Parowan Gap

  While much of the state is on Spring Break this week, we are already finished with ours.  We spent a few days in Southern Utah to pass the time - and it was great!  

A few days before we left, I read in the newspaper (yep - still a newspaper reader) about an equinox event at the Parowan Gap.  Anybody ever heard of the Parowan Gap?  I had not, but I knew Parowan was on the way to St. George, so I thought it would be fun to stop and check it out.  I'm so glad we did, especially when I look back at the pictures of it.

So basically, the Parowan Gap is a natural wind gap that formed in the rocks over a long time as the wind blew through.  Appropriately, it was quite windy while we were there.  It just so happens that the gap in the rocks is perfectly aligned with the movement of the sun.  On the summer solstices, the sun sets exactly down the center of the gap.  

But, it turns out nobody really knew this until about 20 years ago when some scientists started studying the petroglyphs that are on the rocks of the gap. (Also - it should be recorded that while I just looked at the petroglyphs and saw doodles, Cole actually figured out what one of them meant before the tour guide explained it.  That kid.)

 

This petroglyph (below) was the key to figuring it all out.  It's called the zipper glyph and they didn't really know what it represented until they superimposed it on a map and found that it was perfectly aligned with the rocks of the gap. 

 

But then they wondered what the two little things hanging down from it were.  They used GPS to find the spot of where they would be and found rock cairns there. It turns out the cairns mark the spots where the sun aligns in the gap on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.  So cool. Also so cool that no cows or boy scouts or hikers or anyone else accidentally disturbed the cairns before they figured them out.  Cause really, who would know that little rock pile was actually so amazing?

Our little group hiked to the vernal equinox cairn and watched the sun set from there.  Sunsets are pretty much my favorite thing anyway, but it was so incredible to watch it from there. 

 

 

 

  

While I watched, this scripture kept rolling through my head - it's one of my favorites - 

"yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator"  (Alma 30:44)

 

 

I don't know what the extra little spots and glares in some of these pictures are.  Probably something on my camera lens, but let's pretend they are solar flares or extra terrestrials or something cool like that.  

And if you wondered why our little darling Annie is not in any pictures, it's cause she is a beach girl at heart and couldn't abide the rather frigid temperatures that greeted us.  She spent the evening sitting in our car devouring all our trip snacks. 

Oh, and one more thing.  Anyone know the correct pronunciation of Parowan?  I always thought it was like "pair of wands" but without the f and ds and in my mind I will forever hear the state track meet announcer's voice saying it this way when Parowan High School runners were called out.  But, our tour guide pronounced it to rhyme with "heroin," and she is a local, so you would think she would know.  Sigh.

Tres

I can't say enough how much we love our little Benny!  He is such a delightful little guy.  Here's a little taste of who he is at the great age of three:

-Loves the color blue.  He wants blue everything and it's quite a crisis if he doesn't have a blue plate, cup, clothes, or whatever he decides should be blue.

-Love popsicles.  I'm not sure how this love developed, cause I rarely had popsicles on hand before he started demanding them, but somehow he has decided they are the best.  I think he's shed more tears about not getting a popsicle than anything else.  His uncle was in a car accident a month ago and Ben has been pretty worried about him and even offered to share his popsicles with him, which is the ultimate get well present he could think of.

-He is a worker.  If you want to make him happy, just tell him you need him to help you do a job.  He loves to help and he gets right in there and really tries to work at whatever the job is.  Bonus points if it happens to be fixing something with his dad.  Cole built him a tool box for his birthday and he tells him thank you for it almost every day.

-He's obsessed with guns.  I cringe to share this bit of info because guns frighten me, but he adores them.  I'm not really proud of this, but it is kind of cute to see how natural this love is and how much like his dad he is.  When Floyd travels, I miss him a little less than I used to cause having Ben around is like having a little Floyd there too.  A few weeks ago, he said to me (in his deep hunting voice) "I'm going to shoot your favorite deer."

-He's still the best snuggler ever.  Seriously the best.

-He wants to be a farmer and a fireman when he grows up.  I tell him that's great cause those are the two things my Grandpa Max was and he was a pretty great guy.

-Nothing makes him happier than playing with his big brother.  When Cole lets him play with his stuff or tag along on adventures, he is in heaven.  He often checks in with Cole when he's not sure if "boys" like something or not. 

-He loves being with the boys (Dad and Cole and Grandpas and Cousins and Friends), but if there is a problem or he gets hurt, Mom is still his safe place. 

 

-He is just the most charming child ever.  I'll sum it up by saying he's "practically perfect in every way."

