Choose Nature

Rachel had a friend over to play for a while.  I thought they would probably play outside some, play with dolls, make a mess with craft materials.  I had been feeling a little down so I was looking forward to just enjoying some time to myself while they played.  I made plans to sort through that ever-growing pile of random papers and books that have been neglected in the corner of the school room.  It would be to finally have some time to just get that pile cleared out and I thought that might help to lift my spirits.

After about 10 minutes I was getting settled into my project when the girls came bounding up to me begging for me to walk with them down the street to the playground.  I groaned quietly in my head.  I didn't really want to leave the house.  I didn't feel like being social with other moms at the park.  I was so looking forward to just getting some things done around here.  Walking the whole two blocks to the playground in the heat of the day just sounded like too much for me at that moment.  But these girls had such sweet pleading eyes and I felt guilty for not being more excited about my mantra that kids should spend more time playing and exploring outside.  Of course, I eventually gave in.  I knew they would have more fun at the playground than at the house plus they would get some exercise climbing around the play equipment.  Besides we could all benefit from some fresh air and sunshine.

So I filled a backpack with bottles of water and snacks and we headed to the playground.  I found a bench in the shade and settled down to watch the girls play and just let my mind rest, hoping that maybe just sitting and relaxing outside might cheer me up.  But alas, that wasn't meant to be either.  We didn't stay long at the playground.  Almost immediately upon arriving, Rachel told her friend about the dry creek bed in the woods next to the playground and sure enough they chose to go exploring in nature instead of playing at the playground.  Again, I really didn't want to go.  I had resigned that I would just sit on the bench and not have to do anything.

But I do love the woods and exploring a creek... In the end, the call of nature was too strong and I chose to follow its call.  I'm so glad I did.

The girls quickly got to the bridge and went down to the creek bed to explore.

Before they got too involved in exploring I stopped them to have my usual safety in nature talk.  Part of this includes reviewing how to recognize poison ivy.  The most common identifier is leaves of three.  Often the outer two leaves look like they are mittens with a thumb sticking out.  There is often red on the stem.  Poison ivy can be found as a vine, on the ground, or as a bush so you have just keep your eye out for it where ever you go.  It is abundant in the parks in our area.

I showed them Virginia Creeper and explained that many people mistake it for poison ivy but it has five leaves and it is perfectly safe to touch.

They soon found some little bugs swimming around in the creek.

We found these furry little balls hanging from a tree.  I'm not positive but I think these could be young osage oranges.  I will have to go back and look for thorns on the branches to be sure of that though.

We watched some bees scurrying around on a rock.  I wonder if someone had spilled a soft drink there and the bees were enjoying a new kind of "nectar".

Here is a picture of part of the creek bed.  Rocks, shade, beautiful trees, and birds singing overhead.  I was feeling happy just being out here.  Nature has a way of doing that and there are scientific studies to prove it.  Just being in nature can reduce stress and improve mood for many people.  It is certainly a "happy place" for me.

We found several little damselflies.  I think this one might be a familiar bluet damselfly.  It's hard to say for sure without being able to inspect his markings and wings more closely. He didn't seem interested in that and he quickly flew away when I tried to get closer.

The girls were constantly finding a new area of the creek to check out.  They found frogs here.

I found some insect galls on this cedar elm tree.  Cedar elm is interesting.  The top of the leaves are rough like a fine sandpaper and the undersides of the leaves are smooth.

This tree caught our attention. It has these bright seed pods hanging down close to the branches.  I sent a picture of it to a nature group that I'm in and learned that the tree is a green ash.  The girls looked closely at the seed pods and realized that their concave shape would help it float better in the wind which would help spread the seeds farther.

Those sneaky girls were trying to hurry up and hide from me under the bridge.  We were all giggling and being silly.

By the time I crossed the bridge they were already on the other side, feet submerged in the creek and big grins on their faces.  I was so happy that they were having fun.  And to be honest, I was having a lot of fun too!

A little more inspection of the water.

They found a damselfly larva swimming around in there!

Then they found this other one who is a little younger.  It was swimming around too but the girls put it on a leaf just to contain it while they kept searching for more.

I noticed this piece of possible fossil sticking out from a chipped piece of a rock.  Oh if only I had brought my rock hammer with us....

I found this black flying insect munching away on a cedar elm leaf.  I haven't figured out what kind of bug he is but he seems to have a long stinger on him.

