Biosphere and Cold Pool

It's spring break for the Elementary kids. We did the Moab trip last week as our family spring break activity, so I was thinking I'd take it easy a little bit this week and we'd try to just go to Thanksgiving Point a few times. Today I delivered on that by taking them to the Butterfly Biosphere. Look at my bugs in a jar!

Over in the biosphere - 

This was as close as we got to a butterfly today - 

There were quite a few of these big blue ones. We didn't see any monarchs, sniff! I hope the Monarch butterfly population is ok. That would be so sad if they went extinct. I remember when I was a caterpillar farmer of those cute caterpillars!

And amazing chrysalis'...

Monarchs are beautiful. I hope we get some this year. 

Peter's favorite place at the Biosphere today was the Costa Rica Climber. The bigger kids liked that too and they explored up the stairs in the activities up in the canopy. Peter was content on the baby slide on the ground level.

After a fun day at the Butterfly Biosphere, we went to Federation rehearsal. Sophi and Natalie both practiced their songs with the pianist that they will be playing on Saturday. They took turns rehearsing and watching over their younger siblings who were coloring. 

They each did their songs 3 times. 

Here's Natalie's 

And Sophi's - 

That rehearsal was at the pianist's house, which was kinda half way downtown, so after that was done, we drove out to a store to look at a few machines that I had seen on the classifieds. The kids had fun exploring through the isles of appliances. 

It was almost as good as a corn maze! I decided to buy a set that was there, new in the box, a large capacity Samsung washer and dryer. 

I had looked and looked for good price but wasn't set on a particular brand. But after buying this, I found it at Home Depot for less expensive than what I had just paid. Oh well. Part of the selling point for me was that I could get it delivered tomorrow. So I called and am working on arranging that delivery and installation. It will be great to have a new washer and dryer! $1450 plus $110 for the delivery and installation and haul away of the old ones (goodbye and good riddance!) 

And final story from today. After we got home from the rehearsal and buying the washer and dryer, the kids went on a bike ride with Corey. It was really cold outside and their hands were freezing. Daniel came in and showed me his poor frozen hands, and to help him recover I held them against my warm torso. It made me gasp briefly at how frozen his fingers were. I just did one hand. And then he held up his other hand and let me know that that one was cold too. Yikes, ok!! Here we go - brace myself as I hold it next to my skin - brr! It was a sacrifice I was willing to make for my little boy. The kids were laughing that I was breathing hard. I said "I dare you to go jump in that pool in the backyard!" I had bought this blow up pool when I took Daniel with me to Costco. They wanted to put it up on Monday. Sure the sun was shining, but it was still freezing cold outside and I knew it was too cold for a pool, but I filled it up for them anyway. Well, this is what it looked like this morning:

So as I was gritting my teeth at Daniel's cold hands, I dared them to go jump in the pool so they could feel what cold is like too. Lily was like "I will!!!" and just like that we were all laughing and she ran over to the pool and with a 1 - 2 - 3 she jumped in!

Way to go Lil! I'm impressed! She's a little dare devil just like Ethan! I love it. Then she dared me or the kids did and I was like Allright, but I went and changed into my swimsuit, and Abi got wet with me (twice)...

It was very cold and refreshing, like the cool river in Costa Rica.

...then Sophi and Natalie did...

...and we spent the rest of the evening being crazy like that. 

Poor Natalie got pushed back head over heels by Abi, which was sad, which is why this video above ends abruptly, so that I could comfort Natalie as I scolded Abi. 

But Natalie took it well and she won the master prize for her being dunked twice. 

So it was fun and I'm sure will be something that the kids remember. Owen toying with the idea of jumping in... then he opted not to, funny kid. 

I was ok with getting wet and soaking up towels, because I knew that I had a new washer and dryer coming tomorrow so I'll be able to take care of all these dirty towels, yay!

Three Caterpillars

So on Monday we finally had some Monarch success! We found a caterpillar on a leaf! I didn't see him at first, but noticed some spots on a few leaves that looked like little caterpillars had been eating. I only found one little guy, so we brought him in. Then we looked around more and also found 3 eggs, yay! Two of them turned dark yesterday, and then the little miracles emerged.

So so incredibly small, it's amazing. These little things might demonstrate why I'm pro-life. If I'm gonna worry to help and defend these tiny little bugs, you better believe I feel even stronger for tiny humans, no matter how small. I mean, would you intentionally snuff out this little bug life? Sure, it's just a 21 day commitment vs. 9 months, but give them a chance (if you don't want it, give it up for adoption) A human child has a lot more to offer the world than the monarchs, and I'd say most people think their 3 month lifespan has value, so let's value our own race. When Mel and I see these tiny caterpillars, we start talking like we're speaking to an adorable 3 month old baby or something... "Oh! You teeny tiny thing, you're so cute!" Here are the ones that hatched yesterday next to my thumbnail.

