Lost with the Wolves

Have you ever wondered how a child perceives you?

Ceres and I were finishing up a project for school this morning. Basically, he had to choose an experience that has happened to him or may happen to him in the future and make a movie poster about it complete with synopsis and cast of characters. Ceres chose to make up a story about a trip to Alaska where he gets lost in the forest and has to fight to survive in wolf country. Part of his adventure involves a "mysterious old man" who may or may not be a friend to our young hero.

As we are putting the finishing touches on the poster, I notice Ceres has listed his cast of characters. Naturally, he has used names from real life (this is supposed to be his experience). He is the lost teenager, I am his mother, and Dave his father. And the mysterious old man?

Brett.

"Brett." I say. "As in your uncle, Brett?"
"Yep, that's the one." Ceres replies.

I burst out laughing. How Ceres came to that casting conclusion I'm not sure. And I didn't have time to ask because we were down to the wire - it was time to go. But I thought it was a pretty funny call and one that I'm sure Brett would get a kick out of.

So, Brett, how 'bout it? Are you up for a little acting gig? We already know you're an old man, but do you think you could channel your "mysterious" side?

Here it is, in writing.

P.S. I just noticed this. For all you El Charro fans: if you click on the poster picture you will notice under "Coming Soon" Ceres sneaked in a little joke. It says, "After Labor Day ? ? ?" Haha, funny kid.

Spring Waters

Sometime last week I was watching this video on youtube and thought I would try to post it to my blog. And while youtube said everything was fine and it would post, nothing happened. I figured there was some technicality I was missing and dismissed the attempt. Now, several days later, it shows up. Go figure.

Anyway, I love this pas de deux. And I've never seen any dancers perform it better than these two. Their energy and joy come right through the video. Their dancing is at the same time bold and technically precise. I never tire of watching it. Hope you enjoy it too.

Sockology

I'm knitting my first sock and I couldn't be more excited!





I'm taking a class over at the Fiber Factory. Lori is the instructor (I'll post a picture of her later) and already she has taught me some neat tricks. Like how to find the end of the yarn that resides inside the skein without pulling out all "the guts", as I like to call it. And how to work with 5 double-pointed needles without feeling or looking like Edward Scissorhands. And, I'm forming some Christmas gift ideas. Oops, I shouldn't have mentioned that.

My yarn is Cleckheaton Country in this gorgeous lavender color with brown specks.
The cuff.
Bitty can smell a photo op a mile away.

On Saturday, I'll learn how to do the heel turn. And wait until you see the color I chose for the heel. It's bold, but I'm loving it.

4th of July Camping

After our traditional breakfast with the family at Coco's on July 4th, we decided to head up to Sunset Crater with the Jacobses for the weekend. And for any of you who have been camping with us in the past few years, you will be shocked to know that we didn't take the trailer this time. I know! What's that thing called? A tent? Coooool! But seriously, we love tent camping (old habits die hard), it's just easier to bake cookies in an oven than over a fire. Heehee.

Anyway, being that it was a holiday weekend and everybody was dying to get out of the valley and up to cooler country, all the campsites at Sunset Crater were full. Thomas and Candace got up there before we did and after driving around a bit they finally asked the Camp Hosts at the Bonita Campground where they could find a place to camp. Uh, nowhere...was pretty much the reply. Then Thomas asked if we could camp on the Host's site for the night and they said, "Sure". Well that was easy. T and C were a little perplexed because the hosts had just turned some other people away. Guess they didn't ask nice.

The hosts had hummingbird feeders in the trees and many hummingbirds were flying around. In the brief moments that we were allowed a glimpse of them up close, we could see their brilliant colors of green and fuschia. Beautiful! I never realized, though, how noisy they are! They were communicating all the time. Talkative little buggers. Maybe they just weren't happy with us camping under their tree because I got "buzzed" a few times. Feisty littler buggers, too.

Just a few things of note:

*We were invading other creatures' territories too.









*That night, we went to the amphitheater at the campgrounds and learned a little bit about black bears. So here's a quiz. Which is the grizzly and which is the black bear?







(Now wait a minute! Before you get all smug, black bears aren't necessarily black. Some are even white. So, are you sure about your answer?)


*The next morning, we were instructed to move to an available campsite. So we literally picked up camp and moved.















*In honor of Independence Day, Thomas made sure he brought an American flag (and a Swiss flag) to adorn the campsite. Actually, I don't know why he brought the flags. Maybe for the photo ops?



















*In addition to Sunset Crater, we also explored Wupatki National Monument. You can see all the pictures here.

I know I am late in posting this, but I hope you all had a memorable 4th.