caves and dinosaurs

why, what is that strange silhouette on the horizon?
I hope that ruggedly handsome man will be okay.

I have so much stuff to blog about. After my pictures are ready, and after I have time to write it. But here is one about a trip we made over to Rapid earlier this summer. We visited a dinosaur park that was established in the 1930's...which becomes very obvious when one examines the dinosaur statues closely.

 It was free and the kids loved it, so who am I to complain? Plus, it was on the highest hill in Rapid City, so it had a great view.

 















It consisted of a handful of brightly painted dinos strung out along a path at the top of a hill. I just wished they were bigger so I could feel like I was in that scene in Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

The Brontosaurus was the biggest one, of course.

oh no, watch out! Note to self: Don't wear a ponytail in photographs.

The Black Hills area also offers a wide variety of caves to visit, and I finally convinced Joseph to take us to one with a shorter tour, suitable for our small kids who might have to go potty right in the middle of the journey. It was called the "Sitting Bull Crystal Caverns" and was full of the largest collection of Dogstooth Feldspar Crystals in the world. Or something like that. This was the same day as the dinosaur park.

Before we got to go down to the main cave, there were some small caves for us to walk around it before the tour officially started. The kids got to hold flashlights and thought that was pretty neat.



I loved how the guide (she looked like a college student) told us how the caves formed from magma and heat millions of years ago. Then when we came to a section that had fallen down because of flooding a few years ago, some big guy in his forties asked, "So the crystals will just grow back there in the spots where they fell down?" I couldn't help but thinking he didn't do well when he was in school.



The tour was only half an hour, but it involved a steep staircase that should be traversed backwards, like a ladder, to ensure less accidents. I was fine with it, but Joseph was a little nervous carrying the baby in his carrier and ensuring that Jonah in front of him didn't fall either!

 



Still, I was glad our kids got to go! I expected more stalactites and stalagmites, but nope, it was just a bunch of big crystals; the guide described it as walking through a giant geode.

 

I hope next year Joseph can be convinced to go through some of the other caves too!

Summer days

Long ago, I used to fancy myself something of a poet.  I still like some of the stuff I wrote in high school and college, though I can see now its a little juvenile. I've even thought about using some of my old verses as a starting point for a children's book, but I'm a little annoyed that I sold the rights to a few of the best of them when they were published in the church magazines.

Lately, when I watch Elora playing outside, riding her bike and exploring around our house, this poem keeps springing to mind, even though I wrote it long before she was born:

To Be Cherished

those were the days 

that seemed to never end

charged with the fire of childhood

tempered with the passing breeze

and held together

by the imagination

of a barefoot young girl.

I was realizing the other day that I haven't really written any poetry since I first got married, and I was thinking, maybe I should get out that rusty old pen (metaphorically) and try again? Or at least add it to my long term list of really important things I should be doing! :)

Places I could totally live

Have you  ever taken those quizzes that tell you which towns would be the best for you to live in, based on the climate, city size, activities available etc?
There are a lot of places in the world I would love to visit, but I also have a list of cities I think I would like to live in. Of course, once you actually stay somewhere for an extended period of time, you find that it's not at all what you may have idealized. Similarly, a place you might not be enthusiastic about at first can slowly grow on you and you can't imagine what you had against it in the first place. Where I live now comes to mind in that respect: I hated it when we first got here, but now there is so much I would miss when we move someday.
I've found over the years that your life situation influences where you'd be comfortable living as well. I loved living in Seattle as a single person, riding the bus late at night and walking along the waterfront after work. It was okay as a young married couple, though slightly more inconvenient in the car respect. (I never really liked Everett very much either way, to tell you the truth). But once I had a baby it was much less pleasant. I wouldn't want to take the bus with a baby, but I wouldn't drive in the heavy traffic; there were high crime rates, and very few close-by places to take my kid to play; and the weather made me miserable when I was stuck at home all day.
I don't know if I'd have liked Logan, Utah as a single person, but when we moved there it was perfect for our family, with our neighborhood full of other families in the same stage of life as us.
So, I think if jobs, cost of living, and housing weren't issues, there are a few towns I've visited that I'm sure I'd love to reside in. Also, there are some places I've actually never been to, but in my mind I think I'd love them if I could live there. ( A few years ago I did a post on places we might like to get jobs, this is different in that we probably wouldn't be applying for jobs in  most of these places.)
First some places I've visited that I like:

