Making Good on a Promise

Growing up, since my dad owned a plane, I was a well travelled child.  This has lead to a bit of "spoiled brat" syndrome as I hate driving anywhere farther away than an hour.  My grandparents lived 3 hours away by car, but we never drove because we could fly there in an hour.  While some people might have gone to the beach for the weekend, we may have gone to Catalina or Texas (both we did).  One of the most memorable trips from my childhood was a trip to Carlsbad Caverns in the southeast corner of New Mexico.  I remember being so impressed with the cave during the day, and by the bat swarm in the evening.  I've been telling Jonathan for years that I would take him to Carlsbad Caverns so he could experience this incredible sight for himself.  Until last week, that promise was unkept.  Why?  Well, there's nothing like a 17 hour car drive through pure ugliness to get me to put off that trip.  Jonathan had last week off from work and since he's leaving home in a few weeks, it was time to make good on the Carlsbad promise.  Unfortunately/fortunately, we really only had 3.5 days available in which to squeeze the trip.  This meant that the trip would either be 1) 17 hours in a car, sleep, cavern, sleep, 17 hours in a car, or 2) fly to Albuquerque, drive 5 hours, see the caverns, drive 5 hours, spend time in Albuquerque, then fly home.  We chose option #2, and unbelievabley, Delta had reasonable airfare!

We took an evening flight out of SLC on Saturday then drove 3 hours from Albuquerque to Roswell.  While driving, we got to experience a lovely sand storm that took visibility to near-zero in about a second.  Roswell is such a funky town that it deserves a post of its own.  The next day we got up and finished the drive to Carlsbad Caverns.  We had a guided tour of King's Palace first and then planned to go through the Big Room on our own.  I was really hoping that the caverns were as incredible as I'd remembered them being or I was was going to be really disappointed.  They were fabulous and reminded me why I've never been all that impressed with Timpanogos Cave. 

Witch's Broom

Draperies

Natural Cave Entrance.  Most normal people, if they want to use the natural entrance, enter the cave at this point and walk downhill for 1.25 miles to the Big Room.  Not us, we walked up the cave to the natural entrance- an elevation gain of 836 feet from where we'd been.

Sign outside the natural cave entrance.  Kinda irrelevent for us since we'd just hiked up out of the cave.

Ranger Miles.  He thought this was awesome and sticking his head through the hole was probably his favorite part of Carlsbad Caverns.

Inside the Big Room

Someone got tired of walking.  Thank goodness for shoulder rides.

There was one letdown at the caverns.  I remember the bat flight being spectacular- thousands of bats filled the evening sky as the bats set out in search of insects to eat.  Unfortunately, the night we were at the caverns, the bats must not have been hungry.  A few trickled out- like 4 or 5 at a time; no cloud of bats.  We waited until it was dark, but the swarm never happened.  While I was disappointed, I'm still glad the boys got to see Carlsbad Caverns because it truly is amazing.  It's too bad it's so inconviently located!

Friday Night at Maple Dell

Families of campers and staff are invited to attend the Friday night campfire program at Maple Dell.  The last time one of these programs was held (June 28), we went down to see Jonathan and watch him "work".  It was a typical scout camp evening- silly songs and skits, a scoutmaster minute, and a patriotic spotlight.  The best part was seeing Jonathan happy- happy to be at camp, happy to be with the staff, happy to be with the campers, happy to doing silly things that would be an embarrassment anywhere else; he was just happy.  We watched him sing, lead, snap to attention, smile, and be invested 100%.  Best job he's ever had.

Who wouldn't want to wake up to this scenery every day?

Waiting for his troop to arrive at the campfire.

The Maple Dell Staff

Unfortunately, I forgot that the program is held next to fairly stagnant lake which meant bugs.  I also forgot the bug spray.  The mosquitoes love me and I ended up with 14 bites, mostly around my ankles which made it look like they bugs were trying to give me ankle bracelets.  I've never had mosquito bites hurt before, but there ones did; they hurt more than they itched.  I ended up having to get hydrocortisone to put on them.  It's been 10 days, and they are still obviously visible (but finally not painful!).

