Katydid!

I found him stuck out back the other day.  Skyler got to use his "Wild Kratts" skills and take a look up close.

Closeup.  He appears to be surrendering!

Pretty good!

We let him be in the front yard.  He was gone an hour later.

French fries.

They sure are good on the patio!

Complete with homemade fry sauce since we're in Utah.

Fun Fridays.

Fridays are for arts and crafts in class.

Coloring.

Posing.  Notice that he has his own personal box of crayons.

Mars.

Lots of great Mars viewing opportunities lately.

Peeking out between the group of trees.

Moon and Mars!

Snack time.

After school snack on the front porch Friday!

Cheese, crackers, and some yogurt.

After school train time.

I picked him up from school Thursday afternoon and we headed down to the train bridge to watch trains before Ninja gym started at 5:00.  The only problem?  Shift change in the train yard!  We saw lots of passenger trains, but no freight trains were moving.

On our way to the bridge on the new Parley's trail.  He was waving to the Westbound TRAX train.

Train coming!

I packed him a lunch and he happily ate it on the bridge ledge above the Roper yard.

Waiting.

Not much going on except a tanker truck re-fueling a locomotive.  Smokey as hell that day!

Train passing.

Still eating.  Cheese sandwich, SunChips, zucchini bread (homemade), and a Teddy Soft Bake dessert treat.

Hard to see, the 3rd rail is marked "Colorado 1935".  Nice job recycling old rail UTA!

Playing Frontrunner on the playground.

He enlisted his classmates to be the Frontrunner train pullers, pushers, airbrakes, and passengers on the merry-go-round at school this week.

He seems to have rallied everyone to their respective tasks.

Might be giving out more directions?

Rain!

It finally rained enough worth mentioning here in the desert Wednesday!  We got .690" for the day!

This crazy fog rolled in around the same time the sky opened up.

Rain gutters are full!

Whoa!

The garden.

The garden out at school is a highlight for us.  His class gets 2 days in the garden this year, Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Monday afternoon, I found the class out in the garden taking pictures.  That was what he wanted me to do on Tuesday afternoon when I picked him up.

Pretty cool.

Happy Birthday Dad!!

It's been a bit of a rough year, but that's why you're my Dad, tough as nails!  Thanks for everything you do and thanks for being a role model to Skyler (and me).  :)

Happy Birthday!

Success!

We celebrated the first day of school with a delicious chicken dinner.  I brined the bird for 6 hours and smoked it on the pellet grill for 3.5 hours.  It was delicious!  Not shown, the homemade Rice-a-roni and broccoli served alongside.

Yes, it was as delicious as it looked!

Fist day.

Of Second grade!!!

We got to "meet the teachers" Friday afternoon.  The classroom has been painted, re-lighted, and re-floored!  They already had the materials all prepared for the kids too.

CORN!!!

We were fortunate enough to see the invite on Facebook to come out to Peterson Family Farm and pick sweet corn first thing yesterday morning.  He planted too much corn, it matured too quickly and he decided to give some away and donate the rest.  We ended up with a little over 7 dozen ears!  Grandma and Grandpa got a  couple dozen, next door a dozen, the girls got a dozen and we processed 2 dozen to freeze for this winter's delight during the depression.  There's a few ears leftover for dinner tonight to go with our hamburgers with our garden grown heirloom tomatoes.

Kitty!

Back one more time to see the kittens.

Deep inside the field.  I spy something green and yellow coming.

The first of many bins to fill.

Skyler hopped up onto the back of the wagon to help "unload" ears.  He actually got to ride along through the field while Luke drove the tractor.

Pretty full!

There was a truck with boxes to fill a few rows over from us.

Mommy picking.

Loader bucket filled to capacity!

Still helping unload.

Done!  The wagon was LOADED with corn!

Watching the tractor turn toward the farm.

Heaped.  Wow!

Train ride!

We finally made it on the Frontrunner yesterday!  We rode from Murray to Ogden and back.  That's all he wanted to do.  I think he had more fun on the train than he would have had at an amusement park!

Waiting for our train in Murray.  SO excited!

All aboard!

He was facing the rear and that worked out pretty good.  I could spot things ahead and he still had time to see them as we zoomed by at 79 miles per hour.

Passing an accelerating freight.

Tank cars downtown.

UTA's Warm Springs Road facility is the temporary home to STADLER Rail where they manufacture electric light rail locomotives.  Their new facility is located out by the tailings pile along I-80.  SEPTA (Pennsylvania) locomotives in the background.

More of the yard.

UTA employees get to have a special train stop to get on or off the Frontrunner train.

Old COMET cars.  Nice job maintaining the rolling stock UTA! 😡

Union Pacific car repair facility North of UTA.  They used to repair locomotives in the facility that UTA now occupies South of here.

NASA SLS booster segment cars in the back!!!  Now with HVAC to keep the motors cool during Summer transport to the Cape.  They used to only haul Space Shuttle motors during the cooler winter months.  One can imagine why!

U.P. has been retrofitting the SLS booster cars all year.  I was surprised to see them parked on the siding North of Clearfield.

On the flyover on the way into Ogden.

Cars waiting to be scrapped by Durbano Metals in Ogden.  Skyler was sad.

More of the scrapyard.

We had the first seat behind the cab car on the way back home!

He was thrilled!  Meeting a Northbound freight somewhere between Ogden and Roy.