• Snohomish WA

 Snohomish is beautiful. It is a smaller town just East of Everett, with a touristy main street and beautiful countryside all around, including a winding river and waterside parks. It's fairly close to Seattle so you could still go to the city every once in a while, but it was a distance away from the crime and traffic of Everett, Lynwood, and all the other towns along the I-5 corridor. It was lovely. Other cute towns in WA: Poulsbo, Bainbridge, Mukilteo,but you need to be rich to live in those places.(Downside: Washington is a very expensive place to live, and pretty far away from family.)

• Spearfish, SD

We've discovered this little treasure over the past two years, getting to know it well as we went there for my doctor appointments for my last pregnancy. Everyone else in the area always goes to Rapid City for their shopping or outings, but we've found little Spearfish to be a much more pleasant destination for our monthly Wal-mart runs or park visits. There is a college there, so it's not just a blue collar town or a farming community like most of the towns of South Dakota, and it's in the Black Hills so its beautiful and green. I love Spearfish! (Downside: teaching jobs pay the same as where we live now, so it's pointless to move there, really.)

• Logan, Ut

When I initially moved away from my hometown in Southern Utah, I didn't think I'd ever want to live in Utah again; I wanted something different and exciting. Joseph was the one who wanted to move here because the University had such a good rating in the education field. To my surprise, I loved Logan! It was large enough to not be boring, and removed from the Salt Lake valley so it didn't feel like just another stop along the freeway. A University meant a more diverse culture and things to do. It was close to Bear Lake, a beautiful canyon or two, not too far from my family, and there were tons of things for kids to do there. I could have stayed there for a long time. In fact the only reason we moved, is the town has this little problem of an inversion every winter, creating a worse smog problem than Salt Lake City! This caused Joseph to get sick every year, so we knew we just couldn't stay. It was very sad. If Joseph were to die (heaven forbid), I might move there again. Just sayin'.

• Cedar City, Utah

Speaking of Utah...I never thought I'd say it, but Cedar City is a pretty nice place to live. It wasn't until I researched other places as Joseph has gone to school and looked for jobs, that I've realized how great Cedar City really is! The high school has so many opportunities that smaller towns might not, with AP classes, clubs, bands, and a variety of competitions. There is a good University with a beautiful campus, and it's close to mountains, deserts, and everything in between, not to mention close proximity to Zion and Bryce Canyon. There is the Shakespeare festival every summer, with the free greenshow and excellent plays for date nights. It's close to family so the kids could see their grandparents more often, and there are parks galore. Downside: It's maybe too close to family, and I would hate the feeling that I hadn't gone anywhere from where I'd grown up, even if it is a great town.

• Lander, WY

Another place I've been contemplating lately is Lander, WY. Joseph almost got a job near here, and we were pretty excited about it. Wyoming has some fairly unpleasant (at least at first glance) towns, but this one is lovely. Maybe I'm just idealizing this one because my grandparents used to live here, so I have many a pleasant memory of visiting the park, the swimming pool, and nearby campgrounds, but I think I could live in Lander and my kids would like it. It is near mountains and  a bigger town with more shopping options, but its not ugly like the bigger city . Bonus: Wyoming has excellent pay for teachers, which is why Joseph wants to live there so badly! Other Wyoming places that seem nice enough: Star Valley, Gillette, Casper.

• Mt Shasta, CA

Northern California has an almost mythical quality about it, with the Red Wood Forest, the coast, etc. One place I've been several times is Mt. Shasta, and it's beautiful, with lakes and mountains. Any other town in the vicinity would probably be nice too, like maybe Redding. Downside: California is a ridiculously expensive place to live, and everyone knows that someday it will fall into the ocean. ;)

Now there are plenty of other places I've never been , but I could see myself living there (realizing of course, that I might change my mind if I actually visited and found it to not be what I thought.)

• Astoria, OR- 

I've mentioned before that I want to go here, many movies have been filmed here, and the nearby beaches are gorgeous. I think that most of Oregon looks beautiful, especially along the Columbia river..so places like Portland, The Dalles, etc. all seem like good places to live. Downside: I think it rains more in Astoria than it does in Seattle, but I don't know if it would affect me as much if I can drive around and have things to do.

