In the Heart of Dixie

I am blogging my trip to Alabama.  See it here:  http://treeclimbingwithsonja.blogspot.com/

A New Team!

Well, it's time for fall baseball competition.  I was really busy because of my trip coming up, so I missed the first game and Logan's football game.  I had to bring in some garden stuff, dry it, shop and do a little client work.  But I did make it to the 5:30 game. 

Ty is on a different team now.   They are Lone Peak and he is number 4.  They have cream colored shirts and white pants.  They won both games.  Ty scored two of the runs.

Here some shots:

The audience has some fun in the sand pile.

It was fun to watch again, after a little baseball hiatus.  I guess I will miss everything next weekend due to my Alabama trip.  But then sometimes we can't attend everything, even though we would like to.  For some reason my computer will not upload pictures.  But my "old" computer, AKA Spencer's computer seems to have no problems.  So strange...I wonder what happened all of a sudden.  Well, I guess that's all for now!

GREEN BAY FUN

Spencer just got back from Green Bay where he visited his brother and his family.  They went to a pre-season Packers game.  And they got field passes and were very excited about that.  I told Spencer to take a lot of pictures.  I even gave him my good camera.  Well, did he take alot?  The answer is NO!  Only of the field and some players.  We have to work on this camera business with him....  I hope I can upload today!

Maybe Green Bay fans know this famous number??

So he had a fun time and next is my turn, to Alabama with my banjo on my knee.  Oh, Susanna.... I'm goin' to sweet "Home Alabama".....

The Wrong Place at the WRONG Time

OK, I am doomed.  As I got on the bus today on the way home from work, a man sits next to me.  After the bus is loaded and there is NO where to go, he begins his cell phone conversations.  They go something like this...

How are you doing?  Well, I am a little better.  We have all been sick and I am still a bit queezy.  But I thought I had better come to work to finish my very important project.  Lots of people at work are out sick, that's probably where I got it.  How's so and so?  A little better, that's good...our house has spread this from person to person.....

I hope I have a good immune system....  And thank you very much....

Labor Intensive! Summer Harvest Time Begins

I tried to upload some pics but I could upload none whatsoever, so there must be some blogger issues going on.  The last two days I have spent every evening picking black currants.  I have a love-hate relationship with these little babies that started on one of my European trips, probably one to Poland, I imagine.  I LOVE black currant juice.  Every European trip I look forward to the black currants and pierogis and the cultural foods of the countries I visit. 

So after one trip I decided I must absolutely have my own black currants.  So I looked locally for them and they were no where to be found.   So I looked on line and found a company somewhere in Oregon, I believe it was.  They sent me their catalog and I was in seventh heaven.  Well I assumed I would be receiving a larger looking bush-like thing when I received my order of 10 starts.  Well, that was what they were.  10 sticks....I also ordered about that many for my mom, too.   I remember wondering if these sticks would ever amount to anything.  We planted them and have had currants ever since.  Some of my bushes are much bushier than the others.  The south side planted ones are big, and the north end of the row is scrawny.  I wondered why.  Last night while finishing up the picking part of the ordeal, I got tangled into an ant pile.  They were all over my legs.  Picking now was even less fun than before and I figure these little pests are the reason that my bushes aren't doing so well in that corner.

It took forever to pick the 4 million berries, which took even longer to clean.  They all come on at the same time and so its a big picking event for me.  What a job it is every late summer about the middle of August.  I was very happy though to have received a cute little camp stool from my daughter when she returned from Bear Lake.  It had come with a large insulated bag that she got me.  I haven't yet used the bag, but I love the stool.  It was perfect for currant picking on the lower bushes.  Saved the back, the knees and it was great.

Then after cleaning those babies, I put them in the steam juicer and got my currant juice.  So I love the juice, but I HATE the slave labor that they incur on me.  The kitchen was a mess and so was I!  I am glad that is over!  But now the next big harvest is the red cabbage, which I prepare, German style, and then I freeze it.  Last year, and several previous years, we have been planting red cabbage.  They are always ready early fall and are another labor intensive harvest.  But not quite as bad as those little mini berries I just finished. 

