More March Mojave

I guess I just don't understand people who don't find beauty in the desert.

Desert Sky

Pretty, pretty desert.

Lizard

Here's a little lizard caught on the playground at school. It's been awhile since I've tried to catch one. Either they're getting faster or I'm getting slower...

I let both kids hold it before it "accidentally" got away. Oops!

Arizona Weekend

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Arizona... in the winter. Last weekend we traveled to Phoenix to help PJ celebrate his 31st birthday. We had a great time :) We plan on going back the end of February for the big Arizona Scottish Festival.

Not For The Squeamish!

We FINALLY acquired two tarantulas thanks to some very kind people out on the base who caught them in their garages. We hunted for SIX hours and didn't come across one, yet everyone we talked to during the hunt had seen one recently. This is their mating season and in some places they can be seen crossing the road in hoards. We couldn't seem to find one of those places. We'll keep them for a few days, then release them back into the desert. When we were kids we'd find them and let them crawl all over us. They're really quite docile. They are not, however, for the faint of heart. We named this one "Hairy Potter" ;)

Horned Toad Hunting

We headed out early Saturday morning to go hunting for horned lizards. We didn't find any this time (probably too dry) but we saw some other really cool stuff!

This sign told us that we should be looking for gold :)

And Eureka! We found some! If you look very closely you can see the yellow shine of the gold in the sand. We walked through many washes and found lots of little tiny pieces. You can click on the picture to enlarge it and they're much easier to see!

I just liked the look of this old gnarly tree.

And this crazy jigsaw rock puzzle...

And we finally headed to the National Park Headquarters so that Ian could at least see a fake horned toad. Now that he knows exactly what they look like he'll be on the lookout. We fortunately didn't find any scorpions or tarantulas either so I'm sure that we'll have another hunting expedition here sometime soon. Hopefully when it cools off!

10 Things I Forgot About The Desert

There are things that I TOTALLY forgot about when it comes to living in the desert...

1. You have to wait for your water to get cold out of the tap, it's already hot when you turn it on!

2. Sand gets into EVERYTHING, including places on your body you forgot existed

3. If you don't wear your sunglasses you will burn out your retinas because the sun just shines brighter here

4. Monsoon season with its wicked lightning and major flash flooding

5. How pretty a palm tree is against the bluest sky 

6. 112 degree days and 90 degree nights (It's a dry heat!)

7. If a road is closed you can just drive through the desert to get around it

8. Real hippies and "desert people"

9. Weird bugs and reptiles

10. The fact that no one is in any particular hurry to do much of anything

and number 11 just because...

11. The stars shine brighter here and you see more shooting stars than you do anywhere else (I counted about 6 just at the drive-in the other night)!