine). I had planned on either getting blue (my favorite color) or pink (a color all the other girls would think was cool.) But in the end, I chose some light amber brown frames, just because they seemed to look better with my hair and face than the brighter colors.

I also remember that the first thing I noticed when we left the eye doctor, was how clearly I could see the individual trees on the nearby mountains. I had no idea other people could actually see those all the way from town! 

In the end, Elora seemed very happy with her choice. She was really excited to go out and show daddy how cute they were when we came to get them fitted later this afternoon. (The person who fitted them was a man, if you're confused about the masculine hands in the pictures.)

Oh, and the color she chose? Exactly the same as my first pair.

 But I have to say, she was a whole lot cuter than I was in my first glasses....but that might have something to do with me cutting my own bangs right before school pictures. And the popular glasses styles of 1987 may not seem so fetching these days.

One more thing of note. After we got back in the car and started driving through town, Elora looked up at the pine-covered Black Hills surrounding us and exclaimed, "Look, I can see all the pointy parts on those trees!" And that, I felt, completely justified letting my five-year-old wear glasses, even though a "child her age doesn't really need to see the world much further than a few feet in front of her."

How to build a nest

How to build a grass nest, by Elora.


1. Find a nice, soft location, preferably near some newly mowed grass.

2 . Gather cut grass, and carry to your special location.

 

3. Arrange in a nest shape and pat down gently.

 

4.Repeat steps two and three, until nest is desired size.

Thank you.

Badlands, Wall and Memorial friends

       For Memorial Day Weekend, my friend Sarah and her friend Katie came to visit us! They are our first visitors since we moved last summer, and we were all so excited to have them. But not as excited as I was when I saw the thoughtful gifts Sarah had brought me: Horchata drink mix, food from Tandoori Oven (an Indian restaurant in Logan) and Aggie Blue Mint Ice Cream! The food had all been frozen and transported in a cooler, so it was still delicious. Now that's friendship. :)
      Sarah has a goal to see all of the National Parks, so when they were here we got to go visit Badlands NP with them. It's only about two hours from where we live, and while we've been to Mount Rushmore we've never been here before. We were so luck that on the Saturday we went out, the weather was perfect and sunny without being too hot- both the day before and the day after our visit it was wet and rainy. (This is Sarah, Katie took the picture.)

 

      The Badlands are very interesting; the formations remind me a great deal of the places I am familiar with in Utah: Bryce Canyon, Zion, Cedar Breaks, etc. But instead of being down some canyon or halfway up a mountain somewhere, these formations just open up right in the middle of the prairie! Because I'm used to all the fantastic sights of Southern Utah, I kept feeling like something was wrong with my eyes the whole time we were here: it was like the color had been drained from the landscape. I kept being surprised at how bright everyone's clothes were and how vivid the grass was against the pale beige formations that surrounded us.

Another thing that was strange to me was how tourists were allowed to go pretty much anywhere, and touch everything. I guess I've been to other places like that, but the most recent natural park I've visited was Arches, and they have very strict rules about not going off the trails or leaving the slickrock. I recall signs everywhere about how easy it is to destroy the fragile desert ecosystem just by stepping in the wrong spot.

 

But at the Badlands, I saw people climbing around everywhere, going off the trail whenever they wanted. I was a little shocked to see folks with kids smaller than Joshua and Jonah standing out on the edges of cliffs and taking pictures. I admit, if it had just been Joseph and I maybe I would have been willing to do so as well (after all, there were no signs against it), but as it was, it was hard enough to keep everyone together without running to every cliff edge! Joshua especially had a hard time staying with us.....

 And as expected, Jonah was never too far behind his cool big brother. Joseph had to retrieve them a few times; it was nice to have Sarah and Katie there to help hold their hands and reign them in as well! It would have been much more frustrating if it was just us.

 

Of course, Elora did her own share of running off. We saw the beginning of a marked trail that Elora wanted to traverse, but we decided against going with all the kids. But when we said it was time to go back to the parking lot, Elora took off and I had to chase her for a few yards over the rugged terrain to bring her back! Elora thought it was hilarious, and I'm sure the other tourists enjoyed seeing the 6 months pregnant woman running, but I was NOT amused!

So we ended up mostly just doing the short trails that led to lookout points, but it was still fun!

 

    We had a picnic lunch and walked around the visitors center, at which point the kids were getting a bit tired and grumpy. We decided to drive the rest of the loop through the park and visit that most famous place of all: Wall, South Dakota. Or, more specifically, Wall Drug in the town of Wall. For those of you who have never driven through our great state, you are missing out on this novel experience. There are signs for miles and miles in both directions before you reach Wall, all advertising the fantastic drug store and the free water that can be obtained there. 

   But that's only half of it. Out of our group, I was the only one who had visited the tourist trap before, so I knew how special it was. (My family stopped there on a family vacation in 2001). When you arrive in the small town, there is a deceptively simple block of town devoted to the "drug store", where you can enter through any number of doorways around the square.

    Inside it is indeed the tourist trap one would expect, but its kitchyness is pretty fun! First off, there are tons of stores inside, selling everything from baubles, hat, and key chains to rare minerals and anything else imaginable. There is a cowboy art restaurant (where my family ate ten years ago), an icecream shoppe, a doughnut shop, and several other eating establishments.

   In the center courtyard one can find many things, including an area where water squirted out of various holes in the ground, occasionally in sync with accompanying music!

 

 It's a good place to meet new friends...Elora insisted on having her photo taken with this one:

 

We were also able to meet many exciting animals, like miniature horses,

 

 regular horses, 

  

 buffalo,

  

giant jackelopes,

  

and a Tyrannosaurus Rex. 

    The dinosaur was a show in itself. Every 12 minutes it would start to growl and roar, with flashing lights and smoke, opening its mouth and moving around. Joshua was very interested in seeing this spectacle, and waited patiently for it to start. When it did, Joseph brought Jonah over to see too, thinking he would like it. Well. Jonah happened to be very tired (he'd only had a 15 minute nap in the car) not to mention very small still, and he wasn't as enthralled as one would think. In fact, after a few seconds he started to whimper, " Go now, we go now?" I'm pretty sure he was shaking with fear.

    Joseph immediately said, "okay", and started walking away with him; I was watching from behind and saw little Jonah's face just crumple as his little lip stuck out and he started wailing! Joseph took him down a side hall, but we could all still hear him, poor little guy. I went to see if he was okay and he told me over and over, "It scared me, it scared me, it scared me!" 

    At that point, we figured it was time for a snack to calm us all down, so we all headed to the ice cream shoppe. Yay!

   The pineapple shake I got wasn't that great (it had no actual pineapple in it) and I was a little jealous of the kids' giant ice cream cones! They were so big they had a pretty hard time finishing them off!

Not a bad way to end the day!