Holy Jesus!!!

Studying hard and walking the dog.

Skyler was working hard at school and I walked Maizey dog around the Redwood Nature Center before I picked him up from school.

Working on his journal.

Winter at the Nature Center.

Happy dog.

TRAX train on the green line that passes North of the Nature Center.

A walk around the neighborhood.

A sunny and warm January Sunday meant a walk around the Ivory Homes walking path yesterday.

Wearing Mommy's vest because it was "too hot" for his regular coat.

Enjoying a warm foot bath after the 3 mile walk.

Nature walk.

Up Butterfield Canyon yesterday!

Here they come!

Dogwoods in the foreground,  the little "cave" we hiked to last year in the background.

Winter.

He wanted to turn around.

Brr!!  Little stream was still flowing.

51 years ago today...

We lost the crew of Apollo 1 in a horrific fire.

Virgil "Gus" Griffi.   Ed White.  Roger Chaffee.

On this date, January 27th 1967- Launch Complex 34 - Cape Canaveral – The crew members of AS-204; Command Pilot Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward H. White and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee were tragically lost during a Command Module cabin fire during a "plugs-out" test to determine whether the spacecraft would operate nominally on (simulated) internal power while detached from all cables and umbilicals. 

With the cabin pressurized with pure oxygen at the nominal pre-launch level of 16.7 pounds per square inch (115 kPa), 2 psi above standard sea level atmospheric pressure. This is more than five times the 3 psi partial pressure of oxygen in the atmosphere, and provides an environment in which materials not normally considered highly flammable will burst into flame. During the test, a voltage transient was recorded at 6:30:54 (23:30:54 GMT). Ten seconds later (at 6:31:04), after Chaffee said the word "Hey", scuffling sounds followed for three seconds before Grissom reported a fire that began that minute. Chaffee then reported, "We've got a fire in the cockpit," while White responded to Chaffee's comment. After 12 seconds, Chaffee urged the crew to get out of the command module.Some witnesses said they saw White on the television monitors, reaching for the inner hatch release handle as flames in the cabin spread from left to right and licked the window. The final voice transmission from the crew was very garbled. "They’re fighting a bad fire—let's get out. Open 'er up" or, "We've got a bad fire—let's get out. We're burning up" or, "I'm reporting a bad fire. I'm getting out." Only 17 seconds after the first indication by crew of any fire, the transmission ended abruptly at 6:31:21 with a cry of pain and then a hiss as the cabin ruptured after rapidly expanding gases from the fire over-pressurized the command module to 29 psi and burst the cabin interior.

The name Apollo chosen by the crew, was officially retired by NASA in commemoration of them on April 24, 1967

“You sort of have to put that out of your mind. There's always a possibility that you can have a catastrophic failure, of course. This can happen on any flight. It can happen on the last one as well as the first one. You just plan as best you can to take care of all these eventualities, and you get a well-trained crew, and you go fly."

Command pilot AS204 “Gus” Grissom

Godspeed to the crew of Apollo 1

What it's like to play a game with Skyler!

We might have to start doing this...

Fun with watercolors.

Skyler wanted me to teach him how to watercolor Sunday afternoon.  Not a problem, I had picked up some fresh watercolor paints earlier in December and we both set out each painting a landscape.

(Due to some slow cellular data from Mommy and an Apple update, this post is rather late today).

 All pictures courtesy of Mommy.

Dark and stormy sky.

Getting his background finished and starting to sketch in the mountains.

Mountains started.

Me showing him how to paint trees.

Spot on!

From the "New Yorker".

God, I hate January!

Snow!

We got some much needed snow Saturday.  We live South of the Great Salt Lake and this storm produced "lake effect" snow at our place.  Out on the lawn, it was close to 24" deep!  I got to play with a couple of tractors clearing snow and everyone went outside to play in the snow.

Wearing his new snow gear from Christmas.

Deeper than Maizey!  Headed for her squeaky ball.

Disappearing tail dog?

Squeaky ball!

I pushed a lot of snow to make some big piles.

More weekend shenanigans.

The kids had a great time!

They played in the snow for over an hour.

Artemis brought her iPad and they both watched the show "Goosebumps" together.

Her Mom texted me this picture...

About the same time I took this photo!

He fell asleep reading his book.  :)

Sleepover!!

Artemis slept over last night since her Mom had a school retreat at the other location.  Lots of fun!  They each made a homemade pizza for dinner, watched a movie, played in the loft, and didn't get much sleep!  Today will be a nap day for sure!

Waiting for her to come over...

In the loft!

Watching "Secret Life of Pets" together.  Artemis brought her giant bear along.

Getting ready for bed.

"Don't take my picture!"

In bed under the glow of neon.  They didn't get much sleep, there was an iPad incident at 2:30am and they were both up at 6:30 this morning.

Homemade pancakes with all the fixings.  She even got a shot of whipped cream directly into her mouth!

Headed out back.

Sledding.  They took turns pulling each other around.

Lots of deep snow to play in, no idea what's goin on here!

Best friends.

Skyler and Eddy cat have a pretty special relationship.  While Eddy cat usually will turn on Mommy or me and do the typical "attack cat from nowhere", Eddy cat is so loving and gentile with Skyler.  He's never once tried to bite or scratch Skyler and will usually follow him around waiting for pats.

Thursday morning.  Skyler was playing some "Lego My City" on his iPhone and Eddy hopped right up to get some loves.  :)

After school special.

Skyler was thrilled to be able to have a garden picnic and help out with movement demos last night after school.  We even toured the golf course beforehand.

Ham and cheese sandwich with a side of "scooby snacks"!

In the garden.

Running across the driving range.

Skyler and Artemis doing a 3 legged obstacle course.

Later, they made themselves a hut.

Skyler's art that he made for the school art gallery.

Working hard.

Skyler is enjoying school again after missing 2 days last week.  Tonight, he is staying late to demonstrate the Montessori teaching methods for a school open house called "discover the details" from 5:00-6:30.  :)

Working on some Montessori Math.

'Speed Check'

Trumpworld...

How much longer do we have to put up with this assclown??

The new trail North of "The Narrows."

We took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather (again!) yesterday and headed to the South end of the valley to walk along the newest section of the Jordan River Parkway.  This is a pretty isolated area and we never saw anyone else while we were on the trail.

Vietnam?  We found this strange chicken shack setup along the trail.

On the new bridge next to the strange chicken shack.

Looking Southeast.

Train tracks with an exceptional view of the many gravel pits.

Clay cliffs.

The peak above Corner Canyon was especially picturesque.

Skyler and Mommy climbing the hill on the way back to the truck.