Riding inside a Model Train

Sympathy cards.

 Our dear friends had to put their dog of 16 years down over the weekend.  It really hit hard.  Skyler decided to make sympathy cards for their kids Sunday afternoon.

He typed out a different message for each card and then customized both.

Steak night Sunday.

 A delicious treat!

Grill pan cooked using "America's Test Kitchen's" method of cooking.  I may never go back to the BBQ again.

New bike day!

 Skyler has been in desperate need of a new bike since last summer.  He got an early birthday present last night.  It's a pretty sweet ride!

It even has Shimano hydraulic disc brakes!  And a SRAM 12 speed cassette.  The suspension fork is legit too.  He was SO excited!

Snack time?

 I'm greeted to this every afternoon.  Usually they start begging an hour before it's time to eat.

The Wedge Overlook.

 We ended our adventure taking a 6 mile road out to "The Wedge Overlook" Sunday.

Looking east toward "The Little Grand Canyon".

Look how deep it goes!

West view.

Little Grand Canyon.  It seems to go forever!

A Fatty ride to the pictograph panel.

 We rode the 5 miles north and were not disappointed.

Skyler was leading.

Mommy was trailing.

After a Skyler snack break, they were both trailing.

San Raphael suspension bridge.

 Built in 1937.  Now only used for foot traffic.

Replacement new bridge to the bottom left.

One of 4 main suspension cable tension blocks. Note the poured lead in the center to hold the cable.

Skyler on the south end of the bridge.

This cottonwood tree has grown around the suspension cable!

Looking west on the river.

North end of the bridge.

Informative plaque.

Another.

Some bridge info.

GOOD weekend.

We traveled to the San Rafael Swell in central Utah and camped by the San Rafael river.  Epic.

Mr. Tuffy!

 As the cat approaches 18(!) years old, he still gets territorial when there's an intruder in the yard.

I opened the window downstairs and he climbed up on the screen to show his dominance.

Corned beef and cabbage day.

 Home corned beef for the 5th year in a row now.  It was amazing!

Yum!

Ah, yes!

 While Skyler was playing with Karen & Matt, I got the first mow of the year in.  Nothing like the smell of fresh cut grass!

Won't be long until it greens up!

A Sunday afternoon with Karen and Matt.

 Skyler got some much needed time out of the house Sunday.  I think he was glad to be away from Mom and Dad for a few hours.

Pictures courtesy of uncle Matt.

They went to a nearby park to play.

Karen even got in on the playground action.

Back at Karen's, it was time for a game of chess.

The pie.

 Oh my god, it was good!

It tasted just like an enormous Reece's peanut butter cup.  Only better.  And minus the evil palm oil!

Happy Pi day!

 We celebrated a little early last night and I made a pizza pie.  Mommy made a "buckeye" pie for today.

Not pictured, Skyler's pizza.  He chose a homemade Italian sausage and cheese pizza.

(Since the computer is being a butt today, I'll try and post a pic of the buckeye pie tomorrow.)

Wigwam

A year.

 It's been one year since the pandemic hit.  We've been lucky, everyone is still safe and hasn't had the virus.  We did lose one of our friends to COVID, he was 49 and healthy.  It looks like we will be able to be vaccinated starting April 1.  We'll continue our diligent safety protocols even after we get the shot.

Frontrunner train!

 Spotted on our walk Saturday.

Here it comes!

Motioning for the operator to honk.

The train was creeping along due to the curves.

The Narrows via the JRP.

 Saturday was nearly a perfect day to be outside.  A walk on the JRP was just the ticket.

I spy a train.

The river was really low.

An informative sign on a piece of rail.

"I love this day!"

 That's what he said on Friday as our temps pushed 65 degrees finally.

Wearing shorts and laying in the sun with the dog.

V-22's!

 They flew over Thursday and the entire house shook!

Two of them.  They flew in from Lake Havesau Arizona Flightradar24 said.

"Here kitty!"

 We spotted a calico cat on our walk along the canal yesterday.  Skyler almost got the cat to come up to him, the cat got scared when a bit of the canal bank dropped down towards it.

Kitty was meowing like crazy!

Yep.

In case you haven't heard, the Governor of Texas removed any and all mask mandates yesterday.

28 days of waiting paid off.

 I promised Skyler that if he did his math and worked hard during the month of February, he would get an R/C rock crawler.  He finally got it Sunday.

Yesterday afternoon he took it outside to crawl through the snow.

Cup phone for school.

 He's learning about sound waves this week for physics.

We had to send a photo in to his teacher proving that we did the assignment.