Periodic Cicadas Arrive

It seems our new home is near an epicenter of this year's 17 year cicada emergence (go Brood V!) in Northeast Ohio.  Sean has been loving finding more and more "cicada shells" every day, and we get a pretty good chorus around our home from sun up to sun down. 

 

We took a walk this week on the towpath and found that Cuyhoga valley has some very loud sections!

Cutest Picture Ever?

No, he did not write his name.  He's not even two!

Maybe?

Planting the garden

This memorial weekend, Erin wanted to get the garden planted at her Mom's house - and a cool Saturday morning provided the perfect opportunity.  In about an hour, everything was planted.

A Visitor

This evening, we had a visitor that Sean found very fascinating.  Sean likes nature, we can dig this.

Kendall Lake Orienteering

Mark and Luke joined us and we took the kids on the white orienteering course at Kendall Lake - first NEOOC event in many years.  This one was mostly for the kids.  Check out Luke intently examining the map to determine where to go.

I think Robbie liked it too.

A visit with Mark and Missy

We are really missing all of our friends back in California, but we had also constantly missed all of our friends back home as well.  One joy of being back is that we will get to spend more time with Mark and Missy, and their little ones, Luke and Rachel.  They invited us over for a cookout for the last weekend before Ben had to start working.  Turns out, Robbie loves sweet corn.  Delicious Ohio sweetcorn - something that is undoubtedly better in the Midwest than in the central valley. 

When the kids went to bed, we did what we do best - play games!  Mark and Missy have collected a good number of excellent games, and today they introduced use to Zombicide - where you have to survive the zombie apocalypse as a group.  And the zombie's... keep... on... coming...! 

I can't recall if those zombies got us or not... but there were so many, we started using risk tokens in place of figurines.

Arrived in Cleveland

Here we are!  Sean and Robbie are loving playing with Grammy and Gump.  Here's Robbie being taught the piano.  That is, he's being taught that the piano makes noise.

Sean and Robbie got to experience a summer rain too - that's something that really didn't happen in Sacramento.

Loon Calling in Ely

Ben is a former loon calling champion at the spectacular (er... quirky?) annual competition in Ely, MN that pits professionally trained loon callers  (er... people who had too much free time in childhood?) against each other to see who can make the greatest call! 

Ok, so it's a little silly, but you get a free ice cream cone if you try!  No first place finishers but brother and sister Ben and Laura both made the podium with 2nd and 3rd finishes!

Taking Sean Fishing

We decided to try Tristan and Sean fishing.  Tristan took to it very well... Sean, well, might of still been a little young.  Soon after getting started, he lost patients and through his (and by "his" I mean "Tristan's" pole) in the lake!  Grandpa and Dad were pleasantly surprised to learn that unlike most poles, this one floated.  Whew!  This is an excellent idea for any fishing pole for kids.  I take that back... it is a necessary requirement of any fishing pole for kids.

Sean battle some early boredom as we didn't catch fish right away... but luckily it didn't last - we started getting some fish!  Indeed, we caught nearly a stringer full, and mostly walleye.  Once the fish started coming, Sean got excited.  Admittedly, he did not do much fishing on his own, but directed us to stay until "we caught ALL the fish!"

(Please note, this photo meets the requirements of the editor.  There's a person in with the fish.)

As usual, we filleted the fish before leaving the lake, but not before getting a visitor.  Usually gulls and eagles take the fish remains, but this giant snapper didn't want to give them the chance! 

Later, Dana came over to see a little more of Robbie.  I think Robbie remembered his baptism and was nice to say thanks!

Sean catches a fish!

Sean has been wanting to go fishing at every body of water we have seen this summer, and Ely is finally where he can do it!  Tristan loves to fish off the end of the dock, and Sean took a few turns this summer.  He needed some help setting the hook, but he did reel in a few small perch all on his own!  He wasn't shy about touching the fish either, which honestly surprised us - usually he does not like slimy things. 

Swimming with the boys in Ely

Probably no better way to use up some energy with the boys than to get them swimming!  We did this often, and they really enjoyed swimming together.

Boys, look over here!

That's better - sort of.

Meanwhile, we met one of our parent's new neighbors who love to do outdoor trips and challenge themselves.  They give each of us a turn on the paddle boards - I think Laura was a natural.

Robbie's Baptism

For the final leg of our cross country journy, we traveled to Ely to spend a week with Sean and Robbie's Grandparents.  We stopped in Minneapolis and we had a wonderful dinner with Christine and got to meet her husband Matthew- which was great!  They even cooked dinner for us - for which we were very grateful.

We were blessed that Dana was a available for Robbie's baptism.  Dana is the pastor in Ely who married us and baptized Sean.  Robbie is so heavy, I'm amazed we made it through the service without anyone's arms falling off!

After the service, the church had a cookout - this is an annual event where a number of churches in town get together and cook together!  It was fun - but as you can see, our family is so large, we pretty take up a whole lawn now.

Badlands - Best Picture

Erin snapped this photo of our boys asleep, with the tent window framing the perfect view.  

Badlands - Running

Ben woke up early the morning we were leaving Badlands and went for a trail run through the park.  This turned out really well - he got some amazing scenes. 

He also had a really good view of a Bighorn sheep.  First, he was at a distance and went on the other side of the mountain.  Thought he had gone away, but when I rounded the trail, he was right there!  I had a back off a bit - but he let me take a few photos before I left.

Ben was able to climb to the top of Saddle Pass, where he could see all the way down to the campsite!

 

Can you spot our orange tent?

