A Spring Saturday

We invited Daniel, Rosalyn, and Andrew down for the weekend and they graciously accepted our invitation. They arrived early evening on Friday and after a dinner of zuppa Toscana, bake-at-home bread, and DQ for dessert, we spent a quiet evening playing Crowns, catching up, and generally enjoying ourselves. On Saturday morning, after breakfast and a hair cut for Poppy, we all cheerfully worked in the spring sunshine in the yard. It was a beautiful morning and Andrew helped pick up pine cones off of the lawn. We raked up a ton of pine needles and got them on the curb for the City to pick up this week. About 10:30, we headed to Park Discovery and I got a few photos of Andrew really enjoying himself. It was a glorious glimpse of spring, and most welcome. We are experiencing winter again this evening. It is snowing hard and sticking to every horizontal surface. I am assured that spring will make another appearance later in the week.

I did take this rather random photo of another little girl on the swings. She refused to sit in the seat so she stood, board straight, in the seat and giggled while her daddy pushed her. I know it is weird, but lest you think I am a stalker of little girls, Andrew did the same thing when he first got into one of these swings. His mom had to train him to sit back and bend his knees.

I did get a photo of him after he sat down having some kind of fun.

Daniel informed me that it is a father's responsibility to cater to his child's dare-devil tendencies. Here we see him tossing a squealing Andrew high into the air. Rosalyn had to look away. She didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Andrew did.

I got this nice shot of Andrew and his Bubby sitting on a wooden turtle in the swing area. It was a little windy, but very nice to be in the park. From here we went to lunch at Bruno's (Andrew really enjoyed is spaghetti and meat balls), made a quick stop at our newly opened Walgreens, and came home for quiet time. While Daniel worked on his Sunday School lesson, Rosalyn, Andrew, and Bubby had a nap. I did some annual maintenance on my sprinklers. That always involves multiple trips to the hardware store and I certainly made my trips.

Andrew woke before his mom, so we ran to Walmart (I know, Walmart in Cedar City on a Saturday afternoon—insanity!) and got the stuff to trick out Bubby's bike and have chicken tacos for our dinner. After the bike maintenance, Daniel and I fixed dinner and Andrew played nicely while Bubby and Rosalyn read. After dinner, Daniel, Andrew and I played in the backyard while the "womenfolk" (just for you, Rosalyn) did the dishes.

Once Andrew went to bed, we spent a pleasant evening with "Hetty Wainthropp: Private Detective", had popcorn, and went to bed. Daniel and Rosalyn left at about 7:30 this morning so Daniel could teach his lesson. We did have a little excitement before they left, however. When Rosalyn went to step into the basement shower, the shower door shattered into a million pieces spraying the entire bathroom with broken glass. We are so happy that no one was hurt when it happened. We will get the Jones' Paint and Glass folks to come take a look at it this week.

Buboppy

Temple and a Progressive Dinner

We made the 10:00 AM session at the Dallas Temple this morning. The temple is really pretty and the exterior reminded Bubby of the Boise, ID temple. Our session was small (only seven men), but it was nice. When we stepped outside, we talked a woman who was photographing her visiting parents into photographing us. The wind was whipping, so I buttoned my coat to keep my tie from slapping me in the face. Too bad I didn't get my gig line straight.

We did a lunch at the Corner Bakery Cafe after the temple and then we rested until 3:00 PM. Booty went into work early and so we were able to pick him up at about 3:15 PM. This is the sign out in front of his building, which is located about three miles from their apartment. I know they are glad that they don't have to take the freeway anywhere each morning. We went to a big 15-theater complex to try to decide on a movie. There was general ambivalence about what to see, so we didn't go. There are a couple of films that Bubby wants to see, but she can wait until we get home.

We went to TJ Max and found Laur a couple of new table cloths, and then began our planned progressive dinner. We have no photos of our first stop, a return to Matt's Mexican market. We all (except Laurie who only wanted a taste of her favorite strawberry agua) had an "agua fresca" as an appetizer. Booty had a tamarindo flavored iced beverage, Bubby had a pina colada made with real pineapple and flakes of coconut in the bottom of her cup, and I had an horchata (the best I have ever tasted). We sat in the store and toyed with the idea of eating a Mexican dinner there, but opted for our original plan, Maggiano's in Plano. The restaurant was huge, and located in a really upscale neighborhood.

