Beautiful Kids

I'll admit, I'm one of those Mom's that thinks her kids are some of the most beautiful out there.  I'm not usually one to brag, but while browsing through some photographs, I couldn't contain my enthusiasm for my kids.  And I couldn't believe how much they've grown, yet still look the same.

 Once upon a time, Nena was 3 and she didn't yet have a baby sister named Signe. She liked to wear fancy dresses and go swimming with Mama at the pool.  One evening she danced for us on our back deck.  She has always had beautiful, curly hair, but it was really, really blond when she was little.

Soon Nena poured her devotion upon her new sibling.





Signe was a very serious baby and rarely smiled.  On those occasions that she did, we all oohhed, and ahhhed at her. From how she was as a baby, one would never guess she'd be the comedian she is now, who is constantly cracking jokes and is a profound giggle-monster. 

 Our American Bulldog, Boghee, loved the kids and tolerated all their love and hugs. His unfortunate love for socks and underpants, however, was not good for him in the long run.


 In July 2006, we took a family picnic up in the Jemez. Monsoons left some awesome puddles for a 4-year old Nena to play in.

When I look at Signe as a baby, it's evident that she was who she is.  My Mother-in-law, Jan said, they are are who they are from the second they're born.  I think she's right.

She still looks just like that when she sleeps, and when she's smiling in the hot tub during a blizzard. Four weeks and 4 years...still the same Sig.

It's camping season already...and here's a picture of Nena looking camp comfy on one her many climbing trips--this one to the Enchanted Tower near Datil, NM.

And another looking happy to be at the water in the evening.  Turquoise Lake in Leadville, CO.

Time in the Desert

Last Wednesday evening we made an impromptu decision to get the heck out of Dodge. During a play date with our friends Hailey and Saso, their Mama, Petra, told us they were headed to Indian Creek for the weekend. Indian Creek is an amazingly beautiful part of the southern Utah desert, and is situated along the road that serves as the southern entrance to Canyonlands. Indian Creek has become an international climbing destination, and Spring and Fall are the seasons to be there.  After deciding we were going to go, we had lots of schedule shuffling to do, and we quickly packed up, tried repeatedly to fit everything into the Subaru Outback, decided it simply would not fit, threw everything into the truck, and forgot lots of things.  Despite the hasty retreat, once we arrived at the Bridger Jack camping area, we were able to pretty much chill out.  For a few hours anyway.

We spent our REI dividend and used the 20% coupon to buy a palace of a family tent--a 6-person, 6-foot tall monstrosity with a full vestibule. It was awesome!  Scott figured out how to set it up while I worked to get the girls and the puppy fed before it was completely dark. The girls played with Hailey for the few hours of daylight, and the parents tended to kid requests, gear needs, and getting settled into camp. Finally, I was able to enjoy a beer in the starlight.  The magic of Indian Creek finally started to seep into my being.

The next morning we woke and quickly packed up our gear, food, and water so we could head off to Donnelly Canyon to climb.  We arrived to a very packed parking lot, which wasn't surprising since it was a Saturday and Spring.  We all hiked up to the crags, and Nena started worrying about the safety of the puppy.  Nuptse had a near-death encounter as we were trying to leave when she got out of the house and was nearly flattened by a speeding car. Thankfully that didn't happen, but the fear of that plus the exposed boulders that Nuptse was scaling started a bit of panic for Nena.  Finally, we decided that it would be more fun to descend and play in the river than to hang out at the crag while the grown-ups climbed. In the end, the river was pumping a bit too much, so I took all the girls back to camp and Petra and Saso stayed with the guys to climb.

The girls had a grand time playing with their Hotwheels cars, stuffed animals, two tents, the back of the truck, and the vast vistas of Bridger Jack mesa. There was nary a conflict, and I was able to enjoy a book and the warmth of the sun, in between hunting down snacks, escorting them to our homemade pooper, retrieving cars that fell down into boulder cracks, calling for Nuptse who discovered that there are still a few nincompoops people out there who are uninformed about Indian Creek's poop policy (scroll down a bit) and who left their poop in easy puppy access (Gag!!), digging holes to bury said poop, and preventing the puppy from digging up said buried poop, among other things. (Whew...reading all that makes me tired.)

Finally the rest of the crew arrived, along with our dear Uncle Teague, and dinner and more fun ensued.

Sunday we hiked into Canyonlands and Nena bombed it up a small  Via Ferrata just when I thought she'd want to turn around. I'll post pictures as I get a chance.  I (of course) forgot my camera while in Canyonlands, but took a couple shots on my phone.

