Critters

Comet, our 16-year-old cat, loves to nap in our school room next to the window. He has a bed in a box on top of some filing cabinets and curls up each day while the children are doing their studies.

Lucie continues to have the energy of a puppy even though she is going on 4 years old. She protects our yard from all the stray cats and her favorite pastime is to chase after tennis balls.

Everyone loves to watch the birds at the bird feeder. And we are still amazed at the new species we see here in Del Rio. This is a Northern Cardinal.

Here is a whiptail that was hanging out in our back yard the other day. I'm not sure if Kevin figured out which species it is.

And Ian found another new snake--a Texas Blind Snake that was crawling around by his bedroom door. It is super tiny! We released it back outside after taking photos.

Tunnel of Fudge Cake

Dallin gave me a cookbook for Christmas that he is very proud of. He chose it all by himself at our church's Primary activity last December in Yuma. We decided we should make one dessert a month from it. This month he chose a very rich, very elegant Tunnel of Fudge Cake. One serving has 570 calories! It is delicious and very gooey!

Easter in Del Rio

We put together a package to send to Megan in Provo, since this is her first Easter away from home and she wouldn't be participating in our annual scavenger hunt. Included were some homemade goodies and some chocolate, and then we got a bit carried away with a Star Wars theme...

...Because we discovered a variety of Star Wars Easter cards on the internet, such as these:

She got some Kylo Ren cotton swabs in a reusable tin:

A reusable bag:

A puzzle and a game:

Besides, May 4th is coming up soon and she needs to be prepared to host her own party.

On the Del Rio home front, we made and decorated Easter sugar cookies! It took nearly all day Saturday.

I made some special ones just for our family.

We shared the others with the missionaries and some other church friends.

Saturday afternoon the children went on their annual scavenger hunt. This year Kevin gave scriptural clues, so they had to expend a bit more effort to figure out the locations. Here they are searching by our fig tree. Funnily enough they ended up with a Kylo Ren puzzle and a Star Wars Top Trumps game too. Additionally, Dallin got BB-8 Bubbles!

Sunday, Kevin had a break from his usual church leadership meetings and got to spend more time at home with us. He made challah to go along with a baked ham and mashed potatoes! It was a delicious dinner. We only took pictures of the bread, however.

We were grateful to have some quality family time and reflect on the Resurrection of our Savior. 

We read through our Resurrection Eggs scripture activity later in the evening.

Spring Break Hike

Kevin had one week off for Spring Break. We did some really fun stuff like mow the lawn and trim bushes. Ian baked some artisan bread.

One day we did make an effort to go on a hike near Lake Amistad. First we went to the lake where it was pretty crowded with people. We happened to run into some friends from church and visited for a bit.

Taken while standing under the highway bridge;

what do you think of installing a zip line here?

This shows the railroad bridge and the highway bridge.

After trying to skip stones in the lake, we went for a short hike along a trail. We had to cross over the railroad tracks to access it.

Kevin got all artsy with taking photographs of plant life.

Some of these turned out great!

Dallin being his typical goofy self

In the distance is the dam that created Lake Amistad.

It is one of the border crossing areas into Mexico.

Dove Update

Under Erin's competent supervision and care, the dove is growing well. 

March Showers Bring March Flowers!?

Del Rio is in bloom! It last rained about 12 days ago, when it drizzled for 3 straight days. Purple seems to be a popular color among the local plants, many of which are lovely to look at but rather belligerent if you try to handle them. 

Artsy photo of some nasty thorns

Even more exciting than purple flowers--there was HORNED LIZARD SCAT! In an empty lot right near our house!! This was so exciting that April immediately called Kevin, forgetting that it was his early lecture day. Worried that something may be wrong at home, Kevin took the call in the middle of his lecture, after which he had to explain to his class that his wife just gets very excited when it comes to lizard scat. ;-)

Further exploration of the lot did not yield any horned lizard sightings, but we will return now that we know they are present!

Dallin's Texas Spiny Lizard

Dallin ran excitedly inside the house after he noosed his first lizard in Texas! He caught a Texas Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus olivaceus). There seems to be a decent population of them in our neighborhood, in spite of the many feral cats.

Don't worry--he's not dead! We just held him in the noose for a moment to show off his masculine colors. On the dorsal view (next photo) you can see the pineal ("third") eye on top of the head, as well as a nice rusty color on some of the scales. 

Erin's Dove Rehabilitation Project

The day we visited Sonora, Kevin found a baby bird on the road on his walk home. He looked around for the nest and scared a Cooper's Hawk who carried off the mother. So, he brought home the orphan. Erin got busy feeding it--after all, she successfully raised a mockingbird chick in Yuma that some friends found and gave us.

It eats a blended mush of birdseed several times a day, and it is growing fast! Dallin named it "Speckles" without consulting anyone, so Speckles it is. Kevin thinks it is a collared dove, but we will have to wait a few weeks before seeing if he is correct.

How we ended up at the Eaton Hill Nature Center in Sonora, TX

Ian's Scout Troop is earning the rock climbing merit badge this weekend. In order to participate, he must have a current tetanus shot--no exceptions!!! When we pulled out his records, we saw that his Tdap expired August 2015. Oops! So, off we went to the Department of Health Services to get a new one. Unlike the clinic in Logan, which used to be a walk-in, we learned that we needed to schedule an appointment here on Tuesdays or Thursdays. And they were booked until mid-April for immunizations. However, the nice lady informed us that the health department in Sonora, TX, is not a very busy clinic and would for sure have openings. We called there and made an appointment for Tuesday morning.

Sonora is 90 miles north of Del Rio. It is a small town of about 3,000 people. We found the health department with no trouble and got poked. Then we had another adventure planned to make the trip worth the effort.

And to think we could have seen it all here!

Alas, there was no parade on Mulberry Street, so we went to The Eaton Hill Nature Center. It is a quaint renovated home, donated by the Eaton family, that houses displays of rocks, animals, bird nests, butterflies, a dinosaur model, and even a mammoth tusk that was found at the local golf course in 1991! 

We met the new director, Mike Price (it was his 3rd day on the job) who is a fellow herpetologist. He is a native Texan whose specialty is venomous snakes. His personal library is available for visitors to browse, and the children spent a long time looking through books.

Numerous short trails wind around the center and the hillside. 

We walked one of the loops.

Native American Wickiup Replica

Erin grinding seed pods with a mano and metate

"Oh dear! Mom is making us write in our Nature Journals again!"

(what happens when we have impromptu field trips)

We learned a new shrub: Agarita.

It is very sharp, like most of the plants.

 This is the Texas State Flower: the Bluebonnet.

Moss on rocks

The lichens were amazing!

Tree Lizards (Urosaurus ornatus) were our only reptile sightings.

Apparently there are 2 other species of Sceloporus in the area.

More raccoon tracks! We have yet to see a live one.

Dallin watched tadpoles in Jimmy's Frog Pond (we assume Jimmy was a member of the Eaton family). Mike said that the tadpoles will grow into Rio Grande Leopard Frogs.

Thanks to the Internet, for helping us find this fun distraction. We want to take Dad with us next time we visit. It was still a bit cool for a lot of the lizards and snakes, so hopefully we will see more critters when it warms up more.