My kind of Christmas song!

 

Happy Birthday Altair!

 

My adventure partner for nearly 23 years!

Maizey.

 July 2008-December 1, 2024

The neighbor behind us handed her over the fence in August 2008.

The mobile Veterinarian is coming out this afternoon to put her down.

Good dog.  

We have the watch from here.

HART ceremony..

Skyler went to Canada over the weekend to participate in the Civil Air Patrol's HART (Honoring, And Remebering, Together) along with the Canadian Cadets from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and I believe Coast Guard.  

Lots of stress for Mom and Dad, but he made it home safe a little before midnight yesterday.

Arriving in Lethbridge, Alberta Friday.

Rehearsal Friday evening.

Looks like chaos.

Out of 200 cadets in Utah that applied, Skyler was one of 27 selected to attend HART.

Link to watch the ceremony.

Group photo after the Saturday morning ceremony.

This really pisses me off!  90mph in a van with tires not rated for that speed.

All the feels.

Big day yesterday.

Skyler got to go up flying with the Civil Air Patrol right after school and our new furniture was delivered!

Preflighting the aircraft.

Skyler checked tire pressures.

Here we go!

Taxiing out.

Their flight path.  

He said he had the controls for over half the flight.

Our new furniture!

Weekend happenings.

Skyler had his fall break, he had a Halloween sleepover, we hiked,  saw a rare airplane land, and bought a new living room set!

Skyler went as Carl from "Caddyshack".

Bell Canyon lower reservoir.

Grumpy teen.

Altair wanted to keep hiking toward the lower falls, so we did.

Bridge!

Packed with snow.

We ended up racing the sunset Friday evening.  We won.

Royal Air Force Airbus A-400 cargo plane landed at SLC Saturday afternoon.

Our new living room furniture!  So excited!  

It gets delivered Thursday.

2024 Pre-Election Cold Open - SNL

Try to keep it together, we could not.

Growlers!

 I first heard them around noon Friday.  Saturday afternoon we headed out to see them and walk along the airport trail to do some planespotting.

Leaving Sunday evening.  Right over the house!  LOUD!

We think they were based at China Lake Naval Air Station.

The black jet is a retro throwback paint scheme to the F-14s in the 1980's and 1990's.

All 3 were from VX-9 "Vampires" test squadron.

On final Friday.

Did I mention you get REALLY close to the planes on the bike path?

Rank up!

 Presenting Chief Master Seargent Kaminski!

Pics reversed, start at the bottom...

Checking out the Blackhawk after pinning.

The Cadets were all having a great time in the helicopter.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS

We've caught it the last two evenings and hopefully we will see it again tonight at the GSL Marina State Park full moon walk.

It actually shows up better on the iPhone 14 camera vs. binoculars.

3 years in the making.

Altair finished her Master's degree in Systems Engineering last month and yesterday was the first time in 3 years that all three of us were off together on a Friday that didn't involve school.  So we went on a hike!

Pics reversed, start at the bottom.

Summit!  7,000 feet.

Proper hat when in Utah County. :)

Wild turkeys!