Cousins Visit

My dad had two of my cousins visiting him yesterday. Cindy is Dot and Dick's daughter and Jeanne is Marge & Roscoe's daughter. Where I have seen Cindy quite a bit in the past few years I hadn't seen Jeanne since 1984 when I went back east for my Grandmother's funeral. It was fun seeing both of them again and catching up with a little of their lives. Most of the time I have no idea who they are talking about though!

Cindy is on the left and Jeanne is on the right. This was after we had a great dinner at my dad's of pizza and salad, that the cousins made, some wine & ice cream and a big candy bar from Trader Joe's.

Hopefully it won't be another 24 years until I see them again!!

Kody's Fourth Birthday Continued

We had two days of Parties for Kody's birthday. On Friday he came home from school with his birthday hat on. Isn't it just great how kids "smile" for a picture!

That evening we went out to Noodles and Company in Layton for dinner. The food there is great but I don't think we will go there on a Friday night again. It was busy and they just couldn't keep up with the orders. After a long wait we got to eat and not everything was that warm. Oh well we will learn that Friday is a bad restaurant night!!

Here Kody is taking a Happy Birthday call from one of his many fans!

Shannen and Jessy looking beautiful as always.

Shannen talking to her dad. She looks happy doesn't she! We came home from dinner and had presents for Kody.

He got lots of neat stuff of course. Luckily Shannen got him two cars as that is all he was asking for!! I don't know what he would have thought if he didn't get those. We gave him lots of Power Ranger clothes and toys. He likes to wear his Power Ranger Tshirts all the time and he only had two so now he can go half a week before Darcy has to wash again! He even got Power Ranger undies!!
On Saturday evening we went out to Layton to a skating center for his kids party. There were 12 kids there and a bunch of the moms and dads. The place has a lot of bouncing areas and a Pirate playground area for the little kids and then the games and the roller skating area. As you might guess with all those things going on and lots and lots of kids there was lots and lots of noise!!! All the kids had lots of fun and I know that was all that was important!

Here he is waiting for his friends to come to the party.

Friends eating pizza

More friends eating pizza

Kody eating pizza too.

Kody just being Kody

Jessy and her friend Missy

The Happy Parents

The Dinosaur Cake

Kody blowing out 4 candles

And the fun stuff of opening Presents!!!!

All in all he had a great birthday. I wonder if he will remember any of it when he is in the 30's! I guess it doesn't matter if he remember the birthday he will remember the feeling of his childhood and this has to be a good memory.

Kody Is Four!

Just a couple of pictures from the morning before Kody went to school (with his brownies!)

Signing I Love You!

Showing how old he is.

Ready for school with his " It's my 4th birthday ribbon on.

Thursday in Utah

Today was the first day I spent alone since I got here. Darcy has taken most of the last two days off so we kept busy either shopping or goofing off. So today I was home alone without a car and it rained in the morning. I finished one book the night before and then went ahead and reread it in the morning! It had taken me several weeks to get through it just reading once in awhile and when I finally sat down and read for several hours I found I was really enjoying it so went back and reread it!! Oh what was it you ask? How to be a Bad Birdwatcher by Simon Barnes. Think what it said to me was just get out and look. Enjoy being part of nature.
Well, after I had finished the book I decided to do just that and I got out and had a short walk up the street and into the local cemetery to check out the mountain and see if there were any birds around. Luckily by that time it had stopped raining so I didn't have to get wet!!
The first thing I noticed was all the American Robins. They were everywhere. I think I must have seen at least 30 of them in the very short walk I took.

They sounded like they were laughing at times. I had never heard them sound like that. I haven't been out with that many of them. Normally we get one or two in the yard for maybe a week in February. This year I didn't notice any but I wasn't out in the yard much so I might have missed them.
That is the only bird I got any pictures of but I did see a few more. House Finch, House Sparrow, Scrub Jay, Black Capped Chickadee, Starlings, Downy Woodpecker, and some Bushtits. I think that is it. Not many but lots of fun looking. I took some pictures of the mountain in back of the house. Everyone knows how much I love taking pictures of mountains!!

As you can see the snow is just about gone from area. When I got here on Tuesday there was enough snow on the front lawn to sled down. Today there isn't any left at all! There are just a few patches left here and there. It has been in the upper 50's and mid 60's most days and with the rain last night and this morning it has melted most of the snow. I wonder if they will get anymore of it or if this is it for the season. I guess there is always a chance of a late March snow storm.

If you look across Salt Lake you can see that the mountains on Antelope Island still have lots of snow on them.

After I got home Jessy came home from school and got ready for a birthday party that she went to this evening. I think they were going ice skating but I'm not real sure on that. It might have been roller skating.

She just got home and said she had a great time. I didn't talk to her as it is past her bedtime so she was off to bed right off. I'm sure I will get the update tomorrow morning.

Darcy, Kody and I went over to Darcy's coworkers home for a short visit this evening. Her grandson and his mom are moving to Kingman, Az and he is friends with Kody so we went over so he could say goodbye. Somehow I don't think Kody understood that he was saying goodbye but he had lots of fun playing anyway!
When we got back Kody and Darcy made up his brownies that he is taking in to school to share for his birthday tomorrow. He had lots of fun making those!!

Mixing on his own

Mixing with Mommy

And the all important LICKING THE SPOON!

A Trip to the Gardens With Beverly

On a very windy Friday morning Grandpa, Bev, Tammy and I had a great hike up the hill at the Conejo Botanic Gardens here in Thousand Oaks (click on the title and you will go to the Garden's web site).
It was wonderful weather except for the cool wind. As you tell by what we are wearing it wasn't all that warm for most of the hike. When we got to the other side of the hill the wind died down and we were much, much warmer. It must have been in the 60's.

Here is the Brother & Sister picture. Bev is the baby in the family being 6 years younger than Grandpa.

Beverly is out from New Hampshire visiting for a couple of weeks. It has been great seeing her again and I'm having lots of fun talking to her! I do hope she plans on coming back out next year. Maybe we will be able to give her hot weather next year! Next week should warm up so maybe she will be able to get warm yet.

Grandpa, Bev and Maggie

We were sitting under the arbor that the passion vine is on. Their's is still green so I guess the freeze didn't kill it. I lost all the leaves on mine. I do think the vine is still good and that the leaves will come back. It just doesn't look as good as it did 2 months ago.

Tammy, Bev & Maggie.

Tammy has been out of work for a couple of weeks (I think) with a sore arm. She has been getting PT for it and will be going back next week so she will be able to see how it feels then. We were glad she was able to join us and help with the names of the plants we were looking at!!

Tammy and Bev walking and talking........

A couple of the plants that were in bloom.

Some of the birds we saw: California Towhee, Yellow Rumped Warbler, Western Bluebird, White-breasted Nuthatch (Tammy spotted) Dark eyed Juno, two Whitetailed Kites chasing two Redtail Hawks out of their area. House Finch, Anna Hummingbird, Bushtits and Crows. That is all I can think of right now. We weren't really doing much birding as we were doing alot more talking than anything else!!