Memorial Day Weekend & New Birds on the Block

We started the weekend with a trip down to Provo to visit the Hardys on Friday night. We followed the advice on the radio concerning a crash on I-15 southbound and went all the way out to Bangerter Highway and traveled south to I-215 to I-15. The detour was longer but probably faster and we got to see a lot of built-up areas that were new to us. We certainly enjoyed Airie's yummy pasta (great litttle machine) chicken alfredo dinner with asparagus and foccacia bread, followed by ice cream and cookies (Boterkoek, Dutch shortbread made by Mom), and then a few hours of pinochle (including a shoot the moon and double pinochle) and gabbing. We fed cheese crackers to the grandrats.

Davis Creek across from the house...next to the Rock Walk
On Saturday we mostly did yard work.

The potentillas are starting to bloom.

Little purple pine cone buds on the mughos.

On Monday, spur-of-the-moment, we went to Bear Lake with Abram and Airie to visit cemeteries. We found 2 geocaches along the way. This one is called "What a View".

The little Barker house, with Dad's old bike in the cleaned-up front yard.

Some clever sculptures made from scraps.

St. Charles cemetery

Grandma and Grandpa Barker's grave, decked out with flowers.

Next we went to Laketown to see the graves of Almy's parents and then on to Round Valley to see the graves of the Earleys, Almy's grandparents. This shot is looking north into the round valley and on to the lake. It is deceiving, but we're up on a hill that drops off to the valley below.

We ate dinner in Garden City. No we did not eat the Old Ephraim 28" pizza, in fact we couldn't polish off 2 Papa Bears and salads...great leftovers, though.

Bear waving a flag at the restaurant.

Back home...we have 2 new birds in the backyard...here is an Oriole...we've seen 2 together in the mughos.

and here is a colorful Tanager. We've seen at least 4 of these.

Monday morning, Dad and I spent 2 to 3 hours scrubbing down the deck furniture and vinyl railings. They weren't clean for very long. Mr. Quail was strutting along the rails early Tuesday morning!