The girls found this interesting thing which looks like seeds.  It looks spiky but it was actually very soft and pliable, not spiky at all.  I don't have a clue as to what type of plant it came from.  

My favorite part of the day was when Rachel cried out, "Lobster!  We found a lobster!"  I smiled and without even seeing it I told her it probably more likely a crawfish.  Yep, they found two crawfish.  They thought they wanted to try to catch them but I had to remind them that crawfish had pinchers and we probably didn't want to try to catch them with our bare hands.  They were ok with that and decided to just watch them walk around under water for a while.

We were only out in the woods for an hour or two but we had a great time!  The girls got exercise, built some confidence through exploring, and learned some new things about trees, plants, and critters.  When we got home, I was surprised to realize just how much that fog had lifted from me and I felt happy again, almost excited about what we had found.  Being out in nature is an amazing experience.  No matter what I might be worrying about or feeling down about, being out among the trees always helps me see things in a better light.  I'm so glad we didn't just stay at the house or play at the playground.  I'm so glad we chose nature to explore nature instead.  

Imagine if we all just stepped away from our cell phones and video games and spent even just an hour out in nature once a week.  Do you think we as a society might be a little less stressed, a little more focused, and a lot more happy?

This post is a part of the Homeschool Review Crew's Homeschool Link Up. Want to learn more?  Click on the image below:

Route 66: Petrified Forest National Park {Arizona}

Our next stop on path of the Route 66 was the Petrified Forest National Park.  This is the only National Park along Route 66.  I knew I wanted to stop here because my happy place in on a trail in the woods so a forest sounded like a wonderful place to explore.  However, I didn't actually read about the park until we were on the road.  My, what a surprise we were in for!

There is no actual forest at the Petrified Forest National Park!

In fact, it is often called the Painted Desert due to the amazing color striations on the rocks and the desert-like landscape.

So why is it called a petrified forest?  Well in prehistoric times there was an actual forest here.  It is unknown if this forest died of natural causes or it was the fault of a catastrophic event.  Either way, the trees died and were washed away and buried in sediment which protected them from oxidation and decay.  The wood absorbed the mineral-rich water and silica in the ground and eventually crystallized into quartz.  As a result, the landscape of the Petrified Forest is scattered with logs that have been petrified and turned into rocks.

These rocks are a beautiful rainbow of colors telling the history of this area.

Researchers have found other types of fossils in the park including ferns, reptiles, amphibians, and even dinosaurs.  I would have loved to have learned more about the park but we were on a time crunch and couldn't stay in the visitor center to watch the movie about it.  We had to get out and explore!

This is inside a petrified log!  Isn't that amazing!

Reds, whites, yellows, black.  And it all has the texture of a rock, not wood.

We walked around and climbed on top of lots of petrified wood.  The park is 230 square miles and we only saw a tiny bit of that but it was impressive and fun to explore.

The map of the park shows the main points of interest where visitors would want to stop and explore.  There are paved trails to follow if you'd like.  We had about 40 minutes to see the entire National Park before it closed so we picked a few spots that sounded good and just hit those.

One of our stops was at the Crystal Forest.  Again, no real forest here but you can see where the living trees once stood.  

The bark of the logs has a different look and feel to them because they have now turned to quartz.

But the real difference is seen when you find a log that has been sawed through so you can see the inside of it.  It's just amazing that this colorful rock was once a living tree!

As beautiful as these rocks are, you are not allowed to take any pieces of petrified wood from the park.  But don't worry.  There are plenty of gift shops outside the park that are happy to sell you a piece of petrified wood harvested from nearby areas outside of the park.

This is my favorite close-up picture of the petrified wood.  I just love all of the beautiful colors of crystal.

Our last stop was at the Giant Logs Trail.  This spot has the largest logs in the park including "Old Faithful" which is the largest.

Old Faithful is 10 feet across at its base.

I just had to include this sweet picture Nicholas caught.

Ok, maybe this picture is actually my favorite.  It is just so beautiful.  

I found this color chart on Wikipedia which explains the elements that contribute to the different colors of petrified wood:

• carbon – black
• chromium – green/blue
• cobalt – green/blue
• copper – green/blue
• iron oxides – red, brown, and yellow
• manganese – pink/orange
• manganese oxides – blackish/yellow

Some of the other points of interest in the Petrified Forest National Park that we didn't have a chance to see include:

• Route 66 Alignment - a 1932 Studebaker marks where Route 66 once cut through the park.
• Agate Bridge - features a 110 foot long petrified log bridge.
• Puerco Pueblo - visit ancestral Puebloan home remains
• Newspaper Bridge - see over 650 petroglyphs.