Swim Lesson, session 2

Miles got good at putting his face under the water this session.  He's proud of his ability to do "bobs".  How ever, he's still very stiff in the water which makes him a sinker.  He also hates anything to do with being on his back.

Quiet, Please!

I love it when a comment from a stranger that could be interpreted as rude makes me happy.  Recently I was in a store with Miles.  Miles had been chatty through out the trip.  Truthfully, my ears were tired and I wanted him to be quiet, but he was an unstoppable motor-mouth (and he's gotten very loud).  Evidently the clerk thought Miles was a bit on the extreme side of chatty because she commented something along the lines of (but less rudely) "Does he ever shut up?  I'm tired of listening to him and you've only been in my line for a couple of minutes."  What exactly she said, I do not remember, but I do remember being happy that someone else thought Miles was chatty.  Miles' speech delay seems to be rapidly diminishing.  There are "things" he needs to work on (like not talking in the 3rd person), but he's made up so much ground.  Yesterday all his talking managed to annoy Jonathan.  Miles was going non-stop and asking questions about everything- Who lives there?  Whose car is that? And he asks each question about three times before he finally chooses to hear the answer.  His brain needs to slow down and remember to listen and converse and not just monologue.  It's awesome to be a witness to progress!

An Adventure with Jonathan

Jonathan and I made a trip to the U today to get some questions answered.  Unfortunately, two places we needed to visit decided to make the 4th of July into a 4 day weekend.  Another place, we were lucky and got "Mr. No Clue, but I sure know how to make you think I know what I'm talking about" who gave us lots of incorrect information that I verified was wrong after I got home.  We did manage to get a couple of things taken care of.

 Jonathan and I took FrontRunner and Trax to the U.  On the way home, we got on FrontRunner in Murray.  The train was quite full.  We sat knee-to-knee with 2 little kids who immediately wanted to know where we were getting off the train, and that their mom was sitting "right down there".  The kids were quite chatty.  They told me that they'd been to a splash park, eaten snow cones (but not Barbie or Tiger's Blood flavored), and now they were on their way to watch Despicable Me 2.  I told them that I'd gone with Jonathan up to the U and that he was going to go to school there.  The little boy looked at me and said, "You've got to be kidding me."  I assured him that the U was indeed where Jonathan was going to attend school.  Then he looked at me and said, "Are you his mom?  I thought you were married."  It was really hard not to laugh in the boy's face.  Then his little sister said, "I knew you weren't married.  I just thought you were engaged."  More "laughing inside" by me.  Then the two kids started discussing why they thought what they did, and they agreed that it was because Jonathan looks "old" with his scruffies.  Jonathan humored them and chose to "let it slide" because they were just "kids."  Too funny!

Home Again

Less than 2 hours ago, we arrived back home from a quick Mew Mexico trip.  Lots more to come on that in the next few days.  Utah's been burning hot, so we escaped to the southeast brown-desert corner of New Mexico to cool off.  Seriously!  That makes no sense, but it was the truth.  It was 87 in Roswell/Carlsbad and 106 here.  Today in Albuquerque, it was a glorious 83 degrees and was 102 when the plane landed in SLC.  While we were gone, the poo water issue was resolved.  I came home to the first tomato and peas from the garden.  However, my kitchen has a nasty smell- like rotting potato.  No idea where the stench is coming from.  I checked all the "suspicious" places, like under the sink, but the smell is in the open air and I can't see/find anything stinky.  I ran lots and lots and lots of water down the drain and ground up some oranges in the disposal hoping that the smell was "evaporated trap".  We'll see.  I think it's improving, but I'll find out tomorrow.  Hoping that the smell issue is solved and that my nose hasn't acclimated to it.

Practicing Swimming Lessons

Miles practices his swim lessons in the pink bathtub.  His big accomplishment from last session was choosing to put his face in the water.  Since I record/photograph everything my children do, here's Miles showing off his new skill.  I don't think he loves submerging his face, but he repeatedly did it (both before and after the clip was taken).