A Working Vacation (kinda)

Little J and I got back from a week long trip to Oregon last week that was all kinds of fun! We stayed with my parents and had the best time ever. We had to get out of Phoenix for a while as the temperatures in the afternoon were reaching 112 (!!) and we just couldn't handle it any more. I'm hoping this cool weather trip will last us the rest of the summer here in the Valley of the Sun.

Little J did AMAZING on the plane on the way there. It was like he was an entirely different kid for the whole day. He slept half the way from Phoenix to San Francisco and we spent the other half reading books. He didn't even wiggle that much! With my fast-disappearing lap, I was worried how he would do surrounded by strangers in a metal tube in the sky, but he loved it. He did great in the airport and totally dug checking out all the planes on the tarmac. Then he slept all the way from San Francisco  to Redmond. Miraculous. I even had people come up to me and tell me that he was the best behaved toddler they had ever seen on a plane. WHAT? I'm usually chasing him around because he's pretty uh, spirited most of the time and has no separation anxiety. None of that this time. I will be forever grateful.

Ok, here come a BOATLOAD of pictures, so settle in for a nice little cruise through the Oregon High Desert, complete with baby birds of prey, cute kids, and some nice cow patties.

Nana treated us to a tasty smoothie, which Little J
promptly smeared all over his face.

My brother and his three sons arrived the following day after we did, and Little J LOVED meeting his cousins, especially Joseph, whom he immediately adored. I'm pretty sure he would have rather gone home with him instead of me.

Our first day in the desert was spent looking for Ferruginous Hawk nests. We didn't find any active ones, but we did find a box of kestrels to band.

Poor guys. Juniper trees are pretty killer on your body,
and they were stuffed in that tree like sardines. Arboreal sardines.

Just look at that fierce little kestrel face!

Boppa putting a tiny band on its leg. It doesn't hurt the bird. And if the adult bird
is found later, the band can be mailed into the banding lab and supply information
about migration and habitation patterns. Cool, eh?

While we were banding kestrels, Little J occupied himself
with pulling moss off rocks. Yes, I'm aware that's a cow patty.
No, I wasn't worried about it. It's the desert, and that thing
had all the germs baked out of it ages ago.

Our next day was spent out in the Fort Rock Valley banding Ferruginous Hawk babies. We looked at other nests, but none of them were active. Lots of nests, very little activity, which is disconcerting.

This is a Ferruginous Hawk adult. It was hanging around and swooping
down on Tom and Sam while they were extricating the babies from the nest.
What a good parent.

Our friend Carol is on the right. She manages raptor welfare at the Portland
Airport, which is the coolest job ever. Little J also fell in love with her, and
fed her cookie crumbs all the way home from the desert one day. Poor woman.

Little J was really interested in the hawk babies!

We took a break from driving around in the hot dusty desert all day and headed up to Prairie Farm near Green Ridge. It was nice to be up in the mountains, and we had the perfect day up there. 

Little J and Big Old J. I will never tire of taking
pictures of these two together.

The pond is ephemeral, meaning it only exists for a few months a year. We
visited at a great time when it was full of garter snakes, tadpoles, and axolotls.
It was also swarming with butterflies, dragonflies, and damselflies.

Nana Sue doing what she does best. Note the carpet of
blue butterflies on the mud.

We went swimming in the pond, and we didn't have
a swim diaper with us. So, Little J's diaper was SOAKED
and GIANT and this is him just noticing it.

A gorgeous Lorquin's Admiral.

It was so focused on sucking nutrients out of the mud,
it didn't notice Nana Sue sneaking up on it.

BAM! Captured so we could take a closer look at it.

Another day, another batch of baby Ferruginous hawks banded. This nest was pretty precarious to get into, but Sam and Tom, both old hats at it by now, were not daunted by the task.

Giddy-up lava rock!

Our next adventure was to Fort Rock to meet up with some school kids on a field trip. We walked around Fort Rock, chased lizards, and had a fantastic time.

Little J discovered he could play in the water fountain,
and he (and apparently me as well) was thrilled.

This is my favorite location on Earth.

Just look at that happy face!

That night, we met up with a photographer who does nighttime wildlife photography. He set up his equipment and we could see the bats coming in to scoop water out of a puddle. He got some amazing shots, like this:

We had a great time out playing in the desert and mountains with my parents, but we were missing Daddy, and were excited to go home. Little J was the typical toddler on the way home, and he did just fine. The flight from Portland to Phoenix wasn't full, so Little J and I got an entire row to ourselves! Wahoo! Everywhere we went, people were incredibly nice to us and went out of their way to make sure we were happy. Something about a pregnant lady travelling with an excitable toddler made people feel sorry for us, I guess.

