Wupatki Natl. Monument

Stretching Our Legs...With a View

Moab: Made Possible by Chariot Inc & Friendly Baby Gifters

First of all I would like to dedicate this post to all the good folks at the Bee Lab (and those affiliated with people at the lab) who helped purchase the Chariot; one of the finest pieces of child mobility equipment known to man. This weekend the Chariot left it's usual post as grocery getter/errand runner/living room decorative piece and took on a whole new set of terrain. It did awesome! I was so grateful the entire weekend for friends who knew us well enough to know how much we would use and appreciate this gift. I never gave out formal thank-yous because I'm not entirely sure who all to thank, but you know who you are...and whoever you all are we thank you daily! Now on with the post.


Joe and I were headed to Flagstaff for the week (Joe is attending the Biennial Conf. on the Colorado Plateau) so we thought "why not fit in a Moab trip". Ben, Beth and Ryan (Joe's siblings and sibling-in-law) were all too willing to join us. We got in late Friday night and rode Klondike Bluffs Saturday morning with the Chariot then took turns at slick rock later that afternoon. I was so impressed with the Chariot, she handled beautify and was equally impressed with Joe as he hauled that thing over rocks, up slick rock mountains, through sand pits and washed out roads. Beth, Ryan and Ben made excellent biking compadres ...unfortunately they were a little too speedy for me to snap too many photos of them in there element...hence the usual abundance of Ari and Joe photos. Ben did however manage to make it into my favorite photo of the weekend. He's in the first photo standing in the mouth of his tent trying to keep his feet warm. I know, it's deceiving because he's wearing Joe's hat and Jacket but trust me, it's Ben. In fact Mr.BENvenidos ended up driving home with that jacket...

On a side note, you may notice all these photos have a hazy sky. The only thing we could gather was that it's drifting over from the CA fires. The skies have been hazy from Logan to Flagstaff...anyway, a few photos from the trail:

Drummin Baby

Mischievous Boy

Just in case your wondering what Ari's been up to...

Ari's Spot

Ari crawled in this basket one day and decided he quite liked it...so he crawled back in there the next day. I stacked a few books on the shelf next to him and he sat in there and read for quite awhile, then he stood up in the basket and watched the world go by out the window. I was mesmerized watching him.

Visitors!!

My parents were up in Logan last week/weekend...a few of my favorite photos from their visit. The ones outside are of a hike my Dad and I took to back to Mill Hollow. The photo of my Mom and Ari was taken at the American West Heritage Center. Ari had been learning the names of various farm animals so we thought he should see them in the flesh.

It was REALLY fun to have visitors, I wish we would have more...hint hint.

Ari's Birthday's

Ari had two parties, on his actual date of birth (Oct. 9) we went with Josh, Cora and Kristal to the Willow Park Zoo to feed the ducks. Here are photos of birthday #1.

For Ari's second party we waited until his grandparents got here (my parents), and with Josh, Cora and Kristal accepting another invitation to party it was a house full. I made Ari a Jell-O cake complete with grapes and whipped cream; he wasn't too interested in the cake (espically since he doesn't like to be messy), he just wanted to get down and play with toys...so that's what we did. We all sat around and watched Cora and Ari play with toys, took photos, and had a birthday drum circle. Joe ended up eating the Jell-O cake.

Mill Hollow

If you look at the photos in the previous post, this canyon is the one with the vein of yellow leaves in the middle (third photo down). The patch of yellow looked inviting so we checked it out...didn't make it very far up the canyon, we stopped and played a lot instead.

When Fall and Winter Collide

Since Olivia mentioned the snow clouds...here are some photos I took of last weekends storm (I apologize to those living in midwestia who are in the middle of a heat wave and who might find the following images agonizing). The collision of fall and winter was beautiful; it was hard to capture in a photograph, but I had fun trying. In the first photo you may think you are seeing a hurd of cows, I thought the same thing but Ari informed me that those were indeed dogs, and they say woof woof...more on that later.

In the course of taking this photo series I also snapped a few opportunistic photos of my entourage.

How Lucky Am I?

This photo gives you glimpse into a popular hike in Logan Canyon called the Crimson Trail. The trail takes you along the top of the cliffs off to the right of the photo, then back down along the river. It's got some of the best views I have seen and the trail never seems to look the same. The lucky part; this trail is about 7 minutes from my house. I hike this trail often and think "how lucky am I"! There are not many college towns with wilderness areas so close. I don't think I have ever really taken full advantage of any place I've lived; until now. I love Logan.

Formice arii

Look how cute this little ant is, and it was named after Ari by E.O. Wilson.

We got invited to this fancy little reception last night before the showing of E.O. Wilson's documentary "The Naturalist". I didn't really think we had a prayer of actually chatting with Dr.Wilson (especially since Ari and I had to go into exile after he discovered the room had good acoustics's) but the opportunity presented itself and we ended up talking to him for quite awhile. He just seems like such a genuinely good person. The more I hear about and read about his life the more impressed I am

I highly recommend "The Naturalist" I think they plan on showing it on T.V. The subtitle of the film was "Darwin's Natural Heir"; I think I might need to read more of his works before I decide what I think about that subtitle; just not sure yet if I think it fits.

E.O. Wilson's Rock Star Status

Today we met a legend (and we like to think distant relative), Dr. Edward Osborne (aka E.O) Wilson.

We're up here at the Teton Science School helping out with a little event called a "BioBlitz"; it's taking place in conjunction with the Wildlife Film Festival here in Jackson WY. Joe is here lending his insect ID Skills and I'm here because...like I'm going to stay home while Joe's in Jackson. E.O. Wilson has a film debuting at the festival (which we are attending) so he was in town and since he's considered one of the BioBlitz gurus...yayadayada he stopped by.

I (being the dork that I am) got a few paparazzi style photos; I figured that when Ari grows up to be a world renowned conservationist too these photos will look good in his office at Harvard (ahhh a mothers dreams). Joe got to talk to him briefly (photo above, Dr.Wilson in brown, and Exec. Director of TSS Jack Shea in blue) on his way to visit a local elementary but Ari and I got to stay and witness E.O.'s Rock Star Status. There were quite a few reporters and camera crews all documenting him talking to school children and giving his thoughts on conservation and such. He was a really nice guy. It was quite satisfying to see a media frenzy for someone who has actually made a contribution to society.

Side Note: One of the film crews was from National Geographic, they got extensive footage of Joe helping kids ID bugs...BAM just like that Joe makes it in a National Geographic film.

This photo was taken (courtesy of the wildlife station captain) using a little technique I remember Olivia using in Greece.

Wow Ari, is that E.O. Wilson casually positioned behind you in all these shots?