Common Mom

My 7 year old is really cracking himself up lately. For example, last night he finished reading to me around 8:30. I tell him I’m way tired - I mean I did just spend an hour herding cats at soccer practice (it was a blast . . . really . . . we had tons of fun!) - and that I’m heading to bed. He usually asks me to stay so he can read to me a little longer, but tonight he just said “OK - goodnight. Are you getting in bed RIGHT AWAY?” Um, Yes, I tell him.

So I walk in to my bedroom (hubby is gone flying this week, so it’s just me), get ready for bed, and pull back the covers to hop in. I SCREEEEEAAAAMMMMMM and almost jump backward out the window!!! While I’m regrouping, I hear my 7 year old in the hallway, laughing as hard as I’ve ever heard him laugh. The little turd had put a huge toy spider in my bed under the sheets!!!

Ha ha ha - very funny Jason! If I was willing to stay up with him while he has bad dreams for the next month, I’d get back at him. I’ll just have to find another way to even the score.

Let the games begin!

Well, it’s Thursday - which means soccer practice. My son will be joining his team, the Hurricanes this evening. Thank goodness they chose a good name!

I again will attempt to herd some cats

Wish me luck!

Wow! That’s the expression I have for what we got to see this past weekend. We took a tour of the canyon that contains the largest documented site of dinosaur tracks in North America. It was AMAZING! Not only did we get to see dinosaur tracks, which was totally way cool, we also got to see Indian Rock Art, an ooooooooold Catholic Church and cemetery, and one of the original ranches in the canyon, dating back to the early 1800s. The entire tour was 8 hours long - it was HOT in the canyon, but it was fun. We took an auto tour - meaning we drove our own vehicle and followed the forest service dude 10 miles out in to the middle of nowhere and down in to the canyon on the tiniest 2-track dirt and rock road. You can get there on foot, IF you want to hike 5.5 miles ONE WAY through cactus-filled desert-like prairie and down in to the canyon - there is no water and no shade anywhere to be seen - then you can hike back out because you’re not allowed to camp in the canyon since it’s prone to flash flooding, even during the droughts. So we chose the auto tour. I have quite a few photos of our day, but I’m going to concentrate on the dinosaur part in this post. Just FYI, taking photos of dinosaur tracks from the ground is a bit like taking photos of the Grand Canyon. It’s cool and all, but you had to be there to appreciate it.

Here’s Jason and Keira by the sign pointing the way to the dinosaur tracks.

The sign letting us know that we have indeed arrived.

A sign talking about some of the tracks we’ll see.

There was no doubt that you found the tracks! They were amazingly easy to see. It was REALLY cool! Here is one allosaur track.

So you can get an idea of the size, here is Keira with her hand in the track.

To get to the biggest set of tracks, we had to wade across the river. The clay getting to the river was very slick, and the river bottom itself was very slick with lots of deep holes. You had to walk very carefully and feel before you actually stepped, unless you wanted to take a bath. We had to carry the kids because the water was to their waste in some spots. Here’s Jason getting a free ride across the river.

After a picnic lunch on the other side of the river, we wandered around and explored the tracks. It’s truly amazing what you can see! The Brontosaur tracks are HUGE - almost look like elephant feet. It’s very easy to see exactly where they walked, and also that they walked side-by-side, suggesting a herd. It rained a couple days ago and the river got really high, so there was water and mud in the tracks. When I stepped in the tracks, the water was over my ankles - that’s a heavy footprint! This photo is of Jason standing at the end of a set of water-filled tracks.

I just can’t even explain how cool this was! The aerial photos that they showed us of the tracks were really neat. Of course all good things must come to an end. So we hopped back in to the Jeep and started the drive out of the canyon. This is what the Jeep said:

Did I mention that it was a bit toasty in the canyon? And that it’s totally worth it to do the auto tour rather than then 11 mile hike?

Do you know how difficult it is to get 8 girls to stand in 2 lines so they can pass a soccer ball to each other? I do. It’s much like herding cats; cats that like to pick dandelions out of the grass; cats that like to watch the boys play soccer because their coach has a whistle, and he USES it; cats that like to tell you they have a purple teddy bear at home; cats that like to explain how this one girl at the lunch table sneezed and snot came out her nose and she caught it with her hands and it stretched so far that . . .

Now, explain to them what a corner kick and goal kick are and tell them where the 4 positions are and they’ll remember. 15 minutes later, you say “goal kick red” and they all run to where they’re supposed to be, filling in the missing spots.

But ask them to stand in 2 lines . . . that’s crazy talk. I might as well have been speaking Klingon.