Lassie, Is little Billy stuck in the well?

Josh likes birds. It started a couple of years ago when we had some robins build a nest in our tree. It was really fun to watch them raise their babies (although, that year both the birds and I were due to have babies at the same time and they got theirs first. I was only a little jealous.). Anyway, since then, we've kept all sorts of bird food in the house. Robins especially love raisins. Josh will go throw raisins for the birds several times a day. The kids have got in on the action and really enjoy watching all sorts of birds come to visit. Some of the robins will even call to us from the deck if there are no raisins for them. Well, last night, Sophie came in and asked to feed the birds. She said, "Doo, doo, eat?" (That really means tweet tweet eat.) So I got her some raisins and we went to the deck to feed the birds. Sophie held on to hers, and no matter how I tried, I could not get her to throw the raisins. (This is unusual. She usually throws them.) I came inside, and left the door open until she decided what she was going to do. She came in and joined the other kids in the TV room. I got up and shut the door. Ten minutes later, she came in and with a very scary scowl on her face, said, "HEY! HEY!" I said, "What's wrong, Sophie?" She kept scowling and saying, "HEY!" over and over. So, I said, "You've got some raisins?" "HEY!" "You want to feed the birds?" "HEY!" "The door is shut?" "HEY!" "You want me to open the door?" "Uh-huh." The scowl came off her face and she ran to the door. We went out and she fed the birds. They actually come quite close to her, too. I'm so glad my little Sophie can communicate so well.

Mom, I think I'll call this one...

Too much water in the sunset.

By Ryan.

What have we been up to? All sorts of fun.

There are lots of pictures in this post, but it's so worth it because we are so beautiful. And the scenery was great. We got to go to the Arches last week. We also went to Canyonlands, Goblin Valley and Mesa Verde. We loved every bit of our time off.

Sophie tells the statue of a Raven to stop biting.

Look at us! We're the royal family of the rock! Anna commands you to look at more arches.

Playing with the best sand in the world at Sand Dune Arch.

Lovely Delicate Arch.

Swimming. This picture got out of order. There will be more swimming pictures later.

Handsome boy.

It was beautiful timing for wild flowers. There were all the colors of the rainbow in flowers.

I love the twisting trees of the desert.

This is why it took us almost 2 hours to walk less than a mile. Every 2 feet Ryan had to stop and play in the sand. He said he "was fixing the sand."

Sophie liked the ants. And I guess we could also blame her for the time it took us. She walked every foot of every trail. Good thing we weren't on a schedule and could just enjoy every last detail of every rock, ant, grain of sand we came across.

Beautiful.

Cute. Grandpa and Grandma Rawlins came with us. Sophie found a buddy.

Looking at a ladybug. Like I said, we enjoyed everything.

This girl does not slow us down. She ran ahead to see what was coming, then ran back to tell us. She would go back and forth and back and forth, never stopping. Here, she is practicing her dance for her upcoming recital.

Striking a pose by the Anasazi house.

Cute family. Look up, Ryan.

Shoulder rides for all, just make sure to take turns.

Here's some more swimming fun.

What a handsome little fellow.

And, here we are in the Canyonlands. I guess I didn't upload any pictures of Goblin Valley, but you get the idea.

A few weeks ago, we went to Thanksgiving Point to enjoy the animals and the flowers.

This little guy was only a half-hour old. He was born while we were there. He was still wet and wobbly. It was pretty exciting. The mommy was very protective of him. If he exposed himself to the crowds, she would push him back behind her. We were lucky to get a picture.