In Moab

Arches National Park was gorgeous and wonderful! We loved it. The girls learned a lot in the Junior Ranger Program. Elli enjoyed learning that cyanobacteria used to be called blue-green algae and then they realized it wasn't actually an algae but a bacteria. So cyano means blue-green and they renamed it cyanobacteria. Thrilling, isn't it? Grace loved"the landscape" of red rocks and learning about erosion by rubbing 2 rocks together to make sand.

Today Elli and I spent time reading and swimming, and she actually worked on her Lord of the Rings study (classicalacademicpress.com) and Italic Handwriting. We had a funny application of math today. The table in the RV wasn't put together right and we lost half our breakfast in the fall....So when we finally called Grandpa about how to do it right, we learned to put it at a 30 degree angle. We reviewed 90 and 45 degree angles. Then at dinner several hours later, the plates had compass markings on them with degree marks so she was measuring angles and comparing them....I'll take it as a math lesson. It'll be good when we actually get to that in geometry in the book.

Grace spent the day in the Jeep off-roading in Moab and observing nature. She identified several plants (Juniper, Pinon tree, Prickly Pear cactus, Yucca). In fact, she saw flowering cacti, something we didn't see at Arches. She had a good time but doesn't want to do it tomorrow. Which is a blessing since Elli wants to have her turn tomorrow.

There was a thunderstorm today! The girls were a little upset when we left the pool 2 minutes after arriving there this afternoon, because I spotted lightening. It was hard to hear the thunder with all the 4x4s going by. But by the time we got to the RV, it downpoured! We all listened to history lessons (dianawaring.com) for a short time before looking at the digital pictures from the trail ride. It stopped raining, but stayed yucky out so we didn't make it back to the pool. We stayed busy though and it's been fun anyway.

I'm personally looking forward to Phoenix, but this is okay. I would like Moab better if we were river rafting I think. The two person hang-gliding looks fun, too. Or some more short hikes in the parks. It's definately beautiful out here but the girls and I are not interested in living here. At all.