The Vasquez Rocks

Tiburcio Vasquez

With Monday being President's Day and Dad was off since it was a government holiday, we decided to take the class out of the classroom and head out to Agua Dulce to visit the Vasquez Rocks Natural Park. Located on 932 acres, the park is located in the Sierra Pelona Mountains and contain many gorgeous rock formations that were formed from Volcanic and earthquake activity as well as from erosion.  The park is named for Tiburcio Vasquez, a California bandito who evaded capture from the law by hiding among the rocks from 1873 to 1874.


 Living in Southern California, the park is less than an hour away so we felt that it would be a great day trip for the kids before the weather started getting too hot.     So we packed up a picnic lunch and headed out early in the morning for a fun filled day of hiking and rock climbing.

If these rocks look familiar, it's most likely because you have seen them time and time again on TV and in movies.  Star Trekkies will instantly recognize them as the sight where Captain Kirk fought with Gorn.  Other TV shows that filmed at the rocks have been A-Team, The Outer Limits, F-Troop, and Murder She Wrote.  As for the big screen, they were also in the recent Sci-fi movie John Carter, The Flintstones, and Dante's Peak among others.

The weather was beautiful and the the temperatures were only in the mid 70's, perfect for exploring.  We explored front part of the park, close to where we parked for the first hour, where we studied various plants such as cactus and juniper (we also found some wild dill), lichen, and mosses.  We also found a few larger caves that we were safely able to explore and climb through.

 This particular cave was rather "kid friendly" with a pretty wide opening that opened to a vault with a ceiling of about 5 foot high.  It had a climb of about 20 foot once inside that led to a wide opening with shelf where we could take a break and look around for a bit.

Here's looking up to the Upper Opening .. The climb wasn't as bad as this picture makes it look.

At the mouth of the upper opening. 

 Dad found a nice lil shelf to lay on and take a siesta. 

Throughout the park, there were lots of crevices and slopes that the kids could safely climb, however, we did decide that we will be investing in hiking books for everyone.

After about an hour of climbing, we decided it was time to take a break and to eat some lunch.  After a wonderful picnic lunch of sandwiches, apple slices with peanut butter and trail mix, string cheese and lots of fluids, we were ready to explore some more..

We decided to check out this particular rock, one of the highest in the park.  This rock is easily 150 foot up, maybe more.  (Not the guy standing by the RV at the bottom of the picture)..

We got about halfway up and it got a little too steep for Ashleigh and Garrett (and Mom too because it was hard to safely climb with the camera) so we perched where we were at while Dad and Alyssa climbed to the top.  When they returned, they said that it was better that the kids hadn't made the climb as it was extremely windy at the top and it would have been unsafe for the kids.

After that climb, we decided to stay at ground level for a bit and check out some of the trails. We found this really neat area where we could really see the striations of the various layers of the stone as well as possible sleeping sites of the Tataviam American Indians.

While the kids were pretty loud while on our hike, we did manage to see a few birds and lizards who were enjoying the beautiful weather.  This lil guy was enjoying sunning himself on one of the rocks and was very nice to stick around while we took photographs of him.

There were so many really neat rock formations that we found (and we only explored a very small percentage of the park).

Looking at lizards under the bush.

After a few hours of hiking and climbing, we headed over to the Visitors Center/Gift Shop area for the park.  There we got to see a Red Tailed Hawk who was enjoying her dinner and then inside we found some displays of various snakes and arachnids located in the park. (Luckily we didn't find any of those).

Yes, This guy is very much alive.

So is this guy, much to the heebie geebies of mom.. lol 

The Gift Shop proved to be one an unexpected highlight of our trip.   Staffed by volunteers who enjoy helping educate the public, especially children, we met a wonderful older woman who spent a great bit of time showing the kids various displays and items that pertained to the spiders in the park.. The spider in the picture above had molted three times already and so the kids were able to look at (and even touch) the skins that had been shed.  They were also shown the borrow of a Trapdoor Spider where they were able to feel the silk lining inside, examine the silk hinge of the door and see how the trapdoor actually worked.  

