Tuesday in Austin - off to school

Tuesday in Austin

off to school

Before Kaylee goes to school in the morning, one of her activities is to play on her computer. She often does Barney, but here she is on her Mom's Facebook page, going through the photos. Kaylee is real good with the mouse!  

Here she is looking at herself in the hospital, just after she was born, with her family!

Mommy (Arrion) went to Dallas, today, for a conference - she'll be back on Thursday afternoon.

It was a great day!  ;-)

Memorial Day in Austin

Memorial Day in Austin

Well, nothing ordinary about this Memorial Day, in Austin. Because of a 'snow day' makeup, Alex actually had to go to school today. Weird! To give Arrion some time to work while Alex was in school, we took Kaylee to Target, shopping, and then to Chick-fil-A, for lunch. She likes to eat the chicken, but they also have a real nice indoors play area!

At Target, we had gotten Alex a new Wii game, Lego Batman. But, when we got home, they had given us the wrong game... not the Lego version! Also a couple of shirts were the wrong size. So, when Alex got home from school, we took him back to Target, and got the right game, and some other clothes that he wanted. It is really nice that BOTH of them are old enough it is FUN to take them out! REALLY NEAT! ;-)

Back at the house, earlier, I caught Arrion and Ben in a 'strategy' meeting regarding where the new SWING SET will be placed.

During the day, sometime, Kaylee was playing dress up... here as a princess!

And, can you believe, even at 7 and 3 1/2, they still like to play 'Hide and Seek' - Kaylee:

Alex...

Or, perhaps it is the personal attention that makes it still 'fun' - and it is!  ;-)

It was a another good day!  ;-)

Sunday in Austin

Sunday in Austin

The big event on Sunday was Ben spent several hours staining the wood parts for the new "swing set" that he and his dad will be assembling next weekend. Lots and lots of parts!

The two trees across the yard are also growing very nicely.

Grandma and Alex playing...

Kaylee posing...

Alex and Grandma played Qwirkle, and used every tile. They were very pleased!

It was another very good day!  ;-)

First Day in Austin

First Day in Austin

Got to Austin early in the afternoon on Saturday. Kids were at T-Ball game... high 90's so we didn't try to go over to the ball diamond. We got unloaded, and had a pleasant afternoon and evening after they returned.

Her, Grandma is playing a game with Alex, as Kaylee looks on.

In the evening, Arrion and Ben went to see Thor. After, getting Kaylee to bed, we played real Monopoly with Alex for about an hour and a half. He can read most of the cards, and counts money real well, now. Neat. Had a good time.

It was a very good day!  ;-)

Wild Roses in bloom

Wild Roses in bloom

2nd day back in Hollister, no rain so far today. Took a photo of the Wild Roses in the front of the cabin, on the small trellis. Very pretty.

With all the rain, lucky the weeds were not out of hand. Happy to be back in the cabin. Head for Austin for a week this coming Friday.  ;-)

It has been another pretty decent day!  ;-)

Final day of Utah trip

We arrived home in Hollister, MO, about 4 p.m.... just to put an end to this neat series of reports.

It was a great trip... and a great day!  ;-)

2nd Thursday in Utah - last full day here

2nd Thursday in Utah

last full day here

Woke up at 7 a.m. to snow on the rocks, outside our Garden Level apartment...

Went upstairs, and this is how it looked, to the east, toward the valley - yes, that is the sun!

By 8:30 a.m., all the snow was gone. By noon, it was sunny/cloudy... changed all day. Around noon, I got this last photo, for me, of birds at the bird feeder. two colorful birds, together.

It rained, snowed, sleeted, off and on all day long. Around 6, it cleared off and was sunny with only light clouds - temps in low to mid 40s. What a day!

Just finished watching American Idol, Scotty and Lauren made it to Finale, as we all hoped.

"The Homeplace Revisited" manuscript will go off to printer for first proof copy, yet tonight.

We'll head back to the midwest in the morning....

It was a good day!  ;-)

2nd Wednesday in Utah - and snow came again

2nd Wednesday in Utah

...and snow came again

Around 8:30 a.m. we got about an inch of snow... beautiful!

My noon, it was all melting... You can see the water dripping off the roof!

And, although we had intermitant snow flurries and sleet all day, Larry was able to work outside most of the afternoon. We all worked on project, finishing up novel two, etc., so the day went by quickly.

Overall, another very nice day - especially inside!  ;-)

2nd Tuesday in Utah - the Stellar Jay arrived

2nd Tuesday in Utah

the Stellar Jay arrived

We'll start off, today, with the news of the day - a Stellar Jay appeared out the window. There are three types of Jay at this altitude, here, and this makes the third type, a clean sweep.

He has the comb that sticks up, whereas neither of the others do. The wind would blow it around!

Last night, Larry fixed chicken and vegetable Kibobs on the grill - very pretty, and very good!

Picking up some of the neat photos from Monday, as we drove down the mountain, if you are not driving, some neat scenes. Here is the first, just around the corner, 1000 Lakes Mountain; didn't roll down the window on these two, so some reflections.

Then, a little further down, swing to the east, a bit... the house in the valley, where we turn back to the left...

After we got down in the valley, and around a few curves, we get out to the blacktop, where the bald eagles have a nest.