When Pigs Fly

OK, so you have all probably heard that old expression, and so now just yesterday, I saw a "Pig fly". Well, OK, so it wasn't a real pig, but a pig none-the-less.  The picture makes it look small, but it was actually very large.  It was flying next to a hot air balloon.  I suspect maybe because of the Highland fling days over the weekend.  Anyways, it was funny to see it.

BYU Gen Conference

Well, here I am walking to the Morris center for lunch.  A nice lunch at that.  The main course was either chicken or pork, aspargus and potatoes or rice.  Then puddings, salads, lunchmeats, fruits, melons, desserts, muffins, cookies, rolls, (I am rolling now...) and drinks and stuff.  Almost like at Chuck-a-rama or something.  Barbara and Fritz and I are here on work time, but it's so refreshing to not have to be doing the same things all day.  I love it.  And it is fun being at the Y again.  They are building around the conference center and I don't recognize it from days gone by at least in the area we are.  You can see lots of construction.  Conferences are fun,especially when you don't have to present and can come really casually dressed and just enjoy it.  In 3 weeks, it's off to Alabama in the deep south.  My first time here.  It sounds really fun as I look at the conference schedule.  I will be presenting on Friday and Saturday and will have to spend some time at the FamilySearch booth, as well.  Then my cousin comes from Germany for a quick visit and Brecklyn has her birthday and baptism and then Jamie's birthday and away I go to Poland.  A busy summer.  I will be blogging my Poland trip on my other blog.  Probably Alabama too.Here's the link!  All for now!

Pierogi Time

Well, I booked my flight to Poland, found some lodging and am now trying to get it all together!  I am getting really excited and because I have been planning this, I haven't had time to blog.  There really hasn't been anything else to blog about.  I don't see grandkids too often.  Mostly at church.  I guess that they are busy being kids.

I have had some good luck with my own genealogy lately and that has kept me busy as well.  I am trying to get it all on my computer.  I have been working on the Lindemanns and they were movers.  They didn't stay put.  That makes it hard, but I keep getting bits and pieces of information.  I am working hard on my Jerichow project as well.

I am also going to the FGS conference in Alabama.  I am actually starting to look forward to it, even though I am a presenter, and it isn't my favorite thing in the world to do.  But that's OK.  It won't be the first or the last time I have to do that.

So that is what's going on in my life.  At least a small part.  The garden is starting to produce.  Not as much as last year.  Maybe because it is a really hot summer.

Alpine Ablaze!

About 3:00 this afternoon I heard about the Alpine fire which is just the next town to where we live in Highland.  We could see the billows of smoke in Salt Lake City.
Here a couple of pictures taken in Highland.

TWO!

Today was Grayson's second birthday.  He and my mom share the same day.  That makes them b-day twins.  I think it's cool.  His party was at the Hofheins in Alpine.  It was a swim party!

Here he awaits his private pool, but he prefers to not get in...

Logan, now that's another matter...fear?  Are you kidding?

Breck loves it too...

And so does Ty.

Pizza is more my style....

But finally mom insists.  It really is sort of a nail-biting experience, don't ya think?

Sheesh, I really could use some more pizza right about now.  I promise not to feed it to the dog...

Well, maybe I could sorta get used to this...I'll try!

But now for the good part!

Presents! Yeah, I could really get used to this birthday thing!

Now I can race Logan and I will win!

And now, the Cake, an ice cream cake!

It's great being two!  Don't ya think!

Playcation in St. George

I took a week off from work to take the grandkids to St. George.  I doubt that we could have gone on a hotter week, but Jamie had girl's camp and a trip to Lake Powell, which I think they didn't end up going to, so it turned out that we had a hot trip. 