Having experienced Maggiano's before (the portions are huge) we all shared a spinach and artichoke dip. Matt and Laurie weren't as familiar with the drill, so when the waiter offered half-portions of a Ceasar salad and spaghetti with meat sauce, they both declined in favor of full portions. Here is Matt holding his salad. It was large enough to feed a family of five. It was delicious, and we all had some, but there was plenty to take home for his lunch. He had a massive amount of spaghetti left over to go with it.

Bubby and I decided to share an eggplant parmasean, pictured here. There was enough for us each to eat all we wanted and take a chunk home for Booty's lunch later this week. Of course the atmosphere was wonderful, the food amazing, the service impeccable, and the whole experience quite delightful. We certainly have not wanted for fun and food while we have been here. There are tons of great restaurants and stores in the Dallas area, which suggests that there is a lot of disposable income around.

Our final stop was Salt Grass steakhouse where we saw amazing desserts earlier in the week. Bubby and I shared a key lime pie (the red stuff is fresh strawberry puree). It was sinfully delicious and we licked our plate clean.

Booty and Laurie opted for a huge brownie sundae. They said the brownies were a little too rich, but I watched them put quite a dent in the dessert anyway.

We drove home and passed Mary Kay corporate headquarters (our photos didn't turn out) and we caught the last performance on American Idol (Booty and Laur are following it). We talked to Daniel and Blair and his girls on Skype, and then I went to bed. Tomorrow at 2:10 PM, we begin our journey home. It was been really fun to visit with Matt and Laurie in Dallas. We know that they feel far from home, but this place, and their situation is really very, very good. This looks like a good place for Leo to start out.

Buboppy

Arboretum Day

The previous posting was my first attempt at posting an iPhoto movie to Blogspot. The quality is so much reduced I am not very happy with it, but it was an interesting exercise. Yesterday morning began with a trip to the Corner Bakery Cafe. There are several near here, and the food was very good. Laurie had something called baked French toast (it looked a lot like bread pudding) and all proclaimed it very tasty.

Bubby insisted on a photo with Poppy outside the restaurant, so this is what you get.

We went to the Dallas Arboretum and spring was in full bloom. The tulips were past their peak, but still very beautiful. Lots of colors and varieties as you can see from this photo.

I am sure that I took too many flower photos, but it was fun. This arboretum was very interesting. They encouraged families to lay out a blanket on the lawn and have lunch together. More user friendly than most of these places. People were taking advantage of the lovely morning and the beautiful surroundings.

One of the most interesting aspects of the tulip beds was the color combinations they had planted. We enjoyed the subtle color variations and I took lots of closeup photos (at least as closeup as my camera will allow).

There was a really neat fountain in one section of the arboretum that included four of these water spouting toads. We wondered if visitors took advantage of their cool, but powerful, spray during the summer heat. We did notice that the arboretum hosts a variety of activities through the year including concerts. Most of the acts were names you wouldn't recognize but I did see that Asleep at the Wheel is coming in June. That particular brand of Texas swing is one of Bubby's favorites.

Bubby really liked these flowers, but I am not sure we ever figured out what they are. They were wide open and soaking up the lovely sunshine.

There was a sod house on the site which we thought was an interesting addition. The walls were at least a foot thick and the interior cool. It looked like a better living option than a tent.

Before visiting a monster Joann Fabric store and a huge Mexican market, we had lunch at Spring Creek BBQ restaurant. We all had a brisket sandwich, which you can see Bubby enjoying in this photo. Every few minutes, someone comes around the room and offers hot rolls to all. Of course the hot bread was fantastic. Bubby said she would carry a honey bear with her in future.

Buboppy

Easter Weekend

We spent Saturday afternoon recovering from our early run south and "rigors" of fishing. Laur is plugging along, and as you can see from this photo, is doing just fine.

Matt really had to work at it, but he eventually overcame the clever programming of his new modem and got it to work with his wireless router. In this photo, Laurie and I are happily surfing the net and even transferring photos from one computer to another (Apple makes that so easy!).

For dinner on Saturday night, we decided that the fish weren't ever going to be any fresher, so we battered and pan-fried them. They were lovely little white fish fillets, as you can see, and all ate some. We still have a few, and they would probably be delicious in a fish taco.

At church we ran into Rusty's mom and Trisha wanted a photo. I think the likeness to Hannah is remarkable (for our readers who can follow this thread without my using last names).

This was our Easter dinner, and it was doolicious. You can't beat ham and funeral potatoes anyway, and when one considers the addition of homemade rolls and a nice green salad, the meal was a real success. Of course we all ate extravagantly, but isn't that kind of a holiday thing?