• Boulder, CO

Never been here either, but everything I've read about it sounds great: beautiful scenery, college town, pretty downtown etc. Downside, I hear it's wicked expensive to live here.

I think if I wasn't married with kids, my list would be a little different: bigger cities, maybe more liberal communities. Maybe when our kids are all grown up we'll move somewhere completely new? What kind of places would you like to live?

Busy May

(Yes, this post is a little late...)
May has been a very busy month! First there was Mother’s Day. Joseph was great, he got me a two-pound box of See’s candies, which even cost extra to ship because they have to keep it cold! It was a bit expensive, but very thoughtful of him. I also got two cards, from the kids and Joseph, and the one from Joseph had butterflies that were connected with fishing wire. This string of sparkly bugs could be removed from the card and became a beautiful mobile that can be hung up! It is very pretty.

                When I got up that morning, Elora had planned an “animal hunt” for me. She gave me a plastic grocery bag, and told me to go around the living room to find all the stuffed animals she had hidden. It was very cute and thoughtful of her. I know she got the idea from her Highlights Magazine, which suggested doing a treasure hunt for father’s day…she didn’t quite get the part about there being a prize at the end.

                That day at church, we were the only ones there! We knew beforehand that we probably would be, but they wanted us to go to the building just in case someone inactive showed up. At first the kids were disappointed and didn’t want to do church, but it actually turned out pretty good! Joseph conducted and blessed the sacrament, and shared an impromptu talk about the stripling warriors. I ran the player piano, and everyone got to sit on the bench and gather around as we sang songs about family (most of the mother’s day songs weren’t on the playlist on the piano.)

                After sacrament meeting, we went in the multipurpose room, where everyone sat at the table and I shared the Sunday school lesson. It was about prayer, and there were plenty of stories that I could share to keep the kids interested. After our lesson, we had a snack of chips, then went home.

                 

 

That night, Joseph had more plans that I didn’t even expect! After I put the kids to bed, he had prepared chocolate covered strawberries and a sparkling strawberry lemonade drink he’d secretly purchased the last time we went to town the Friday before. He even did white chocolate drizzles over the brown chocolate; they looked so professional. That was a good surprise..he’d gotten the idea the week before when I’d seen a commercial on the computer for chocolate covered strawberries, and I’d mentioned how good they looked. What a good listener!

             A few weeks later, they had the Family Fun Night at the school. This time I remembered to bring my camera, unlike last year. Outside they had a dunk tank, and inside there were lots of blow-up toys for jumping. This time they put the toys for the bigger kids in the other gym, so we didn’t have to worry so much about the little kids getting trampled! In the afternoon before we got there, Joseph was in charge of the dunk tank. Sadly he was finishing up when we arrived, so I didn’t get a picture of him sitting on the dunking seat. All the kids got a turn throwing the balls though, and both Elora and Josh were able to hit the target on their turns.

 

 

The next week Elora's school had field day and some awards ceremonies. Elora did great! She won a bunch of ribbons at field day events, and got a certificate, trophy, and ribbons for winning first in the Math contest and second in Spelling in her class.

good job, Elora!

Finally, it was Elora’s kindergarten graduation day! I expected them to have music and some kind of program like they have in Utah, but nope, it was like a high school graduation. They had pictures before hand, they had a speaker, and they had the kids walk and get diplomas. In between they had a slide show of things they did through the year, and they had some of the elementary kids performing hoop dances and a drum ceremony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all this, they had lunch in the lunchroom, then we had cake in the kindergarten room. We got there late because the kids took so long to eat lunch again, and we got the last few pieces of the cake. The teacher had bought all the students gifts with the classroom budget- really big gifts. Elora got a lifesize babydoll, and two paint sets: one watercolor and one water soluble kids’ paints. We also gave her a wristwatch, and she was very excited about that. It had butterflies on the band, and she’s been really excited figuring out how to tell time. (They’d just started learning about time in school, so she has the basic idea down already.)

 After this, we went out on the kindergarten playground and the kids got to play for an hour and a half with some other kids who were there; they had a great time!