Salt Lake Bees - June 8, 2010

Hooray for Date Night!  James scored free Bees tickets at work for tonight, so we grabbed some quick dinner and headed for the ball park.

The Bee was in fine form - until one of the players on the Colorado City Sky Sox stole the keys to his 4-wheeler and the game was a bit delayed while the Bee got his keys back!

I love seeing the little train in out past the outfield - reminds me of the time I brought tiny McKayla to a Stingers game at Franklin Covey Field and we rode the train and she played in the bouncy inflatables and we ate ice cream. 

We left shortly after the 7th inning stretch so we wouldn't stay up too late - even Date Night has a curfew when James works at 6 am! 

(June 28, 2010 - post script - This is the advertising plane that flies around the Salt Lake Valley on home game days.  I took a picture of it as it circled the ball park on our date two weeks ago. We've often talked about what a great way to earn 'flight hours' this kind of job would be.  Just need your commercial rating and a rating for towing a banner.  

We saw on the news that on Saturday, June 26, 2010, one of the pilots who flies this plane was killed.  After hooking onto the banner, his airplane lost power.  He released the banner and still crashed.  The airplane burned before he could be rescued.  Cremation is not the best perk of flying.  They held a moment of silence just before the game on Saturday night.  Very sad.)

Hiking with Mom - June 5-7, 2010

Mom's visit was the same weekend as a baby shower for my cousin Amy (Mom's blog) and on Saturday, we ended up in American Fork on Free Trails Day.  American Fork Canyon normally has an entrance fee, so I very, very, very rarely wander up that canyon.  But today, FREE!  We met up with James and went for a hike.

We planned to hike to Silver Lake.

But the runoff was too high - stopped us about 2/3 of the way to the lake.  Other hikers were coming down, so it is possible to cross the creek, but they had wet shoes.

It was still a beautiful afternoon and we did see some wildlife.

And the scenery was incredible.  This is Silver Lake Flats Reservoir.  We parked on the far side of the reservoir and hiked up into that valley.

On our way back into Salt Lake County we saw tons of paragliders at the point of the mountain.  Like a flock of birds!

Then on Monday, we met up with Aunt Lynnette to hike Beus Canyon (Mom's Blog).

Thor kept most of the wildlife from making an appearance, although I did see a little snake.

We stopped near a cascade in the creek.

And took a few pictures and visited and thought how wonderful it was to be hiking instead of at work.

Thanks Mom - Love you!

Come visit again!

Cemetery Hopping - June 4, 2010

Mom has planned for a year to come Cemetery Hopping in Salt Lake.  She got her plane ticket and invited everyone who could go, to meet us in the Salt Lake Cemetery to visit our deceased relatives.  (Mom's Blog)  I took notes on some of the stories GandG Price told about the family members they remember, so I'm planning a "Family History" post soon with stories and pictures of gravestones.  Aunt Lynnette, GandG Price, Aunt Barbara and McKenzie all met us for this adventure.  It was a lot of visiting, a little bit of searching for family, a lot more visiting, and a truly beautiful day.

A lot of visiting - they think they haven't seen each other in a while.  I think it was wonderful to catch up with living relatives while visiting the dead ones.

My favorite picture of Mom, Aunt Barb and Aunt Lynne.

This is GandG standing where their own burial plot is going to be.  It was fun to visit the site while they are able to come with us!

After visiting some of our many relatives in the Salt Lake Cemetery, we visited a few of the more famous residents.

We had lunch at the Lion House Pantry, stopped to visit some family at the Draper City Cemetery and then finished our adventure at the Alpine City Cemetery.

This last photo is for McKenzie - she wondered why none of the headstones ever said "RIP".  I finally saw one at the Alpine Cemetery.

Rest in peace until we meet again.

Miller Motor Sports Park Memorial Weekend - May 29-31, 2010

Brian came to visit for Memorial Day Weekend and it was a very mellow weekend.  But we scored Miller Motor Sports Park Tickets for the Superbike World Championship.  So on Saturday we spent the entire day out at the MMSP watching the motorcycles do their practice runs a qualifiers.  I didn't take a single picture of the motorcycles - even though it is very impressive to see them corner with their knees brushing the pavement.   We had so much fun that we decided to go again on Monday with Tiffany for the finals. 

James having 4-wheeler dreams

National Guard Toys - they let James work their robot - just like playing a video game except in 3-D!

James and Brian prepared for the Kart Racing.

Kart Racing - James is fastest and I'm the slowest!

The stage for the concert - on Saturday night there was a concert with fireworks at the end.  The concert was KANSAS, STYX, and FOREIGNER. I recognized a few songs.  We stayed until we got hungry, so we left before the third act, before dark and before the fireworks. 

Tiffany and Brian

James and Jessi

Happy Memorial Day!

Dirt-Roading - May 22, 2010

Jessi, James and The Outlaw on an adventure.

Last year, James and a bunch of the Glen Price boys and Shumans went exploring in the rain up Millville Canyon (May 2, 2009).  I stayed for Kelley's bridal shower.  Which was fun, but I really, really wanted to go exploring too.

This spring, Uncle Glen let me plan an adventure!  I was hoping for Millville Canyon and a stop by Old Ephraim's Grave.  Only Uncle Glen and Craig could come and Craig's vehicle had to stay behind (leaky windshield), so we all loaded into The Outlaw and Uncle Glen's truck and headed off to Logan.