We went for a walk in the neighborhood after our dinner and, of course, Bubby found the trappings of spring all around. I got her to pose by one of the hundreds of tulips we encountered on our way. The tulips are almost through in Dallas but they haven't yet started in Cedar City. That gives us something for which to look forward.

The dynamic duo are staying "classy" in their San Diego shirts. I can't believe that Booty is willing to twin (something I always felt was a little too "cue-aha" for me), but here is the evidence.

We had a lovely Easter Sunday, and hope that all of our readers did, too. Dallas is a beautiful community with lots of churches and lovely homes. I can see this being home, if a person had a job to keep him/her there.

Buboppy

Phishing with Poppy

We had to leave Dallas for the drive south at 6:00 AM. Our destination (Richland Chambers reservoir) was 85 miles from Booty's house. We met our guide and after a potty stop, we were off. We were fishing for white bass (in north Texas, sand bass). It was an exercise in vertical jigging, and Laurie was one of the first ones to hook a fish. It was a tough day, our guide told us, but we had a really good time.

It was a beautiful day on the water, and everyone enjoyed the boat ride. The sun was out, and we would locate fish with Captain Mark's electronics, then everyone would spring into action and start in to jigging.

Bubby caught plenty, too, but the only picture I have of her is smiling as the wind destroys the fro.

Here is one of Booty with a fish on. He caught his share, too.

At one point, Laurie caught a double. The rigs had a bucktail jig suspended about two feet above a jigging spoon (locally known as a "slab"). We would drop them to the bottom and then jig upwards a few feet. The white bass usually took it when the slab was falling back to the bottom.

This is Captain Mark working on our fish (we are having them for dinner tonight). It was fun to watch him work, in fact I shot a video so Jake could see how it is done.

Here is the group with the nine keepers we caught. We had hoped to catch white bass-striper hybrids, but we only got one and it was just under the size limit. If we had filled our day with catching those things it would have been memorable indeed.




Buboppy

Dinner In Dallas

We arrived in Dallas without a hitch. Booty ended up getting part of Exceptional Friday (for our politically correct readers) off, so both he and Laurie picked us up from the airport. Their apartment is nice and seems to be in a really nice neighborhood. Once we arrived, we called our fishing guide to make sure that we were on for tomorrow morning, and we called UPS because while Matt and Laurie were picking us up at the airport, UPS had tried to make a delivery of Matt's replacement modem. Our trip to the UPS operation to pick up the package was quite an experience. I have never seen anything quite like it. Before that, however, we went to dinner for Bubby's birthday. The restaurant was called Saltgrass Steakhouse. Of course the food was beautiful to look at, and doolicious to eat. Laurie splurged and had the fillet mignon. She really enjoyed it but wasn't too enthused about the medium rare.

Bubby had a marinated pork chop dinner with a baked sweet potato that she really liked. She ate one chop in the restaurant and has been working on the other one today.

Matt and I couldn't decide between a dish called El Paso chicken and the chicken-fried steak, so we struck a sharing arrangement. This is the chicken-fried steak, and it was ginormous. I got the chicken and we both agreed it would be a difficult decision again because they were both really good.

Finally, they brought Bubb a birthday piece of cheese cake swimming in strawberry coulée. It was just the right amount for the four of us. We decided we might do a progressive dinner later this week and go there for dessert. They had some brownie concoction that Laurie said was for her.

Buboppy

A Busy Time

We did make it to the Madsen wedding luncheon. This is a photo of the bride and groom at the head table. True to their Gen Y training, they spent most of the time texting friends and talking on their individual cell phones. We had a nice time visiting with the Ed Rogers side of the family. We saw Annie and Ned, Ed Jr., Leann, Margaret, Jeff, Ben, Nathanel, Adriana, and Elaine. We also got to visit with some of the extended family. The luncheon was fun, and the food (Dutch oven fare cooked by Robert Terry) delicious.

We made our excuses and headed south about 3:30 PM. We made several shopping stops, and I even found a tie to go with my green suit. We got to the Woodbury open house at about 6:30 PM. We visited with Mark, Becky, and Curtis and noticed that a good representation from the Key family was present, although Chris and Nancy were out of town. Both Heather (four kids) and Bonnie (four kids) were there. The dark colored hair belongs to Heather and Paul, the blonde kids to Bonnie. Joanne was also there. It was fun to see them all, and I am sure they thought we were weird for insisting on a photo.

Our host and hostess had provided a wonderful dinner (although we didn't eat much) and lots of homemade cookies for dessert. The recreation hall in the Morningside Park Chapel was full of family and friends. One of my current geology students was even there, and expressed his surprise (and delight?) at seeing me in St. George. Everyone seemed to be having a great time. Bubby took a minute to talk to Grumm Taylor, who broke her hip at Christmas time and has been convalescing in a care center ever since. This was her first outing since the problems. They looked pretty good, too, but we are all getting older.

