Dinner at our house

We celebrated Emilee and Hannah's birthdays this week with a rousing night of food and laughter.  And then we were entertained by the kids (both young and grown) as they joined together for some spontaneous music and dance.

Oh and one more thing:  The date was March 11, not February 11.  It seems I've lost touch with the calendar......

Owl Walk

What a magical evening I had last night! I went on an owl-spotting walk with the Greater Salt Lake Audubon Society in City Creek Canyon. I walk in the canyon almost every day, but it was so enchanting to walk it slowly, with about a dozen people, in the moonlight. The leader had a tape recorder with the calls of great horned owls, screech owls, Saw-Whet owls, and long-eared owls. We saw a golden eagle at the outset, two herds of elk (man, they are huge!), and various small birds. As it got darker the leader played the owl sounds and called a huge great horned owl to us. He sat in the top of a big spruce tree, silhouetted by the last remaining light in the western sky. It was awesome. Then the stars and planets began to pop out. We saw Jupiter, Venus, little Mercury, a really bright red Mars, Sirius, the Pliates Sisters, Orion...about 3.5 hours of walking and listening and chatting softly with some really nice people. Perfect end to a beautiful day.

It's (finally) beginning to look more like winter

The weatherman/woman said the chance of snow this weekend was good.  Of course, he/she has said that many times this year -- all for naught.  So this time, we thought we'd "triple-dog dare" the forecasters and head up to the mountains for a few days.


Low and behold, we woke up Sunday to a fresh snowfall of 6-8 inches of fluffy stuff.  Add that to the existing foot or so and you get a wonderland for good girls and boys and dogs.

Oakley playing in front of our cabin.

He eyes the new snowdrift.

Despite Carolyn's warning, he jumps into said bank of snow.

And immediately, he discovers a desire to escape the mound.

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."
John Ruskin

We hope all is well in each of your worlds.  We're looking forward to seeing many of you in Quincy for Easter.  Much love, David, Carolyn, Hannah (she sends a big "hi" from the NW), Oakley and Circa from under the couch down in SLC.

Since we've been on several road trips, we've had requests to share some of our adventures.  These pix are from our January trip to Moab, UT.  The four of us (Carolyn, Hannah, me and Oakley) had an early morning hike before loading up and moving onto Durango and Albuquerque.

Moab is located in southeastern Utah and is famous for its red rock canyons and surroundings.  Since I'm color-blind, it took me a long time (30 years or more) to gain an appreciation for the scenery.  And now I have...

Christmas Fish!

Meet our new additions from last week...

The yellow fish is a foxface lo and the black and white is a butterfly fish

This is my guy... his name is Po, after the character on Kung Fu Panda


This is a lo in camo mode! Her name is Foxylady. She's Bryan's fish.

Thanks Eric and Monica for the gift card! Unfortunately our petco doesn't sell saltwater fish, but we were able to buy Skye's pet food there and in turn use the money we would have spent on that towards these new fish! Win - Win!!

I'll post a video of the tank next time.

I LOVE FISH!!! =o)

I did get it after all!!

Friday Dinner

So Bryan and I invited Sherry and Dale over for dinner last Friday. It's about time we start reciprocating the act, especially when their kitchen is still "in progress" so to speak. ;o)

We enjoyed a dinner comprised of Cheeseburgers, Kraft Mac and Cheese, and chips... dinner of champions! Hehe... Some day we'll make something better, but hey it worked.

After dinner I glanced over near the tv where a certain "electronic game" was placed and thought to myself... I wonder if I can get Bryan and Dale to challenge eachother... Success! Though, failure on saving the video of the final battle.

This electronic game is a game of reflex... You tap the center button which remains red while playing "count down" type of music and eventually turns green. At the moment it turns green you want to be the first to press the button on top of the handle with your thumb. If you press the button too early or you are the last one you get an electric shock. There are 4 levels/settings of intensity. I had a funny video of Dale getting shocked on the highest setting, but sadly it didn't save. He yelled and threw the control out of his hand.

I thought it was pretty funny... so figured I'd share some photos too....