We had such a wonderful time climbing and hiking and cannot wait to go back again.  We also found out that the Visitor center does various displays and presentations about wildlife throughout the week and will have to make plans to maybe attend a few of those during the summer.

It was an amazing field trip and I'm sure the kids will never forget it :)


This post is part of the the Homeschool Review Crew's Field Trip Inspiration Round up. For other great field trip ideas from around the country, be sure to click the image below :)

Pick Up Your Cross and Follow Me ( Verse of the Week)

Last night my husband and I took the kids out to dinner and as we sat waiting for our food, as well as while enjoying our meal, my husband and my teenage daughter began asking me questions in regards to the Bible, faith and God.  While I will never profess to be a master at knowing all, I was very grateful to have actually began the process of digging into the scripture and I felt like God provided me the words to speak to them. I even had my husband stating he would be interested in learning Theology :)  

Anywhooo, the kids are currently working on their fourth memorization verse which comes from the book of Genesis.  Once again, the wording is coming from the NIRV from Garrett's Faith Builder's Bible from Zonderkids. 

Then the Lord God formed a man. HE made him out of the dust of the ground. God breathed the breath of life into him. And the man became a living person.    Genesis 2:7

I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with these two lil kiddos as they have done really well memorizing each of the verses we have done so far.  And they have progressively gotten longer each week, yet they didn't bat an eyelash :) 

As for my own Bible studies:  As I mentioned last week, I've been working through three different studies.. This week, my verse is coming from one of the lessons in "Into The Word" by Anne Graham Lotz (whom I only recently discovered and I am finding that I REALLY like).    The verse I'm picking for the week had me thinking more than I had in the past. It's a verse I've read before but I guess my mind misinterpreted it or I just wasn't ready for the meaning behind it, or maybe I just looked at it on a deeper level..  But suddenly I saw it in a different way.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. 

              Matthew 16:24          (NLT Translation  from BibleGateway.com)

For whatever reason, I always just felt this verse was about the fact that people would not like Christ's followers, as they despised Christ himself, and so he was saying for them to accept that fact and follow him, the "Cross" in this case being picking up the humiliation and the rejection in order to be a follower.. But as I looked at other verses such as 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 1 Peter 2:24, and Romans 8: 12-14, I started to see there was more to what Christ was telling his followers than what meets the eye (which, honestly, is pretty typical of Jesus)..

I now see this verse as Christ telling us that HE paid the price for our sins on the Cross. He had the nails through his hands and feet, he wore the crown of thorns, and he suffered and endured a pain none of us will ever have to feel. He paid the price but that cross he hung from was OURS to bear, it was our sins he was paying the price for, not his own.  

I started to see that "taking up the cross" in this sense actually meant honoring that sacrifice by leaving behind our sinful ways and choosing to live by the guidelines Christ set for us.  We should follow the example Christ set for us.  

It amazes me how I can read the same verse on multiple occasions and suddenly see it in a different light.  Maybe it's because the more that I read, the more open I am to Jesus and the lessons he left for us.  

Now it's your turn.  Do you have a verse that you're working on this week in your homeschool or in your life?  If so, please feel free to join our weekly linkup.  We only have a few small rules for you:

Follow Your Hosts

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Love Notes and Flowers (Throwback Thursday)

This time last year, the kids were mailing off Valentines and were learning about Gardening and botany as we prepared to set up our first garden in the back yard.   A year later and they mailed off valentines for other homeschooled kids on Monday and we're about to start clearing out the back yard once again to make a bigger/better garden.   This weekend I'll be placing an order with Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for various flowers, herbs and vegetables.Last year, our garden experiment turned out to be a success. Even thought we made many mistakes in planning, such as planting at the wrong time and next to the wrong type of neighbors, we learned a lot and decided this year, we wanted to try it again.  This time, we researched what plants grow well with each other, what would be best for our growing zone and with our rocky soil.  Next weekend we will rent a tiller from the Outdoor Rec department here on base as none of us feel like breaking sod/ground for a 40 foot long garden.. haha

