Making memories one day at a time.......and then I write about it.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Playing


On Monday, it was a holiday here in the US.  President's Day to be exact which meant everyone was home on holiday!  The two eldest grabbed their snow boards and hit the local slopes while the rest of the tribe went up a different canyon and played in the snow and hiked around a bit.


We've not had any snow to speak of this year to play in so our hiking was more of a meandering crawl as The Native's rolled snowballs along the way........


Took little snitches of snow when they thought no one was looking......


Flashed adorable smiles.....


And more adorable smiles.......


And more....... ummm........ hey!  What happened to the adorable smiles?  It's a teenage thing.  Do NOT smile at the camera what ever you do!


Endless snow ball throwing.


I'm talking non stop!


Hello.  My name is Mr. J and I model for Wrangler jeans!


Snowballs...... it's an effect.  No seriously!  It is!  Once it starts rolling...........


The red rocks beckon to us.  No longer are we satisfied with playing in the snow on the ground floor.


We climb.


Some of us more brave than others.


Umm, Scarf Kid?  Come back here please?  You're making my toe nails curl inside my boots.


Good thing he listened because I did NOT want to have to go in after him!  Don't make me pull over my sled and get off!!!


Snow.  Cold.  Freezing.  Middle of winter.  Green.  Who'd have thought!


This green leafy plant looked like wool felt to me.  The leaves are thick and fuzzy/furry looking.


Mr. M walking close behind Mr. J making sure he doesn't fall.


No one asked Mr. M to do this.  Notice the left hand out just in case his brother slips.  Mr. M just comes by this naturally.  He's a care taker.  Ever since Mr. J was born........ he's taken it on personally to care for Mr. J.


The SM doing the same for Levi.  This part of the trail was a bit titchy.  


Levi taking a breather.  Do we keep going up?  Or do we go back down?


Oh look!  Shells of some critter that has since moved on.


Being the middle of winter I was amazed at all of the shades of green we saw and found.  Pretty moss the color of sage backed by a red canvas.


The vote was to keep going.  What were we thinking??


We weren't.  The ledge where The SM is helping Levi get up is as far as I went.  Julie wouldn't go any further and whined and cried because Levi was out of her sight.


Right where Henny Penny is, is where Julie and I were the smart ones and stayed put while the others went a bit higher.  I wasn't about to leave Julie by herself and my balance was way off so I was more than happy to sit with Julie and grumble about what a bunch of nincomepoops I was spending the day with and if someone got stuck or hurt don't come crying to me!

I didn't get a photo of it but seconds later, Henny Penny is reaching down her hand and helping pull Mr. M up.  I think this was the highlight of the trip for me.  Seeing The Native's reaching out and helping each other all on their own.


As I waited I started to look around me and about fell off the mountain when I saw this out of the corner of my eye!  I thought it was a barking spider.  Stupid remnant of some flower.......  NOT FUNNY!


Driiiiiiiiiiiip!  Ummmm, honey!!!!  I realize we're all stuck up here on this mountain but.......  I gotta gooooo!


Uh!  No!  I won't be caught dead in one of these.  Shudder............


Awwww.  Much better.  Nothing a little bush around a corner can't cover!  A little rude that the paparazzi was waiting for us to come back around the corner laughing their fool heads off  at us girls because we'd rather go behind a tree than in the hootie 10 feet away but considering who was behind the camera.  No surprise.

15 comments:

  1. What a fun adventure. I feel like I was right there with you. I see Julie and the white farting dog and all the sweet Nativies. But, what are you and Henny doing with your hands as you emerge from the bush facilities?
    LOVE those red rocks....loved them when we lived out in NM....always feel so otherworldly! And that spider flower IS scary!

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    1. Oh Donna you make me laugh!!! I call the white farting dog, the white rat! :)

      I am pushing up my glasses that were sliding down my nose and Henny Penny..... well........ I'm not sure I want to know and can we just have a moment of silence and thank the makers of hand sanitizer for all that they do....................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Thank you.

      The red rocks are cool. They are slippery as all get out climbing on them but they are just magnificent and when you have the contrasting blue skies and white snow..... it was just unearthly beautiful.

      That spider flower seriously had me doing CPR on myself!

