Zion

We just got back from Zion National Park and we are still alive. This was our first camping trip with Helen and we were a bit worried about getting no sleep. That wasn't a problem though.
Here's a picture of Helen just after we got out of the car. She was as happy as she could be to have new things to look at. I think she'll be a Nature Girl, like me. Well, I like to fancy myself a Nature Girl but I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to bugs with long legs. Spiders and beetles. Yuck! I can look at them but if you get them near me, "No, Gracias Senor!!!!!!"
I love caterpillars though. The cottonwood trees were covered with these net/nest type things full of caterpillars. The kids had so much fun with their pet caterpillars. They tried to save as many as they could because they were covering the ground by the visitor's center. You really could not take a step without squishing one or two or three of them. It was quite sad. They were friendly little things.
Helen lived up to her other nickname "The Best Girl in the World" given to her by Cinci. She was such a great hiker. We left our campsite around 9 or 10 in the morning and came back around 6 each day and she didn't complain. Just as long as she could eat she was fine.
The Virgin River was a nice place for the kids to throw rocks in. I love rivers. Sometimes parents take their kids to playplaces in the fast food restaurants to get a moment of peace. That's what you get. A moment of peace. Then they come to you asking for something. Rivers are better for my boys. The can throw rocks as long as they want. There were no other people around. It was great! Of course we had to keep our eye on Hector just in case he got washed away, but other than that Jonathan and I got to rest a hundred feet away in a little grove of shade with Helen.
Here's Jonathan, Hector, and Atticus one morning. I got to sleep in the van with Helen and two of the boys were up in the pop top, and he got to be outside with those two. The weather was so perfect for sleeping under the stars. We even brought Atticus' telescope to look at the stars but it broke on the drive to Zions thanks to our oldest's hyperactivity! Oh well. It looks cool in our campsite at least.
Here's Jonathan and Helen in front of some of those steep, red, cliffs by the temple of Sinawava. Really striking and breathtaking. Whenever the kids ask me what the word breathtaking means I remind them of an experience we had just last Christmastime. We were driving south to Newport Beach and we were making good time. We saw the sign for Kolob Canyons, which is part of Zion National Park, just south of Cedar City. I had been to Zions before when I was a teenager but I didn't remember anything about it. So, we decided to drive in a little way just to see what it looked like. The mountains from I-15 look really boring if you look east. How pretty could Kolob Canyons be? Really? No skin off our backs if it was boring hills with slight shrubbery. So we drove in, passed the visitors center, followed the curvy road for a few minutes and BOOM! My hands grabbed the sides of my seat. Red rock mountains dusted with snow loomed before us all of a sudden. "Oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!!!" I basically screamed. Atticus turned around in his seat, "What Mom? What's wrong?" He faces the back of the car in our van so he couldn't see what I was seeing. Sherman rarely notices anything outside the car so of course he didn't react. Cinci might have noticed but had no comment. It was like the moment in Neverending Story where Atreyu rides the luck dragon around the pieces of the destroyed Fantasia in search of the ivory tower, when it finally appears in the movie, the music comes on real strong and the camera zooms in on the ivory tower. It was just like that moment, except it was at Kolob Canyons.

So, Zion was really fun. We had an enjoyable camping trip with daddy. The last night of our camping trip, none of the boys wanted to sleep in the pop top or the van. They all wanted to sleep out with Jonathan even though there wasn't enough room for all of them on the mattress. Jonathan is a hardworking daddy. I'm sure glad that Helen is probably our last kid because Jonathan looks pretty beat most of the time. He really gives life his all. I'm so glad he joined me on this camping trip. I think its one of the best activities for our boys.

Rumble. Rumble. Snap! Snap! Snap!

The house we live in has an unfinished basement which is currently sprinkled with legos and other odds and ends. Very rarely I let my kids build forts down there and sleep down there. Last time they built a fort they used every chair in the house.

"This won't do," I thought, "Next time I'll bring the tent out for them."