Our Aerogarden is still up and running although lately it's been growing a heirloom tomato plant that will be ready for transplant soon.  Ashleigh has asked that our next round of plants in it will be flowers though so I will probably order a kit for her soon as well. Gardening has turned out to be something we've come to enjoy.  I'm sure right around this time next year, we will also be writing about how we're planning the Spring planting once again :)
Friday, February 13, 2015

Valentines Day and Learning about Gardening

Valentines day is right around the corner and one with think with a elementary school on base, finding those cheap lil Valentines that schoolkids exchange would be easy to find but alas, it wasn't the case. The kids are involved in a Valentine exchange with other homeschooling kids and I figured sending out 35 of those lil cards would be easy peasy.. Just get the kids to write names, put them in an envelope and mail them out. How hard can it be, right??  HA!

Actually, I should start by saying that originally, I was going to have the kids make Valentines. My plan was to slap a handful of paint on them (pink for Ashleigh, blue for Garrett) and have them put their hands on a piece of paper in such a way that it formed a heart.. Then I would get them to each sign their names and mail those off. Well, the kids weren't having any of that so I just decided what the heck, we'll buy the cheapo ones and mail them out..

I sent my husband out to the BX here on base with the mission of buying approximately 40 valentines per kid (I figured two boxes of 24 each).  He comes back shortly after and states that there were none of what I was wanting; that the only Valentines they had were boxes of 12 for 5 bucks each and he wasn't about to spend 40 bucks on Valentines (not that I blame him)..

Our next step was to drive to Walmart and pick some up there.. Driving to Walmart isn't a big deal for most people but for us it is a huge ordeal. Its a good 45 minute drive to Walmart.  Luckily, they had Valentines. As I managed to find some really great Veggietale valentines, at the kids eye level were these 3D ones - Ashleigh immediately determined she wanted the 3D cats and dogs while the other 3D option for boys was guitar/skulls. Not the best options to send to some pretty religious families.. I ended up getting boxes of both. I wish I hadn't - the 3D ones turned out to be hard to write on and the kids couldn't manage so for the 12 of those we sent out, I had to write their names for them without smuging.  But, the others they managed to write on themselves and I was pretty happy with their writing (for the most part - Garrett got a bit sloppy after a bit).

Kids hard at work filling out their Valentines for their homeschool friends

Since we were already at Walmart (or Wally World as my kids call it) we decides to look around. As we moseyed over to the garden area we started looking through all the wonderful seed offerings and decided that this year we were going to try to do a full garden in the back yard.

In the past, I have grown tomatoes but something always seems to happen to my plants right before they are ready to start producing.  One year, I had this absolutely beautiful beefeater plant that was making some really nice sized fruit.. One day I went out to water it and noticed it didn't look near as good as it had been looking - then I noticed about 2 inches of the main stem was completely gone where a squirrel chewed it in half. I tried to reroot the plant but it was so big that it couldn't produce roots big enough to support it so I lost that plant..   Last year, I had a really nice Russian Black Heirloom tomato plant that was looking great but needed some extra soil in its pot. I bought a small bag of potting soil.. Not sure what the heck was in that soil but when I watered it, the run off in the bottom looked like coca-cola. Next thing I knew, the plant was dead.

So to say that my husband wasn't too thrilled about the idea of my wanting to spend money on a garden would be a bit of an understatement.

We did pick up some seeds however. He decided on some pumpkins in the hopes of having some nice ones for jack o lanterns in October. I picked up some vegetables such as Kohlrabi, onions, lettuce, radishes, and snap peas.  We also bought a couple of new tomato plants - a big boy variety for me (so I can get some nice green ones for fried green tomatoes) and a Solar Fire variety for my husband. The idea is that this weekend, we will prepare a small 4 foot by 4 foot plot near the house for a garden .. Any squirrel crazy enough to go after the plants there will quickly meet my dog..

