petrified forest national park

Friends, you may remember that long ago, we made a promise to the boys: When each boy turns 13, he gets a special trip to the destination of his choice. It's just a trip for the new teenager and his parents, and no brothers are allowed.

Well, the time is upon us again: Max turns 13 next week.

He had a hard time figuring out exactly where he wanted to go. His first choice was Portland (we heartily approved that choice), but it's cold in early February, and he wanted to go somewhere warm. For a while, we thought we would fly to Las Vegas, then drive to Death Valley, but eventually he decided he wasn't too excited about that. Finally, we came up with a plan, and now we're off adventuring.

We flew into Phoenix late last night, got our rental car, checked into our hotel, and slept for about four hours before hitting the road early this morning. Our first stop was the meteor crater near Winslow. It's super-touristy and more than a little cheesy, but still, it's a METEOR CRATER A MILE WIDE. We got there right when the place opened, so there weren't many people, and we had plenty of time to admire the views.

Back on the road, we headed east on I-40 to Petrified Forest National Park. We weren't really sure what to expect. I mean, we read about it, but all three of us were still like, "Oh, so there are logs on the ground? Sure, that's cool, I guess." Trust me when I say that we were not prepared for just how cool it really turned out to be. Petrified wood is gorgeous and fascinating! And there were cactuses!

We started at the south end of the park, in the Rainbow Forest. We walked all along the Giant Logs Trail, and saw the biggest fossil log, Old Faithful, which is 10 feet in diameter. We spent a lot of time getting up close and personal with the petrified wood. It's so nice to be able to actually touch it and get really close and examine it at leisure.

We continued north through the Blue Mesa, past The Tepees, and stopped again to see Newspaper Rock, which is covered by petroglyphs. We were pretty far above the rock itself, but I was surprised by how good the views were.

The northern part of the park is the Painted Desert, so named because the different mineral concentrations give the mountains their colors. We walked along a trail that led into the mountains for a while, and fell for the oldest trick in the book: a fake lizard. Ahead of us on the trail, people were taking pictures and talking excitedly about something on the ground, so we walked up cautiously with camera at the ready. We took pictures of the lizard on the ground, along with the other people, then I got a little suspicious when it didn't slither away, so I put my foot right up against it ... and discovered it was a rubber toy. In my defense, it looked real! All the people thought so. Anyway, all us tourists had a hearty laugh, and one lady ended up taking the lizard home as her souvenir from the trip.

At one of the vistas, we also ran into a raven that was completely unbothered by human activity, but I can assure you that at least it was real.

On the way out of the park, we stopped along historic Route 66 and took some pictures of Max by a scenic car carcass. Then we headed south for a few hours through amazing mountain passes (I'm so sad I didn't take any pictures/videos -- it was beautiful and more than a little terrifying!) to get to Tucson. We got to town just after dark, and with just enough time to check into our hotel before we headed out to meet Mike's Aunt Cookie for dinner. Dinner was delicious (just ask Max to tell you about those tacos sometime!) and it was wonderful to meet Cookie and her partner, Dennis. It really feels special when we take a trip somewhere and are able to spend time with family or friends we haven't seen in a long time.

the birds of circus forticus

Friends, it's been a time around here. The start of the year has not been particularly kind in terms of weather, health, school/work, or pretty much any other metric. But we're still here, and so are the birds. Lately it feels like the whole world is on fire, so I find it really comforting to spend part of each day watching (and taking pictures of) the birds outside my office window. I've got a great setup: There are feeders directly in front, and small trees to each side. This winter, I've seen hawks, cardinals, blue jays, finches, chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers (downy and red-bellied), sparrows, European starlings, and juncos, among others. It's a show I never get tired of watching, and here are some of my favorites:

finally we go outside

I'm finally well again! I've been a little stir crazy these past few weeks, so it felt really good to get outside this morning. Liam had a speech meet, so he couldn't join us, but the rest of us headed to Potato Creek to do a little hike as the snow started to fall. We timed it just right -- we got back home right before the snow really started coming down and the roads got bad. The dogs really enjoyed being out in a new environment, the kids and adults liked getting out of the house, and as a bonus, we had some pretty great bird sightings!

bored, sick holli has the best/worst ideas

Friends, I've been sick for what feels like forever. I got a nasty stomach bug over Christmas, followed by a terrible cold and lingering effects of the stomach upset, and now a kidney infection. Luckily, the doctor was able to get me in Friday to get tested, whereupon they discovered that it was bad enough that they gave me a shot of antibiotics right then and there, plus a prescription for a full course of antibiotics, plus an appointment to come back the next morning (on a Saturday!) to make sure I wasn't getting worse. For the record, I wasn't super alarmed until the doctors were. Anyway, I'm slowly getting better, but I'm not strong enough to do too much right now except think ... which is where Mike comes in.

I have two Fiesta flowerpots, but they're both small and in use on the kitchen windowsill. One of our little goals when we moved was to have lots more houseplants (we didn't have them at the old house because the cats would find them and dig them up, no matter where we put them, and after the cats were gone, we knew we would be moving eventually so it just didn't seem worth it), and I was thinking about how much I would like to have those plants in Fiesta planters. They don't actually make large planters, so I did some research and figured out a way to drill holes in some extra pieces I have (you've seen my collection, right? I've got Fiesta to spare). Mike was kind enough to do the work for me, and he experimented on a teacup first before moving on to the bigger pieces. I'm really happy with the results! (And possibly already planning what other pieces we can turn into planters.)

merry christmas!

I caught the Christmas spirit (aka some kind of nasty flu bug) from my darling nephews last weekend, so I'm staying home instead of going to Gramps's house for the afternoon. The boys are definitely ready to go, though! Anyway, Merry Christmas from CFHQ. We hope it's a lovely day spent with your important people (and pets).

hawk-eyed

Henry was eating breakfast this morning, and I was in the living room drinking coffee. Suddenly he starts yelling. "Hawk! It's a hawk! ... Or an eagle! Some kind of big bird!" He comes flying into the living room, grabs my phone, and goes off to take a picture. Luckily for all of us, the bird was nice enough to wait while I ran to the office, grabbed my camera, and headed out the back door. I about froze my poor (bare) feet off, but look at this! Pretty sure it's a broad-winged hawk, but if any of you are better at bird identification, please let me know if it's something else.

Update: A lady at the fabric store tells me this is a juvenile male red-tailed hawk, and I think she’s probably right.

farewell to M's

We've been putting off doing anything to the basement. "It's a winter project, for sure," we told each other. Well, winter's here, so it's time to get started. It's *such* a big project, though, that it's hard to focus on any single step without despairing at ever finishing the whole. But today, we made some serious progress. Step 1: Scrape off all the decals, starting with the M&M's and then moving on to the forest decals all over the workshop area. So now every last M has been removed, and the basement looks like a chocolately crime scene. Behold:

Someday, friends, that basement will be an oasis. But sadly, that day is not today. On we go!

these kids!

Found on my door just now. “Hey Mom/Dad, Why do we selibrate thanksgiving when it was one of the greatest injusteces in history? [space for answer] P.S. When you write leave note on the inside of my door preferably by morning. Henry”