We stopped in Logan long enough to visit with Tammy and Brett and wander to a Farmer's Market in a nearby park.  Luckily it only sprinkled while we were there!  Tammy and Brett became parents the very next day! (Kyrie Violet - May 23 - 9:04 p.m. - 7 lb 9 oz - 19 in)

Here are James and Craig on the street next to Brett and Tammy's place - what a view!

We tried to get to Old Ephraim's grave by driving up Logan Canyon and the Right Hand Fork Road - still "Closed for the Season".  So we tried the Temple Fork Road - still "Closed for the Season".  We drove all the way back down Logan Canyon to try Millville Canyon - still "Closed for the Season".  It was tempting to give up - three strikes already!

Finally, we drove up Blacksmith Fork Canyon - the road up to Old Ephraim's grave from there was still "Closed for the Season", but we were finally able to find a long stretch of dirt road, complete with puddles for exploring.  Yay! A Challenge!

The main attraction along the way is called the Grey Cliff Springs.  So pretty and green, and there were some pretty nice sized fish in the creek.  Too bad I couldn't get far enough away to include the grey cliffs above. 

The End of Our Road - Craig said he and Justin have driven up through this crazy pile of rocks.  Very slowly and with spotters. (It is steeper than it looks and the rocks are huge and not well spaced.)

 

James did take The Outlaw up a little way for a test, but it was tricky!  Finally, we decided to back down and turn around and drive back through the fantastic puddles.

Uncle Glen in his fantastic Ford...

There were a couple of really nice size boulders on the edge of the road.  On our way in, we just maneuvered around them.  On the way back, Uncle Glen and Craig decided to get out the tow strap and drag the rocks off the road.  This one was stubborn and didn't want to go over the edge.

When they got to a nearby tree, they used it to help drag that rock off the road.  Saving the road, one rock at a time! (The tow strap was a little worse for the wear).

What a glorious day!

So Dirty!  Some puddles were so fun, we went through them twice!

Washing The Outlaw at the end of the day.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you G&G for letting us stay overnight, for feeding us breakfast and dinner and for letting us use your car washing stuff. 

We're looking forward to the next Grand Adventure! (I will make it out to Old Ephraim's grave, sometime...)

Too much JAM

I've started a second blog in an attempt to keep my health and fitness goals online and to be accountable to myself for them!   But then I didn't keep up with it, or with exercising much.  So I added some of the posts to this blog and let the other one go.

Cat-sitting and Playing in the Snow! April 25 - May 2, 2010

This is Milo. He loves to play with cat-nip mice and watch James lay on the floor to get them out from under the stove, from behind closed doors, from under the bed, from out of the duffle bag, etc. He thinks it is fun to lick your elbow in the middle of the night and sleep right where your legs would like to be, if there wasn't a black and white cat there taking up the space. Milo likes to jump up on the bathroom counter and sit in the sink. He doesn't like being toweled off after he fell into the bathtub with me. He tried very, very hard to sneak out the door everytime we went outside. He never succeeded.


This is Milli. She loves to sleep ontop of the sofa with a good view of the bird feeder on the porch. She has a very loud "meow" when she wants your attention - perhaps she needs to be petted or her bowl is empty of canned catfood. Milli gets a pill on M,W,F. On Friday, she spit her pill out about a dozen times and finally, she got her pill on Saturday morning.

These are the bird feeders on the front porch. I refilled them all on Saturday. I counted about 9 little birds in this picture. We even had some really big (comparatively) birds - blue jays and wood peckers? - come by for treats. This picture was taken before James and I finished shovelling off the porch.

It snowed almost every day we were up at this cute little Brighton house. This was the first storm on Wednesday evening - it was so nice to curl up on the couch by the cats and look out the window at the falling snow. And James thought it was fun to fire up the snowblower. I helped - I shoveled the porch and steps.

On Saturday we finally had time to get outside during daylight hours to play in the snow. James had all his snow gear and decided to skin up to the top of the Millicent lift. I borrowed snowshoes and wandered the resort boundary out to Silver Lake and back to the house.

There were quite a few cars in the (unplowed) parking lot and lots of skiers/boarders hiking around the mountain. James ended up making two runs. He would have hiked for a third run if the mountain hadn't grown 30,000' vertical feet after the 2nd hike! "So... 3ft of fresh snow in the Wasatch didn't suck. Unless you didn't go. First time I think I have ever had the Milli bowl at Brighton to myself with untracked everywhere and didn't have to scramble to get my lines! It was pretty epic and just wished my legs could've kept going up so I could've enjoyed... some more down cause it was amazing!! Stability was great Saturday, and in fact it was a little on the heavy, heavy side (snowball snow) but not wet if that makes sense? The snow Sunday came in lighter and fluffier and all though I didn't get out Sunday, I noticed it was sluffing off snowbanks pretty easy when I was out with the snowblower. I was guessing up higher that would have been something to watch for."

This is as high on the mountain as I got - see the lift base & cars below?

Then off into the untracked, un-peopled snow for a wander.

Can you see James hiking up on the mountain? Nope, I can't either. This is Silver Lake. Now I've 'hiked' around it in every season. It looked like the water wasn't completely frozen underneath the new snow. Happily, the trail (there was a trail down by the lake and boardwalks) went way around the water.

There are several houses near-ish the edge of Silver Lake. This one has a chair lift swing.

And for the first time (maybe because I wasn't headed straight to my vehicle after a long day of patrolling), I noticed a big boulder near the Brighton Store with this plaque.

Housesitting is done. No more lazy cats. No more 4 am mornings to get James to work by 6 am. No more watching wild birds at the feeders and watching snow fall in the mountains. No more shoveling and snowblowing. No more snowshoeing and hiking for turns. Sigh.