Want to get husband to say yes? Perfect this :)

Then, that night, I received an email from Amazon telling me about their wonderful "Deal of the Day"..   They were offering  the Aerogarden Extra LED for only $139 plus free 2 day shipping since I'm a prime member.  Well, I'd been wanting one for a LONG time now so I gave hubby what I call the  "Puss in Boots" eyes and asked nicely. My wonderful hubby said go ahead and I had that thing ordered quick as that.. LOL

The tracking said it was due to arrive today via UPS so I waited with baited breath all day for that brown truck to arrive. He showed up around 5pm. By 530 I had the Aerogarden completely set up and seed pods already inserted. This led to a really great conversation with Ashleigh and Garrett in regards to hydroponics because they wanted to know where the soil was. We decided we would start keeping a photo journal and document the growth of the plants as well as observe the root growth, which will be great since the kids have been learning about weights and measurements lately.

It doesn't take much to get me super excited

Ashleigh finishes putting the caps on the pots and looks over our work

Day 1: Pods are in and the pump is on

We ended up "planting" 7 pods :   two mighty mini cherry tomatoes, 1 mint, 1 basil, 1 dill, 1 chive and 1 parsley. Ash helped me put the nutrients into the water and put the caps over the plants and was completely amazed by how bright the light is.

This weekend my oldest will be in Monrovia with her high school Robotics team for Regionals so I guess the rest of us will go out and set up the garden and plant our various seeds since most of them need to go in to the ground now (except for my husband's pumpkins which will wait til May).    I might even break out the Apologia Botany book and start some lessons with that as we learn to grow our own food :)

O is for Orion

O is a hard word to come up with an idea for, especially when Blogging..   But last night my husband took an absolutely BEAUTIFUL shot of Orion and I couldn't help but feel drawn to post it and blog about that :)

Way back when, I bought my first telescope for myself using money I got from taxes from working at Burger King.  I paid nearly 300 dollars for it at the Discovery Store, probably more than twice what it was probably worth but I didn't care.  It was a small 4.5inch reflector scope on a completely manual wooden mount with some pretty poor eye pieces but I loved it.  

Years later, when I met my husband, he began to use my telescope.  Astronomy was something he had been interested in but never had the money to get into.  So even thought at that point in time my telescope was old and pretty beat up and the mount no longer functioned properly, he made the best he could with it and started viewing the skies.  

Fast forward nearly 10 years and the 4.5 inch beater is history (although the mirror is somewhere in our closet waiting for another project). Instead my living room is cluttered with much more expensive and much larger telescopes, one which I so lovingly refer to as R2D2 because the thing literally is the size and shape of the Star Wars Droid.   

Last night Charles took R2D2 outside. The sky was clear, the air was cold.. And over the course of 45 minutes he produced this amazing photograph of Orion's Nebula.  (Clicking the image will enlarge it significantly). 

I love that my love of the Heavens has passed on to my husband, who not only matched my enthusiasm but then surpassed it to the point he is well past where I was.  I also hope that in our homeschooling, together we can pass that love on to the children.  The Heavens are so amazing and knowing that this photograph only represents one very small and very insignificant portion of the sky (when compared to the whole) just blows my mind. 

This blog post is being linked up with the "Blogging Through the Alphabet" linkup hosted by Through the Calm and Through the Storm and  Adventures with Jude .   

Be sure to check out both of their blogs and link yours up as well :)

Verse of the Week

I'm a day late on getting this up and running this week, I do apologize.   However, I have not been slacking in my time with the Lord's word.   

Three weeks ago, my children and I switched to a Charlotte Mason style teaching method. It's been working really well for us and three weeks into it, we're still really enjoying it..   One thing we've added each week is a memory verse for this kids.. I'll start including the verse they are working on each week here as well..

For this week, they are memorizing Genesis 1:31.  Their verses are coming from the New International Reader's Version (NIRV)  as Garrett recently received the new Faith Builder's Bible from Zonderkids (review coming soon) and so we're using that version for their studies. 

