Littlest Pet Shop characters pretty much just look like fish eggs now.

Today someone mentioned Littlest Pet Shop toys and I hadn't thought about them in years.  But, considering my kids are all pretty much grown now, that's not a surprise.  But Littlest Pet Shop toys that I remember were super cute.  Adorable even.  Little animals with cute little faces and eyes that were big enough to be captivating yet not so big they looked... abnormal or anything.

Just cute. 

So for the heck of it, I went online to see if they were even still being made.

THEY aren't.
But they are.

Being made that is.

But they are NOT the cute little faces of yore (how old does something have to be to be 'yore'?)  In the 1990's they were cute.  Even in the early 2000's cute.  Today?  Not so cute.

As a matter of fact, when I saw the newest versions, the heads of all the animals are too round and the eyes are way, way too big.  Freaky, ugly big.  And some of them are so... off that the first thing I thought of when I saw it was an early embryo.  Or a fish egg. Or frog eggs.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frog_eggs.jpg
Geoff Gallice from Gainesville, FL, USA

In my google search of random frog eggs I saw this and yep... that's exactly what I thought of when I saw the ugly little Littlest Pet Shop critter today.

http://weclipart.com/frog+egg+clipart

Oh look... there it is.  Right in the middle of the frog eggs!   :)

I'm super happy I don't have any Littles right now; because these are just not coming into my house.  Not when I can go to the store and buy cute little realistic animals for them to play with.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/search/toy%20animal

Girls Road Trip 2018 - Camping Across Arizona - Random photos of the Grand Canyon

One of the things that surprised me about the Grand Canyon was it isn't all just dry rock.  Most of the photos you see of the park are grand, fabulous pictures of the various rock formations and color variations, etc. so in my head, I assumed it was all dry rock and canyon.  But it isn't!  There are many parts that have shrubs or a bit of greenery trying desperately to survive.

I also never tired of looking out at the canyon, no matter which area or outlook we were at.  Luckily my daughter felt the same and we could walk apart from each other, find a rock or a place void of too many small rocks, and we could perch ourselves there and just stare off into the canyon without feeling as though the other was waiting patiently (or impatiently!) for us.  We both just found relaxation and enjoyment in the gazing.

I'm going to move on to the next part of our trip but I thought I'd post a few random shots of the canyon first... just because I like looking at them.  Perhaps some of my readers will too.

This last photo...  I wish I had taken a picture from a different angle so you could see it only has a very small ledge around the left and back (front?) side of it.  Not as wide as the right side that shows in the picture.  The reason I wish you could see the small ledge is because when we arrived, there were two teenage boys sitting on the front edge of the rock (see the tippy top front edge in front of the small shrubs?) and they were eating lunch while sitting on the ledge with their feet hanging over.

As a Mom of three, I wanted to march right out there and tell them to get their butts down from there!  But of course all I could was shake my head.  My daughter and I both knew they were enjoying the attention they were getting.  Teen boys like to look cool and do things like that for attention (yes, I raised a teen boy!  Ha) but I was pretty sure I was going to watch one of them die.  When they finished their sandwiches and kicking their legs as if they hadn't a care in the world, they walked to the back side of the rock and slid over the edge and jumped down.

Yeah, my daughter and I (and pretty much every one else who was on the rocks that day and saw them) were sure we were going to watch two stupid teenage boys die.  Obviously they didn't.  But my stomach lurched watching them jump over that edge and come oh so close to the bottom ledge - which was nary wide enough to contain them had they not landed firmly on two feet.  Had one lost their balance or slipped?  It's a long, long, long... long, long way down.

You might also be interested in these books, available through Amazon;  One of them, "Death in Grand Canyon" is one I plan to order myself.  It was for sale in a couple of the Grand Canyon area gift shops and I almost bought it but it was $25 and I knew I could get it cheaper elsewhere.  Amazon has it cheaper so it is on my 'list' as soon as the budget allows.  There are also related books featuring Yellowstone, Yosemite and Zion National Park too (and others but I only listed the 4 here).

Over The Edge: Death in Grand Canyon, Newly Expanded 10th Anniversary Edition
Death in Zion National Park: Stories of Accidents and Foolhardiness in Utah's Grand Circle
Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite
Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park, 2nd Edition

       

Girls Road Trip 2018 - the next couple days; Moran Point, Lipan Point, Yaki Point

On the way to check into our cabin rental, we stopped at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center.  Honestly we thought it would be a little... more (?) than what it was.  For the amount of people visiting, we expected a little more.  It was fine, but compared to say... the visitor center at Mt. Rushmore?  No comparison.  We ended up leaving the Grand Canyon visitor center area surrounding area pretty quickly after viewing a few things and buying a couple gifts in the shop.  Honestly, the gift shop offerings were terrible; we couldn't find anything for most of the people we wanted to purchase for.  Very few items for sale comparatively speaking.  The little ranger hats, t-shirt and vest for The Littles could have been bought anywhere and the little stuffed tree stump with little animals poking out of it, also could have been bought literally anywhere.  The t-shirts for sale were few and well... we didn't buy any even though we had 5 different people we were 'looking' to buy t-shirts or 'something' for.  (*We did find great choices elsewhere - including the gift center down the highway at Desert View and we also found great things at Hermit's Rest and the Market inside the Grand Canyon.  Just not their official visitors center.)

Grand Canyon Visitor Center

Hub for park information, bike rentals, coffee, exhibits & historical artifacts, plus a gift shop.

S Entrance Rd, Grand Canyon Village, AZ 86023

I find anything to do with history fascinating... and I also love when people do things like this;

A minor left his box of supplies for prospector's coming after him, with a note telling them to use anything they might need from it, but to please not destroy anything.

This display of how the rock formations were formed was interesting, but easily missed as it's just on the side of the display, facing the back of the gift shop.

While I go for history, my daughter goes for plants.  Any kinds.  She loved the various cacti, shrubs, flowers and trees found on this trip. 

Using the cabin as our home base for the next couple days we hit all the area 'outlooks' - Moran Point, Lipon Point, etc. 

You would think you would get tired of looking out at the Grand Canyon over the course of a number of days, but you know, we never did.

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