Road Trip

We drove from Colorado to Utah in one day.  I have decided that Wyoming's state tree is a telephone pole. It was barren and hot and flat, so when we finally drove into Bear Lake and Logan Canyon at sunset, it was the most beautiful sight in the world.

How we got through the 10-hour drive:

• Movies on the DVD players- Despicable Me and Dora the Explorer
• Books on CD- Happy Birthday Mrs. Piggle Wiggle and Tangled (in story form)
• Coloring Books
• Reading books
• Stops at Arby's and Little America for lunch and dinner
• Music. So much music. I had to drive the whole way because it was ridiculously expensive to add Peter as a driver to the rental policy, so I entertained myself by singing along to almost every song on  my iPod, from Radiohead to Peter Paul and Mary to Into the Woods.  
• Silliness. So much silliness. By the time we rolled in Calvin was deliriously giggling at just about anything. We also planned to build houses in the middle of Wyoming and talked about the benefits of having miles and miles to roam.

Get High on Mountains

We flew into Colorado and stayed with Karen and Zack to begin our summer vacation.

Highlights:

• Biking around the reservoir with Karen and the pedal did not fall off this time. Also we saw a flock of geese, a snake, a bunny, and a bunch of cool birds.
• Hiking Bald Mountain in Boulder, CO. It was 2.2 miles and the kids all did mostly great. Calvin kept building cairns. Bryn sliced her toe open at the top so I tore up a diaper and made a makeshift band-aid. Ivy hiked the entire way up the mountain (a first for her). 
• Swimming at the pool and watching Bryn and Calvin discover the joys of a water slide.
• Hanging out with dirty hippies in Boulder. Oh wait, that was us. The kids enjoyed a magic show and have been pulling quarters out of everyone's ear since.
• Spending time with the coolest younger sister ever and her awesome family. 

Amelia Earhart Ate Breakfast at Our House This Morning

 Bryn researched Amelia Earhart for the biography fair at school. She dressed up as Ms. Earhart and gave a bang-up presentation.

A memorable part was when she quoted Hillary Clinton who said something like, "Find heroes to lift you up," and then Bryn ended by saying that, "Amelia lifts us up with her example and lifted herself up- literally. Thank you Amelia!"

Watchers

We went animal-watching with Laura and Tim and Squiggles at the Wildlife Refuge on Memorial Day.

This is a fun game I like to call, "Bevy of Turtles." See if you can spot all the ones we did.

Photogenic Heron

He even stuck his tongue out at us.

Photogenic Bryn

Photogenic Flowers

Back to the Farm

I'm the Science Enrichment Chairwoman for my kids' school, and it definitely has some perks. As part of my duties, I coordinate the chick-hatching project for the Kindergarten classes. Now that the chicks have hatched and are even starting to grow real feathers, it's time to return them to the idyllic farm in Concord from whence they came.

We paraded them out to my car, were stopped hundreds of times by people wanting to gawk, and then endured the 15 minute drive cooped up with the chick box (very VERY stinky). But it was all worth it because of who was waiting to welcome the chicks.

Farmer Edie is a rare jewel on this earth, with the capacity to run a full-fledged farm, tenderly care for the animals, and still find time to explain and show some of the inner workings of her farm to my kids as we were dropping the chicks off. I want to be her when I grow up.

The Goose Family- they were uber-protective of their lone gosling.

Little John, strutting his stuff. He came in for a classroom visit, along with Clucky's Sister (Clucky had flown away that morning, but returned 3 days later).

Soccer Saturday

This Magical Moment Brought to you by Childhood

I came, I ran, I didn't sleep

I was part of a 12-woman team in the Ragnar: Cape Cod running race. We relayed from Plymouth to Provincetown, covering almost 200 miles. I ran around 11 of those miles.

My first leg was along a canal for 3 miles, and then the fourth mile was on the beach in sand that felt like one of those nightmares where you're trying to run, but can only go in slow-motion. But I kept running, and passed around 5 people as I came in for the hand-off.

My second leg was at 3am. I was running on a gravel rail trail all by myself in the dark. I didn't have runners in sight ahead or behind. But it was cool in a spooky/peaceful kind of way to listen to the animal and night noises.

My third leg was in the bright sun and I had two monster hills to conquer. That was character building.

Other race highlights:

*Getting 30 minutes of sleep total during the 2-day trip.
*"Sleeping" in a high school gym on wrestling mats with all the lights on. Also, they had promised hot showers and indoor toilets. There were no hot showers, and one indoor toilet. ONE.
*Watching Amy overcome the final leg with a severely inflamed IT band- the stuff sports inspiration movies are made of.
*We were stuck in bridge traffic for an hour on our way home, and suddenly looked over and saw Ellen (one of our brave volunteers for the course) waving from the next car. We had a nice chat as we bumper-to-bumpered.
*Living vicariously through super-speedy Emily- it was fun to hear the other teams gasp over how fast she is.
*Spending a quiet evening on the beach while everyone else slept in the tent.
*Hanging out and running with 12 awesome people- go Road Hazards!

Accidental Dinosaurs

Ivy recounts a first-hand dinosaur experience.

Wildlife "Refuge"

We visited a wildlife refuge in Concord with some friends over spring break. It was a successful trip- we saw many creatures up close and personal. We may have stretched the definition of "refuge" a bit by harassing said wildlife with prodding sticks and loud noises, but it was all in the name of science and not getting fingers chomped by snappers.
Things we saw:

Snakes as long as Calvin,

Turtles with slimy shells,

Birds (sitting on Beaver lodges- we didn't see any beavers this trip, but the next time I stopped by with the kids we saw two beavers),

Nonchalant Muskrat (seriously, we could have pet this guy but for fear of rodent-borne diseases),

Fist-sized Frog,

And, of course, children.