Chef Skyler.

He mad us turkey burgers Friday evening after school.  They were delicious!

Extra large patties!

Finished product.  Well done Skyler!

 

On this day.

I was in Ms. Preece's 3rd grade class watching this live on T.V. in 1986.  Some of the kids couldn't figure out why she started crying.  

I knew instantaneously what had happened from watching earlier launches. My parents had been getting me up early to watch Shuttle launches starting in 1981.

Family Guy "Every Pizza Place Salad"

Spot on!

A really good day.

After the very late Amtrak # 5 passed, we saw a southbound Frontrunner train.  We were almost ready to throw in the towel when the northbound signal lit up green on the Union Pacific mainline!  We waited about 10 minutes and it was a loaded coal train.  Skyler was ecstatic!

Highball!

Here it comes!

Rear DPU shoving away.

A very late #5 Amtrak.

15 hours and 14 minutes down yesterday.  Ouch!

Oh my god!

259 mph on Germany's Autobahn!  Story here.

3.

Miss you Mom.

A day off.

Skyler enjoyed his day off from school yesterday.  Today, it's online learning due to Utah being #3 in the nation for COVID cases.  Sigh...

Playing "Sneaky Sasquatch" while the cat enjoys his company on the couch.

Yep.

 

"People will just do the right thing".

That's what our pitiful excuse of a governor Spencer Cox just keeps saying about the pandemic.  How's that working?

Here he is at one of his useless monthly updates.

Every god damned day!

 

Nearly half of his class is out with COVID this week.  Sigh...

Where's Mommy?!

On a business trip during a COVID spike!

A picture she sent when she landed in D.C. Monday afternoon.

Fingers crossed that she doesn't bring it home tomorrow evening when she gets back.

 

I got nothing.

I seem to be in the January slump.  Not much to post.  I just need to get through the next few weeks.

I can't stop laughing!

SO funny!

Fox!

We spotted him on the Parkway yesterday in broad daylight!  How cool!

He was on the lawn of a house across the river.  Not shown, the 2 cats taking refuge on the homeowner's barbecue!

 

Sure wish I had one of these...

And these two had a feather, we'd all be tickled! 

Bad Brad Wheeler posted this on the KUAA Facebook page.  How cool!

Never forget.

A year ago today.

 

Steamy river.

Spotted on our New Year's Day walk on the JRP.

I wasn't sure the steam would show up on camera, but it did!

Snow cave 2.0

I pushed up a huge pile of snow using the tractor so Skyler could build another snow cave.

He made it big enough this time so that he could fit all of him in the cave.

 

Happy Birthday Karen!

It's my only sibling's birthday today!  She's so good with Skyler!  She's keeping the tradition of Mom's incredible baking going.  She's fiercely independent and an activist for equality.  Happy Birthday Karen, I love you.

Karen and Skyler at the GSL in June for the Summer Solstice.

 

Winter time at the Narrows.

We ventured out Thursday before the snow hit and walked on the Narrows section of the Parkway.

Monkey see, monkey do!  They both climbed up on the bridge to get a look below.

I've never seen the Jordan River so low.

Northbound Frontrunner train.

Southbound in the sun.

Southbound Frontrunner!

Skyler got the operator to honk much to his delight.

Side note, this post marks the 10 year anniversary of the blog!

A very late #6.

We caught the eastbound California Zephyr yesterday morning zooming through the snow.

Today's train is even later!

Can you spot the locomotive?

We saw it on our walk yesterday in the horrific wind.

Remote controlled.  Although, I'd want to be in the warm cab on a day like yesterday.

Merry Christmas!

Norfolk and Western Christmas Eve 1957 Rural Retreat, VA

True story.

 

Sigh...

A new favorite.

Listening to vinyl records!

Alisha gave us a turntable and some records.  He set it up in his room yesterday and listened to records all day.  The cat seemed to like them too.

 

A bonus present that isn't a Christmas present.

A new TV!!

Now 65(!) inches!  Our old TV died suddenly Saturday afternoon.  A quick trip to Costco yesterday and we were up and running again.

Probably some good advice.

 

I'm working on it...

The most sincere tree lot.

I missed posting this picture of the Christmas tree lot we got our tree from 2 weeks ago.  There were goats that Skyler got to feed and pet!

He was rather delighted to walk through all of the various trees.

Snow day shenanigans.

He finished his online learning and got to play outside in the fresh snow.

Crawling under the giant reeds.

Digging a snow cave in one of the massive piles I plowed using the tractor.

Digging deep!

Snow Day!

Thankfully, Skyler's school had enough sense to go to virtual learning today.

Delivering neighbor treats in a wagon while drinking hot chocolate.

Altair put in a huge effort again this year to bake goods for the neighborhood.

Skyler's old wagon still comes in handy.  Note the can of Pringles in case he got hungry!

 

Birthday food.

Altair had a good day.  :)

Her Mom brought Crumbl cookies on Friday.

LOOK AT THE CAKE MY SISTER MADE!!!!!!!

Homemade chicken schnitzel with roasted garden grown beets and homemade rice pilaf.

 

Happy Birthday Altair!!

Having got my booster on Friday and feeling like shit all day yesterday, today we can celebrate Mommy's birthday!!!  I'm so lucky to have been able to celebrate 19 birthdays with her.  She completes me and 99% of the time, is right on so many levels!  I hate it but love it.  Happy Birthday Altair!  I love you.

She's so amazingly creative too!  She made her "Frankenweenie" costume for Halloween this year like all years.

POOP!!!

That is all.

He was laughing so hard!

Last day of Hanukah.

That meant donuts from Macey's!

Some of the best donuts we've ever had.

 

Decorating the Christmas tree.

 Despite all of the mentions of a "Christmas tree shortage" this year, we found a great one at a reasonable price Friday afternoon.

We found a Nordman pine this year.

Holiday program at school.

AKA, a super spreader event!

Packed in like sardines!  This was criminal.

The program itinerary.

Skyler had a mask as did we.  Not many others did though.

Pet advent calendars??

Yep!  Trader Joe's to the rescue!  Both animals go crazy for the treat in each window.  We had to hide the dog's because she was trying to steal it!

The dog's arrived a day earlier than the cat's.

Skyler gave the cat his.

The cat went bananas for the salmon treats.  Skyler was laughing so hard!

Now it was the dog's turn.

She was still licking the window the treat was in.

 

Hanukah.

We're not religious at this house whatsoever.  However, a few years ago Skyler was interested in celebrating Hanukah so we bought a Menorah and Dreidel.  He continued to show interest in celebration so now it's an annual tradition.

Latkes!

Spinning the dreidel.

  

Uh oh!

Skyler realized he's tall enough to reach the tractor pedals.  This means he wanted to try driving it.  I figured after I finished plowing the garden he could take a spin around the yard to knock the dirt off of the tire.  He did great!

Can you see his smile?!

He made a ton of laps around the yard.

After a 2 year hiatus...

I plowed the garden Sunday!

SO satisfying to see the fresh soil being turned over.