I shouldn't have done that. If you don't know my kids, they are loud and you can feel them in the air before they arrive. You can feel a low rumble in the distance getting closer. . . closer. . . closer!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They totally thrashed our tent! It had lasted us a good 8 years without a problem. Then snap, snap, snap went the poles while they were doing unthinkable things to it. I feel sorry for anything that is left alone in their care. That poor tent. I can envision a comic strip. Tent vs. Tumbleweeds?

I suppose it was time to get a new tent. It was only a four man tent. How many people do we have in our family again? Oh, yeah, seven. I guess we couldn't really all fit in it anyway.

I have a problem with throwing things out when they are broken though. Especially things I've bought with my money. I just emailed ALPS Mountaineering to see what they would charge me for some replacement poles. We'll see. Probably too much.

take a break! take a break!

So tired...so tired. I'm just exhausted. My goal this week is to get to bed by 10:30 every night. Unfortunately, its all my other goals that keep me from doing just that. Crafts... those evil crafts. I really need to just let go. Let them slip away on the breeze and float gently away. Or perhaps drop each one from a tall bridge into a swirling river and watch each one drift down and out of sight. It would do me good to go to that beautiful place I remember on the border of Idaho and Wyoming that I passed on my way to Jackson Hole last fall. Gorgeous yellow and brown leaves rustling under the sun. Crispy air and a clear deep blue sky. Yellow fields and a dark blue snake river. I could just sit in my comfy camp chair under that sun and sit and listen to the wind. Listen to the scurrying of the critters in the tall yellow grasses. Listen to the lack of human chatter. Ohhhh. I groan! A break. . . a break. I think I need to take another road trip.

How to motivate yourself to take a roadtrip with your kids when you're 8 months pregnant.

All you have to do is buy an 80 dollar America the Beautiful 2011: National Parks & Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass. We bought ours back in May and ever since, I have been determined to make it worth it. I was sure we would be visiting every national park in the western United States ever since we set foot on US soil this year. Oh, the dreams we have! The plans we make! How is it that life never really turns out like you think it will? I knew Jonathan would be busy this year with school and work but I didn't really think I would be so hesitant to venture out on my own with the kids. I didn't realize how the US really gives me the creeps. There really are a lot of wackos here. Despite that fact, I do believe in regrets and I do realize how I can only force my kids to do what I want for just a little while longer. That is one of the reasons I'm homeschooling this year. Soon they will look at me just like Jennifer Connely looked at David Bowie in the movie Labyrinth and say, "You have no power over me." Then they will venture out on their own and make all their own choices and say, "Homeschooling sucks Mom!" and wear strange clothes that cost way too much and spend more time on their hair than I've spent in my lifetime. So, to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone we went! So what that I was 8 months pregnant! So what that I'm a horrible driver in the sense that I have trouble staying alert at the wheel for more than an hour! So what that my kids tend toward the spazzy side and that the youngest is not yet 2!

I prefer Grand Teton National Park over Yellowstone. Check out those peaks! Gorgeous! I realized even before I left that we wouldn't be doing a lot of hiking on this trip. I love to hike. But wearing a Kelty and being 8 months pregnant doesn't really work. So, we had to do short walks with Hector. He's a pretty good walker for his age thank goodness. There were a few times he just stood there and screamed at me, waiting for me to give in and pick him up. Of course, I gave in. Those were the moments when I had to tell myself, "You chose this Christine." So I really couldn't get mad at him. He's just one and he never asked for this kind of adventure.

On the days that we drove a lot, especially in Yellowstone, I was reminded of the trip my father took me on. Two foreign exchange boys from Spain were with us as well as my brother Clayton. We were all teenagers. I remember my father getting mad that we weren't looking out the window. At the time I thought, "Man, what's he getting mad about!" Now, I realize how cool Yellowstone really is. There is a lot of wildlife there. To get my kids to notice and care about it I bribed them with money. Atticus is 7, a prime age for bribing. Here is our price list:

Bear, buffalo, moose, elk, wolf, or deer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 cents

The only catch was that they had to see the animal before me. Since I was driving and concentrating more on the road, I thought they would have a chance. It worked. They each made a handful of change. Cinci only saw one thing first. Sherman had troubles, but he always has troubles. His vision is very bad. Atticus saw the most. They were all pretty attentive throughout the whole trip. No iPads, no iPods, no car DVD players. Only Mommy screaming a few times. Sometimes Hector did that for me. And the rest of the time we listened to books on tape or cd or really annoying songs that the kids like.

