A few Days in Dallas

 

Playing at the mega-park.

Jumping with Daddy

 

Bunnies everywhere

1st Official day as a real Dentist

 

 

 Cookie Time

 

Cookie-Kisses

Paul's Surprise 60thBirthday Bash

 So Paul doesn't like surprise...

And he doesn't like a month earlier than expected surprises.

But his daughter, Trisha was here from Kentucky and she didn't want to miss out on the fun.

Here's Paul wearing his happier-now-than-a-few-moments-ago face.

He did get happier when he saw that all the intruders were family

and that there was food...alots of food.

 You can tell it's a senior citizen party 

when the guests are comparing their Golden Age Cards.

 Okay...the challenge

 Name that relatives.

 Yes they ARE all relatives.

.

Now up the challenge...

Which cousin do these kids belong too?

 

 

  Ice Cream Cake

 Cutting the IceCream Cake

Use those muscles Trisha.

 

Opening a few gifts like...

 60 used birthday cards,

60 empty soda cans (Paul does recycle)

60 Fruit Snacks (what he eats when running long distance)

and two copies of the DVD "Gone in 60 Seconds"

 

Releasing the balloons

and just like a bunch of tired Senior citizens these balloons were too tired to float

until we clip off their strings and then they ever soooo slowly floated away.

 

 

 Oh and here's Paul's garden...yeah I'm jealous!

Our Paragonah Weekend

Thursday Night

.

 Driveway sing along with Kaye's sisters

 

Friday

Just keepin' the fingers warmed up.

4-wheeling to the spring

The Spring

Friday night we went to Washington Utah

 for Karl's brother, Paul's 60th Birthday Bash.

Saturday

More 4-wheeling

Can you see the horny toad?

Yeah...he is a camouflaged little critter.

The best place to stay on the mountain

The door's not locked

with a framed invitation for anyone stay.

It's fully furnished and stocked

With list of instructions to keep it nice for the next guest.

Complete with spring water and pool.

and restroom amenities.

 

 A view of Panguitch lake

 Backyard concert for some Paragonah neighbors

Somebody's getting older.

Happy 26th Birthday Jakob! May you continue to add more happy memories for a lifetime to come.

Once a scout, always a scout.

 The scout activity at last night.

 Building soda can stoves.

I'm sure the leaders had more fun than the boys

...and the boys had a great time!

The things we find out on Facebook.

 ...Grand Baby #10!

 And that moment of discovery was pretty exciting!
"Endorphin rush."
No wonder I check FB frequently :)

Sunset

...the effects of fires on Mt. Charleston.

An eerie beauty that comes with a price.

Memorial Day Mystery

 I realize it is the 4th of July and this mystery happened on Memorial Day...but it has taken me this long pondering if I should even risk posting this.

Warning:  This post contains a disgusting and graphic image, disturbing material and after reading it you may never want to visit our house again.   Well maybe you never have wanted to visit our house...but this will seal the deal and we may never have house guests again.


Well here it goes...

Memorial Day fell on garbage day and garbage day we have the tradition of rushing about the house collecting all the garbage...exciting I know.
 Karl went out to get the garage garbage  and said .."you need to see what I found in the garage garbage".  So curiosity over-came me and I gingerly went out to the sidewalk, opened the black bag and peered in.  I was startled, shocked and a little sick...I think I even let out a little scream-like noise.

Now I love the Disney movie Ratatouille,  Mickey Mouse is adorable  and I even didn't mind having rats for pets when the kids were  little...but discovering  the body of a quite large rodent  in the bottom our garbage can is a bit emotionally over-whelming.

I can't believe I grabbed my camera and took a picture!

The mystery...how did it get there?
We've never had a rodent problem in the 10 years we've lived here...We've never seen rodent droppings anywhere,  We've never ever seen a mouse nest anywhere.   I did see a cute little baby mouse about a year ago running along the backyard wall.  We put out traps but never caught anything.

Now this guy really looked like a rat or an extremely large mouse and it was IN OUR GARAGE...dead in the garbage can.

Our first thoughts were..."Who put it there? Was this a joke?"  We had been gone for a week an had just gotten back a few days before.     No deranged people had had access to our garage garbage can.

So did this huge rodent just waltz into our neat little gated neighborhood,  scurried down the sidewalk, pick our house out,  squeeze through some miniscule gap into our garage  leap into our garbage can...which did contain an apple core...and die there? REALLY?

Could this be that cute little baby mouse that escaped our capture?

We may never know...but we won't be throwing apple cores in the garage garbage.