The Shaman

Eliana and I went on a 7 mile hike our friend Dan Moore organized to see The Shaman gallery near the Grand Canyon.  It was a perfect day for hiking.  The key to getting a 5-year-old to hike 7 miles?  Lots of snacks!  She ate all of her food and half of mine:)

There were a lot of marine fossils on the trail; little shells and bits of coral, etc.  The Grand Canyon plateau used to be the ocean floor until some tectonic plates smashed together pushing the ground upwards.

 These pictures do not do the rock art justice.

Eliana loves to pose these days.  Eliana and Bennett Moore were sitting next to each other in the car on the way out to the trail (and the way home), and had some interesting conversations.  Here's an example:
E: I'm throwing lighting at you! (they weren't allowed to touch each other)
B: I'm throwing nuclear bombs at you!
E: my lightning already hit you
B: I'm in another galaxy, so it can't reach me
E: my lightning can go anywhere in the universe, so it CAN reach you.

later (after a lot of bickering about whether or not her lightning could in fact reach him in another galaxy)
B: If nuclear bombs and nuclear lightning hit each other, it would kill everything on the whole planet.  Isn't that right Dad?
Dan: I'm not sure.  It would probably destroy everything except Twinkies and cockroaches, though.
Both kids had their arms raised in anticipatory attack, but neither dared make the first move to obliterate all life.
Dan: You kids just discovered the post-nuclear strategy!
Finally, the kids can use deterrents no longer.  Nuclear lightning meets nuclear bombs
E: I'm not dead, because I'm a Twinkie.
B: I'm not dead, because I'm a cockroach.  Twinkies are food, so I'm going to eat you.
E: But I'm a POISON Twinkie...

etc, etc.  The transcript is not exact, but you get the idea.  It was highly entertaining bickering.