First we went to Cove Fort. So for the hundreds, thousands and millions of you who have driven I-15 and passed the sign that points to Cove Fort and never stopped, this one is for you.  I have been there twice now.  The first time was when Tyson was 5 and my mom and I took him to St. George.  So here is what Cove Fort looks like!

Jamie and Grayson in one of the living quarters of the early pioneers.  Grayson wanted to be out of his stroller so that he could be lifted up to see it.  He really seemed to enjoy it!

Where the people are standing is where they have literature about the fort.  The left side of the pictures shows doors to the living quarters.  And by the people are stairs to go up to the top of the Fort and see what is "outside".  The left side was rebuilt after a woman living there had a "kitchen fire". 

We moved our way up to the top to see if there was any danger lurking up there on the outside.  Things looked pretty calm and quiet!

The place where Ty and Gray are looking is where they put their guns through to protect the fort.  The fort  was used for lodging of travelers.  To keep them safe from danger.

And so ends our visit to Cove Fort.
Next stop St. George and the condo.  Jamie arranged for us to stay at the Hofhein's condo.  That was a nice savings.

Here are some views off the terrace.

We ate out alot.  No one feels much like cooking on vacation.  And as you can see from the picture above, sometimes we had to wait to eat.  How rude of them...
The next thing on the agenda was Zion's National Park.  Here we are at the Park:

Here is our ice cream break at a shady little retreat.  Shady because it was HOT~HOT~HOT!

Here we are on the Zion's shuttle.  As you can see, there is no air conditioning.  The windows are open top and side.  But that didn't cool us off much.  Tyson remembered from when he was here with us at age 5, that we had bought misting fans at Walmart.  So he suggested we go there and see if there were some there.  You can see Jamie and Brecklyn holding their's.  Brecklyn wanted the small one because her friend Naomi had that one.  We told her the bigger one's were better and she insisted on the small one.  Later she borrowed everyone's large one. 

Well, have to take a break to go to Grayson's second birthday.  He and my mom are birthday twins.  They are having a swim and pizza party at Arden's.  I will add the rest of the trip after we return.

Back from the party and on with my blog!

The kids swam alot at the condo pools.  I didn't want to sit in the hot sun, so I babysat Grayson in the condo while he napped.

The second day we went to the Dinosaur Tracks at the Johnson farm.  At the first when you enter you see a 7 minute video.  Guess who wanted to watch the video FOUR times?  Grayson.  Isn't that funny?  Here we are in the second row, Logan and Brecklyn...

 And below, here they are checking out the tracks and bones.

Here are 3 sets of bones, none broken at the moment, of the non-extinct type. 

Here are remains of a dino named after my mom, who discovered them.  (just kidding, of course!)

Here they can draw and make their own dinos:

Then the next day we went to Snow Canyon.  It isn't a long canyon, but interesting and beautiful, none-the-less!

Tyson remembered this canyon because when it isn't 150 degrees out, you can play in the red sand dunes.  It was too hot to play this time.  The sand is blazing hot!
He also remembered that at the pay station, they told us to watch out for tortoises in the roadways.  They said to pick them up and move them, rather then run over them.  This time we went a little too late in the day and the lady at the pay station said they were in their shells sleeping.

Snow Canyon has extinct volcanoes which left behind lots of lava flow and rocks.  You can see the lava rocks to the right and foreground of the picture.  Glad nothing was erupting today, it was already hot enough!

Then we found a little cave of sorts.  The kids thought it was very cool, actually hot is the real word!

Do you think some Indians dwelt here?  Or maybe an old pioneer found it and slept here as a shelter?

Then the next day, Wednesday, we went to the Fiesta Fun Center.  Now here is the funny part; I remember taking pictures here, but I have none to show on my camera card.  There are only 2 possible reasons, no make that 3 possible reasons:
1. I used Jamie's camera
2. I broke my camera (later that nite) and it chose to erase those pictures.
3. I have dementia and I really took no pictures....

