Continuing the traditon.

I home brined another corned beef for St. Paddy's Day this year.

Treadmill!!

We got all 250 pounds down the stairs and setup last night.  It took all 3 of us on the stairs but the rest was surprisingly easy.

Of course he had to try it out and explore all the buttons and features.

Meal, Ready to Eat.

Or M.R.E.  We celebrated the Oscars last night with champagne, steak bites, polish sausage bites and shrimp cocktail.  Skyler celebrated by trying out an MRE for dinner.  He was fascinated!  

BBQ beef and black beans on two tortillas.  The green lemon lime drink was a favorite.  He said the chocolate chip cookies was rather "wheaty".

New bike!

I happened to see that Amazon was running a sale on a Fat Bike last Friday.  It was less than 1/3 the original price so Mommy said to order it.  The bike arrived Tuesday and I assembled it and swapped out the stock tires.  What a great deal!  

He rode it down to surprise Grandpa last night after school.  

Hopefully this will last him a while before he out grows it.

Back online!

The local idiot bridge crew took out our internet Friday morning.  After several frustrating days, it was back online yesterday afternoon.  Poor Skyler, he was nearly beside himself the entire time!

We made it.

It's March!

Rain chaincicle?

It was a frozen column on Friday when we got home from school!

You can also see the new outdoor lights I installed last week.  

So deep he has to wear snowshoes to feed the birds!

He was a real trooper yesterday when I asked him to go out and fill the bird feeders.  

 

Snow day number 2!

We're at home doing virtual learning yet again today.  Over 20" of snow fell here yesterday and the school said they haven't been able to plow out their parking lots.

I pushed up some huge piles with the tractor yesterday.

Snow Day!

School is online today and I'm already having flashbacks to when he was online the entire 4th grade school year.  Nothing like fighting to get homework done! 

Skyler on T.V.!

He was invited to the Ninja gym to be featured on the local morning show yesterday.

Waiting to be on.

Mommy took the photo while they were live.

Everyone posed for a photo when it wrapped up.

Links to each live segment here.

What a PITA game!

Since Skyler is in the after school "board game club" again, he gets to take select games home and learn how to play them so he can show the other kids how to play.  He chose "Risk" this week and it is rather difficult to learn to say the least! 

Note the instructions and phone used for reference.  I still don't quite understand the rules.

(Photo taken so Skyler wouldn't cheat while we paused last night.)

A different kind of bouqet.

Altair made a charcuterie bouquet for me for Valentine's Day! 

Delicious!

Weekend walk.

Birds, boat ramps, and a new view. 

Kingfisher.  

Skyler hopefully got a telephoto pic of it using his film camera.

The new boat ramp that I didn't know we needed.

Looking west from atop the Sharon Steel tailings pile now home to the Zions Bank building.

Sleepy dog.

At nearly 15(!) years old, Maizey dog mostly sleeps all of the time these days.  Lucky pup, I wish I could sleep all day some days.

Dying!!!

Homemade Sushi night.

Skyler got a new kids cookbook for Christmas and one of the recipes was for avocado cucumber rolls.  We had extra avocados and a cucumber so why not?

Skyler would only eat the Spam Musubi, he wouldn't touch the delicious avocado rolls.

 

Buh bye balloon!

F-22 to the rescue!

Boom!

The end of an era.

The final Boeing 747 took to the skies yesterday after delivery to Atlas Air.

"Queen of the sky".

 

20 years ago today we lost Colombia.

It was a Saturday.  We were on our way from our new apartment to my Parents' house to do laundry when we heard the news on the radio.  Godspeed Columbia.

Little kids are a lot of work!

That's what Skyler said after Rachael and her Nearly 3 year old daughter Sophia left on Sunday evening.

He was a trooper and really stepped up to entertain her.

 

Bowling on Sunday.

Mommy's childhood friend Rachael was in town and we met up with her at the local bowling alley. Skyler had a great time!

He even got a strike!

Pretty much all he does now.

Skyler cannot put the iPad down and it's getting rather infuriating.

Yesterday morning before Ninja class. He's addicted!

Now we're talking!

This has been a dream of mine since I was a kid.  Hamilton Standard Propeller decals on the ceiling fan! Skyler actually came up with the idea and found the decals after I placed yellow tape on the tips of the fan as a joke.

Looks killer!

(They're actual propeller decals meant for airplanes!)

Quote.

"And when I turned to face grief, I saw that it was just love in a heavy coat."

Yep.

Spotted on the internet. Highly accurate.

This!

Mind the Chablis!

Party pic.

The kids had a great time despite the chaos.

Skyler was the only boy invited from their class!

The button machine.

Mommy got a button maker for Christmas so we can be even more self-sufficient around here.  Skyler has a birthday party to attend to later today and wanted to make his friend Andrew a button to wear.

Working on the floor despite us having numerous tables to work on.

Number 4...

It was 4 years ago today that we lost Mom.  I think about her every day and I try to keep her memory alive for Skyler who was only 7 at the time.  We have lots of pictures of her and him together but one really stands out above all others.  Thanks to Altair for nudging me to take this picture of Grandma and Skyler in Nebraska all the way back in 2013.

I like to think she's still holding his hand every day.

3D printing pen.

Skyler got another 3D printing pen for Christmas.  Seems like a good idea but it mostly makes blobs!

He's rather entertained.

Quite possibly the best hamburger I've ever had.

We stopped at the new burger joint here in town for lunch yesterday.  Patty Shack  opened in November and I've been curious to see how good it was ever since.  Incredible!  Perfect French fries and unbelievable hamburgers!

It's location is in a residential neighborhood in the old Bell's Deli that operated for 40 years.

I had a double.  A single would have been just right.

Fries that are out of this world!  So crispy but not greasy.

Skyler ordered and finished(!) a triple!  3/4 pound hamburger!

B-29 content!!

This is a good little clip.

(Note how long Fairchild's runway is!)

RIP "Dirt".

The Nevada Northern Railway lost their mascot on Tuesday.  He was a legend and was one of the reasons the railroad has seen so much success.  High greens old boy!

2008-2023.

Say hi to Mr. Mittens for us.

Chemistry is fun!

Next door gave Skyler a crystal growing kit for Christmas.  We followed the directions and in about a week, we had a crystal!

Pretty cool.

Yep.

Altair is doing dry January this year.  I'm just trying to get through it.

 

Kitty!

Spotted on our walk yesterday.  She was super friendly!

She's rather chubby, aka, the short wheelbase model.

 

New room color!

We spent the second half of Christmas break re-doing Skyler's room.  He wanted a green color so we went and had some paint mixed at Lowes.

All finished and re-assembled.  He is watching "Black Sheep Squadron" on DVD on his little television.  His teacher is right, he really is an "old soul".

Midway Ice Castles.

A bit over-hyped and way over-priced, we made the trip in less than ideal weather conditions Monday afternoon.

Ice slide tunnels.

Skyler and Mommy in line for the ice slide.

Some kind of water/light feature.

Almost like bubble lights on a Christmas tree.

LOTS of people!!

January was always hard.

It's even harder after Mom died.  I ran across this the other day and I think it's pretty spot on.

 

Happy birthday Karen!

It's my one and only sibling's birthday today!  She's a great sister and wonderful aunt to Skyler.

Furether evidence of her being a wonderful aunt. 

Happy Birthday Karen!

New Year's Dinner.

Skyler picked turkey for our dinner this year.  I cooked up a turkey breast and it was fantastic!

Like a T.V. dinner only way better!