The Great Outdoors

So our walk was not quite so beautiful this past week. That's the bad part of living in a big city (Salt Lake, Utah)--inversion mucks everything up, and makes it harder to breathe. I think lugging my 2 year old around also helped with that.


Speaking of the toddler, she spent the entire time pointing at the playground barely visible at the end of houses, saying "play."
Highlight of our walk for the kids was the hill they found to slide down on, on their bottoms, into the gully. Where do these guys get all their energy? Once or twice for me and I was worn out!
Another great find was this dead tree. They spent a lot of time climbing in and out of it.
I think these dead woolly mulleins are beautiful! I love how the stand straight up all over the place. It will be fun to see them growing up new in the spring.

Deer tracks are everywhere--even our backyard, which proves what the neighbors have been saying--anything planted will end up food for the wild life.

I thought it was fun to find this tree that is smaller than the toddler.

The kids were excited to find more moss growing on boulders, and made sure I took a picture of it. We may go back and do those challenges so they learn more about it.

And, of course, we ended up our hike at the playground, the toddler's long lost friend. She threw a tantrum all the way home when it was time to leave. She just might stay at home next time.

We're on a Rabbit Hunt!

Outdoor Hour Challenge #44: Mammals: Rabbits & Hares

We have had some beautiful days in the great outdoors on the hunt for rabbit tracks. We have one find that is perhaps, maybe, rabbit tracks, but other that that we just enjoyed being outside. As a side note, I have occasionally seen a rabbit in our neighborhood, but he's black and always in this one yard so I suspect he's a pet on the loose. I just need to get to know these neighbors, whoever they may be, and we can go visit. Enjoy the pictures!!

Beautiful!! (I know I say it every time,

and I'm going to keep on saying it!)

The possible rabbit tracks

We saw a bird of prey, hawk or falcon,

we couldn't get close enough to decide which,

and then we found this big nest. Beautiful view!!

Making our own tracks on the way home.

School in the New Year

This year we are going to be participating in some new activities. You may have noticed some new things on my sidebar. We are doing an Artist Study, currently of Jackson Pollock. We will have a new painting each month and spend a little time discussing biographical information, but the main goal is for the kids to be able to recognize the artist's work, which is why each painting will be featured for a two week period. We have always been doing poetry, but I've decided to include it on the blog. The kids spend the week writing the poem in their english journals, and then draw a picture to go with them when they are done. At the end of each week I'll post their illustrations.

We are also going to participate in some weekly activities hosted by other blogs. We are doing Sketch Tuesday from Harmony Art Mom-- basically a drawing assignment that I wasn't sure how my kids would react to, but they loved the first one so we will continue.

We will also be doing Winter Wednesdays and Outdoor Hour Challange from Handbook of Nature Study. Any encouragement to spend time in the great outdoors is welcome to us all.

I'm toying with the idea of doing the A B See Photo Meme/Foto Fridays, but haven't decided for sure yet. This is a year long photo assignment of finding pictures for each letter of the alphabet and posting them on Fridays. Wait--yes I have, I've decided, I'm doing it, and I've told you all so now I have to.