Looking for Lizards Again

We keep seeing horned lizard scat ALL OVER in fields and empty lots around our house. One morning we ventured out again to try to find some actual lizards.

Collectively we found 20+ scats and 0 lizards. 

How do those horned lizards hide so well???

 We saw pretty wildflowers and butterflies, however.

Ian's First Prom

About a month ago, Amanda (a young woman in our church branch) asked Ian out to the high school prom. He accepted, and last Saturday he went on his first date and attended his first prom.
 

 They took photos at Amanda's Grandmother's house.

 

They have a fun zipline for the grandchildren. 

Ian had to try it out!

Then they went to dinner at Chilis, then the dance. The end.

Mission Zone Conference Luncheon, Star Wars Style

A couple months ago I was asked to chair a luncheon for a missionary zone conference held at our church building today. The instructions were to plan a lunch for 25 people. Our committee of 3 were to prepare the food, serve, and clean up. Not too complicated, right? We decided to keep things simple and have sandwiches, chips, veggies, fruit, and dessert. 

Then I had an epiphany: Why not add a Star Wars theme to it? 

There are numerous blog posts and articles about the spiritual and religious implications of the Star Wars movies, so I went with one of those. I debated about asking permission, but decided to just surprise everyone.

Here is our account, taken with our lame interim camera,

while we await replacing our broken one.

Overall Table Display:

complete with themed food labels and action figures!

Bread options: homemade wheat loaves, egg-bread rolls,
and store balloon bread 

Filling Options: Calrissian Chicken Salad,
Sliced Bantha Meat and Cheese,
or Jabba's PB and J

Fruit: Obi-Wan Kabob-i's

Vader Veggies and Droid Dip

(R2D2 accidentally got left at home, oops!)

Padawan Potato Chips

Dessert Options: Pretzel Light Sabers, Boba Fett Brownies,
and Wookiee Cookies

At each table, we included water, 

Jedi Juice (real lemonade made from Yuma-grown lemons), 

and reading materials relating missionaries to Jedis.

There was a slight pause when the missionaries first entered the room
as they were overwhelmed by the awesomeness of it all. They enjoyed the
food and the displays and some even asked if they could keep the printed memes.

And so far, I haven't been called into a disciplinary council for 

preaching Star Wars philosophies mingled with scripture.

Mother's Day 2016

I awakened in the morning to this delicious Texas sheet cake made by Ian!

 Since we live in Texas now, it was a fitting choice.

Kevin made a waffle breakfast with whipped cream and strawberries, but we don't have any photographic evidence of that treat. It was very tasty! At church the women received a Dove chocolate bar--better than flowers!

Later in the afternoon, Erin came running into the house yelling, "I saw a horned lizard!!!" She had finally found our first Texas Horned Lizard, and it was in OUR OWN BACKYARD feasting upon some harvester ants!!! We naturally all ran out to see it, but by that time it had darted through to the other side of the fence. We found it without too much difficulty and brought it back to our yard to admire it and take photos. Best Mother's Day find ever! 

(We found a Rubber Boa in 2006, and that was an awesome Mother's Day too).

Rio Grande Cooters Revisited

We returned to Devil's River with Dan and crew to assist with the Rio Grande Cooter study again. It took us a while to get everything in order, so we were a bit late leaving Friday afternoon. Additionally, on the drive out we got distracted with. . .

another Western Diamondback Rattlesnake,

a multi-colored burro

standing on the side of the road,

[When we stopped for a picture, we learned that this was a very friendly burro!]

2 Texas patchnose snakes (Salvadora grahamiae lineata),

and didn't arrive until late in the afternoon. The rest of the crew had already caught 40+ Cooters by that time and were tired out, so we helped get dinner ready prior to the processing and data collection. Dan showed us the MASSIVE Gopher Snake that he had found on his drive out! It was HUGE and strong!

Kevin and I stayed up past midnight helping them process all those Cooters!

This was the smallest and the cutest of them all and is actually a different species
(a type of Pseudemys, but not sure which).

Even though the children had gone to bed much earlier, they slept in later than us.

Imagine that!

After breakfast, Christine took Kevin, Ian, and Erin 

to release some of the Cooters and go swimming in the Devil's River.

Dallin opted to stay and play with his new friend, Forrest, 

the son of one of the researchers from University of Austin, so I stayed with them.

We saw a Ground Skink and some type of Whiptail (couldn't get a good look at it).

Then I was able to noose a male Canyon Lizard (Sceloporus merriami), and 

Dallin noosed a female. The male has the darker coloration on its belly.

It was exciting to find more new species of lizards!

We needed to get back for our Sunday commitments, so we left late afternoon.

On the drive out, Kevin stopped to photograph this old Scout Memorial.

And when we were back home unloading, 

the missionaries stopped by for a visit and asked to play with our critters. 

This is Elder Atagi holding Charcoal.

May the Fourth Be With You!

The force has been strong as we have prepared for our Star Wars party! We have had non-stop arts and crafts for school the past week, first making a BB-8 Bean Bag Toss Game:

a Death Star Pinata using this tutorial:

Pin the Blaster on Boba Fett

and a Storm Trooper Target Practice game:

Additionally, we made a new cosplay costume for Erin.

Doesn't she make a perfect little Rey?

(pardon the purple flip-flops--no wool boots were available in Del Rio)

Dallin wore one of Ian's old youngling costumes.

We joined our forces with the Young Men of the Del Rio 1st Branch and held the party at our church building. The evening started off with Ian giving a short presentation of "How Star Wars is Religious."

Then we all played the games, engaged in light saber battles, and ate treats.

And the treats! They were AWESOME!

(We spent most of the afternoon making ours--the light sabers, popcorn,

and BB-eats.)

We played a trivia game, Jeopardy-style with "Who Said This?" 

questions from all of the 7 Star Wars movies. 

Then we ended with the destruction of the Death Star.

Ian was the rebel who blasted it to pieces.

I can now empathize with Darth Vader, 

seeing countless hours of work destroyed with a single hit.