My favorite moment of the trip was when we got to see the elk come out in the evening for their mating rituals. The big bull would do his mating call. He was grand and majestic. I have a picture of one above but the one I'm speaking of was different. He and his female friends were grazing in a river valley by our campsite on the third night of our trip. We heard him calling out all night long. I was happy to hear Atticus talking about it the next morning.

My most unfavorite moment of the trip was when I noticed that the coolant was a bit low and I couldn't get the cap off. Fortunately, I was able to drive three more days until I got home safely. I still haven't been able to get that dang cap off!

Here are my two favorite items I bought for the trip. The first one was individual premeasured cups of instant oatmeal. All you had to do was heat the water, dump it in the cup and stir. All ready! No pouring into bowls needed. The other thing I really liked for the trip were those small powder packets that you just add to a bottle of water. The kids think they're great. That way you just pack a crate of bottled water and you don't have to bring extra special drinks for the kids. My kids know that when we go camping we bring lots of junky things that we usually don't have. Like soda, junky cereal, candy, licorice, marshmallows, chocolate, etc. Well, I usually have chocolate, but they only get it sometimes. A lady told me about disposable toothbrushes that come with the toothpaste already applied. I'll have to look into those for my next trip.

As for sleeping at night, we wouldn't have made it without our Pop Top Super Adventure Volkswagen Eurovan. We just slept in that on the nights that we camped. I can't say that it was comfortable. With my large belly and Hector drop kicking me all night, I can say that it was just okay. Not great, but okay. Comparing it to the few nights before I actually left on the trip, it was better actually. Hector had these strange canker sores that wouldn't permit him to sleep well. But they started to disappear as our trip progressed. Instead of screaming in the middle of the night, he just screamed for about thirty minutes after he woke up every morning. I kind of felt sorry for all those old timers in their cushy RV's having to listen to my baby screaming at 7 in the morning. I hope they consoled themselves by thinking, "I'm glad I'm not that lady." Unfortunately, Cinci started to get the canker sores too but his were worse. They were the size of dimes. Two dimes on each side of his tongue. He comforted himself by holding my small binoculars the rest of the trip. I think he liked them so much because they made him look like Wall-e when he put them on his eyes.

Atticus and Sherman really helped me out a lot during the trip. I couldn't have done all the lifting stuff and watching of Hector by myself. I don't think they learned as much as I would have wanted them to but I have to remind myself to chill out. Throwing rocks in the Snake River with Hector will probably be a more pleasant memory to them than having their over- stressed and unattractive mother repeating questions to them about the volcanic activity in and around Yellowstone.

So, there you have it. My trip in a nutshell. We survived. We had fun. We didn't spend too much money. I didn't fall asleep at the wheel. Jonathan got a lot of work done while we were gone. We have some pictures and plenty of memories.

Dragonflies

This is one of the many dragonflies I saw while I was in Thailand last fall.

I went to a Qatar Natural History Group meeting last October where a professor came and spoke to everyone about the dragonflies and damselflies of Qatar. I've never been "into" bugs before, but during this meeting I felt a spark. I little one. I took detailed notes. I even wrote down all the places I could go to search for these mysterious creatures. I've seen a dragonfly before. I've seen them here, there, and everywhere throughout my life! But I've never really paid much attention to them. I never once pondered the colors they were, whether they were migratory, how they mate, how they grow, or what they eat. Now, I think about those things pretty often. Especially when I see a dragonfly. It doesn't happen very often in Qatar. There are 12 species of dragonfly/damselflies here. Ever since the meeting I've been keeping my eyes open. I've seen them at our clubhouse pool a few times, skimming the water, which surprised me. Then I saw them a few days ago when I took my kids to the Sheikh Faisal museum forest. In their irrigation water storage tank, there were several kinds speeding by. I was only able to get photos of one kind. The kids kept scaring them off. What do you expect? They aren't as interested as I am yet.

