April Update

Where has the month gone? I just checked this blog and realized I'd only posted once in April. It's not as though we didn't do anything this month... gosh, there was Easter, and the Wildflower Festival, and we went to Los Angeles... I don't know! I can't explain it. Guess I just haven't felt like writing. Well anyway, here's a quick recap of this month before we move on to the next one.

The day before Easter we took a trip to the Desert Tortoise Natural Area, and actually SAW TORTOISES! First time ever (at least without the ranger's help). It was very hard to remember that they are wild and not to be touched! Here's one:

It was so dry and desolate there, though. Just nothing is blooming this year, because we didn't have rain in December/January. We've had several small rains in the last month or two, but it's too late.

 I can't post any Easter photos because this year the boos did what they do quite often these days -- they took their diapers off when they got up (yes they still wear diapers at night) and ran around in their pajama tops and nothing else. I finally got them to put on underpants, but every picture of them with their goodies is pretty much not ready for primetime. So instead I will post a photo from the park in Lone Pine, where we went Easter afternoon:

That really is a cool park -- wish we had something like that here. Of course, part of its appeal is that Lone Pine is in fact cool -- completely different climate from Ridgecrest.

So the next weekend was the Wildflower Festival, which was a bit lackluster, seeing as how there were no flowers. I did sit at booths for both the tortoise club and my writers club, and on Sunday we went to Short Canyon, where we were told there were flowers. Gosh, not many. One or two of each variety, in many cases. But it was something. Here's a photo of a coreopsis (I think):

I don't have a single photo of the boos from that trip, because they were soooo naughty that I didn't feel like recording their behavior. But here's one from around the same time. They're sitting on the back of the loveseat in their room, so you can see the view out their window. My cute, though impossible, boys:

The next weekend we went to Los Angeles for a birthday party for two of their cousins (actually first cousins once removed, but who's counting). Lots of fun. Here's a photo of the party, showing the racetrack cake and the tower of cupcakes:

And that pretty much sums up the month. We've had some very hot weather, learned that the air conditioner in the new house does work, so that's good, though we wish the swamp cooler did too. Boos have been playing with their water table, as they always do when it's hot. And tomorrow, if all goes well, we are planning to visit Death Valley -- because once it gets hot here, it's impossible there, and we feel that we haven't been there enough this year. Supposed to be 88 here tomorrow, 98 in Death Valley. We'll see. I'll blog about it if we do go, I promise. And I'll try to do better about posting in May...