A little perspective.

My friend "Bad" Brad Wheeler posted this the other day.

The world may be shit right now, but we're still lucky to live on this great Earth.

More deer!

Spotted on our walk along the Jordan River Parkway Saturday morning.

He wasn't afraid of us whatsoever.

Huge mantis!

Spotted Friday evening while mowing the yard.

She's enormous!

Sad dog with her toy.

I caught her doing this yesterday.

Laying her head on her hotdog toy.

Deer!

Spotted at my friend Ken's farm on Tuesday.

He wasn't too afraid of us in the side by side.

More of the same.

Can't upload any photos to blogger again!

A 10 year old, an 18 month old, and an 18 year old cat.

Skyler had a wonderful time watching Sophia Friday evening.  Can you spot the cat?

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Today is my Dad's 74th birthday!  Thank you Dad for being such a great role model to both me and Skyler!  Here's to many more birthdays.

The highlight of our day, getting to talk to Grandpa on the telephone.  Skyler even has an alarm set on his watch!

Bonus end of hike pics.

The  geriatric dog made it!  She did some cooling in the river.

Chokecherry.

The main reason we hiked this trail.

She just laid down in the cool water.

Someone else enjoying the cool water.  He was a trooper, didn't complain one bit on the 10.5 mile hike!

10.5 mile hike!

With nearly 3,000 feet of elevation!

The 13 year old dog joined us.

Gorgeous!

Look how steep Logan canyon is.

Resting.

Geriatric dog got a lift.  I carried her for a while too.

SO smokey!

Despite the drought, it was still really green.

 

Back to school!

His first day was a great success!

12 out of the 21 kids in his class wore masks he said.  Also, look at the traffic for school pickup!

Weekend getaway.

To Logan Canyon!  It was hot.

The Albatross just barely fit in our campsite.

Pizza baking in the oven.

Delicious!

A night at the baseball game.

Mommy's work hosted their annual night at the ball game Friday.  We took advantage of the "free fare to clear the air" and rode the TRAX train to the stadium downtown.

Waiting at the station.

We opted to sit away from the assigned seating to avoid the virus.  Look how green the grass is!

Homemade bow and arrow.

Skyler engineered this all on his own yesterday morning.  It works really well!

Some wooden skewers, tape and a piece of string.  He figured out the spring comes from the skewers.

Dear god!!!!

We attended back to school night last night at Skyler's school.  Sweet jeezus!!  Nary a mask in sight!  No online school offered at all this year.  No distancing, the kids are going to sit elbow to elbow!  They rotate through 3 classrooms every day.  It's not a matter of if there's a breakout, but when there's a breakout.  I didn't sleep at all last night.  Skyler is SO excited to go in person this year.  He's going to be double masked but he's the minority.  I saw only a handful of kids wearing masks last night.  Sigh...

Assembling some furniture.

All by himself!

He even used his hammer he turned on the lathe at Grandpa's house.

Pizza night!

This time featuring a new Neapolitan crust recipe.

Half of Skyler's on the right, ours on the left.

Margherita style.

19 years!

We've been married 19 years as of today!  Happy Anniversary Altair, I love you!

The electric rotisserie.

I can remember my grandma using one of these as a kid.  I got this particular one off of eBay last year.  We used it for the first time yesterday to roast a chicken.  The boy and the dog both found it mesmerizing!

He watched it for nearly 30 minutes.

The dog kept coming back to see if it was still there.

The worst air quality on Earth!

A cold front pushed in the California wild fire smoke yesterday morning.  It was surreal.  We could see the smoke drifting in the neighborhood!  It smelled like burnt pine trees!  The AQI hit 181 yesterday afternoon.  If you wanted to go outside, it was N95 mask time.

Helping Mommy in the garden.

They both wore their masks.

Didn't seem to bother him.

We normally have to bust these out during winter inversions.

Every day.

This is the scene every day after we call Grandpa.  The black and whites waiting at the top of the stairs for their snack time.

The cat will sometimes have all 4 paws lined up on the edge of the stairs!

Second time in 10 days!

Rain!!!

Downpour!

Overwhelmed the rain gutters!

That sound!

Smart dog.

Laying in front of the air conditioning vent!

So hot and tired!