So, I can tell you that the kids played mini golf outside while I let the baby roam the machines, and play area inside.  He loved the machines with their blinking lights, etc, etc. and chose a favorite machine with cars that he wanted to steer and steer and steer.  He felt so grown up I guess.  Anyway, the pictures I remember taking are no where. 

In the evening, we went to see the Temple in St. George.  And by this time, Jake had joined us.

And here is the last picture taken with my soon to be broken camera, which I dropped right after taking this picture.  I was so bummed....

But I couldn't see spending the last day without any pictures.  You know me...so we took a trip to Costco to get me another camera.  Which I did. and so I still have a few to share!
Thursday night we went to Tuacahn.  I had really wanted to go there often before, but never could get tickets for the days we would be there.  So I tried early and got some really good tickets in the second row of the ampitheater.  Jamie had taught drill team one year at American Fork HS and met Summerisa Bell who was in the cast as Amber, one of the leads.  It was a great play!  So funny.  I can't imagine now, going to St. George and not going to the beautiful Tuacahn theater for a wonderful evening.  Brecklyn kept telling me, I hope this night never ends!
Before the show started we took some pics!

Don't you think Brecklyn has a pose like the Little Mermaid?  Just a thought I had when I looked at this picture.  Too bad we got some shoes in the picture...

We got to our seats and waited...

With bated breath!

Here is a view of the stage and the au-natural backdrop.  The play started at dark, about 8:45.

The play was "Hairspray" which took us (me) back to 1962 when the black-white racial issue came to a head.  It was a comedy and had dance and singing and so forth.  It was so funny.  The kids were glued and never moved a muscle.  Now how can that be, with this little group of mine!

Afterwards, Brecklyn wanted to meet Jamie's former student and so we "cut in line" just a bit.  And here is Summerisa and Jamie!

Brecklyn wanted and got a hug and an autograph. Which she got!

Then Brecklyn wanted pics and autographs of all the cast.  It was already midnight by then and she and mom went to see how long the line was....L O N G, L O N G, L O N G....So we went home.  Brecklyn was so disapointed she cried all the way to the condo, to Logan's "Brecklyn, you are giving me such a headache!"    But I did snap a photo of Tracy and Link for her!

So the next day we packed up the car.  Seems like there was much less room going home in the van than coming.  Hmmm....  On the way home we were going to Bryce.  As we got on the freeway we saw:

Yes, on the side, you will see charred remains of weed and grass.  This was where a day before the wildfire jumped the freeway and both sides burned.  But we were lucky on the timing.  Jake drove through it on his way to St. George, with fire on both sides...Hot Hot Hottttt.

This little Chalet looked to be VERY lucky if you ask me!  Actually we saw many housing within fire's reach that looked fine.  How scary.  And then we went here:

and here:

and here:

And here is the Motley Crew.  We were getting weary, I think...

And then a friendly Minnesotan family said they would take our pic if we took theirs.  It sounded like a good deal.  We took 'em up on their offer!

Then on to the look-out points it was, up till 9100 feet.  Below we are at one of the look-outs, right after Brecklyn had one leg over the rail, and ready to repel down the canyon....sheesh!  You can see her happy face after a BIG scolding from mom!

And on to some other points of interest!

And it's always nice to make new friends.  At least Grayson thought so!

Ty enjoys the stunning scenery of pines and red rock.

Our little tow-head wants to see it all, too!

Fabulous, beautiful Utah, the state we call home!

We finally get to the top and it's like being in the Eagle's nest!  So we have to stop and take a picture!

The view is BREATHTAKING!  But of course, photos do it no justice!

And then, eventually, all good things must come to an end and we start our descent home.

And we load up in our little van and head towards I-15 northbound.  We get outside of Nephi and we see what looks like a blast of smoke....
 

And then we saw this:

No it isn't a rain cloud... and then this:

Getting dark out...

and then kinda red and bright...

Many, including us, stop to take a picture of the devastation that is happening...

Help is on it's way (see above and below)

This little boy is sick of the smell and so are we!  Let's get out'a here!