Happy 11th birthday Skyler!

Where has the time gone?!  11 years to the day tonight at 9:51pm to be exact.  

He's turned into an incredible human, so smart and so curious about everything.  Happy Birthday Skyler, we love you more than anything!  You're going to be floored later today by a certain gift. ;)

He picked out his "birthday eve" meal.  

Homemade Salisbury steak(s) with mashed potatoes, gravy, peas, homemade applesauce, and a homemade brownie.  At least 2,500 calories!  A special birthday treat?  Mountain Dew!!

He ate the entire thing! 2 Salisbury steak patties!  We're starting out with more food today, Belgian Waffles for breakfast!

Fritillaria time!

It's extra big this year.

Wow!

It still smells terrible!  Like skunk.

Amtrak redemption!

We caught the 17(!) hour late # 5 yesterday afternoon.

We arrived to a flashing yellow signal.

Highball!

No horn this time. :(

The tracker said it was traveling at 73mph as it passed.  It looked faster in person than it did in the video.

Day 6 spring break, skunked by the Amtrak and a Costco run.

Nothing exciting here yesterday.  Skyler and I missed the 6 hour late Amtrak by one block yesterday morning.  We then made a Costco run in preparation for his 11th birthday party.

Damn.

Day 5 spring break, two for one County markers.

We headed south to Nephi and Delta yesterday to check off two more County markers.

Juab County marker in Nephi.

Getting the rubbing.

Military convoy on our way to Delta.

Millard County marker.

Info about the area.

Lunch was at Ashton's Burger Barn.  The double cheeseburger was killer, the fries were shit.  Last fall, the fries were killer.

Potty break the way back in Elberta near the old Sinclair gas station.

 

Day 4 spring break, The Great Salt Lake Shorelands preserve.

What a cool place!

One mile of boardwalk.

The main observation pavilion.

30' observation tower towards the south end.  Note the Raven flying away.

Looking east from the tower.

North view.

F-35 against the clouds!  They were flying tons of training flights yesterday.

Male pheasant!

Info about the birds.

Another F-35!

No trip to Layton would be complete without a stop at J&J Garden Center.  After 2 years, Skyler finally found his lemon tree!  He declared it his "most prized possession" last night after we got home.

 

Hill Aerospace Museum.

Day 3 for spring break was an airplane day.

The new Northrup Grumman facility.

It's enormous!

Boeing B-29.  :)

The first F-16A assigned to Hill Air Force Base in 1979.

This RF-4 looked like it was still airworthy.  No information on it that we could find however.

 

Spring Break day 2, more trains!

We spent over 3 hours trackside yesterday.  We both got rather fried in the sun, next time we'll remember our sunscreen.

Headlight!

Manifest train.

Westbound coming!

Another!

Solid yellow with blinking red?

There's a set of crossovers after this signal, the last train (a BNSF trackage rights train) took the crossovers to the Shafter Sub.

Almost 11(!) years old.

DPUs on a long container train.

 

A nice Easter Sunday.

It was a pretty chill and relaxing day.

Skyler dyed eggs using the Paas classic dye kit like what was available when I was his age.  They turned out great!

The geriatric cat even made it outside to lay in the sun. 

 (He did a pretty good job of eating and drinking yesterday.  I'm afraid we're going to lose him soon.  He's slowed way down and is losing weight.)

 :(

Skyler helped re-hang the yard lights after the neighbor kid kicked a ball into them a couple of weeks ago.

Pellet grilled ham!  It was SO good!

Twice baked potato casserole with ham and Brussels sprouts.  The sprouts were inedible due to freezer burn/bitterness.  Oh well.

 

Happy Easter!

Frontrunner Comet Car farewell.

 Skyler and I rode in it one last time yesterday.  UTA is retiring the 1970 Pullman Standard built cars originally used on the New Jersey Transit lines.

Waiting on our train in Murray.

:(

I think we have enough sand now.

Here comes our car!

Still looks nice on the outside.

Interior.

Door detail.

Overhead vintage luggage rack.

Happy traveller!  The seats are really comfortable!

Westbound stack train near Grant tower.

Monday's new train set.  No more Comet car.

We had the car all to ourselves the entire way to Ogden.

Door controls.  It looks like these were retrofitted by UTA.

Original 1970 brake valve.

MU cables and coupler.

Our locomotive in Ogden.

8 Comet parts cars.

Another 4 that were in service just last month.