Yes we missed all of this!  I would have loved to have seen it.  The main problem was a lack of planning and poor navigation on my part.  There are two entrances into the Petrified Forest National Park.  As we were traveling east on I-40, we should have taken the exit for 180 and entered the park at the southern entrance.  We would have arrived sooner and had more time to spend in the park.  We could have then followed the main road all the way north until it exited again on I-40 and we would get back on our merry way heading east to Albuquerque.

Instead we missed this important fact and traveled much farther to get to the entrance on I-40.  It may not seem like a big deal since we need to keep traveling east on I-40 when we leave the park anyway.  But the problem is that when the park closes, the park rangers drive down the road from the northern entrance and force everyone to go out of the southern gate.  Not only does this mean that we had to race to the southern part of the park so we would be the last to get kicked out and could squeeze a little bit more time into our exploring but this also meant that we lost that distance and time spent driving to the I-40 entrance and ended up repeating that drive again when we got pushed out at closing time.  

Oh my goodness!  Missing that exit at 180 cost us probably 1 1/2 hours of drive time!  Unfortunately that meant that we were really tired when we finally made it to Albuquerque around midnight, especially Stuart who was doing all of the driving.

Earlier in the day, we had decided that we needed to make it to Albuquerque by evening because we needed to make it home by tomorrow night. While on the road we were making calls to hotels in Albuquerque trying to make a reservation for the night....because this trip is happening entirely without a flight plan. We quickly learned that there were two big conventions in town and every single hotel was booked.  We looked at driving about an hour north to find a place.  Fortunately we finally found a Holiday Inn on the east side of town that a few rooms left (apparently the conventions were more on the west side of town).  Happily we took the room and when we arrived to check in there was a sign on the door letting others know that they had no rooms available.  Whew!  We were so grateful to have made that reservation instead of just rolling into town to see what was available.  Ok, so maybe a little planning ahead is a good thing.

Next Post for Road Trip 2018:

• Pimentel and Sons, Albuquerque, NM

Previous Post for Road Trip 2018:

• Route 66: Standin' on a Corner in Winslow, Arizona

Family Time at the Lake with the Bluebonnets

The bluebonnets were out this spring but our usual spot by Grapevine Lake didn't have many blooms.  The ground seemed extra muddy so maybe there was just too much rain.  But we still had a nice time going out and exploring the area and taking pictures.

Rachel found this dead tree to sit on and asked us to take this picture.  She is developing a good eye for setting up pictures.

Of course, a little play is always fun too.

We found a few patches of bluebonnets.  The kids stayed still and posed for us for a little while.  This is probably the biggest patch of flowers that we found.  We were also a little late in getting out here so there were probably more flowers a week or two ago.  

I can't believe how quickly these sweet kid are growing up.  I try to cherish the time with them but it still seems to just slip right through my hands.

This guy especially is getting too big!  I blinked for a moment and he now he will be starting eighth grade next year. How did that happen?

These two are so precious to me.  What a blessing it is to be their mom and to watch them grow and learn new and exciting things each day.  

Aww!  I was just going to pose with him and he surprised me with a kiss on the cheek!  What a sweet boy!

Stuart handed over the camera to one of our budding photographers so we could get a picture together.

We rarely get pictures of the two of us together.  This is shadowy and we were wind-blown but I love any picture with my sweet hubby.

Our kids are always discovering neat things in nature.  I never know what they will find but I love how they show each other their finds and they try to help each other identify them.

Nicholas found a little caterpillar.

I even found a pretty butterfly.

It's always fun to just explore around here.

My boy loves sticks so he is often carrying one around when we are outside.  This is the mack daddy of all sticks though.  Look how gnarly it is.  He was using it as a magical staff to shoot laser beams at things.

I love how there are still glimpses of a little boy in him.

Look how tall Nicholas is getting!  It won't be long before he is as tall as Stuart!

This little one is a sweet heart and she loves to give kisses.

She loves her Daddy.

Of course we can't go to the lake without Rachel bringing home some cool rocks and fossils.  She gathered them up in her dress to carry them back to the car.  She was a little sad when we made her go through her bounty and limit it to her three most favorite treasures to take home.

On the way to the car, Rachel fell and got hurt.  Big brother scooped in and saved the day by giving her a piggy back ride to the car.