white sands, no rain this time

We made it to White Sands Monument again today. We didn't get rained on this time, and we had a really good time. We had kids galore having a grand time, and from oldest to youngest there was sand, sand, sand.

Last week when we went, I gave Raine the brochure that you get at the gate, so she could look through it and practice her reading. She was fascinated by the bleached earless lizard. We had to discuss whether or not it really has ears. (yes, but the openings are very small.) No, you can't just call it a white lizard, you have to say the WHOLE thing... sigh... bleached earless lizard (and try it with no front teeth...)

So, today we were walking to the restroom, and Raine was walking on the sand dunes while I walked at the edge of the road. She - of course - did not have her shoes on, and the sand was softer on the dune of course. She told me she wanted to see one of those bleached earless lizards, as if I could just point somewhere and there it would be. I told her we would have more luck finding one where there were more plants, and she pointed between some dunes to an area that hadn't been graded and remarked that there were plants over there.

Needless to say, we walked that way back towards the car, looking for little white lizards. Would you believe it? In about the third or fourth little clump of grass, there was a little white lizard. Well, how cool was that? Of COURSE it was a bleached earless lizard, what else could it have possibly been? Take a picture of it Mama. Well, sweety, I didn't bring the camera to the bathroom, silly me. We walked to the car, got the camera, and a lot of followers, but the lizard was nowhere to be found. Smart lizard. Still, she saw it, and it was one of the high points of the evening for her.