 

O'Malley

 Our sneaky family leprechaun, O'Malley, was at it again this year.  His tricks were pretty mild - just a little green food and a rainbow trail that appeared while we were at church.  He always makes the kids' Irish eyes smile. 

 I smiled quite a bit this year too cause Ben calls him "Old Malley" which is like 100 times cuter than O'Malley.  I love that little guy (Ben - although I'm sure O'Malley's great too).

 And luckily, everyone was able to round up some green church clothes so there was very little pinching involved this year.  Phew!

The Best Three Years

 Someone around our house had a birthday last week.  I'll give you a hint - he turned three!  Happy Birthday, Ben!  He has been insisting on a John Deere tractor cake for the past month or two, so we obliged.  And by we, I mean I baked the cake and Floyd decorated it.  I'm not much of a cake decorator. 

 

 It turned out pretty cute - especially before I put a lid on it and smashed half the frosting.  Oops.  I'm super helpful that way.

Things have been a little crazy around our house the past couple months, so we kept his party pretty low-key.  Just some bowling and pizza with a few family members.  It was fun.  Ben was quite the bowler by the night's end and insisted on carrying the ball himself, setting up the little ramp-thing by himself, and wouldn't even let me stand anywhere on the wood floor.  I had to stay in my seat. 

 None of the kids really wanted our help, actually.  Annie got pretty adept at rolling her purple ball down the lane by herself also.

 And Cole lit up the scoreboard with two spares and his first strike!  Hip hip!  It was a good night bowling for him. 

 The big kids mostly let Ben open his own presents this year, which is probably a first.  He seemed to like them. 

 Especially the cowboy boots which have already seen many adventures in their short life.  I'm sure there are many more to come.

 Happy Birthday, little buddy.  We could not ask for a better kid.  We all love everything about our little Benny.

Hill Air Force Base

 A few Saturdays, I took the kids to the Hill Air Force Base museum.  It's one of those things that I always think about doing, but had never got around to it - which seems silly since it is literally one minute off the freeway and it is free.  The kids were pretty impressed with the big planes.  They are pretty cool.  It felt patriotic just to be there.

 For some reason, they decided that they would all like to have their own pictures taken in front of each of the planes - which is just as well since pictures of all three of them inevitably turn out like this:

 Next time I go, I think I will go sans kidlets so that I can actually take my time and read all the interesting informational signs.  They were mostly into the planes and didn't so much care about all the stories.  We have that trouble whenever I take them to places like this - they go much too fast for me.

One thing I will remember about this day - I think it was the first day I had actually felt warm in months.  The sun was out and if I closed my eyes and stared at it, I could almost pretend I wasn't frozen.  And that made me happy.  I hate the cold.

Eagles

 A few weekends ago, I took the kids to Farmington Bay for a bald eagle viewing day the DWR was hosting.

At this point, you might be thinking, "Hmm.  I didn't know Katie was into birding."

You are correct.  I'm not - although I did read "The Big Year" and really liked it (but I haven't seen the movie, so I can't give you a recommendation on that).

Or maybe you know exactly why I was there.

Meet Cole.  Future Audubon Society president (or chief or director or whatever they happen to call their highest up - I'm not really in the know).  Cole loves birds, especially birds of prey.  They are descendents of dinosaurs, you know.  

 

So we drove out, found the eagles, and Cole promptly informed me that one of the "eagles" was actually a hawk and then listed all of the ways in which he knew it, which I have forgotten.   

Ben and Annie each took a quick peek through the binoculars and then went about their own activities.  Ben's consisted of trying to find some way to sled himself down the hill and injuring himself while Annie, who is clearly her mother's girl, lasted about two minutes after this picture and then headed for the car and sat snacking the rest of the time.

 You can tell she was super into it, can't you?

 

 But, she should have stuck around because shortly after that, Adam Eakle from KSL Outdoors tried to interview me.  I politely declined since I would look like one of Jay Leno's Jaywalking interviewee's if I had to talk about birds (he should have known not to interview me - he overheard Cole explaining to me why it was a hawk and not an eagle and had seen my trying to hide behind things to avoid being filmed - clearly I was not looking for a television spot).  So, Cole got to be interviewed instead and I don't really remember what he said other than that eagles are his second favorite bird after raptors.  His claim to fame (if it ever airs).  He also got to interview the crazy lady that overheard me decline to be interviewed and ran over shouting, "I will!"  Lucky guy.

So anyway, that was our day at the bay.  Can you guess which one is the hawk?

Oh, and I will say, it was pretty cool when the eagles would actually leave the tree and swoop out over the bay.  So I guess I like birds after all.