That one has a little bit of frass on his back, but we might squish him if we tried to get it off, or we'd blow him away if we tried to blow it off. So he's just gotta deal with it on his back, no biggie other than messing up my pic. We took a little video of him chewing away. Can't see it with the naked eye, but if I zoom in 400% with my phone camera, there he is!

Here's the same finger next to our big guy. I'm guessing he hatched 4 or 5 days ago.

I still have only seen one monarch butterfly in our yard this year (Mel and I also saw one at Disneyland in May enjoying the flowers at It's a Bugs World, cute!) but it's nice to find the eggs and know they've been around. It's hasn't been the great butterfly year like last year, but it's restored my hope that the Monarch population is still alive, I'm glad they made it to our home. I found more milkweed seeds that I had stored from last fall, I'm going to plant them in Sept or October to try and keep these creatures fed. Save the monarchs!

What else is going on - Abi had an orthodontist appointment this morning, Joseph checked in briefly, and it's been a day at home. I would do something with the GetOut Pass, but the older kids don't care to go cause they're busy with their own stuff, and it's like pulling teeth to get the little girls to clean their room. So they don't and they go play legos. Part of me is glad that they are so content at home, makes my life easier. I'm glad that Corey feels driven to give them experiences most of the time. Last night he took most of them down town to see Wesley's band performance, and I watched Captain America for the first time so I could learn about Steve Rogers (since he's my son) haha. While I watched that I finished folding ALL the laundry, almost every last sock, and I tossed most of the rest of the unmatched ones into the trash, I think we'll survive without them. Gearing up for the school year to start next Monday.

First Monarchs

Our first monarchs came out yesterday morning. We weren't able to sit and enjoy them like we usually do since it was a typical busy Sunday morning getting ready for church. But we still got to say hello. They had both flown away by the time we got home. But we love our monarch butterflies!

I let Mel do the honors of taking them outside.

Last week at Park City, Wesley was feeling sick on the day that the redeemed their activity passes. So he gave his pass to his cousin. We're going to think of a way to make it up to Wes - sad he worked so hard just to get sick when it was time to play! One thing that was really nice, the Marriott front desk team gave Wesley a little care package - super nice!

The card with the package of goodies:

Monarchs!

We have exciting news! After two years of not finding any monarch eggs, we are happy to report that on July 5th we found some! We found 6 for sure, and 3 others that were maybe eggs. We set them up in the kids bathrooms so we could watch - Here's what it looked like a week ago - 

On Saturday they all hatched! There were 6 that came out, but one of them died after he came out... he ate enough for him to be visible, and then he just didn't move or eat and slowly shrived up and disappeared. But we've got 5 thriving caterpillars right now. They are so amazing. On Sunday they were about the size of a fingernail clipping - 

And today they are all as big as a grain of rice. Mel's fingers holding a dry grain of rice for reference. 

I'm guessing they'll be as big as an orzo pasta by tomorrow night. 

It's pretty fun to watch. I moved them from the bathroom to the kitchen, and I also moved them off of their individual leaves and they are all on one plant together and they seem to be getting along with each other. So our monarch history - in 2018 we had two (I'm excited for Daniel to be able to maybe share his butterfly friends at the bus stop like Natalie did that year!) and we had two in 2019, then didn't have any in 2020 or 2021, so this is very exciting to already have 5 caterpillars, and in July! I never even used to find any until the end of July or August, so this is very promising. A few tips and tricks to finding monarch eggs - 

1) Locate milkweed plants (use google if you don't know what they look like. I can spot them in a yard or on the side of the road when I drive by. In Sandy on 13th East at about 12000 South, you can see milkweed on the east side of the road there. 

2) Look on the underneath side of the top few leaves of the plant for eggs. Monarchs lay on the underneath side of the leaves, and also usually lay on the smaller sized more tender leaves near the top of the milkweed (not the tiny leaves at the very top, although sometimes they lay there too, but usually not on big tough leaves more at the bottom of the plant)

3) If you find an egg, just tear off the leaf from the stem. 

4) Carefully collect the leaves on a plate or in your hands

5) Rinse off the end of the leaf where you tore it to rinse off the milkweek which might have already dried up. You want to make sure the leaf can get water.

