2nd Lost Tooth and Soda Fountain

Hurricane wanted to lose his tooth on our trip.

He wouldn't let me help pull it out at Aunt Katie's house.

After we visited Brown vs. Board of Education in Topeka,

we learned that this is the only National Historic Site named after a court case.

The location is in the desegregated school,

and of course, they earned the Junior Ranger badge.

We got going down the road to Hays, Kansas.

He announced that the tooth was out - all on his own.

We celebrated with ice cream sodas from a soda fountain - 

root beer, creme de menthe, and blue raspberry.

Gateway Arch

The Gateway Arch was made 50 years ago.

We made it to St. Louis and crossed into Missouri.

Again we couldn't stop to take our picture by the Welcome sign.

 

We made it to the area and went to the Jefferson National Expansion.

The building houses the ticket office for the Arch.

In addition, we did the Junior Ranger badge for the National Expansion.

Once we got in line for the ride up the Arch,

we got to the top and realized that Hurricane doesn't like heights.

He looked out the window and was ready to go down immediately.

We listened to some say that the elevator pods 

looked the escape pods from Star Wars.

Aunt Katie and her children found the baseball stadium for the Cardinals.

My sister was wearing her Kansas City Royals shirt.

She thought it was funny to wear it in Cardinal country.

While in the Arch, the children finished yet another Junior Ranger badge.

The badge was a commemorative badge because of the 50 year anniversary.

Hurricane chose the commemorative one because his reasoning was 

that he could always come back and get the other one another time.

Lincoln's Home

Lincoln built a home in Springfield.

The home was bought and then additions were made.

The National Parks Service now gives tours of the home.

The home is shown how it was when Lincoln's body returned.

As a lawyer, he provided for his family in extraordinary way.

All 3 of the children did the Junior Ranger badge. 

When we went on the tour we were asked 

to only touch the blue carpet walkways.

The children did an amazing job following directions. 

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

Kansas has a few National Park sites.

One of them is the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.

 

We learned that the native grasses were taken out 

when farmers came in the last half of the 19th Century.

In the 1930s, the Dust Bowl came and blew away the soil.

The native grass started to regrow which holds the soils.

We learned a lot about how different grasses have different jobs.

The Preserve is a working ranch with buffalo, cattle, and a few horses.

We learned that a family moved onto the property in 1889.

The husband built a 3 story home with many out buildings.

The home was very fancy. The school was also built on the property.

The family only lived in the home 

for about 6 years relocating to Kansas City.

The barn has 3 stories and is still in use.

The boys did earn their Junior Ranger badge and a Leave No Trace patch.

Oklahoma City National Memorial Site

We pulled into our next stop:

The Oklahoma City National Memorial Site. 

The National Parks Service and the Oklahoma City have partnered

on the site to remember the bombing on April 19, 1995.

The memorial is a beautiful place, 

and the boys wanted to earn a Junior Ranger badge.

 

We found the Site Ranger and started on the workbook.

The boys learned that there is a chair 

for each person who was killed in the bombing.

Smaller chairs represent the children who were killed.

Each chair has engraved on its base the name of a person who was killed.

The reflecting pond is the outline of the building hedged in by 2 walls.

One wall has written on it one minute 

before the bombing representing innocence.

The opposite wall has one minute after the bombing 

representing the beginning of healing and hope.

Underfoot asked a question about the families and how they healed.

What a golden opportunity to talk about love, healing, and eternity!

The families of the bombing victims had to learn to live and find peace.

We talked about how we believe we will see each other again after we die,

and if we are obedient to our covenants, we will be a family forever.

Death isn't the end of our family.

 

An American Elm tree sits on the property that was there when the bombing took place.

It was scarred and hurt but grew back bigger and more full than before the bombing.

The tree is called the Survivor Tree. 

It shows how we as individuals can be resilient to hardships in our lives

and to choose to be stronger.

The boys have talked about the tree since we've returned home.

Day One: New Mexico, Texas, New Mexico, Texas

For fall break, we decided to go and see my sister, Katie. 

Since I was sick earlier in the year, 

Sweetheart took time off to take care of me.

Because of his care, he used his vacation time

and couldn't join us on our adventures.

He saluted us as we left per Hoggan family tradition.

On our first day we traveled through New Mexico.

This was Hurricane's first time here. 

We stopped for lunch and continued onward.

I forgot about time zone changes when planning

and could have left earlier to see a few things.

