An Evening at the CCC Ponds - late July

 So I'm still working on catching up my blog.  It's been a crazy summer, with trying to get my daughter of to college, trying to reorganize my house into more usable daycare space, and finding out our eight year old is diabetic.  We've had a lot going on.  So one evening we took a break and went to the CCC Ponds.  According to the Bureau of Land Management website, "The ponds are named for the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal program created by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930’s to create jobs for young men and women following the Depression. The focus of the CCC was on the preservation of natural resources through various construction and improvement projects to increase access and enjoyment of public lands."  If you want to read more about the project, click here.

 They have several walking trails around all the ponds, so the baby and I did a little hiking while the guys fished.

 Part of the paths are paved - and are handicap accessible.  Other parts are only for hiking.  They all loop together and make a big circle.

 There are a few places with picnic tables, and several benches here and there.

 We spotted a moose, and several other animals.

The ponds are named and set up for certain types of habitat.  Everything is labeled too so it is educational too.  In the photo above you see the Frog Pond and it's sign.  Not that frogs don't live in every one of the ponds, but this one is shallow, marshy and stagnant.

 This picture was taken from across one of the ponds.  I was on the walking trail with the baby, and my husband and three year old were fishing on the other side.

 Along the trails, they have signs identifying some of the features of the area.  They are written by middle school students.  I remember this was an upgrade project done back when I was a reporter for the local paper - almost 18 years ago now - wow.

 They have birdhouses and bat boxes to encourage wildlife.

 These two beavers were fun to watch.  They paraded around the pond the boys were fishing in, then would slap the water with their tails, and dive under when they thought the boys were too close. 

 They caught a couple of little fish, and had a lot of bites, so it was pretty fun.

Amazing Sunsets This Summer

 We've had some amazing sunsets this summer.  The most beautiful was last night, but I didn't have my camera with me.  Figures.  Anyway, I thought I would share a few of the pictures with you from this summer ...

Rendezvous Parade - mid-July

The same day we went to the Museum of the Mountain Man, we also had the Rendezvous parade.  Some of our townspeople dress up to do a reenactment of the original rendezvous, so they are dressed like the man above.  It's a fun parade, and the largest, longest one we have all year.  Rendezvous is a big deal here.  This parade took about an hour to pass by.

The original rendezvous was a meeting together of the mountain men - trappers and hunters, and the traders,

 who would buy their goods.  Indians came as well for the trading.  Like I mentioned before, it was a big drunken party.  But there were also preachers and missionaries that came to witness to the attendees.  ?I was glad to see an emphasis on them this year.

The museum hosts several speakers and special events.  Included is the group above - Native American dancers - the real thing.  We didn't get to see them perform this year, but one of these years, I'm going to make sure we do.  Their outfits are so colorful.

I thought this was a clever float.  It had four different playhouses on it, and was for someone who is running for county assessor.

 This was my favorite though.  It was the senior citizens group.  They have a place called Rendezvous Pointe, where they have very affordable (and very good) lunches and host activities for the seniors.  Their poster on the van said, "It's not how old you are, but how you are old."  The men riding behind them on bicycles must be in their 90's.

 The two kids on this float come to my daycare :)

 One of our local dentists made this super-sized toothbrush out of a broom.  Pretty clever and cute ... until I saw the super-sized syringe he had in his other hand.  Umm, I don't think I'm going there - lol.

 Everyone was passing out popsicles to the kids.  The baby tried one for the first time, and as you can see from his blue chin, he loved it.

The unicyclers are some of our homeschooling friends.  They've gotten more daring in the past couple of years and all have these really tall unicycles now.

 It was a long day.  At the end of it, everyone was pretty tired.  The 3 year old got this stuffed beaver at the museum.  He insisted it was a hedgehog ... still does.

The baby fell asleep on Dad.

Out cold.

It's Been a Long Time

I am so far behind on my blogging!  I can't believe it has been nearly a month since my last post.  I didn't intend to take such a long break, but it's been crazy around here.  So I'm going to try to catch up in a few posts on what all happened in July, then we'll move forward from there, okay?

 My last post was on the Fourth of July.  We continued to do more red-white-and-blue artwork with the daycare kids.  This was some marble painting we tried (this is one of the daycare kids).  I got distracted from posting because of a very large project we took on, which I am still not ready to post about.  We're moving our living and dining room areas into the garage and dedicating that space inside our house to daycare only.  I'm excited.  I have all sorts of preschool stuff that is new - lots of rugs, and tons of teaching materials.  I'll post all about that when it is up and going.

 In the mean time, we had our annual Green River Rendezvous - which is a celebration of sorts, or rather a commemoration of the old days when mountain men would bring their furs to sell, and traders and Indians would meet them.  It was really mostly a drunken party, which unfortunately it still is.  But we do have the Museum of the Mountain man, and a big parade, in addition to street vendors and all of the chaos.

So we took the kids to the museum.  It's a very well-done museum (though I like the one in the next town over with all the local history better ... not to mention, the local one is much bigger).  I guess it's not fair to call the other one local and not this one.  The mountain men were very local.  It is just that the county museum has things from original settlers and and businesses, which is  more interesting to me personally.  There are quite a few things from my husband's family in that museum, which makes it easier for me to relate to, I guess.

 Since I am in the process of remodeling the daycare, one thing that caught my eye was the canvas backdrop they used in this display - it's basically a piece of a wall tent, with charcoal artwork on it.

 I loved the idea ... especially since I can't paint a mural on our wall (we are renters).  I'm also considering building an old west town out of pieces of cardboard - just the false fronts of the buildings attached to the wall - out of painted cardboard.  That or maybe a group of horses running behind a corral fence.  My daycare is named "Little Buckaroos Daycare" so the theme would fit.

 Anyway, back to the museum...  They do have some pretty cool displays.

The kids' favorite part is the wildlife they have on display.

 And the eight year old was really impressed by the Indian headdress. He remembered it from being there before and was on the lookout for it through the whole museum.

 Of course the beaver hat and buffalo coat played a big part in making it profitable for mountain men to do their trading.  It's pretty cool to see a beaver hat in person after hearing so much about the history connected to it.

 The museum has an awesome kids' area under the stairs.

They have little stools with little saddles on top of them (wish I could find some of those for the daycare!)

 They have dress up items and all the kids' books they have in their gift shop.

 And they have this cool display unit with a plexiglass front - they have holes cut in the front so the kids can reach in and touch skunk hides, deer antlers, and all sorts of other items.

 This display doesn't have a hole - it's a bunch of marbles and a picture from the school house where they were found.  Marbles used to be a big thing.  I remember when my Grandpa got alzheimers, he would talk about marbles and shoot invisible ones in the air.  Must have meant a lot to him at one point in his life.

 One of the funnest parts of the kids' area is Fort Nonsense.

 It is sided with log so it looks like you're really in a cabin.  I'd love to do something like this in the daycare ... if only I had the space for it.  Guess I'll have to stick with a fabric-covered card table version.  (What I really need to do is build something with loft space.  We have 10 foot ceilings, so there is plenty of space for double - deck play space.)