Fossil Butte

Our first real stop on our trip was at Fossil Butte National Monument near Kremmerer, Wyoming (home of the 1st JCPenny). Dana’s sister had stopped here on one of her field trips and told us how cool it was. We watched the video in the visitors center about the layer where all the fossils are found. There are lots of plant and fish fossils. They also had metal casts of some of the fossils so people could make rubbings of them.

Near the entrance of the park they start showing the geologic timeline. 9 inches = 1 million years. Here is Magnus at the end of the timeline that reads, “recorded history.” The picture on the right is when the Earth was formed (you can just see the visitor center in the back, where the end is).

Dana went on a short hike up to one of the buttes. It was very pretty.

After we left the park and were driving through Wyoming we saw many many antelope: more than either of us had ever seen. There were even some at a rest stop we stopped at. The male is the one on the far right.

And here is the Wyoming state house in Cheyenne.

Up He Goes…

Magnus pulls himself up.

This is what Magnus decided to start doing yesterday evening. The first time we looked over and he was standing. So, we made him do it a few more times to get it on film.

Bugs. Berries. Battlestar Gallactica.

A week or so ago I went on a fun and exciting excursion. It had been a while since I had gone out in the woods to look for stuff, so Ruth was nice enough to let me go. So, I went out to an area I have come to like a lot near Trout Lake, WA.

The first stop I made was by Little Goose Creek Canyon, to see the waterfalls and the awesome cliff face with basalt columns. That’s Mt. Adams in the distance.

The larger of the falls was hard to see from the side of the canyon I was on, but I was able to get down to the upper falls. The river was very pretty and flowed over a solid sheet of old lava.

It was a very hot day (94°F) so being by the falls was very refreshing. I also saw this nice little red beetle on a fern.

I then went huckleberry hunting and found quite a few. If you have never had them, they are something worth trying. Many of the bushes were already turning red.

While picking berries I came across a small lava cave in a a clearing that was not on the map. It had a small marker naming it Cave 5. It was nice and cool inside, and I found some cave crickets. Here is Mt. Adams again, and the other peak to the left is Sleeping Beauty.

Next, I headed over to the Ice Caves. There are some very special insects in there that I like to find, and I like caves. The bugs are interesting because they have to live in cold temperatures, so we now have some pets that live in the fridge. There was still a good amount of ice and snow in the cave since it was only 32°F.

I also did a short hike near the Natural Lava Bridges. It was a very pretty day.

I just wish I could have picked more huckleberries…

Every Day Adventures

Here are a series of pictures we’ve taken over the course of the summer that didn’t make it into other blog posts.

Magnus at the coast. He charmed all the lady-hikers in that hat.

Dana got me this stuffed sheep and Magnus and the sheep are now good friends. Magnus enjoys it when she sheep rams him in the head and “baaaaa”s.

He is getting better at standing, but usually need assistance. He needed help trying out riding mowers, too.

At Farmor’s house he likes looking at the red flowers. He has tried to eat them, but has been unsuccessful as of yet.

These are the yummy berries that come out of Farmor’s garden. We put the currents and the raspberries into a traditional Danish jelly dessert served with cream. Super-yummy!

 

Dad makes a good pillow.

 

Magnus received his first set of Duplo blocks and Dana showed him how to play with them.

 

We got together with my brother and sister which was great. We had fun times!

 

At St. Helen’s we all enjoyed the pretty views.

Magnus really loves bath time, more so when Dana is there. He gets his own washcloth to eat in the bath and has a grand ol’ time.

 

Magnus likes eating other things too. Like my face… and the arm of the chair… or other people’s arms… it’s all very slimy.

So those are the good times we’ve been having lately. Stay tuned for further adventures.

Our Trip to the Fair

As mentioned previously, we had the chance to go to the Clark County Fair with Ivan and Terry.

We started with a stop at the beekeeping demonstration. I was very impressed with the beekeeper’s composure. I guess you have to be very calm to work with bees.

We made sure to visit the animals, including the chickens and rabbits. I love to see the rabbits.  The baby chicks are pretty nice too. We wanted to show Magnus what the chick on his chair is based on.

This rabbit was out for people to pet. He was the best behaved rabbit I’ve ever seen. He did not even seem nervous to be among the hustle and bustle.

With some cows

Dana likes to visit the piglets at the fair. I have much more sympathy for that momma pig than I ever have before.

We also caught the hypnotist show, which was OK. Not super-funny. We ate kettle corn (super-yummy!) and Dana and I had a deep-fried Snickers Bar. It was also only OK.

Before we left we went through to see the competition pieces. Dana and Ivan loved looking at the photos and finding familiar locations (both local and abroad) among the winners. I liked seeing all the entries and thinking of all those creative people that live close by. It made me want to be more crafty and attentive to detail in my work.

Thanks for the fun trip to the fair, Ivan and Terry!

God of Thunder Meets Place of Fire

We went to Mt. St. Helens with Elina last week. This time we went up to Johnston Ridge. It was a very nice day and we had a lot of fun.

In the visitor center there, they have a seismograph that can read you walking or jumping on it. We tried it with Magnus, but he only made very tiny blips on the graph.

Because Spring was long and Summer is having a slow start, there was still a fair amount of snow on the mountain for August. Also, that was the most flowers I have seen there. It was very beautiful.

Here is the four of us in a group shot (I seem to be the only one looking at the camera):

Pretty flowers:

Magnus poses nicely for his solo shot (it was hard to only pick one):

We made a stop at Coldwater Lake on the way back. The water is very clear and we saw lots of fish. And Elina spotted a newt.

Another view of the mountain