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  2. oh, and the wool felt leaf is called a Lamb's Ear around here.

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    1. Oh cool! I bet it is the same thing here. Fitting name.....

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  3. Okay, you always get me giggling. I like that about you. Now, you have the best places to go and play in. Gorgeous. I want to go playing on those red rocks too. Actually, I'd be too chicken to do that - but I'd LOVE to take photos of them. But not my kids climbing on them, cuz my chicken-ness extends to them. Oh man, I think I'm kinda pathetic.

    I was thinking the plant is mullein. Grows into a tall, sturdy stalked flower in its second year. We've got oodles of those around here. Jolly good fun for spear fighting. And making tea.

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  4. Ahhhh! Guess what? I like you too! :D

    This place we went to is maybe a 1/2 hour away? 45 minutes at the most. It is nice having so many great places to go on adventures. We are quite blessed with all of the canyons, trails, and what not.

    I can't say I was all that brave or thrilled with the climbing around either which is why I chickened out, I mean, took care of Julie when I did while the others kept on climbing. Ask The SM. :) I had some words..... about the craziness of it all.

    I've no idea what the plant is. Lamb's ear, mullein, it's just dang cool. That much I do know. We've some spear like plants that grow around the ditch that are really good for making spears, light sabers, the typical nerdy weapons of choice...

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    1. Yep, the BEST places to explore. The canyons and mountains just look SO foreign and utterly intriguing to me.

      Our Monday was "Family Day", and while most of the Canadian parts of the world have it as a holiday, *I* did not. But my work did arrange for a family afternoon of skating, which was fun. Except for the part where Eldest repeatedly complained about wanting to get home to her new pony. Sheesh.

      Light sabers - OF COURSE! It's the medievel/futuristic thing.

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    2. You would love them Wabi. I suppose they would look foreign. I don't know any different.

      I remember years ago when I was living at home, we had company over for dinner and one of them was a young man from Texas. My parents asked him what he thought of Montana. He said it was okay but that it didn't have any view. My parents were both shocked. What? No view?? He said, yeah, the mountains are in the way. :D

      I'm sorry you had to work on Monday but am glad you had a little time off with family. Even if it was spent with a teenage mutant complainer. ;) They must be mutants and mutate because I've plenty around here! :D

      Next week our youth group for our church is going ice skating. I CAN'T ICE SKATE! This should be interesting..... I look like a kid. Elbows and knees out, bent half way over, tongue sticking out........ yeah. Attractive! Lurching along the edge of the rink staring at the ice muttering incantations at all of the mutants roaring past me.

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  5. Days like that are the best days.

    I wish we had more rocks to climb, but the land out here where we live is pretty flat.

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  6. The SM is from Chicago. When we go out to visit, it doesn't take too long before I am missing the mountains. I never realized how much of a part of me that they are until the first time I went with him out to Chicago and missed them so bad. I've always had them around me. Never realized how lucky I was!

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  7. It was a lot of fun. I did make it to that big rock! I was pretty pooped at the end of the day but it was worth it. I think the sunshine and fresh air helped.

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  8. Where the snarf were you? And of COURSE Colin doesn't smile - he's WAY too cool for that. He loves to be inscrutable. You wouldn't understand. You are, by nature, totally scrutable. And them climbing up those rocks? Just looking at the pictures had my palms sweating. Besides, haven't you heard all that stuff on the news about avalanches? Yes, I can see there's no snow on the rocks, but that whole road could have slithered back down to the hootie, and then what? There wouldn't have been a tree left to hide behind, or to hide a behind. Whatever. My idea of play is much more likely to include sand than snow. And far more - books instead of sand. Still, you all had that winter glow -

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    1. Up Spanish Fork canyon. There wasn't enough snow for an avalanche. If there had been and it had wiped out all of the trees there were still plenty of rocks to squat our behinds behind. :)

      Personally, I'd like to be on a beach with warm sun, sand, and a good book. There doesn't seem to be one around right now so..... we got as close to sand as we could. Rocks!

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  9. The pics of the places, and people, are beautiful!

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    1. Thank you Carrilyne. I had a great time with you last night. It was just a little bit but I enjoyed what time we had. :)

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