When Ben returned, he had to get one last picture of the campground.

 

Badlands - Big Horn Sheep

We had hoped to try out some hiking.  Though the structures and ground are soft - the park allows you to hike pretty much anywhere.  The rangers explained that any footprints are no match for any rain and snow, which typically erase them.  When we reached the parking area, we lucked out - there was a whole herd of Bighorn sheep just waiting there.

Yes Erin, we see you!

 

We didn't go very far - it was warm and dry and we made sure we didn't risk being out of water or being lost.  But it was a good little exploration.  Tried, but didn't find any fossils :-)

 

We were able to see some other wildlife too.  Our camp was not short of meadow larks, and mountain bluebirds.  Sean found a leopard frog.  Cliff swallows were plentiful - as there their nests with chicks  - not just on cliffs, but most overhangs on man-made structures!

 

We were treated to a very nice sunset.  Sean and Ben climbed up on of the close structures to enjoy the view.  

We had a special evening highlight too.  Sean and Erin saw a special ranger presentation and then after, with Robbie asleep in the stroller, we got to see a night sky tour.  Badlands has a great night sky, benefitting from being remote and up a few thousand feet above sea level.  They had a telescope too, and let us see the rings on Saturn too!  Very cool day.  

 

Badlands - Prairie Dogs

After spending a night in the hotel in Wall, SD, we were able to drive into Badlands.  We really didn't know what to expect, but found a truly unique and amazing park.  Initially, it's just native prairie, but it quickly gives way to these amazing Sandstone spires, mounds, and valleys, with a wide variety of color.  The land here is apparently so soft that it can erode an inch a year!  In a half million years, Badlands will be no more.  We also found the campsites very nice, with great views.  We set up our tents early.  Sean filled the water bottles.

 

And Robbie enjoyed a snack.

 

Then we were off.  We checked out the visitors center - which had people cleaning fossils found in the park, and explained about a lot of the fossils found here.  You can trace the age of the land by the layer it sits on in the mountains, and it looks like it's common for visitors to report new fossil finds - often important and impressive ones!  Once Sean finished looking at all the toy fossil digging tools, we wanted to see what the park showed.  As always, we asked the rangers where to go - and they do a great job sending us the right way.  1st stop was a giant priarie dog town!  Sean loved these - you could hear them screaming and shouting to each other, and their holes stretched for a huge area.

 We lucked out too - as you can see, a pronghorn was strolling on through.

This really doesn't do the area justice, as the road cradles these dramatic scenes.  On one side were these prairie vistas with badlands in the background.

 

And to the other side, remarkable overviews of the Badlands!

Very cool.

Grand Teton National Park

On leaving Yellowstone, we were at the Southern-most campground, and so our exit took us right past Grand Teton National park.  Not really a visit so much as a pit stop, it was still spectacular views, and another quality visitor's center.

We then started the drive toward Badlands - and it turns out, we found ourselves driving past all sorts of dramatic features in Wyoming.  (We reflected that this was very different from driving on 80.  When we moved out to California, going across the continental divide was very anticlimactic.)

 

On the eastern end of Wyoming, we drove through something we didn't see as much in California.  Rain and lightning!  It was actually really pretty, and here is a video.

We discovered at dinner that by driving through it, it meant it was coming to us at Badlands!  Sadly, we canceled a night in the tent and got a hotel for the evening. 

Yellowstone - Volcanic features day

Having spent the prior day at Yellowstone Canyon, we opted to spend the next day exploring thermal features.  We started at the Grant Village visitor center - near our campground - where the visitor's center focused on the 1988 Yellowstone fires and how fires function in the park.  Sean did a Junior ranger program and we waded along the shore of yellowstone lake.

Remember the vast numbers of people at Artist's point the previous day, we got some good tips from a ranger on places that wouldn't be too crowded - and they were good tips.  Firehole lake road goes past many good large geysers.  The biggest - great fountain geyser - only goes about once every day or two and so we didn't plan on sticking around for it - but the rest of the basin is really active.  We lucked out as White Dome geyser erupted just as we were driving past.  We stopped at Firehole lake, which has a number of small geysers - such as Young hopeful Geyser, and Artesia Geyser.

White Dome Geyser and features around Firehole Lake

Enjoying the Firehole lake boardwalk

The ranger tipped us off for our second spot - Black Sand basin.  This was a good tip from the ranger - not too crowded and also not so big to take little kids around.  The had great examples of the colorful springs and nearby geysers.  Cliff Geyser erupted regularly while we were there.  Pools with color included Emerald pool, Rainbow pool, and Sunset lake.  Near the entrance, opal pool almost looked like a pale Blue.  Sean liked tracing his fingers in the signs while we read out the names to him.  He also figured out how to drink from Ben's drink bladder like a hamster.

Cliff Geyser

Sean and the colorful pools

Opal Pool and Spouter Geyser

Since we were nearby, we caught a classic - Old Faithful.  We stepped back from the crowds.  The visitor center here is the newest and dedicated to explaining geysers.  It also had a great kids' section - which was perfect to let Robbie crawl and Sean burn off some energy.

We were about to head back to camp when a storm rolled in :-(.  We decided to eat out, but were treated to some amazing rainbows over the area.

 We were not able to reserve all three nights in the same campground, so we did have to move that moving to another campsite a more primitive site called Lewis Lake.  We had another storm come over and were treated to another rainbow display that was equally spectacular.

 

While Erin read to Sean in the tent, Robbie and Ben took a relaxing walk around to the south end of the lake, where you could see hot springs across the water.