Bubble Gun Fun

Megan's Seminary teacher likes to give rewards to help motivate students. Every day that students are early to class, they get to put their name in a bag for a Friday prize drawing. So far, Megan has won 2 gift certificates to the movie theater, a gift card to Jack in the Box, various edible goodies, and today's prize: A BUBBLE GUN!!! Dallin took it over and thinks it belongs to him. Fortunately, Megan is a kind sister who can share well.

Cool Snake

A friend of ours who works at Yuma Proving Ground accidentally dug up this Shovel-nosed Snake and disturbed its hibernation. (We're not sure what he was doing exactly--his job is to make sure that bombs have detonated properly, or something like that.) Anyway, he brought it to us thinking it was a baby King Snake, but it was actually a large adult Shovel-nosed Snake. The coloration is different from the ones we usually see which have red-orange bands along with the black bands.

We ended up shipping it to Georgia Tech where we have other contacts who are studying locomotion patterns over sand. Erin and Ian were sad to see it go.

The Sonoran Desert in Winter

 Lizards are still hibernating, but vegetation has been growing as a result of several Fall rainstorms.

Primroses are in full bloom:

 Some type of desert sunflowers are also blooming:

Purple Sand Verbena (a small, ground flower) is also abundant.

Creosotes, Bur Sage, and Galleta Grasses are greening up.

Abundant vegetation means food for ants,

which equates to food for horned lizards.

2012 should be a good year for the desert critters.

MLK Holiday

*Editor's Note: This holiday marks one year from the time we moved to Yuma. 

We discovered that 4-H horse riding groups have a horse camp on Monday school holidays. Megan decided to attend the 6-hour camp. Other riders often bring extra horses, so Megan rode a mare named Foxy for the day.

 

The rest of the family joined her later in the afternoon 

and watched the group attempt to herd calves.

Since the rest of the family had spent most of the day at home cleaning and cooking, 

we were ready for a hike when Megan finished her camp. 

We chose to walk along a trail on the Colorado River.

This is the Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge,

constructed in 1915 and linking highways from the West and East Coasts.

Poor Megan was tired out, but was a good sport and hiked the trail with us.

We walked along a section that has undergone habitat restoration.

Dallin discovered he liked to sit on benches.

There are some trees here that do drop their leaves in the winter.

They don't turn pretty colors first, however.

Ian contemplating life at a lookout over the river

On the trail...

View looking back at the bridge

 

Reflections in the water

Beaver destruction

Cheesy, but cute, Dallin grin

Hairy Happenings

 When April gave the boys haircuts one Saturday afternoon, the girls decided to get chopped too. 

While Megan and April opted for just a short trim,

Erin decided she wanted shoulder-length hair.

So we measured out at least 10 inches for donating purposes and...

...Snip, snip!

Erin's braids ready to donate to Locks of Love

She was pretty excited about her new hair look!

 

One week later, Megan's friends from YW volunteered to come over 

and style her hair for a Stake Youth Dance.

 

Megan's New Look!

(after 40 minutes of curling and spraying)

Jessica, Megan, and Sarai

Megan REALLY didn't want to go to the dance, but she's currently fellowshipping another young woman, Melanie, who said she would only go if Megan went. Melanie didn't like it when Kevin tried to take a photo of them eating their dinner.

 Kevin didn't really want to go to the dance either, 

but he had to since he's in charge of the 14-year-old boys, 

3 of whom are pictured below.

 

January Update

Happy New Year! 

Yes, the Young Family is still alive and kicking in spite of our lack of blogging last year. We're taking the time to post about a few things we've done in the new year.

Mustache Fun 

Maybe it's due to the lack of snow during winter, but our children resorted to extreme weirdness in their choice of play. They were entertained goofing around with these mustaches for the whole morning. (Megan said: "It's Zach's fault--he kept bugging me about when I was going to open my mustache packet.")

Hibernating Horned Lizards

April had to disturb some of the hibernating lizards because they needed new radio transmitters. In the summer they dig about 20 cm deep to avoid the heat, but their winter burrows were only 6-9 cm below the surface, surprisingly shallow. It verified other accounts we've heard, and confirmed what the winter visitors know--the cold in Yuma is not "real" cold and the heat is unreal.

This is T7, who was a little trickier to find since his radio signal had already died. We had the general area marked with a pin flag, but couldn't pinpoint as closely without the signal so we ended up digging away more sand than usual.

This is T25, wondering what the bright light means.

We tried to keep the lizards cool in our home during the transmitter swap, but each of them did relocate to a new burrow after we released them.

Youth Scavenger Hunt Activity

Kevin and his Teacher's Quorum were in charge of planning the combined activity for January. They decided to do a photo scavenger hunt, which turned out to be a huge hit with the youth. His team came in 2nd place, and here are a sample of their photos:

Group Photo with the "I LOVE SUNGLASSES" Head

This car (and attached head) has been in Yuma since we started doing horned lizard work 15+ years ago. It's a great advertisement for the shop, and they decorated it with lights for the holidays. Megan has always found this head "disturbing." She said that seeing it up close was just as disturbing.

Group Photo Sitting in a Furniture Store

Photo of Someone Eating a Doughnut With No Hands

(easy since Kevin had 3 dozen in the back of the Suburban for the treat afterwards)

Group Photo of Holding to the Iron Rod

Group Photo of People Wandering in Mists of Darkness

 

Home Projects

Megan volunteered to make a pie one night, to which the rest of the family said, "Yay!!!" Here is her Dutch apple pie cooling a little while the family patiently waited, salivating.

 

Ian was excited to make this orange candle. It worked rather well and lasted through dinner time and beyond. We have been drinking freshly-squeezed orange juice regularly since citrus is currently in season, (and there are plans for a curbside lemonade stand in the near future).

Nature Watch 2012 Edition

This Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) has chosen to hang out in our back yard for several nights, much to Erin's excitement.We hear it hooting frequently, which means we must grab our handy-dandy spotlight and admire it. We also hope that it is feasting upon our numerous gophers so that we won't have to find ways to eliminate them ourselves when we plant our garden.