Little J still asks for Nana, Boppa, uncle Dean and Joseph on a daily basis, which is completely adorable.

Are you down with the sickness?

I just Googled that song, since I've heard it in so many pop culture references, and let's just say you should never, ever do that. The particular line in the title is all you need to know from that piece of music, trust me.

We have been sick. Sick, I tell you! But, we're all better now, and thankfully the sicknesses weren't serious enough to warrant any types of trips to the doctor's or hospital.

Each member of our family took turns being sick for about a month and a half before we pulled out of it. Luckily, Big J's body decided to become incompetent over the weekends, so he didn't have to miss work. What a considerate immune system he has.

Here's a picture that sums up how we all felt about the situation:

Ugh. Just, ugh.

I adore Little J's face in this picture. His furrowed brows,
his tongue out, trying to figure this whole phone
thing out.

The other weekend we found a tiny baby bird in the lawn (I know, it's Arizona, people shouldn't have lawns here, but they do) in our apartment complex. I watched it for about 10 minutes to see if there were any adults interested in it (partially to see if it needed assistance and partially to see what kind of avian it was) but no one came around. Picking up a baby bird is usually not a good idea, but I'm a bleeding heart, and it was peeping, and the next thing I knew I was at Petco buying some mealworms. The bird was probably hatched that day and still had a transparent abdomen. I could still see remnants of the egg yolk in it before it used that all up. When it swallowed, I could see the food move down the esophagus, and into the stomach. I could also see previous meals moving through the intestines. SO. COOL!

We kept it alive with mealworm slurry until the following Monday when we dropped it off at a wildlife rescue in Scottsdale. The rescue is called Liberty Wildlife, and they do some great work there. They had two women out feeding a Golden Eagle and a Peregrine Falcon when we dropped Little Ugly off, and they were magnificent. The eagle had been rescued from captivity and they were treating it for a calcium deficiency that had caused her to have bowed legs. Luckily, she's still a young bird and they caught it in enough time to prevent a total lack of leg mobility. She's going to be an educational bird, and boy is she gorgeous. The peregrine suffered a wing amputation at the elbow by flying into some kind of turbine, and he's also an educational bird. They do school programs and tours with the birds, and rescue quite a few wild animals in the valley. If you have an extra $10 burning a hole in your pocket, why not donate it to them? They could sure use it. Here's the website: http://www.libertywildlife.org/

They also had a huge property and had Harris' hawks nesting in the cottonwood trees next to the center. There was also a flock of peach faced lovebirds making nests in the Saguaros near the entrance. Such a great place for birdwatching.

A face (and body) only a mother could love.

My dad thinks it might be a corvid (raven-ish), and I'm thinking it's a grackle. Any thoughts?

My friend Whitney and I carefully stuffing mealworms into the bird.

My child is no longer a baby. He's a kid. WHEN ON EARTH DID
THAT HAPPEN??

Goober #1

Little J's level of silliness has been increasing exponentially lately. His new favorite thing is hiding around the house and trying to scare us (he's only succeeded once). The giggling usually gives him away. He also likes to put everything on his head and call it a hat, including shoes, newspapers, bowls, books, buckets etc.

He's also recently started making "yummy" noises when he eats. If he's eating something he thinks is especially delicious (like chicken) he'll take a bite and then go "MMMM!! MNOMNOMNOM!" Case and point:

He was also getting a kick out of drinking water out of the cap of an old chapstick. I don't know what it is about kids and tiny things, but he sure thought it was hilarious.

A Grand Adventure

These past few days have been wonderful. Epic, even. Big J's sister and her husband flew into town and we all went up to the Grand Canyon together. None of us had been.

I was pretty excited. Excited is putting it mildly, actually. After studying geology in university, and never having been to the Grand Canyon, this was like a pilgrimage for me. And while I didn't bring any rock hammers or hydrochloric acid to leave on a stone alter, I did feel extremely humbled after seeing it.

But first, let's start with some of Little J's shenanigans.

Yes, one of the shoes is on backwards. He's a goober, ok?

And NOW we're on to the Grand Canyon. We drove up to Flagstaff Friday afternoon and had dinner at a fantastic delicious mouth-watering gastronomically astonishing Thai restaurant called Pato. We then made the quick drive up to the Grand Canyon village and checked in at our hotel.

Mather Point. Our first interaction with the Canyon.

To say that the Canyon is beautiful is an understatement. In fact, I don't think there are adequate words to describe its majesty. I found myself a bit misty-eyed looking at its vastness, and trying to comprehend the age and scope of it. I know, I know, I'm waxing a bit poetic, but seriously, it's awe-inspiring.