6) I will mark the leaf with an arrow pointing to where the egg is (see pic 1 in this post)

7) Get a small bowl with water and rest the leaf stem in the water (see pic 1)

8) I usually will hold the leaf in place with a small or large clothes pin (see pic 1)

And yeah, that's how I get started! And then you just watch. The egg will turn dark when it's about to hatch, and then they come out and they'll eat that leaf for a few days. Then you can carefully move them onto a larger plant. With the 5 we have, I'll have to give them each their own plant once they are bigger and eating a lot. It will be fun! I hope we get 20+ caterpillars like we did in 2017!! 

Biosphere Outing

I took Daniel and Peter to Thanksgiving Point today. We got there right when it opened, and they first went to play in the treehouse area. They were the only ones there and were a little worried that there were no other kids. 

Next we went to the Butterfly biosphere. Daniel was sad for a while when no butterflies landed on him. Soon one of the workers had one that she shared with us. It's wings were misshaped and I asked her about it, since we have experience with that, and she said yeah, he can't fly and this guys probably not going to live long. But it gave joy to a little 5 year old boy, so thank you butterfly!

I had a big blue one that kept flying and landing on my blue shirt, and a lady helped me get it off and Daniel was able to hold that one too. 

They didn't have any monarchs in their butterfly sanctuary or in their chrysalis hatching area. I hope the monarchs are ok! I miss the good ol' days when I found lots of eggs. We didn't have any this year. :(

It was discovered yesterday at Wesley's early morning practice that his skates are too big. Corey took him by Scheel's last night to try and find a pair that fit. They found out he was size 7, but instead of paying $250 for new skates, I'm glad that they waited while I looked in our bin of skates. We had a size 7. So I went and got those sharpened today for Wes so that he would be ready for practice after school. I also got him a sharpening punch card, aka I bought 10 sharpenings in bulk but at a discounted price, so next time Wes needs them sharpened it will be free on the punch card. They said it's good to get them sharpened after every 10 times on the ice. Good to know. They also do boot stretching at this little hockey shop, so that might be a good idea to get done for Wesley's skates too, but not today. Maybe after he gets a job to start helping pay for all this stuff.

I picked up Abi early from school again for her flute lesson today, and then I went and got Wes's skates sharpened, and then I snuck off to get in one more bike ride before the fall rains come, which should be starting tomorrow. I forgot my helmet but decided to go anyway. Sorry to the biking police if that is dangerous. I'd rather ride without a helmet than go back home to get it and not have time to come back. Started at Coyote Trailhead at 2:33, At Ann's east at 2:48, Peakview at 3:11, Ghost falls at 3:15, down then back up, second time down at 3:34. I really love Ghost falls, although it smelled really bad this time cause it started to rain and the dead leaves were stinky. I thought of how lovely Armstrong smelled of pine after the rains there. Well, I'm glad it was stinky, cause now I'm not sad about not being able to bike anymore. Ann's was nice. Pretty pink trees.

The rain started to pick up on my second time down, so I hurried back to the car and did not do the rush loop twice. I got back to take Wes to hockey and Abi to her game. Another Tuesday in the books. 

Rafting Trip & Lots of Monarchs

Corey and kids are off for an adventure in Idaho. 

They woke up at 5:15 and loaded the last things into the trailer, like the ice water...

And final items - 

Then Wes helped make sure it was all tied down - 

And they were off. They left around 6:30. Corey texted at 9 saying that they were pulled over to the side of the road, cause the transmission was overheating, like it did last year when we went to Lake Tahoe. Doh! I checked in on them 30 minutes later and they were moving. They made it all the way to Idaho by keeping the hot air on full blast, and the windows down. So that must have been fun for them! But they made it. And if they have some very cold nights during this week, I'm sure they'll look back on their hot car drive with fond memories. They have been out of the range of cell service since 2:30, so I hope they are ok and we hope they all survive and that we'll be in touch with them again on Saturday. As for the rest of us... it was a sleep in morning again. E and Peter - 

Peter wakes up often with nightmares of scary monsters. 

He always wakes up atleast once during the night, and he's usually in a drunken rage. I appreciated Ethan being there and taking care of him last night. We are all loving Katharine - I brought up the super saucer today. She's holding her head up well, so it works ok with some blankets around to hold her in the center. 

She can barely touch the ground. 

It might provide a good place for her to be the focus of attention, but with the benefit of a 12 inch buffer between her and her adoring siblings.

