Coming Back to Life

Spring...
And I say, it is about time! It is always amazing to me, the miracle, like clockwork, of the plants coming back to life. With that- the garden. I've already been able to go out and help Dad work in the garden- (more about that below), we've planted peas, carrots, radishes... last week Carson, Taylor and I spread a bunch of "mountain muffins" on the rest of the garden. They had so much fun :) Soon we'll be able to start mowing the lawn, and watering, weeding, digging, etc.... how soon to Autumn?









Dad
As I mentioned above, we're starting to prepare the garden for planting. Well, Dad was out there a few weeks ago, did too much, and landed up in the hospital. He's lucky- the neighbor found him out in the garden, sprawled out... she was so freaked out that he was dead. He may have been if she wouldn't have found him. Anyway, glad he's still here, but they told him to just keep doing the same things he's been doing, just not so much of it and do it in a lower gear. They said as he left "See you soon". What a horrible thing to say to someone just leaving the hospital. (just kidding- Ghosttown-ism)








Madison and Jake
Jake's grandpa died last month and they came up for his funeral- although sad, it is sometimes a celebration and sometimes the only time we get to see family. My Aunt Mary died a couple months ago, and I saw so many people I hadn't seen for dog years "It seems to me as we make our own few circles 'round the sun, we get it backwards and our seven years go by like one" cpt. I think that those that have pasted on look down on those occasions and are happy to see their family together... look at me pontificating!


Emery
Here she is discovering the taste of strawberries dipped in powdered sugar.











Conference
Carson and I got the great opportunity to go to Priesthood Session of conference, thanks to Jake's Mom and Dad who got us the tix... it was cool to be there. Yes, they are always good viewing them at the church, but its not the same as being there in person- I've never had the chance to do that before... talk about a testosterone overload!

Banana Bread

Whenever Emery hears grandma in the kitchen, she always comes running in wanting to help. This day, she wanted to help grandma and grandpa make banana bread.









"I know something you don't know- I am not right handed"

Hey Hey SleepEater!

We had sweet little Emery over the last weekend and she brought such joy to us- as always. She even let me read her 3 books! She is having trouble with her naps though, and when that happens, she gets pretty tired by the end of the day. She is ready for a little R.E.M. action. There is video- check it.

"Sandman to Emery, Sandman to Emery.... come in Emery" What a precious little thing!

Happy New Year! 1/1/11

That's kind of cool- 1/1/11. Guess that won't happen again for a few more years.

We spent New Year's Eve at Brenda's brother's place- almost fell into a coma, it was so exiting. No, we really had a good time- we even stayed awake! Usually we're just sitting @ home, staring at each other 'til we slowly sink into the abyss... New Years Day, the Krebs (from Maple-town) invited us to go snowmobiling with them.
I don't know how many ways we tried to talk ourselves (and them) out of it because it has been so cold. Well, we didn't know what cold was until we got there (Fairview, UT).
We hadn't been out in that kind of cold for a long time, and a lot of the kid's cold-vear (very nice), had not grown along with them- we had to borrow a bit. So, B and I, Sydney (and a friend), and Carson made the trek down. The low traveling at one point got to -13 degrees.
The high of the day I believe was 1 degree- heat wave! Luckily, the Krebs had a trailer that was enclosed and they had a propane heater inside, so we could at least thaw, drink some cocoa, and escape from the wind.
Carson and Garrett dug out a snow cave which was cool, B and I got stuck a few times on the sleds 'til someone came to help dig us out. It helped remind me why I don't have these fun recreational vehicles :)
We did have fun though. After the sledding, we stopped at the Krebs' place and ate items from the 'Eve's celebrations and played some games until it was time to go. A very enjoyable time.
Another blessing that I am thankful for.... great friends that have such wonderful toys and that invite us to enjoy them with them.

Happy New Year y'all! Let's all hope that this new year will be a happy, successful, and positive one for all.

30 on the 30th

My oh my how time flies...