See? Proof that we were there! Also,  I'm pregnant, if you can't tell. Shhhh!
Don't go getting all excited yet! We're finding out the gender in 9 days, and
THEN you can get excited.

We decided to hike down into the Canyon on the Kaibab trail, and I'm so glad we did. Even just going down a 1000 feet into it helps you understand its scale better. Plus, so many people go to the Grand Canyon and don't ever go into it. It was almost a relief to hike into it, because from the rim, it doesn't look real. Well, it is definitely very real, and very steep. I had Little J on my back on the way down, which was fine, but thankfully, our brother-in-law carried him the way back up, because, as you can see, it was a bit of a grind.

Hiking down just 1,120 feet into the Canyon, we spanned ~5
million years. WHOA!

Apparently Little J didn't find it that fascinating and instead took a nap.

We went back up to the rim and walked a bit along it until we found a bus back to the visitor's center. It was a bit breezy, and Little J was acting like a sloth baby the whole walk, which was fine by me. He was cold and needed mama-snuggles, and I happily obliged.

I swear there's a toddler in there somewhere.

We had some lunch and the kid had a blast playing with a granite cougar. I think he rubbed off several millimeters from the ears he was petting them so much.

He wishes he had one at home.

After lunch we headed out to the Tusayan Ruins to check them out. They were indeed amazing. We also went out there to see a friend of mine, Maci who works as a ranger in the park. Getting to catch up with her was wonderful, and she even let me wear her ranger hat. I can't tell you how much I want one of those. 

She told us that the tribes in the area consider the Canyon sacred (obviously) and that the ruins were from people who came to visit the Canyon, and not make a living there. Farming is near impossible with the tough climate and lack of soil, so they must have come to be close to the Canyon. I can totally see why they wanted to do that. It's an incredibly spiritual place to this day, and I can't imagine how it must have been before all the cars and busses sidewalks and tourists.

Our last long look at the Canyon was at a viewpoint not far from the ruins.
From every angle it looks so different and with the clouds and sunshine
rolling across it, it almost changes by the minute.

After saying goodbye to Maci we headed back to Flagstaff, enjoyed another delicious dinner and checked into another hotel.

All the wildflowers along I-17 are blooming, and it was GORGEOUS! Yellows,
reds, oranges, blues! It was like driving through a paint aisle at a craft store.

We took the scenic route home and drove through Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona and it was the best choice I've made, probably ever. I don't have any pictures of the drive because I was too busy rubber-necking the entire time.

Only serious literature for this kid.

Little J did great the entire time. Despite not taking any serious naps, he was cheerful and energetic, and was great at entertaining himself in the car, as you can see. I think he was just happy to be outside for an ENTIRE day.

I need to go back again. Just spending a day there is not nearly enough. The Louvre has nothing on this place. I would love to go down to the bottom and look up. The draw is almost magnetic, and maybe in the next couple years, we'll have a chance to really plumb the depths of this magnificent place.

Quoth the toddler, "Wa wa!"

Guess what! Little J talks now! Well, he makes noises that remotely sound like words in the English language, but I'm totally counting that as talking. Here's a list of words with the accompanying noises he makes in parentheses:
Waffle (wa wa)
Truck (bruck)
Car (ga ga)
Ball (ball) Boo ya!
Teeth (eeth)
Shoes (ssszzz)
Banana (nana)
More (mo) And he still signs it.
Hi (ha)
Bye (ba)
Mater (from the movie Cars) (mama) I'm not sure how I feel about this.
Grandpa (boppa)
Amen (ah ma) He also says it repeatedly throughout the prayer.
Hot (Hoh)
Hat (Hah)
Tractor (Tra ta)
Cactus (tac tac)
Doc (also from the movie Cars) (da)
Door (doh)
Keys (jeesh)
Bowl (boh)

Only 4979 more words until he's considered fluent in English!

Also, we've been having more adventures in the desert, and with some friends at the zoo. Here's proof:

This winter was exceptionally wet, so the wildflowers at
our local desert hangout spot are looking really beautiful!

Just look at how green(ish) that is!

A lovely little lupine.

Although he doesn't look enthused here, Little J actually had a great time
looking at the lions. He even made lion noises at them. Hopefully he didn't
say anything rude.

There's something super adorable about a kid drinking
out of a water bottle that's the same size as his torso.

Check out that Galapagos Tortoise!

Apparently this is comfortable.

Checking out some cool poop.

There was a goat petting zoo area, but I think Little J thought it was a
playground. He ignored the goats and climbed all over the stumps
and all over the goat toys.

Driving a giant tra ta.