Curtis is headed to Johannesburg, South Africa. He seems ready to go and was a very gracious host meeting and greeting all who had assembled. While I am pleased to see his poise, I am again reminded of when we knew him best (pre-school age). He was even courageous enough to sing a couple of Mormon pop numbers with his sisters. We only got to hear one of them, but I was impressed.

Bubby and I joined Uncle Roland and Auntie Nell at the Cox Auditorium for The Orchestra presentation. It was very nice and of course they sounded great. We got home around 10:30 PM.

This morning Eric Schmutz was sustained as the new president of the Cedar West Stake with Scott Sorensen and Joe Burgess serving as his councilors. Congratulations to them. That means there will be a new bishop in the 13th ward in a few weeks.

Buboppy

Saturday Morning

We just read Booty's comment about the Wells Family Watch and decided we needed a post, even if we haven't got much to report. We are glad to see the end of the week, and the beginning of spring break. I will have a few days to get caught up on some things at work.

We went to see "Penelope" yesterday. Not too bad. Bubby seemed to enjoy it. I thought the girl looked better as a pig.

This morning we showered and did some serious grocery shopping, something we haven't done in months. Lin's was having a case lot sale, and we stocked up Smith's (in the basement).



We have spent some time this morning trying to find Postum. It turns out that Kraft isn't making it any more, and what used to be $6 now sells on EBay for $30 plus shipping!

We are headed to St. George this afternoon, after we make an appearance at Curtis Madsen's wedding luncheon. We have a lot of shopping to do. We have been invited to an open house for Curtis Woodbury (he is headed to South Africa) and then it is the Orchestra at Temple Square concert. We will be home pretty late, I think. We may even have some photos to post afterwards.

Buboppy

Home Again

On Saturday morning, we decided to concentrate on some of the more obvious and touristy locations on the valley floor. We visited Bad Water, over 280 feet below Sea Level. The students had a great time walking out on the salt flats. Bubby and I posed for a photo and were generally enjoying the sunshine.

After Bad Water, we drove to the Devil's Golf Course where we actually witnessed someone trying to play golf. I think the metaphor escaped this guy, but he is not alone. One of the participants found a golf ball out in the salt domes and we did remove it. I wish I had known that hitting a ball out into that mess is the thing to do. We filled the day and returned to our camp Saturday night to find that the wind had arrived. We had gusts to 30 mph, which made dinner preparations interesting. We survived it though, and the participants even got there cobbler for dessert. We went to bed in the wind but it was gone in the morning. We gathered ourselves and drove home via a volcanic crater and Scotty's Castle. Bubby and I were finished field trippin' by about 7:00 PM. All in all, a good trip.

While I realize that these images are a little graphic, Bubby thought you might like to see what it looks like. It really looks much worse than it feels.

If I take things slowly and don't roll it again, all will be well. I have an appointment today at 2:30 to have a podiatrist look it over, just in case.

Buboppy

Death Valley-The Ankle Day

After a cool, but quiet evening, we headed for Darwin Falls canyon, just west of Panamint Springs (where we saw our first over $5 per gallon gasoline). The group posed for a photo on our way up this beautiful desert canyon.

Just before I took this photo of the Bubb and the falls, I rolled my ankle for the second time during our hike. We were scrambling over rocks and they were wet and slippery. Before this morning was over, I had rolled my left ankle a total of three times. By the time I was able to get back to the vans, it was swollen the size of a large orange. With field trip activities to carry out, however, we didn't let that deter us. One of the participants had expertise in sports medicine, and with the help of a "rocket sock" we went on for fun. Unfortunately the rocket sock caused some severe blisters but you'll hear more about them later.

Bubby and I agreed to shuttle vans while the students hiked Golden Canyon from Zabriske Point to the valley floor. We had to gas up the vans, and stopped for a rest in the shade and had a cool drink while we waited for our hikers. The daytime temperatures were in the mid- to high-70's and the nights were in the high-40's low-50's, so conditions were ideal.

On our way back to camp we stopped at the Harmony Borax works to look at the strike-slip faults crossing the valley, and Bubby took lots of flower photos. These yellow composites were all over the place, and it was hard to resist taking their pictures.

Bubby also caught a candid photo of me with the long lens, and since I seldom post myself, I thought some of our faithful readers might enjoy the image, although I can't imagine why.

Buboppy