31 God saw everything he had made. And it was very good. There was evening, and there was morning. It was day six.   (NIRV from BibleGateway.com)

For my own personal walk with the Lord, I've still been working through the book of Psalms but I'm also doing a very in depth study on the book of Luke, although other verses are also mentioned for comparison.   (I'm actually working through three different Bible Studies right now lol).    Last night a very particular verse stuck out to me.  It is one I've read on a number of occasions but somehow it never really hit on my radar until last night.    

Matthew 13: 55-56 (NLT Translation  from BibleGateway.com)

55 Then they scoffed, “He’s just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph,[a] Simon, and Judas. 56 All his sisters live right here among us. Where did he learn all these things?”

I guess I never gave a whole lot of thought to a child/teenage Jesus and how his upbringing and family life was.  Granted, the Bible doesn't really provide a whole lot in regards to his early life to begin with but I never paid much attention to this particular verse as the focus of the scripture was Jesus in the temple.  

Times haven't changed much.  Here was Jesus, being judged based on income level/family size. We know that there's 5 boys and at least 2 girls in the family, in addition to Mary and Joseph.  And here are the people sneering and looking down their nose at Jesus, finding fault in his intelligence based almost solely on the face that Joseph was only a carpenter..    

I've been judged so many times because I was "just" one thing or another..  but I can't imagine being the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and being told I was "just" anything..

Weekly Linkup

Now it's your turn.  Do you have a verse that you're working on this week in your homeschool or in your life?  If so, please feel free to join our weekly linkup.  We only have a few small rules for you:

Follow Your Hosts

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Verse of the Week

Most people who read the Bible usually become quite familiar with the book of Psalms.. I don't know why, but I never have really read them up until recent.  I mean, I know the 23rd by heart, have probably known it by heart since I was a young child, but beyond that, I do not recall ever reading the book of Psalms..   That's not to say I haven't read choice verses out of Psalms, just that I haven't actually read the Psalms on their own just for the same of reading them. 

I was determined to change that..

So this week, I started a new study to take me through the Psalms.  I opened my Bible to the book of Psalms and started at the beginning.

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

4 Not so the wicked!
    They are like chaff
    that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

Now it's your turn.  Do you have a verse that you're working on this week in your homeschool or in your life?  If so, please feel free to join our weekly linkup.  We only have a few small rules for you:

Follow Your Hosts

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A Cat In Paris : A Magical Coloring Book

One of my newest obsessions is adult coloring books.  I find it relaxing to sit in a warm bed, especially on a Saturday morning with the sun coming through my windows, break out my box of colored pencils (or if your a Texan like me - you're map colors) and color away.   I have a small collection of coloring books and while I enjoy many different styles, I tend to like to color images with animals.   So when I saw "Cats In Paris: A Magical Coloring Book", being a cat lover, I knew I had to add it to my library.

"Cats In Paris: A Magical Coloring Book" is an 80 page book filled with beautiful illustrations from award winning Korean illustrator Won-Sun Jang.   Cat lovers will journey through the streets of Paris with their guide cat who introduces them to kitties favorite sites and locations, from back alleys, sunny gardens, and living rooms to famed Notre-Dame Cathedral.

I absolutely love all the pictures of the cute kitties, from adorable kittens to beautiful adults, that the artist has included.  I especially love the fact that markings on the cats are left to the readers imagination. This means one is not limited to only coloring a tabby with tabby markings or a Siamese with points - you can make any cat a tabby or a seal point Siamese if one wishes. 

The pages are extremely thick in this book, probably the thickest I've seen and they show color well. I used multiple mediums so far in this book, from water colors, map colors, pens, ink stamps and crayons with no problems and the pages did not buckle, pucker, tears or bleed throughs.  

The only minor complaint I have in regards to this book is that the lack of margins, especially in the center of the book.  Illustrations go from edge to edge making very hard to get color into the very edge of the illustration.  

Overall, this is a gorgeous book and I would highly recommend it to any cat lover who enjoys adult coloring books. I would also recommend it as a great gift for a cat lover in general, even if they don't like to color, as the pictures are very nice and would be appreciated by any cat lover.