A little closer look, I was able to catch the top of the head of the female bald eagle in the nest.

After we had finished the loop of the Old Caineville Road yesterday, we decided to do just a little piece of the Cathedral Valley drive, many less than ten of the 60 mile trip... we wanted to do the river ford...

Just a few miles in, the road 'fords' the Fremont River a few hundred feet... They have actually reinforced the river bed into a highway bed... but it still looks scary as you go down one bank, into the fast rushing water a ways, and up on the opposite bank. Note: if any extra rain in the area, always check with the ranger station, first.

It was fun... Annette gets out and takes the photos...  ;-)

One other highlight on this short trip, out a few miles further; Indian Paint Brush, just starting to come out. This was the only good one we saw!

Ok, one more set of two photos...  as we were up and down and around all the rock formations, we kept seeing this one formation, that really looked like a Ute Indian, on a bluff, wrapped in a blanket, with his peace pipe or a rifle, guarding the valley... snow on the Henry Mountains, in the back right, pretty neat as well (melted quite a bit the 10 days we have been in the area) - back to the 'Indian.'

Guess it is hard to see, on the left, on that point. Here is a closer view - it is obvious an unusual rock formation, but....

It was another great day!  ;-)

2nd Monday in Utah - Old Caineville Road

2nd Monday in Utah

Old Caineville Road

We went for an adventure ride today on the Old Caineville Road, a little ways beyond the Capital Reef park to the east. Part of it is the old dirt/gravel/sand road before Highway 24 was built and improved. Toward the far end, are some remnants of old Caineville... new Caineville, a little farther east, isn't much more impressive.

Most impressive is that we go off the highway, into the rocks, so to speak, and here is this fairly lush valley, with a canal and a river running through it, green hay fields, trees, ... totally unforeseeable from the highway.

Just feet from the highway, on the dirt road, there was a cattle gate. When Larry went back to close it, this old gentleman (92+, Annette and Larry know them) and his wife pulled up. Larry re-opened the gate, for them... as they went through, another car came and went, as well. We never saw another car, all the way around.

Looking ahead...

On down the road, a piece... Canal just below the photo, river in the bottom, cliffs on other side.

Around many, many curves, we came to a swampy, wet-land area along the road. [From here on, some photos are mine, some are Annette's]

There are actually beaver working the area... we didn't see any, but, the tree upper left, shows signs.

Here Annette was about to take the following photo of the beaver chewed tree, up closer.

A few curves further down the road, we came to the old, abandoned (mostly) homestead. Here is a wide angle photo, back up the road we came down.

Nancy stayed in the jeep, but we moved it a couple of times, along here.

Here is the first old building...

Annette captured me looking at it...

Next was the abandoned house...  perhaps only 30-40 years from livability.

Next on the east was a corral, looks like for sheep, but also cattle, that had been used this spring.

With the nearby pasture, there was a modern rake; but there was also relic, old machinery.

Moving on down the road, and turning back to the north, toward the Highway, and just west of current Caineville, was an old cemetery.

I'll share more about the cemetery, and some other side trips, in a later post.

It was a nice, generally cool, day!  ;-)

Second Sunday in Utah - a quiet day

Second Sunday in Utah

a quiet day

Nancy finished her jigsaw puzzle on the puzzle table late on Saturday night. She did it all herself, with only positive encouragement from the rest of us. Congratulations!

Pretty, huh?!

After a heavy workday and the park yesterday, Larry took it easy and work on assembly of another bench for the desk. Much more complex than I imagined. But, he has all the tools and the skills. They are really neat. Shade makes the photo a little bad on contrast, but it is recorded.

We each worked on our projects, and the all sharing in watching three hours of Survivor finale - skipping the commercials via Direct TV. Boston Rob finally got his win.

It was a good day!  ;-)

First Saturday - Work in the Park Day

First Saturday

 Work in the Park Day

Annette and Larry were committed to a work day and cleanup day down in the Teasdale Park (started to say City Park, but Teasdale is not an incorporated City!). It is an annual event they have done for a few years now. Lots of folks work, and then they have lunch in the shelter house. Mom and I stayed home, this year. We were sad that it seemed to be raining, up here, between 9 and 10 a.m. But, it didn't last, and they had a good work day. Here Larry and some of the guys are working on a new walk/bike path they just started that goes around the park. (Thanks to Annette for photo!)

 

Hummingbirds are a little late getting to the house this year. There has been one, from time to time, it seems. Today, I finally got him with the camera.

Hummingbird is drinking, lower right, in case you missed it....  ;-)

Larry put a shield on the bird feeder stand, yesterday, to keep the squirrels out of the bird-feeder. Well, I happened to see the little chipmunk JUMP from the white stump on the right, to get to the feeder!  ;-)

The larger squirrels on the ground haven't tried it yet!  ;-)

Nancy worked on a jigsaw puzzle and her computer; I worked on blogs and other writing...

Already in a work mode, Annette worked in the yard, cleaning out old dried sticks from the little green flowering plants...

Larry also worked, out back (east side), moving some rocks to put in a drain pipe.

The day ended something like it began... some rain, about 7:30 p.m., followed by a nice rainbow!

It was another nice day!  ;-) Thus ended the first week of your visit in Utah this May...  ;-)