Monday we scrambled around on the awesome sandstone boulders, found some really cool small skulls, took a hike down to the actual Indian Creek, discovered a gorgeous collared lizard (I'll post our photo, too), hiked back to camp, dismantled camp, played cars, bouldered some more, waited for Daddy to get back from climbing, and generally just enjoyed the day.  That evening we drove up to Moab, and settled into the Bighorn Lodge, one of our faves thanks to their dog-friendly policy and their proximity to the delicious food and microbrews at the Moab Brewery.

Tuesday we hiked the beginner loop on the Slickrock Trail, watched a bunch of new mountain bikers cut their teeth on the awesomeness of the Moab slickrock, went to the musical instrument park and listened to Daddy perform for us, and then I hiked the Portal Trail with Nuptse in an effort to thoroughly wear her out. We ate at Eddie McStiffs, shopped on the town, tried to swim at night but the water was just too dang cold, and ended up watching a cool show on the History Channel about ancient cultures documenting visitors from space hundreds and thousands of years ago.

Overall, it was a lovely get-away and enough time to actually feel a bit rested and recharged.

Time and Conversation Snippets

My dear friend Gwen keeps a blog about her son, which I love to read because of her amazing humor and honesty. I have to be careful to not read her writing at work because I often end up laughing out loud and shooting whatever liquid substance I'm drinking (tea, coffee, water) straight out my nose in my attempts to squelch my laughter.  In one of her recent posts, she turns her readers on to another very funny Mama Blogger, who instantly hooked me.

Their humor and composition made me realize I've been way to freakin' serious lately. Good God, no wonder my daughter keeps asking me why my eyebrows are all scrunched up.

I've been having a lot of fun taking walks with Sig lately.  She's 4 and the world is still full of wonder. Hopefully that will last a long time.  Last night we walked up Mitchell Trail a little ways to get the puppy on walk # 2 of the day.  (We've discovered that if Nuptse doesn't take 2 walks during the day she is like a wild Tasmanian devil swirling around our house in the evening.) We went as far as where two little ephemeral streams come together and a whole bunch of burnt trees have fallen and they make bridges over the stream bed.  Right now there is water since the snow has been melting and the girls love it.

We get to the water and Signe pipes up with her new way of introducing her sentences, "It's too bad..." which is said with serious drama, so she says, "It's too bad we can't stay here." I say, "We can stay here as long as you want." And she suddenly she turns from a mood of presumptive disdain to one of extreme excitement.  You wouldn't know that we'd been there 5 times in the past 6 days. She starts splashing around in the water while the pup climbs over logs and creates general mayhem.

Sig - Mom, are there fish in here?
Me - No.
Sig - Why not?
Me - This water only flows for a few weeks in the spring and a few weeks in the summer--probably there's not enough time for the fishies to grow.
Sig - Oh.  Mom, are there sharks in here?
Me - No.
Sig - Why?
Me - Sharks mostly live in the ocean, except for those ones that are small enough to live in fishtanks, or the ones who live in the aquarium.
Sig - Oh. Mom, are there Fish in here?
Me - No.
Sig - Why?
Me - I think the water dries up before they can be born.
Sig - Oh. Mom, are there Sharks in here?
Me - No.
Sig - Why?

You get the idea of where the conversation went.  It was pretty cute. She also says really funny stuff while we are walking.  Nuptse was sniffing poop near a tree.  Sig says, "Nuptse must really like that tree, she's giving it sniff kisses." Good thing she didn't see the poop.

We've been entering the trail by crossing the street, trespassing walking across our neighbor's empty lot, and climbing up a steep and unconsolidated hill that crests at the old water tank. Last night when we got to the top Sig said, "Wow!  Where is this place?!"  I said, this is the place we've been using to get to the trail.  Sig says, "I know. God  I hate this trail."  I asked why and she said, "because I just don't like water tanks."  "Really," I ask, "what don't you like about water tanks?" "They are just so big and make me feel like a Polly Pocket."  Makes sense, I muse.

I should probably bring a portable tape player just to record her stuff.  It's pretty fun.

Weekday Fun

Some photos of a recent weekday outing.  We were fortunate to meet our dear friends at the Santa Fe Children's Museum before heading out to eat and watching the 4-Corner's Pipes and Drums group play.

Too bad I didn't pay attention to the fact that I caught the Moms too! It could have been an even cooler pic. Neen has a cold, you can tell by her eyes.

The house of mirrors and a wannabe Avatar.

Sig said she wants to marry Miko. He doesn't look too disappointed.

They have very glamorous face-painting stations equipped with lights, mirrors, and cool face-paint crayons.