The 30th of December, Brendr and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. Seems like only yesterday (or the day before) when this whole fantabulous journey began. I am surprised she has stuck with me this long, though. Any woman with lesser stuff would have bailed years ago. I did hope that at this time of my life I would have been able to take her to some nice, warm, exotic place (not St. George), but alas, it is not to be... I have to keep saying that, maybe, someday... so instead, I took her to cold downtown SLC. It was nice to at least get away to there. We enjoyed deep-fried pickles at The Garden, on top of the JS building. We saw the remake of True Grit, which we enjoyed, and did a quick dash through the Christmas lights at Temple Square- it was so cold that the statues were even wearing coats! As a good friend of mine always says It [was] colder than a well digger's butt.








Well Brendr, I hope that at the end our next 30 years, I will be able to take you to some place a little more to your liking... hopefully that won't be just helping you to the doctor's office or to the bathroom, either. Of course that DEPENDS on our health at that time, no? But as a famous couple once said to one another- "You're not the man I knew [30] years ago." "It's not the years honey, it's the mileage." So, here's to you Sugarbumps- Happy 30th.

Feliz Navidad

Talk about a bad case of the Ebeneezers this year. I (Doug) for one, had an over-flowing ginormous bag of it. "If I could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!" Hardly listened to any Christmas music or watched any Christmas movies... well, of course I watched The Grinch- I was taking some lessons from him. "Blast those Whos!" But, things got much better when all the fam got together. Madison and Jake came up from AZ, Rory up from SLC, Sydney down from USU, and Emery up from SLC- then the games began and mass quantities of food was consumed. The only down side was that Emery, Syd, Brenda, and I all had some kind of cold or sickness- most likely we will pass it on to the rest of the family... why wouldn't we? We also visited with Gpa and Gma Little and Zaugg (trying to keep our distance cold-wise) and went to see Tangled , that new Disney flick. It was very good, but I got a bit of a hairball. Brenda also had a work party breakfast, to which all the fam was invited. She made the yummy syrup to immerse our pancakes in- dang! The rest of the holiday break we spent time watching movies, eating more, playing more games, and eating again... "...I ate too much, I drank too much... too much!" "Blast that water weight, goes straight to my hips!" Well, I tried to capture some the activities in pics below. Oh dang! There is one song that I haven't heard this year that I need to... Cheech and Chong's- Santa Claus and His Old Lady... The season won't be complete without it! And one more thing, I must end with my Christmas wish... I wish... whirled peas to all, and to all a good night :)

Antelope Island

All these years living so close and I've never really been out to see Antelope Island. Our inspiration to do so came when a visitor from our old neighborhood in Charlton Massachusetts called to pay us a visit- Rick Cayer. He is on a 2-3 week road trip which started back east and will take him from here in Utah, up to Seattle and down the coast to San Diego. He will then fly home to be with his family for Thanksgiving. We had a great visit with him, as he told us of his many adventures that he had had so far.


With anticipation of his arrival, we were a bit hard pressed to figure out what we were going to do with him or where to take him (as there is not much around here)- he wouldn't be here that long to make any big plans, as he was on a pretty tight schedule. Anyway, I thought perhaps Antelope Island or to the Airplane museum at Hill Air Force Base- he chose the prior as you can tell from the pics. So, on our way down to SLC for dinner, we bopped on out to the island.

As we drove around, trying to find the visitors center, wondering to ourselves, "Why would anyone want to come camping out here in this desolate, bug-infested, foul-smelling, parcel of God's chosen land?" Well, I don't think I would go camping, but I think it would be fun to bike to and around the island. There is quite a bit of wildlife; antelope (duh), bison, pronghorn (not an antelope at all :) ), big-horn sheep, etc. Check out Rick and his pet, Bobby the Buffalo.




For the short time that we were out there, I came to realize even a deserted desert isle has it's beauties. I really wish that we would have had more time to explore and do, but that will have to be an adventure for another time.




Thanks for coming Ricky Cayer, and reminding us that... "...if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard ..." Dorthy. I guess that goes for looking for beauties that we finally realize are right in our own backyards.

We also had Emery this weekend- always a joy to have, and she's even starting to say 'please'! She had turned TWO YEARS OLD! this past week... where has the time gone. One thing we didn't get any pics of or videos of (it would have been so fun to share)... you know how much fun it is to have a flashlight and shine it on the floor and walls and have the cat chase it? Welllll, this was even much more fun. We have a laser heat gun which checks food temps. We had that going on the floor and playing with the wee babe, just so much fun to watch- her facial expressions... priceless.