death valley

During spring break, we took a road trip down to Death Valley, the hottest and lowest place in the Western hemisphere. Luckily, it's still spring, so the temperature only reached 95 degrees while we were there. We had a great time, and saw all sorts of amazing geological features, including

Artist's Palette, though the pictures don't do justice to the beauty of the colors




The Devil's Golf Course, full of strange, rough salt deposits



Mesquite Sand Dunes, where the dunes are high and the sunset gorgeous






Zabriskie Point, where borax was once mined




Manly Beacon, named after a man named Manly who didn't get lost because of the beacon




Salt Creek, salty, hot home to a species of pup fish




and Badwater, the lowest point in the hemisphere (282 feet below sea level!)



Who knew there was so much to see in Death Valley?

easter morning

arrived home at 5am

Have you ever traveled for 29 hours so you could work (read: bang your head against the wall trying to get a statistics program to do something it doesn't want to do) for 17 hours?

I do not recommend it.


But at least I got to see a few old friends, which did make the trip worth it.

out of town

I (Sarah) am heading out of town for a few days. My old work asked me to fly in so we could work on a paper we want to publish. I'm very excited to be back "home" for a few days and to see a few friends.

Justin and Juma are staying behind; I'm sure they'll have some quality father-son bonding time. You know, baseball, rock climb, watch NCAA games, burp, all that good stuff.

volcano

One of Juma's science books instructed us how to build a vinegar and baking soda volcano. We poured into a soda bottle some apple cider vinegar, food coloring and dish soap to make it more impressive. Then we built up newspaper and tin foil to make it look like a volcano. Finally, we took it outside and plopped some baking soda into it.





And waited.

And waited.

Huh?

I poured in some more vinegar and baking soda to boost the explosion.

And we waited.

What the?

I picked up the vinegar bottle again to pour some more in, looking at the label as I did so.

Oops--it was not apple cider vinegar like I thought. It was just apple cider.

We went back inside to find something acidic to replace the vinegar. There was some lime juice, so Juma poured that in, and I added more baking soda again.




Finally, the bubbles formed enough to come out the top of the soda bottle.





Juma then enjoyed spreading the "lava" all around the dirt and rocks, pretending to destroy buildings. Little boys and lava, I tell ya.

repotting mandrakes

In February, it was warm enough to plant some spring flowers in the yard. Justin's mom asked Juma to help her with the planting, thinking she could have some nice grandma-grandson bonding time. Juma, however, was reluctant to do anything that looked like work (hey, he is five), so I tried to get him excited.

Juma had recently read and watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, so I suggested he pretend like the flowers are mandrakes, from the Harry Potter world.





He immediately jumped up, excited, and grabbed a couple winter caps to cover his and Grandma's ears--to protect them from the mandrake's fatal cries. (There weren't any ear muffs.) They planted several flowers in the front yard, always wearing their caps.





Juma even provided the sound effects, screaming shrilling when each plant was out of the flower pot until it was firmly planted in the ground and covered with dirt.

haircut time

Once the weather starts getting warmer, we convince Juma it's time to cut off his long, Luke Skywalker locks of hair. He prefers it long and shaggy ever since the first winter we let him keep it long, when he was three. The 70's shag is in style anyway, right?





Juma had set the date for his haircut as March 21, the first day of spring. But since he has been constantly brushing hair out of his eyes, we convinced him to cut it yesterday. (I admit: it took a little bribe to let Justin cut it. We let him watch Star Wars: The Phantom Menace on a mini-DVD player in the bathroom while Justin cut.)





Juma said of the new cut, "I don't like it. It makes my head look skinny."

almond blossoms

The Central Valley's various orchards are coming into full bloom. Today, we visited an almond orchard, and walked among the trees while listening to bees hum around us.

Juma took some pictures with his camera:

And I took some with mine:

light saber collection

Juma wants to show off his light saber (and rebel blaster) collection.


Darth Maul (after the light saber was cut in half by Obiwan)




Darth Vader




any random Jedi




Mace Windu




Obiwan Kenobi




any random Sith




Rebel blaster

trip

On Saturday night, we got back from two weeks in Utah. The plan had been to stay for only one week, but weather, illness, and family-begging-us-to-stay urged us to stay longer. Unfortunately, I spent half of the extra week curled up in a blanket, alternatively shivering and burning up.

On Tuesday, though, my mom thought up the idea to have a Harry Potter party for the kids (Juma and his Wilson cousins), so she and I spent all of Thursday cooking and preparing while the kids played. We made chocolate frogs, acid pops (dum-dums dipped in honey then rolled in Pop Rocks), cookie wands dipped in chocolate and sprinkles, pumpkin pasties, treacle tarts, creamy onion soup, pumpkin juice, and butter beer. The acid pops were a hit with the kids; we couldn't keep their hands off of them. Within minutes, they were jumping off the walls from the sugar high. (We saved the butter beer for the next day to keep the sugar from making anyone's head explode.) Mom and I were exhausted by the end of it (in fact, before the end of it), but the kids had a great time.

Justin went rock climbing and ice climbing (how could he not, with all those mountains!), and took Juma miniature golfing, to a movie, and to Jumping Jacks play place. Juma also got to hang out with his uncle Cameron and his XBox, as well as play endless hours of Star Wars with his cousins. Juma's collection of light sabers increased to five while we were in Utah; now he has the light sabers of Obi-wan Kenobi, Darth Vader, Mace Windu, Darth Maul, and one that color-changes from a Sith blade (red) to a Jedi blade (green). Now just about every cousin who is old enough to lift up the saber can play Jedi-versus-Siths to their hearts' content. Or, until the moms decide things are getting too crazy and put the light sabers away for a while.

(On Friday, Kelly and I decided to put the sabers away after one too many finger-smashings, and I moved the whole lot of them to the car so as to not tempt anyone. Then I promptly forgot I had put them there, and had the whole household turning the house upside down looking for Juma's light sabers. Just as Juma was about to cry with worry for his poor lost toys, I remembered where they were and had to embarrassedly tell everyone I was the one whole misplaced them. Talk about a senior moment. And I'm not even thirty.)