We crossed into Texas and drove through El Paso.

Little did I know that the freeway is very close to the boarder of Mexico.

I was struck with the thought the housing looked 

very Mexican on one side and on the other side of the freeway looked American.

I learned later that it was in fact Mexico.

We drove to see the bats fly at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico.

We arrived in time to see the bats fly and to hear the Park Ranger presentation.

The Ranger took questions from the audience, 

and Underfoot wowed me with his bat knowledge 

as he responded to questions from the Ranger.

The bats leave the cave and fly in 7 circles before breaking off the cave.

The audience is asked to be quiet throughout the flight.

Hundreds (if not thousands of bats) flew. No pictures are allowed of the event.

We jumped back into the car and drove to Lubbock, Texas to sleep.

Kartchner Caverns State Park

Noodles and her family and Grandpa and Grandma came to visit Auntie M and her family.

They drove south to visit us, and we went to Kartchner Caverns State Park.

While there we toured the cave, 

did a Junior Ranger badge,

and learned about bats.

They were obedient to the tour guide and didn't touch any of the rock formations.

The cave is a living cave meaning that it is still growing.

Not-So-Junior Ranger

He was invited to go graduate Junior Ranger camp.

He participated the past 2 years.

This was his 3rd year.

Last year he had the same Ranger as his instructor.

She enjoyed being his instructor again this year.

She is going to recommend him for Junior Cactus Rangers.

His group created a park. 

The park included wookies, ewoks, and other Star Wars areas.

They were all included in the same park.

They were super happy.

He made a friend that he talked about the whole time.

He asked if Gus could come over and play.

We learned that Gus was swimming too on a opposing team.

Here is the song they sang for their presentation.

Petrified Forest National Park

We visited the Petrified Forest National Park 

as part of Thanksgiving.

This National Park has a painted desert.

There are also petrified trees.

You are asked when you enter and when you leave

if you've taken any parts of the park especially the petrified part.

The desert here changes from red to grays to blues.

Part of the park takes in part of Route 66.

When Route 66 was super popular,

the park had many visitors and even overnight hotels.

Underfoot and Hurricane enjoyed earning their Junior Ranger badges.

The park give a plastic badge as well as a woven patch.

Yosemite in One Day

On our way back to home, we went to Yosemite National Park.

We left early in the morning from Lake Tahoe.

Entering in the east entrance, we drove through Tuolumne Meadows.

This is in the Yosemite Valley. This isn't Tuolumne Meadows.

 

 Bridal Veil Falls

  The boys wanted to get their Junior Ranger badges.

 

El Capitan and Half Dome

El Capitan

Glacial Point with Half Dome in the background

Loose Tooth

 Lost Tooth

Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias

See how big I am Mom?

Even Mom isn't as big as the tree.

The base of a sequoia is huge.

It was a very fast day. 

There is so much to see, but we didn't know when we would be there again.

We saw a much as we could.

And LOVED the beauty of it all!

Junior Ranger Camp Year 2

Underfoot completed his second year of Junior Ranger. 

Last year he really enjoyed it, 

so we enrolled him in it again this year. 

Another boy from his class (both school and church) also participated, 

so the two moms worked out a carpool arrangement. 

He really liked the group he was in and especially Ranger.

He presented about Teddy Bear Cactus and Chain Fruit Cactus.

He was confident and happy to share.

Underfoot brought home an owl pellet 

with bird bones and bird skulls. 

He was very proud of his discoveries. 

Mom was not excited to see 

the owl pellet pinned to his bedroom wall.

Montezuma's Castle

On our way home from the Grand Canyon,

we stopped at Montezuma's Castle.

The boys want to take pictures all the time.

We are starting to let them take pictures of us.

I am actually in pictures now.....

Hurricane took this shot on our way back from getting our picture taken.

The picture was crooked. 

Thank goodness for PhotoShop.

The boys completed the Junior Ranger program.

Because of their ages, the boys had to do different requirements.

Montezuma's Castle is a little park.

The park was a nice break in our drive back.

We took about 1/2 an hour.

Hurricane came over to me and asked for his picture by this tree.

He posed himself and told me to take a lot of pictures.

We asked the boys if they would like to climb ladders to live in the wall.

The water, food, and everything else would need to be carried up as well.

The boys thought about it and thought it would be a lot of work,

and they would be tired at the end of every day.