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.

Oh my god!

 This is a homemade pizza.  It was even better than Marco's from last week!

I've stepped up our game by using "00" flour along with malted barley powder.  I can't believe this came from our home kitchen!

“Float”

Meatless Monday.

 Brought to you this week by an Amy's veggie cheeseburger.  

Even Skyler agreed that they tasted great.

Here birdy!

 Skyler helped feed the birds Sunday.  He stood next to the feeder for 20 minutes trying to get a bird to land on and eat out of his hand.

Birds on the feeder, but none on his hand.

A beautiful Saturday.

 We headed to the main City park on Saturday.  There was some kind of Pokemon Go competition going on and there was people everywhere!  Fortunately, we found a clear sidewalk and walked around the outside of the park.  

Look at the clouds against the mountains!  Little Cottonwood Canyon was getting pounded with snow.

A different pizza night.

 We ordered delivery from Marco's!  SO good!  Skyler was so excited, he even got to track our order progress online.  It was a delicious treat.

Skyler picked what type of pizza he wanted.  Sausage, pepperoni, extra cheese and extra sauce.  Thick crust too

Originally from Ohio, they have over 1,000 stores now.

I had the deluxe.  So fresh!

Mommy tried the cauliflower crust.  I didn't care for it much, but she enjoyed it.

Skyler wanted an order of cheesy bread too.  Not pictured, our Greek salad.  We kind of went overboard, but I haven't eaten out since March 6th of last year.  It was wonderful.

"I love this!"

 That's what he said after it took some serious convincing to get him to go on a walk yesterday.

Throwing a snowball in the cemetery.  The snow was a little deep for the dog.

Snow day!

 Skyler spent several hours playing in the snow yesterday.  We received nearly a foot of snow!

The beginnings of him building an igloo.

Eventually, he was just laying down and laughing!

Cat in a banjo case!

 Skyler got Grandpa White's banjo over the weekend as a result of Grandpa moving into an assisted living facility.  The cat seems to like the case the banjo is stored in.

He fits perfectly.

Valentine's dinner.

 We celebrated our 19th (!) Valentine's Day at home last night.  N.Y. strip steak, fresh green beans, and french fries.  Delicious!

I found a new way to pan sear and cook steaks on the stove.  This will be a cold weather game changer!

Valentine's 2021.

 We celebrated a little early last night.  I made a heart shaped pizza for dinner.  It was delicious!

Extra pepperoni!

This is Tom Jones?!?

4th grade physics.

 Skyler was tasked to make a roller coaster using 2 sheets of paper and marbles yesterday.  I think he did pretty good!

He shot the marbles down the chute and up the paper into the bottle.

Another puzzle.

 We might be addicted to puzzles!  This one took a week to complete.

In typical Skyler fashion, he hid one piece so he could be the one to finish the puzzle. 😒

Bwahahah!!!!

 

Home exercise room addition.

 Now complete with smart TV!

Skyler needed to get the wiggles out the other day so I put him on the treadmill.

Not too bad.

 Skyler and I have been working on this plastic model for a few months now.   Yesterday, we applied the decals and today we will finish it by spraying a matte clear over the entire model.  He did a great job and even learned a bit about practicing patience.

It sure turned out sharp!

Mr D's Machine!

A winter GSL adventure to see the mirabilite formations.

 Sunday was the perfect day both temperature and weather wise to have an outdoor adventure.  An added bonus?  No bugs and little smell from the lake during winter!

February 1st, 2021 sunset.

 Simply gorgeous!

Altair said it looked like Southern Utah in reverse.

Problems.

 Major problems uploading photos this week.  I spent several hours attempting to upload our weekend pics yesterday.  Still a no go today.  Sigh...