First Fifth Grade Field Trip

You can never get enough of Timp Cave! School has been in just one week and already a field trip! I had the opportunity to visit Timpanogos Cave National Monument one last time this year with Hannah & the 5th grade. We had a great time, as usual. Those kids are funny. I wish I could explain it better...but I can't. They are just funny! They are at this "I'm pretty smart" stage, but they know they don't know it all yet. And because of that, most all of them can talk a lot about everything, but they are still so willing to listen to what you (or each other) have to say or teach them. It's pretty fun to just listen to them interact with each other. They were pretty well-behaved too! I was impressed at how well they get along with each other too, close friends or not. Hannah even made a new friend. And not a lot of complaining on the way up. And I have to say, every time I go through the caves, I learn something different! I love it! Like I said, you can never get enough of the caves!

After, we walked down the canyon a bit to "Swinging Bridge" picnic area for lunch. While we waited for the bus, one of Hannah's friends, AB, pointed out something on a tree. As we got closer, we thought it had flown away. See if you can see it? Very cool!

The Twins, Hannah, & her new friend

Ms. Washburn & her class if front of a fault line. They were very cute when I took this picture. We took one with Ms. Washburns' camera and they smiled. When I pulled out my camera, they asked, "Can we do silly faces?" ABSOLUTELY!

Inside the "Big Room". LOL. I have forgotten AGAIN what the name of this room is inside Middle Cave. If someone remembers, please comment!

The Heart, of course.

At "Swinging Bridge"-They were "racing" leaves and things down the river!

Here is the cool little "thing" we found...can you see it?

I looked it up when we got home. It is called a Question Mark Butterfly. And it does a very good job of camouflaging itself. It gets it's name because of the little white mark on it's wing. It is supposed to look like a question mark, but I am having a hard time seeing it...maybe a sickle. But that doesn't sound as nice.

Here it is a little farther back & with it wings opened. This is what AB saw first.

We ALL thought this was cool.

Hannah & her friends. (Maybe I will write a book & call it that.)

Alex, the BUTTERFLY!

Someone has been delinquent on keeping current on her blog...I would like to say that this will never happen again, but...

Anyway, Alex really did hatch and really did fly away. Hannah was at Brad's and I was going to be at work all day, so Alex got to come with me. If nothing else, it added a little bit of spice to an of spice to an otherwise slow Saturday.

This is what she looks like just before hatching out.

This is what she looks like just after hatching out...her wings are all wrinkly...she hangs like this for several hours while she pumps blood through her wings until they are nice and big and flat. If a butterfly falls and isn't able to get their wings flat, they will die. We did have a little scare, but we hung her back up and she was fine. Phew!

Almost ready...

Matt, my intern, was pretty fascinated by the whole thing.

This is a good picture to tell the sex...on her back two hind wings, she would have to little black dots (scent glands) if she were a he.

She kept wanting to climb...

and she did!

Here she is...ready to fly away. It was a beautiful day to be a butterfly!

Alex, the Chrysalis, Update

So I am such a lazy blogger lately...I will try and do better. Here is the update of "Alex" He/She successfully made it to the chrysalis stage. We are now just patiently waiting for the Birthday! Here are the final few stages...

3 weeks old...

J stage...3 days shy of 4 weeks...

The wonder!

I wish my pictures were better. The chrysalis is beautiful. It has these little gold buttons across the top...Where do they come from?!

Lucky Update...

Hannah came home from her dad's to practice piano for a little bit yesterday. When she was there, I asked her to check on the caterpillars. She called me at work to inform me all was well. WEEEELLLL...when I got home from work (around 10:00pm), Lucky was gone. Now remember, Lucky was the one we found in the wild...he/she was already pretty big. I should have known that he/she was going to wander off. They do that when they are ready make their chrysalis...they are searching for a place to "hang" from. Kind of my own fault. I should have been more prepared. Anyway, after a bit of mild freaking out, I called Hannah & Brad. Of course, they came to help me look for Lucky. (Brad didn't see what the big deal was, but Hannah did. "Dad, just get in the car!"-Thanks Brad!) Hannah is sooo good with these critters. She has a 6th sense-caterpillar/egg sense. Anyway, she hadn't been home for more than 30 seconds, "Here he is." The little critter had crawled off his milkweed, down off the table, and back up under a chair. I woke up a few times last night to check on him...anyway, good news. He is in his "J". He started to hang about 6:30pm. So we will have a chrysalis tomorrow morning...about 12-15 hours or so. This "J" time is the most fragile for them. Once they are in a chrysalis, they are much easier. And just for the record, they are a little to handle when they are this big, but we still don't like to. We did just because he was going to be safer...otherwise, he would have become a kitty toy!

Alex Update...