And for the caterpillar update... today I had 24 eggs hatch. TWENTY FOUR!!!! Most of the eggs were black tipped this morning - that is their little face and lets you know they are about ready to eat their way out of the egg - 

24! This is a record for us! It is going to be a crazy mess when they are all in the fifth instar, but it will be magical when they emerge! Especially if we have a lot merging at once, that will be so fun. We had 7 emerge at once in 2017, so with 24 chances this time, I bet we'll have atleast a dozen! It will be amazing! I hope we're not gone... doh, we might be. We're taking a road trip to Nauvoo... let me see, no, it looks like we'll be here when they emerge but we'll be gone when they are big and eating. Hmm, I might arrange for help for that, or I guess I could risk it and put them out on the milkweed in the yard. Hm. We'll see. but it's pretty exciting. I didn't know we'd have such success and things would be so abundant this year, but I feel like I can't stop now. If eggs are left on the leaves, the spiders or bugs get them and eat them. The predators think they are little bonbons or something. I just took my monarch stats, and we have 50 monarchs in various stages. FIFTY!! This, my friends, is a new record, wow. I found 11 more eggs today and one that was just hatched, so that's 12, and today I had 23 come out of their eggs of the ones I've found, so with the one I found, that is 24 new baby caterpillars, and we have 5 chrysalis, 2 caterpillars right now (one died, just shriveled up) and a total of 18 eggs. One of our big 6 got stuck yesterday when he was changing into the chrysalis. After he was stuck like this for 10 minutes, I decided we needed to end his pain.

Had this happen before in 2019 (last pic)  I took this guy and buried/killed it under a rock. It was sad. Natalie was pretty worked up and was bawling, Owen was crying too. They are tender hearted kids. Having pets helps us give our kids lessons about life and death. 

Two Butterflies

We only had two butterflies this year. They came out of their chrysalis yesterday (a female) and today (a male). Here is our pretty female, letting her wings dry as she hung out on our lampshade.

It was a convenient place for the kids to enjoy looking at her.

All the school kids were gone when she came out, so only Natalie and the little boys and I got to enjoy her.

This pic below is how Daniel looks when he's about to say "BUG!" "A bug! A bug!" Yes, it's a pretty bug. "A Bug!"

Natalie kept the butterfly safe... and made sure she dropped her water out on the tissue.

We took her outside and she was still there when it was time for Natalie to go to the bus stop

...so we took her to Bus stop show and tell. this was the first time Natalie has held a butterfly on her finger!

She was pretty proud of herself!

And she thought it tickled!

We let the other kids have a turn too.

Pretty pretty butterfly. Here's a few more pictures of Natalie holding it. Waiting for the bus.

When the bus came, she called out to our nice bus driver "Hey Bus Driver! Look, a butterfly!" He said "That is such a pretty bird!" She laughed at that. Silly grown ups.

Here's the male from this morning. This boy was flapping his wings and took a couple of flight laps around the kitchen. Then I decided we best put him outside, I don't want him to land in the dirty dishwater or anything.

This one emerged after the kids were gone too, and it had flown away by the time they all got home.

Hence the many photos of Natalie with these two, they were our only ones this year, so we gotta get out monarch picture fix taken care of

Natalie was quick to hold it this morning. Good job Natalie, you are very brave.

Then she wanted it on her dress... and for a little peek into our life, if you hadn't noticed, yes, my daughter is still wearing the clothes she wore to school yesterday. Yea, she usually wears pjs (I think?) but that's by her preference and choice, I don't enforce pajamas or any wardrobe upon them, except asking if they have on clean underwear. And telling Wes to change his socks...but last night it appears she slept in her clothes. I usually clue into it when it's time for her to go to school, that's when I tell her to go wear a different outfit. Hence her time to change clothes is usually at lunch before school. And since these pics were at breakfast = same clothes.

The butterfly continued to flutter and climb up her tummy... She giggled and then laughed uncomfortably as it got close to her face when she said "Can you get it off now?!?!" Then outside he went. Go, fly, little male and female monarchs, may you find each other and multiply and replenish the earth! So, I guess we're calling it good with those 2, although I am still looking on milkweed now and then, cause last year I found one pretty late and it emerged at the end of September. That monarch lady was lucky that I have some good friends who willingly delivered her to Southern Utah. We could have/should have had three butterflies this year, but I had to euthanize one when he wasn't able to change into his chrysalis (pics 6-8). We've had sad endings like that before, but this was the first time it happened during the chrysalis change. We've had many caterpillar deaths - they'll be sick or writhing sometimes, or fall and get hurt, or two sad ones from last year - one drowned in the water. and one 2nd instar got eaten by a light green spider that I didn't see hiding on the milkweed. Rude. I was ticked at that spider and promptly executed him. And we had a chrysalis last year that turned black right away (last photo), so that one was a goner, don't know why sometimes but that's the circle of life I guess. But this was our first year of the silkpad and j-hook part not working. So we're getting to be real monarch farmer pros with all this experience. We should have another good supply of milkweed next year and we'll hope for a better monarch showing, go monarchs.