February to MiddleMarch

      

Starting off with this lovely picture of the American flag I copied from FB.

   Two things stand out in February: substitute teaching and a trip to St. George.  Out of 15 school days in the month, I subbed 8 of them, which feels a little too much like working.  I've learned I need to scale back or I will be dreading the text from the school asking for help.  For the most part, I had good classroom experiences.

    Nine days of the month involved my trip to St. George.  Of course I chose the worst travel day to head down.  I encountered slush and sleet through Pocatello, heavy rain all through SLC area, a blizzard in Nephi, ice over Cove Fort so that the semis were chaining up, and I never touched dry pavement until south of Cedar City.  The weather in St. George was sunny but cool the whole time I was there.  The first morning after I got there, I walked on the greenbelt and saw this roadrunner with something dangling from its mouth.  After the second picture, whatever it was, he swallowed.    

    On Wednesday, Kristine invited me to join her and a friend for a hike on Owen's Loop.  It takes you on the cliffs above St. G and gives you beautiful views of the city and surrounding mountains.  

Me, Kristine & Gina

Someone has taken the time to build a rock wall across the front of this cave.

The little 9-hole golf course off Bluff Street.

The St. George Temple far off in the distance.

    

        On Friday when Chad and Peachy had the day off, I took them on the Owen's Loop hike.  Funny story there: When Kristine took me on this hike, she had us park one car by a little park at the end of Main Street and then drive the second car to the start of the hike which is near the little 9-hole golf course off Bluff.  Then you hike across the cliffs just once and all drive back to your other car.  When I took C&P we followed the same plan.  We had finished the hike and as we were approaching my car, I realized I had put the keys to my car in my purse and locked it in the trunk of Chad’s car back at the beginning of the hike.  Luckily, the park had a row of those motorized scooters that you find all over the city, so we sent Chad off to get the other car and come pick us up.  He enjoyed the ride so much, he just returned with the keys and we left the scooter where we found it.  It was an excellent plan, just poorly executed.  

    Since it was the same hike, the scenery was the same, but on the day I took C&P there were no clouds in the sky.  We also encountered more people and dogs.

Chad near the rock wall cave.

    In order to see this hummingbird, it has been zoomed in about 80%.  This was at the end of the hike and Kristine had told me about seeing bird watchers in the area, so we were paying close attention to spot any birds.  I had never seen a hummingbird sit still for such a long time and the only way we found it was because it was moving its head around.  It looked like another leaf on the tree.

    I took one of my many bags of denim pants to St. G with me and started a quilt for Angela Disney who came and helped out Audrey for a week as she was recovering from surgery.  I started the quilt down there and finally got it done and handed over to Audrey yesterday.  I found the cute flannel for the back at the Ace Hardware in St. G. and had enough left over for a pillowcase.

     My time was also spent watching seasons 1&2 of Mandalorian, shopping, walks, eating their good cooking, and playing LONG games of Rummikub and Phase 10, plus bowling:

    To be fair, when Chad came here during his spring break and we took Kash bowling, he bowled his personnel best of 150.  

    The weekend after I came home from Utah, I was planning to attend our book club retreat at the Thurman cabin in Grover, WY.   I spent the morning packing the car and got as far as Ririe when I came to this sign:

    Missing out on all the fun was a real bummer, but the next day I went with Audrey for an unplanned but necessary trip to Draper, Utah, to visit her doctor.  The roads there and back were great and I guess I was where I needed to be to help Audrey travel.

    The first week in March we got a visit from Chad and Peachy.  Part of their visit was a trip over to Boise to see some places new to Peachy like the Capitol Building, Basque market, parks and greenbelt.  According to their pictures, they also got to taste some delicious foods while in Boise.  We were able to spend time with family and play some more games before their short visit was over.  Took this picture after we left the SR high school gym after watching Gus win his wrestling match.

Random Stuff:

Flowers Quinn gave me for Valentine's Day.

    Cleaned out my sock drawer before packing to go to St. George.  How does this even happen?  If I have this many socks without mates, aren't the mates somewhere in my house?  I don't take my socks off outside.  And wouldn't they take up the same amount of space?  Some of these socks I really like.  One of the mysteries of life I want answers to.  

I don't think my cactus has ever bloomed clear into March, but I love it.

Quinn and I walked to the Veteran's Memorial in Blackfoot one day.

Brought home a key lime pie for Matthew.  

First golf day on the Blackfoot course--March 13.  Notice the snowbank behind Sandra.  The day was a little chilly, but sunny, and trying to get a tee into the frozen ground was a chore.  Quinn is out on the course as I type this.