The one above is a very distant shot. Sorry. I was not prepared to see dragonflies just outside of Sealine Resort. We were on our way to go dune bashing. I hadn't expected this wonderful surprise. There were loads of them. They were all a greenish color and I wondered why they were so abundant there because they are only supposed to live near fresh water. I guess I'm not familiar enough with that area.

So, I'm pretty excited to go back to the US in a few weeks. I'm going to go dragonfly hunting as soon as I get off the plane. There are some nice nature preserve areas just outside San Francisco International Airport. So, to keep ourselves awake for the remainder of the day, I am dragging my whole family on this hunt whether they like it or not. Even my mother in law. I'd better remind her to wear her walking shoes.

Fear and Destruction

A few nights ago when I was watching the news with Jonathan, I imagined what I would do if I were in Japan when the tsunami hit. What would I do if I happened to be walking outside with my children and a massive wave hit, taking everything out with it, never to return? My eyes glaze over as I imagine the feeling of the wet air on my face, the wind whipping my jacket back and forth, and the sound of the speeding wind making it impossible for me to talk to my children. I hold my youngest in my arms and hold my second youngest's hand. I encourage all of them to walk faster so we can get out of this wind before disaster strikes. Then we see the humungous wave coming, so fast that there's no way that we could possibly escape. But time slows. It stops almost as my eyes dart from one child to another thinking what to do. Keep the baby and keep the hand I have. Scream in the other two's ears to hold on to eachother as tight as they could. What else could a mother do? Knowing that none of us could possibly survive being whipped around in that water, under and down and around. For who knows how long? Our bodies being slammed into underwater structures and big things that have already come loose in the disaster. There's no way! Jonathan said, "There's a chance in a million that anyone could survive being in the water."
The worst part about it all would be trying to make my children's last moments on earth not so fearful. The fear. The pain. The unknown. Being alone. A mother's hope that their child's suffering would be minimal.
Then there are those who have survived. Survived but have nothing material left. Or perhaps not even a family member left alive. What must their thoughts be?
I'm so grateful for the safety I've enjoyed and that I do enjoy every day. Someday perhaps I will be right in the middle of a natural disaster. Will I be prepared? Where will my children be? I hope that I can comfort someone in a time like that even if it isn't my own child. I hope someone else will do the same for mine.

Compound living = freedom and space

It's the last day of February. The temperature outside is moving up, slowly. Really slowly. But I know that by the end of March it will be hot outside. So, today while Jonathan was away with Sherman and Cinci at Playball, Atticus, Hector and I planted some more seeds. I've been thinking about this hot weather that is on it's way. Whenever it's hot, I don't eat anything good. By good, I mean healthy. I just stuff bread in my mouth, or eat a bowl of cereal. I have no desire to cook anything. Why cook when its cooking outside? So, on my summer menu for this year are two dishes: lebanese tabouleh and italian bruschetta. I planted a few pots of basil for my bruschetta, and just one pot of parsley for tabouleh. I can get nice parsley anytime, anywhere in this city. No need for more than one pot. Atticus planted himself three small rows of radishes. For some reason he's been bugging me to buy some. Well, they sell them in a large box at Carrefour. I'm not buying a large box of something that he probably won't finish. He can grow them outside his window if he wants them so bad. Hector ran around with the old dried basil plants I just uprooted. It was a bit windy and I could smell the basil in the air. I love our compound so much. OK, maybe most people would complain if they were in my shoes, "But you don't have a yard!" I know, I don't have a yard, but the streets are wide, there are sidewalks there are large communal areas spread throughout the compound, and I'm happy. But the moment some punk kid decides to pick Sherman's tomatoes maybe I'll change my mind. Well, no, I won't. I'd just ask if I can move to a two bedroom villa that comes with a small yard.