2 weeks old...I don't think he will make it til next Wednesday. I will take more pictures over the weekend. He has grown so much in 24 hours! By the way, the warmer the environment, the quicker the process. Our place stays quite a bit cooler, so we can make it about 3 weeks before a seeing a chrysalis. Some make it only 2.

Funny Day...Funny Daughter

Monday we didn't have a whole lot on the schedule...which was nice for us. We usually do cookie orders, but didn't have any this week. Anyway, she wanted to play with Jessica's daughter, Elisabeth. She called, and then walked to meet her. When they came in the house, I hear, "Oh my gosh!" I was little worried. I called to her, "What happened?" As I came in the room, she is holding a package in her hand. Apparently we have the coolest neighbors! Actually I already knew this. Curry Jones (the phone call makes sense now!), who has been pretty faithful at ordering cookies from Hannah, had ordered Hannah her own business cards! (We have a testimonial from Curry on her flyers) She and Elisabeth thought they were soooo cool! Hannah's Kitchen, Offering homemade Oreos and Snickerdoodles-Family Night Treats without the mess! Thanks Curry & Melissa! She really thinks she is awesome. Pretty cute surprise! Cookies are on us next time!

A little later Mom called and wanted us to go look for caterpillar eggs with her. Hannah is a pro. We headed down to a horse pasture that we know of. (We have permission, of course.) Usually there isn't any horses in it. But, Monday, there was. This is the funny part...Mom is really, really afraid of horses. (Maybe this isn't funny.) Anyway, Hannah isn't. In fact, just the opposite. When we get inside the pasture, of course, Hannah starts calling to the horses. But she kept following Mom around. I don't think she realized how worried Mom gets around horses. After a few minutes of dodging them, Mom finally says, "Hannah, call them AWAY from me." All's well that ends well. Mom wasn't eaten, and Hannah got her horse fix for the week. Mom did say later, "Good thing you came, Hannah...I was about to start freaking out!" Lol.

Our mission for eggs wasn't very successful, but we did find a caterpillar...a pretty big caterpillar. He has these funny looking red spots on his back...we don't know if they are bee stings or what. At any rate, we named him "Lucky"...lucky he made it!

The capper of the day was Hannah's Invention. While she and Beth were playing, they made this "invention". I guess the two of them have been having the same problem...writing in their journals every day. Isn't it great that they have been trying to stay current?! Hannah actually has 2...I gotta hand it to her. It's hard for me to stay current with 1. Anyway, they came up with this contraption to help them remember. Thanks for being an example to us! And nice goin' on the "invention" (Look for the reminder...)

"Alex", The Ever-Changing, Ever-Munching Monarch

Here is the update...hopefully you get an idea of how fast they grow and how much they eat...Alex at 4 days old...

Alex at 1 week old...Still soooo cool!

Monarch Butterfly Update!

So, after a little worry...our egg, Alex, hatched today! Yeah! I always have a little anxiety wondering if they will hatch or not...and you know what...they almost always do. I guess I should stop worrying. And today is significant for us...well...my sister! Happy Birthday, Jess! We sure do love you! (One of these days I will post Hannah's Person of the Year assignment from school. It is sooo cute. She chose Jessica! In fact, if I had been more on the ball, today would have been very appropriate. Oh, well! I won't give it all away now, though.) Anyway, Happy Birthday, Alex! Here are a few pictures! Oh, another caterpillar side note-Hannah called me at work yesterday to inform me that she, and the cute gal that "watches" her on Tuesdays, found 6 caterpillars! Oh my! I love them, and we don't want them to die, but WOW! I was a little concerned about keeping these little creatures alive and happy for the next few weeks. But, she was so proud of herself! (As amazing and fun as this process is, it can get a little nerve racking...anyone who has done this knows! Fortunately, we found the last one a home tonight!) Without further adieu...

This shows the eggs just about 12 hours or so before hatching...it turns dark...I took this picture last night.

If you look close, you can see Alex...right next to the hatched egg. I took this at 9:30 this morning...This is a big as I can get the picture on my blog, but if you can open it up larger, it is a pretty good picture of him/her! This is one of the caterpillars that we adopted out (I think yours, Bethany)...I don't like to handle them when they are this little(in fact, you shouldn't), but since I had to take it off the milkweed to put it on another to be adopted out, I took this...This little one is about 3 or 4 days old...they grow sooo fast...really! You wouldn't believe it!

The First Monarch Eggs

Monarch Butterfly season is upon us...here are the first pictures of the egg. Hopefully you can see them. We will keep you posted upon the hatching. This is truly one of the most amazing things to watch. We get pretty "crazy" about this! Bear with us...me. This goes fast, so there will be many posts in a short time about our little "Alex". Hannah wanted to name "it" something that could be boy/girl. And yes, you can tell the sex, but not til it morphs to a butterfly.

We found this egg late Friday night. I am posting this on Sunday. No caterpillar yet, but any day...average is about 5 days.