I know the tomatoes look pretty dismal in the above photo but if you get closer you can see 14 tomatoes growing on those plants. Yay for Sherms!Fridays we don't watch TV so that means one of us has to get up in the morning and do something with the kids. Jonathan usually teaches them how to cook eggs. Sometimes I go on a walk with Atticus and Sherman to some less familiar area of our Lot or the other Lot. Since they arise quite early, there usually isn't anyone outside, which is great. I don't even get dressed in clothes. We just all wear our pajamas and traipse around the compound chatting about whatever they want. Every time we are out strolling on Friday mornings we admire the desert sun. There is so much dust in the air on some mornings that you can look straight at the sun and it doesn't hurt your eyes. It's fascinating and beautiful. I tell the kids that it is beautiful because I want them to know what "beautiful" is. There are so many things that are beautiful that most people just overlook or don't even mention. If mothers, who are with their children the most, don't point out what is beautiful to their children, how will they know what is? Yes, children will eventually form their own opinions, but at least they will know what you, their mother, thought was beautiful. And perhaps because of that simple reason, they will appreciate it too.
So now, all the people that go to church with me know why we are always late for church. We're too busy running around outside in our tattered pajamas or reading about the Greco-Persian Wars to get there on time.

I'm grateful for the spaciousness of our living accomodations. At first I thought compound living would be uncomfortable and intrusive. However, there is plenty of room for everyone to live as they please, and surprisingly, most people spend their time indoors leaving the beautiful grounds to us McCollums and our Tumbleweeds.

The Bear went over the Mountain!

I know a lot of people complain about living in Qatar but I must scream out over those complainers that "Qatar is cool!!!!!". Last Saturday we went to the Sheikh Faisal Museum with some friends of ours from school. The museum is actually the personal collection of Sheikh Faisal, a near family member of the Emir of Qatar. It's a very large museum, it must be to be able to contain all the boats and cars, and even an airplane, he's collected. My favorite collectible of his was this torture device that was left out front. The boys had a fun time sticking their feet in and pretending they were trapped.

After enjoying the museum and saying farewell to our friends we went to explore the grounds. If you must know something about me it is that I love to explore. I must discover what that cluster of trees is hiding. I must know where that road leads. I must find a way to that mosque that looks like an LDS temple. I must walk through the desert just as the bear went over the mountain, just to see what he could see. It's reassuring to see things for myself. So many people see things so differently than me, that I find it difficult to take their words for it. The kids ran around inside those huge barrels and no one came to complain. Back and forth, back and forth. Then we entered the forest. There were irrigation ditches that the kids sent bark and sticks down. Atticus and I hunted the peacocks. Well, not really hunted. But we chased them so abruptly that they flew up into the trees. I'd never seen a peacock fly until then. They are gorgeous! We chased them over and over again. On our way out of the forest we walked along a row of eucalyptus trees, the trees of my childhood. I used to make forts in them with my friends. The smell of the leaves brought it all back. I try to share the smells with my kids. It's so strange how a smell can mean so much to me, but for them it has no meaning. Just a smell and that's it. As we chased our last peacocks we discovered hundreds of grasshoppers jumping through the fields. Now I know where to go with my glass jar before we go fishing. I've made these hats. The ugly red and green one was my first crocheted hat. I'm too embarrassed to wear it in public because my neighbor made fun of me when she saw me put it on. Red and green? Well, those were the only colors I had at the time. I'm becoming obsessed with crochet.

Hector helps me carry my watering jug. We've got 9 tomatoes growing on our plants. The plants look sickly but the tomatoes continue to grow. We'll see how big they get.

And lastly, in our great endeavors to raise these boys of ours, we are beginning a stuctured education towards manhood. Our first lesson:

How to make a "man with hat"(which is basically and egg cooked inside a piece of toast, with a toast circle on the top.)

Next lessons: all the other types of eggs and how to tie shoelaces

Banana Island

Lots of bones,
hermit crabs,

strange shaped jellyfish,

but the most impressive of all was this massive blue crab we found upon arrival.